Almost Hara Raya

So I have started a few blogs.. started.. but that was it.  My head is too .. busy.

It is not that I have been physically busy.. but mentally I have felt a little.. scattered.

You know, same same!

Last Thursday I was sitting in the little restaurant above the plastic store.. you know the one with the straw roof.. outdoor fans.. beer. The one with fresh carrot juice and wonderful fish and chips. The one where you can watch the street below and the people that make up Sabak Bernam making their way along the streets, focused on avoiding the gaps in the concrete - those huge holes that were once covered by metal but whose grates have long been removed by people scavenging the steel. Enormous pits which leads to a drop of about ten feet to the sewage below. Things move down there..

Streets littered with old men with missing teeth, watching the passers-by: smiling. Watching the women with their colorful clothes and covered heads.. watching the Chinese business men and the Indian workers.  Streets with lovely little light posts and cars parked this way and that, surrounded by motor bikes and scooters. Streets with the tents marking the Ramadan market where you can get a variety of Malaysian deep fried delicacies: cabbage pancakes, chicken, curries, chicken.

I was just sitting there.. trying to write. 

It is a nice spot to sit.. they have internet, but I was distracted: mostly by Monica. 

Monica had come to visit from China.  She had been visiting her son in Xiamen, the same place Vas was supposed to go work.  Monica is British born, but Canadian.. I had met her in Nizwa and offered a bed for her here in Malaysia after she had visited her son and was making her way back to Salalah.. or.. wherever. Monica takes up a lot of space.. in my head. She left Saturday .. Vas bought the ticket to KL: she paid him back.

No.. I haven’t been lonely.

Between Wendy visiting, weekend trips to the beach, another visit by Wendy, Tara spending a few restful nights, Judy's visits, Vas 'leaving' for China, work and Vas's return, I have been anything but. 

...Vas is back, from China. Says it’s too polluted there.. China is polluted.. news flash!

Tara is doing well.  We figure her problems were a result of .. stress.  This job is good.. but it is not always easy to work with so little to guide you.  She moved to Klang this past weekend: a good thing I think. Klang is a suburb of KL.. huge.. busy.. congested.  But it has malls, Starbucks, a train to KL and a lot more expats.

Our little cluster of mentors not been a healthy one.  We struggled with no leadership and are still evolving. Shannon was north of me and has been replaced by Judy when she moved to KL.  Judy is moving up to Perlis.. or someplace north by the Thai Border: no one else seems to be willing to go there and Judy loves the remoteness of the area.  She will enjoy it there.  When I arrived, a New Zealander named Alan was in Sekinchan.. Alan was a Monk for a while, but he left and so there was no one.. then Tara.. and now no one again that she has moved. South of Alan/Tara was Clive.. who left under rather shrowded means... and later was replaced by the new co-oridinator’s wife.. Yes, we have a new co-ordinator!!  Yippee!!   William seems really nice.  South of him is Troshini.. the only mentor from the original group.  Not a stable group!

Anyway.. it is fine. I am fine.

Just in need of a bit of break.. and as Ramadan is coming to an end and it is coming into Hari Raya.. Eid..we are now on holidays and Malaysia is very festive! The shopping malls are jam packed.. the kids can’t wait.. it's Christmas, Muslim style.. in the sunshine.

Monica left Saturday morning and I took off for Ipoh just a few hours later. Vas is at home watching the teley.. it is the start of the Ozzie Rules Footy finals. We have cable. He is fine.

All is quiet and I should be able to find some space in my head..

Soon.