Walking In the Footsteps of Elephants

Somehow, I've lost track of how long we have been in Kuala Lumpur.  Not that I feel any more settled or understand the landscape, but I do have two walking paths to work now, and I can find my way around the embassy without a lot of wrong turns.  Just don't ask me where the political section is located.
My staff is all back, and we spend our days getting to know each other and seeing a variety of patients.  I am thrilled that there are so many children in our community: all of them adorable, of course. Happily, I feel at home providing care and relieved I haven't forgotten how to write chart notes on paper.  Craig claims my writing is illegible, but my team flatters me by saying it is no problem.
I love arriving to work every day: the smiled greetings of the guards "good day mum" are welcoming in a uniquely warm and wonderful way.
The walk is brief, along rickety sidewalks that provide a marked contrast to the Patronus towers and many other high-rise buildings just a few blocks away, looming over the city.

Rain comes daily: the first weeks it seemed to last less than half an hour and come with bellowing thunder and flashes of lightening, but now it comes down at times for what seems like an hour or two in ferocious sheets with and without the booms.

Last weekend, we took an Embassy-sponsored trip with MYCAT, a tiger preservation nonprofit.  The emphasis is on stopping poachers by hiking in areas they frequent to remove snares, look for signs of poaching, and just be a presence in hopes of discouraging poaching activity.  We went with four of the Malaysian employees from the Embassy, a hike leader (a naturalist/tracker from MYCAT), and a volunteer leader (also Malaysian national).  Since the car ride was about 5 hours, we had a lot of time to learn about Malaysia from experts: the various cultures, religions, and FOOD.

                             

We hiked for about six or seven hours in the jungle, which honestly was surprisingly dry! We didn't see any tigers, but we saw plenty of elephant dung.  Malaysian forests are ancient and arguably the most biodiverse places on Earth.

Sadly, our drive took us past the palm and rubber plantations that have replaced the wild places -- not unlike clear cutting forests in the Pacific Northwest!
Many of the large animal species are threatened from the loss of habitat as well as from poachers.  I had heard of tigers, but not the giant wild cattle that stand as high as 17 hands (over 5.5 feet) at the shoulder.  The saddest thing was to learn that poor little armored pangolins and porcupines are also hunted by poachers, and they are endangered as well.
We didn't find any snares or poachers, but three years ago on the same hike, volunteers found 20-30 snares each time they went out.  The program is working, in other words.

Early this week, we received our household effects.  I was allowed to stay home from work to tick off boxes and help unpack.  We both had to direct traffic to begin to get things situated.  Craig has been working all week to situate his office, put together shelves, and otherwise turn our new home into a different version of our old home.  Even with all the inventories and carefully marked boxes, we can't figure out what happened to the kitchen garbage can or the battery for his drill.  But the first night we slept on our very own mattress was brilliant.

And Craig is cooking again, sorting the celsius and going from wet to dry kitchen to juggle preparation.  I have a feeling two refrigerators will spell trouble when we prepare to move on in 2018!

Craig's 1st Indian Cooking Class

And now a switch to the man of the house ;)  I have also been using a loaner car to make foray's out into the jungle of streets in downtown KL !!!  My driving skills gleaned years ago in Nairobi, Paris, London and of course LA  are serving me well with the wild west rules of the road here... add to that a boggling number of motorbikes & scooters zipping by at all times on both sides and you have to apply a full zen approach which transcends the madness and quietly, peacefully says to other drivers - I am going here - now - and you WILL let me !!!!  Ommmmmm !  Road rage is not the answer here !

I have also garnered early interest in my video production intentions around the embassy and today have a meeting with the International School of Kuala Lumpur to see if there is work to be had... All in all, my creative juices for production have begun to flow again and I am feeling an excitement toward working I haven't felt in years!  There is even hope of re-kindling 360 video work again.

I took an Indian cooking class last week and while I was the token male, was elbow deep in slicing & dicing in no time - I dare anyone to come and sample what I have learned ;)))

Our eating experience continues to diversify around every corner... On the MyCat trip we got to try Fish Head Soup which is a very favored dish from this region !!!  I even got one of the eyeballs - this guy was a bit put out by that :

The MyCat walk was 7 hours of intense jungle heat & humidity... requiring full head to toe covering with leech socks and major Deet repellent !!!  Doing something like this would normally end up on the very bottom of my to-do list, however, once you are fully immersed in the jungle, the sweat just settles in and the wonder of it all takes over.

                  

                   Leech Socks & all

Definitely changed to long pants

                             Of course there is always swimming in a river to cool things off !!!

So life continues here for us in a pleasant daily flow that is taking in every new aspect of being in such a diverse place and as we settle in, the potential for travel builds steam - looking ahead to our one-year anniversary !!!


                                         This Hindu shrine pretty much depicts both Alice

and Craig