A Reflection of my Year

On the 20th August last year I got on a plane headed to Malaysia about to start the greatest adventure of my life so far. I spent a whole year living in a boarding school, teaching English and travelling around South East Asia. It was an unforgettable year filled with many valuable lessons and experiences. I will always be grateful for the people who helped me with my fundraising and blessed me with the chance to see a side of the world I never thought I could and immerse myself in a completely new culture.

I am now home from a whirlwind of a year so I can finally sit back and reflect on all I have achieved and learnt over my time in Malaysia. When you teach, live and work with 600 students they  become your family. This made it extremely hard to leave MRSM Mersing, the school I was at, after a year- there was certainly a lot of tears from both the students and I. This alone I think shows just how special the relationships I made with the students were. I wasn’t just their teacher and mentor but also acted as their big sister which was very important for them being so far away from home and only getting to see their family once a month. Some of my fondest memories of the year are sitting up late at night simply chatting to girls in their dorms, and this is one of the things I miss the most. One of my major achievements from the year was building up the students’ confidence enough so they could easily converse in English with us and comfortably share their problems.

I really enjoyed teaching during my year: there was never a dull moment in the classroom and no two lessons were ever the same. It definitely kept me on my toes and was not as easy as I first thought. Being a teacher you have to constantly think of ways to keep lessons both interesting and informative and getting that balance was something I definitely struggled with during my year. It did however massively increase my confidence and allowed me to push myself to try out new ideas, which before I would have been too afraid to do, as I have an inherent fear of failure. Through teaching I could test out all the crazy ideas I had in my head and not be scared to see them fail as I was able to learn from my mistakes and adapt lessons to suit both my capabilities and the students’. As a result I am now much less scared of failure and more likely to pursue my ideas, no matter how strange they may seem.  

Although I had an incredibly enjoyable year this didn’t come without it’s challenges. As a western girl coming from a very independent background one of the main things I found difficult was integrating into an Islamic community. When I first arrived we struggled to fit in as everything, from our clothes to our food, seemed to be different. It took a little while for me to feel comfortable in my new setting and it took them a while to feel comfortable enough to tell us if we were doing something wrong. Malaysian culture is very un-confrontational so at first, when we were not sure what to wear around town, they wouldn’t tell us if they thought it was too tight or revealing so we just went on guessing. However when they eventually felt comfortable around us they felt they could tell us which meant we could then learn from our mistakes and adapt to our new environment. This reserved nature of Malaysians is something I struggled with a lot during our time away as sometimes you just want to be told what to do and what not; but it is something I ultimately learned to love as the year went on! Furthermore one of my hardest times of the year was a 3 month period when the whole town had no water. It was during a huge drought period and left everyone in the school with no water to wash ourselves or our clothes in. We ended up washing from buckets of water delivered to the school from another water reserve. I definitely missed home and my hot shower a lot during these months but it made me appreciate the true value of community spirit and coming together in times of need. Not one person was left unthought of during this time and it really showed the compassion of the islamic community in times of need. 

As much as I adored my students and it was a pleasure teaching them daily the best part of my year was undoubtedly my time spent travelling in the school holidays. One of the main reasons I chose to go to Malaysia was it’s perfect location to see the whole of Asia. Over the year I was lucky enough to travel around 7 new countries: Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, The Philippines and of course Malaysia, all with something new to offer. Travelling is such a crazy thing, especially at such a young age, with so much to take in everywhere you go but the utter joy you get from snorkelling with turtles and sharks or marvelling at temples in Cambodia is unforgettable and stills seems unreal. I have been on countless planes, buses, ferries and tuk tuk’s, learned the importance of visa’s,  planning ahead and most importantly having adequate medical insurance while overseas. After spending a week over christmas in a Thai hospital looking after my friend who had been in a very serious motorbike crash, I dread to think what we would have done without concrete insurance. All of this will undoubtedly help me in the future, whether I’m travelling or not. I have much greater independence now as well as a strong desire to travel even more, once you’ve had a taste you can’t help but want more! My daily life in Malaysia was made so much more exciting with the thought of going somewhere new every month and getting to plan all my own trips with little to consider but having fun. This essentially stopped me from becoming homesick as there was always something to look forward to and before I knew it I was getting on a plane home. Travelling gave me the opportunity to grow as a person, widening my horizons, and try something new everyday; but it also forced me to learn from my mistakes and instead of just accepting something is wrong, actively changing it. I think some of my greatest moments happened when I was travelling but so did my greatest lessons. 

