Harvest Festival

The biggest celebration of the year in Sabah takes place at harvest time. This is a time of feasting and celebration for the tribal people of the area. I asked our local expert where the best place is to experience some of that and he suggested Penampang, just outside KK, and the heart of the Kadazan homeland. It trurned out to be a major tourist trap, complete with bouncy house. Note the plastic beads on the “authentic” bridegroom hat I’m wearing.

I didn’t stay long. I took the bus back to downtown KK and stopped by the waterfront to get a couple large watermelons for the group. One of our earlier group excursions, before the project officially began was to do a scavenger hunt in the Philippino market just by the waterfront. The market is a large warehouse with about 100 vendors all selling the same cheap crap. As we were leaving that day I had noticed that people were setting up stalls on the waterfront and some started putting out vegetables. So that’s where I went to find our fresh fruit. While there I saw the wet market and the fish market. If you’re squeamish about sanitation, this place is not at all like the supermarkets back home. Meat is chopped on wooden blocks and drained into open buckets. There are flies on everything. Listen to the sounds of the sellers announcing their prices.

KKWC

The Kota Kinabalu Wetlands Center is a habitat preserve in the heart of the city. The last of the remaining mangrove forests were severely degraded by illegal settlements which caused a terrible pollution problem. The center plays an important role in maintaining the mangrove ecosystem as well as educating the public. It is a remarkable place. A brief walk around the preserve and you are inundated by the sounds of a rich biosystem. Listen carefully to the sound in the attached movie. In addition to the bird calls and cicadas you can hear strange clicks and pops, these sounds come from pistol shrimp firing and air bubbling to the surface from the breathing mangrove roots. There is a huge variety of little hermit crabs of all colors poking their heads through the mud. There are red ants with big jaws everywhere. These are weaver ants and they actually don't live in the ground, they live in ball shaped nests made out of leaves and silk. They are also interesting in that they make large chains to be used as bridges for the ants behind them. The large jaws can give you a decent pinch but the real pain is in the acid they inject with their bite. Luckily none have attacked any of us, despite the massive number of their brothers we must have accidentally crushed under foot. The mosquitoes are ferocious here and citronella just doesn’t cut it. The mosquito in the picture was filmed with its sucker deep in my arm. It’s an aes mosquito which is active throughout the day and can carry dengue fever.

KKWC changed its name from the Kota Kinabalu Bird Sanctuary a few years ago. Their two main problems are funding and promotion. The few people who knew about it as the bird sanctuary are often not aware of the name change, in fact the street signs still say Bird Sanctuary. But in general, very few people really know about it. Arthur and I left the center one afternoon to try to catch a cab at the end of the road. Someone stopped an offered us a ride and in talking we mentioned the wetlands center and the guy, who lived right near it, never heard of it. One of the goals we have is to develop a promotional campaign for them.

Project Malaysia '08

Over the next two weeks Arthur and I will be co-mentoring the three project leaders for Project Malaysia '08. Their job is to create and run the project. This includes developing the project goals, choosing team members, raising funds, and coordinating resources. We advised them on weekly conference calls as they put things together over the months leading up to the project start. While on the ground they will run workshops, organize the schedule with activities, service programs, conflict resolution, and liaison with the media. We will assist them by observing their leadership choices and their interactions with the team while providing feedback as necessary.

These 3 leaders are remarkable young people. Their dedication and hard work is commendable. They took a huge risk by creatively breaking away from the usual project model. They also had to struggle with an already rigorous MIT schedule but they pulled it of with no excuses. Wesley is the public face of PM08. He made all the connections with our partners and sponsors. He seems destined to do some great things in public office some day. Tuan brings a great energy to the group. He’s always making sure that everyone’s staying motivated and is well respected for his humility. Kai is the organized, discipled one. He had the very difficult task of fitting all their ambitions into a short 2 week program. He’s the one who keeps the trains running on schedule which can sometimes be like herding cats. He’s not at all shy about taking control when necessary and stepping aside to let others shine when appropriate.

