And they change fast. Amazingly fast for a country that moves so slow normally.
I haven't been writing for a while. Or it feels like a while because a lot has happened, though I doubt that more than a week has actually passed by. I haven't written partially because currently I have internet just on my phone, and partially because I have been rather busy. My life seems a bit surreal at the moment...all aspects of it actually. But I am quite happy so I am totally enjoying the roller-coaster. Some pointers on my life in the past week:
- meeting and having tea with a Malaysian minister! CHECK!!
As I might have mentioned previously, every community center has a Key Individual (KI). This is generally a person of higher status in the community, that sort of sponsors the center and also supports the CDO (that's me) in his activity with everything from admin advice to introducing him/ her to people to making sure he/she has everything he/she needs. Since my center is in the Federal Territory of Malaysia, I got myself a full fledged minister as my KI. So last Thursday we met each other in his huge office overlooking the beautiful lake and the pink mosque (if you want a more real depiction of what I'm talking about, google Putrajaya - it's really pretty!:)).
The whole experience was sort of surreal because a minister here is like a tiny king (from what I could fathom so far), so basically everything he deemed as necessary to my well being would just start to happen all of a sudden, assistants would be everywhere and the general range of possibilities out there increased tremendously :)
- moving into my actual home for the year! CHECK!!
Also, one of the perks of having a minister as a KI is that I got myself quite a nice 3 bedroom apartment, that I am sharing with my assistant Kavi (who's Malaysian of Indian ethnicity, and is just a lovely person:)). Now, we are an NGO, doing work mainly with underserved communities. You might not be shocked to hear that the general accommodation standard is way below my 3 bedroom apartment. So I am now deemed to live in luxury, while others rough it out in rooms located right in their community centers, or have to share bedrooms. Part of me is obviously grateful (I will admit that having some privacy back after living in a dorm for a month has been quite blissful). Part of me wonders what I'm missing out on and how would my experience have been different otherwise. But I have decided not to dwell on it and just to enjoy and make the best of the cards I've been dealt.
- meeting my community! CHECK!
Because my center is new, people are just registering for classes (these will actually start on Monday). So last Monday we had an Open House event - basically we had our center open and we waited for people to come, to tell us about what we do and to have them sign up for classes. We were quite nervous about turn out but we shouldn't have been...150 people!! came and registered! Tons!! So I am now basically putting people on the waiting list and just trying to keep to my 40 maximum people per class. Which is also why I am so happy that Kavi is with me! Alone it would have horrible!
- acquire local boyfriend! CHECK!
I will not dwell on this for obvious reasons but I have decided to announce it to the world since it has been completely unexpected, very surprising and extremely enjoyable for the time being :) And it is obviously shaping my life here in very different ways than I had anticipated so I found it relevant.
- feeling extremely grateful for meeting like minded people! CHECK!
In this organisation people change very fast - some end their contracts and go away, new batches of CDOs or volunteers come almost weekly. So the people you become friends with in the beginning might not be there in one or two or three months. As I probably mentioned before, in my batch of trainees, I've been colleague with two girls - and I could not help being very grateful that of all the people in the world, I managed to be in the same batch with people that I can genuinely be friends with! That I actually share interests with (what are the odds that all three of us would have done dancing???) and that are actually fun and nice people! So yes, I totally believe I have been very lucky and am profusely grateful for this! :)
- feeling sad for missing out on stuff! CHECK!
This week I forgot my cousin had a rather important presentation. And while it is not a big deal (because she's smart and strong and still loves me:)), it felt very bad. Living on the other side of the world does have the effect of making you feel very disconnected. Just due to the fact that you're exposed to so many new things, that you almost don't have the energy to keep in touch with stuff in your normal life also. But that is wrong and is something I am desperately trying to avoid. I haven't worked out the best system for keeping in touch yet with all the awesome people I have around, but I do hope I will not forget more important events. It's bad enough I can't be part of them live anyways.
For this weekend though, Cuba & Vlad...I'm totally with you at heart!!! :)