One of the things that made my year so enjoyable was the people I got to spend it with. I had 2 great partners who I had immense fun with throughout the year but it was the people in the community, who made us all feel so welcome, that made Malaysia feel truly like home. We were particularly close to the deputy principal of the school- Mr Nizar- and he was actually one of our major achievements. At the beginning of the year he was one of the people who picked us up from KL to take us to our new home. Luckily he was accompanied by an English teacher because we couldn’t understand what he was saying even when he was trying to speak in English! As the year went on Mr Nizar tried very hard with us and took us on many little adventures across Malaysia. This meant that by the end of the year we hadn’t even realised just how drastically his English had improved as not only could we now understand him but we could have long, detailed conversations with him as well as many laughs and jokes. It is little aspects of our year like Mr Nizar that stand out the most to me and make me feel proud to have helped, even if it is just in a small way. 

I have undoubtedly just had the best year of my life and that is thanks to you. To everyone who helped me fundraise and donated money to my cause, I couldn’t be more grateful. You have allowed me to stretch my potential and gain so much confidence that now I feel like I can take on anything that life throws at me. Without you I wouldn’t have met so many beautiful people who I am proud to call my friends, I wouldn’t have been able to travel to incredible places and create amazing memories but most of all I wouldn’t have been able to grow as an individual into a person who now appreciates the world a lot more, never thinks negative of a situation and wants to share stories to encourage other people to do the same. It was a challenging year where I learned a lot about myself and the world but I wouldn’t change a thing about it.  

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Presenting our mural to the school

Last Clock In

*adapted from a report*

Holidays: BALI

The past month has been a lot less about teaching since it was a month full of exams for the students and a lot more about travelling. Which I'm not complaining about because travelling is one my favourite things about living in Malaysia. One weekend we ventured to KL as it had been 5 whole months since we had seen most of the other volunteers!! This meant lots of catching up was required but it was so nice to see everyone again and be in a big group. We went out to Sunway Pyramid- a huge mall on the outskirts of KL- where I spent too much money shopping and even went ice skating- and I didn't fall over once!!




Most of the girls in KL

Although the students were in exams, on the 16th of May Malaysia celebrated National Teachers day. This meant I got a few cards from my students and everyone was wishing us happy teachers day, which was lovely. Days like this show just how much Malaysian students appreciate their teachers compared to British students.



As part of the teachers day celebrations I was tasked with training all of Form 1 to become a beautiful choir ready to perform for their beloved teachers. This was not an easy task I might add as 150 12 year olds in one room are not the quietest. However after days of rigorous practice and songwriting we had something and they were outstanding on the day. It was so nice to work with them and see them so happy with their performance at the end, especially since it was the first time they had done something like that at the school. I loved working with them, form 1 are just adorable bundles of energy willing to try anything.




Singing practice always ends in a mad selfie

Once exams had finished it was the end of semester 1 and we went off on our semester break to Bali. This has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember and it definitely lived up to my expectations, it was some of the best two weeks of my life. We flew from KL on Sunday the 29th of May to Denpasar, Bali. We were staying in Kuta at Funky Monkey hostel, home to the cutest puppies ever.









We spent one week in Kuta, this is the most touristy part of Bali filled with lots of Australians and travelers. There was such a nice chilled vibe here and we had lots of fun, especially on nights out. Sky Garden is the place to be if you're ever in Kuta!