The rest of the team consists of 25 college students, with exceptional drive and ability, chosen from all over the world including, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, NYU, Harvard, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China. Their job is to mentor 25 local Malaysian high school students by creating workshops on topics like service, environmental awareness, leadership, fund raising, public speaking and generally inspiring them while giving them the tools necessary to succeed. They will help the high school students to develop and lead their own service programs, with an environmental emphasis. The local students are expected to continue the programs they themselves have designed and recruit their own teams through the rest of the year and hopefully beyond. Towards that end, SEALNet will provide a small seed grant to three projects.

Also an immense support to the team are Nicholas, Gianne and Pui Yee who are Malaysian volunteers who have been coordinating all the logistics on the ground before and during our trip.

SEALNet runs similar projects, each with their unique project focus, throughout South East Asia. Some examples are deworming in the Philippines, English language lessons in Vietnam and HIV care in Thailand. The organization has been growing rapidly in membership and reach in the few short years since its inception. I decided to work with the organization when I met with project leaders from the previous year. This group is just as enthusiastic.

Land Beneath the Winds

We left 3 hours before our domestic flight, to take the bus to the airport, instead of the effient train. Of course, the adventurous route is necessarily fraught with risk. An accident on the highway caused us to miss the flight. If you miss your plane on a budget airlines they make you buy a whole new one, no option of standby and no credit for the flight you missed. Last minute flights are expensive. From the huge line at the ticket sales window I’m sure they got someone else who had missed an earlier flight to buy our seats. After killing 4 hours at Starbucks waiting for the next plane, we were on our way to Kota Kinabalu.

KK is the capital of the state of Sabah in eastern Malaysia. East Malaysia conists of 2 states on the island of Bornea, Sabah being the northernmost. Sabahan (people of Sabah) proudly maintain their individual identity from the rest of the Malaysian federation. I had to get my passport stamped for Sabah even though I had arrived on a domestic flight.

After arriving at the hostel I took a walk around the neighborhood with some fellow team members. We are staying away from the city center so it offered a good opportunity to see a less touristy view of the area. Just behind the hostel is a river and along it a small alley market selling fruits and vegetables. The houses along the river are built high here to protect from the frequent floods. There are some illegal squats along the river. Flooding is controlled by deep storm drain trenches along and below the sidewalks, topped by cement covers, which are often missing, so you have to be careful where you walk because falling in would suck. Speaking of walking, there are small half steps up and down everywhere on the sidewalks. I'm constantly stubbing my toes or getting caught by a sudden drop in level. You have to always look down while shuffling along.

Monkey Sex

Started the day off with some great sidewalk dim sum. I tried to get to the Petronas towers again, no luck. Tickets are available from 8:30AM, but because they are free, they go fast, usually booked for the whole day by 9:45. Oh well, there’s always KL tower, less frequented because it’s expensive but no lines.

Just at the edge of KL there is a big limestone outcropping which holds the Bantu Caves. In 1916 an Indian tycoon built a temple complex in the caverns. The monkeys that live there are the best part. They play, eat ketchup packets from the trash and have monkey sex. Cheeky monkeys. On the bus back to town we made friends with Ally (Alicia) from CA, living in DC, who joined us for more sightseeing. We visited the Old Railway Station, Central Market again, the National Mosque, Masjid Jamek, and KL tower. Kuala Lumpur was founded 150 years ago as a tin mining and rubber plantation town. It had a huge economic boom in the 80s and 90s which brought in a complete rebuild of the skyline. To demonstrate their economic glory KL built glandly over the last 20 years. Much of the architecture reflects their Islamic roots. This is definitely a town built to impress.

After an exhausting day of sightseeing, picture taking, eating, and getting caught in downpours, we went back to Bukit Bintang, for some much needed drinks. We really wanted to find the cool local hangout. Everyone we asked recommended Finnegan’s but that’s for tourists and we are trying to blend in. Turns out that locals KLites don’t hang out at the bars, they shop and eat. Most are Muslim, but it’s tolerant so there are bars for the expat community and the legions of tourists where we were staying. We passed up the English bars filled with English Patrons to go to the Japanese bar filled with Japanese patrons. I don’t get why people would travel that far to feel like they never left home.

I made Arthur and Ally try durian, man that stuff is gross. For my fourth meal of the day we had some authentic Thai food, which was so very good. The street we ate on had restaurants shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalk and plastic tables and chairs jutting out onto the street on both sides, with just enough space for a single car to go by. So far, in 3 days I’ve had Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese, Burmese and Thai food. Truly Asia.