Squad ready for a night out

While in Kuta we had to try out surfing as it is what Kuta beach is known for. I was particularly scared about this to begin with as the waves looked huge. Once I got going though I was fine and even managed to stand up a few times and ride some waves. I definitely wasn't a natural, and I don't think I'll ever do it again, but I am very glad I gave it a go and can say I have done it now.




Getting our hair braided on Kuta Beach





My favourite day in Kuta was spent at Waterbom: the 3rd best water park in the world and the best in Asia. It was a hilarious, thrilling day spent with the best girls. We had so much fun going down flumes, swimming in the lazy river and chilling in the pools.



The next day we went on a day trip to the south part of the island. Here we went snorkelling and although it wasn't the best visibility we did manage to see lots of cool, colourful fish and even some huge starfish. We then went to Uluwatu temple for sunset. This was extremely beautiful as the temple is set on a cliff side and you can hear the waves crashing beneath you. We then watched some traditional Balinese Kacek dancing. This involved a choir of 70 men chanting as they told the story of a beautiful girl who was kidnapped by a monkey king. It was truly a spectacle and something not to be missed when in Bali.


Sunset at Uluwatu temple








Kecak Dance



After a fun filled week in Kuta we took a 2 hour shuttle bus to Ubud. Ubud had a much more relaxed vibe than Kuta with less time spent going out and more time spent reveling in the culture. Ubud is extremely beautiful and even on our first day there when we're just walking down the street found some beautiful temples, hidden behind Starbucks!





Sarswati Temple, Ubud

One day in Ubud we decided to rent bikes and cycle to the near by rice fields. We didn't really plan this and I was not in the best attire, a dress and sandals and the route was all up hill which, when you haven't ridden a bike in about 6 years, was a struggle. However it was completely worth it for the views surrounding you the whole way and the journey back down hill was delightful!





Views

The best day in Ubud was when we woke up at 6.30am to go on a tour. Our first stop was Tengungan Waterfall. We wanted to get there early to avoid crowds which was well worth the early rise as we were the first there and had the whole waterfall to ourselves. It was bloody freezing getting in the water, especially at 7am, but once you got used it, it became very refreshing. We even swam round behind the waterfall and into the caves beneath. What a fab way to spend a Tuesday morning.








We then took a stop at the nearby coffee plantation. Here we saw how the Balinese make coffee and even got to sample all the different kinds of coffees and teas. Not being a coffee fan I wasn't particularly looking forward to this but some of the coffees were surprisingly nice. I especially liked coconut coffee and chocolate coffee. They even had Luwak coffee on offer which is where a wild Luwak cat eats the coffee beans which then get fermented in its stomach and come out the other end still in tact ready to be turned into a special coffee. I myself did not try this but I did pick up a packet for my parents when I go home haha!



Then we headed to Mount Batur where we swam in the most beautiful natural Hot springs with a magnificent view of the mountain and turquoise lake at the base. This was my favourite part about that day, they were so warm and relaxing and we just chilled in them for hours.

Mount Batur

Mount Batur with the beautiful lake

Finally on our way home we headed to the legendary rice terraces. The view here was spectacular but I definitely would not like to be one of the rice farmers as the tiny little ledges they have to walk along are deadly. While we were waiting for the others some local Indonesian children started waving at us and trying to speak to us, they were so adorable I had to get a photo to remember them.





Cuties

Sadly it was soon time to leave Bali and take the long journey back to Mersing, which involved another sleep on the floor of KL bus station, yay! I had an absolute blast in Bali with the best bunch of people, Indonesia was a beautiful country and the people were so kind and helpful. It's a place I definitely want to return to.

With the best hostel staff- CX Hostel, Kuta




Traditional Balinese blessings

I'm now back at project filling my last two months with lots of exciting projects. I'm so not ready to leave yet but excited to be reunited with all my friends and family!