Penang -- Week 8, Part 2 -- Cultural Training

Breakfast on the road.

MONDAY, May 6th
Day 53
George gets to see the beauty of the drive home with the early morning light. I see snippets too, but they're fleeting. All the effort in the world couldn't hold my eyelids open. And yes. I'm still sick. But no doctor today. We finally get our cultural training today (after two months in Penang!) and we're already hours late. And wouldn't you know that the bridge back to the mainland has stopped for an accident!

I don't even have time to clean myself up properly before we start into our training. It's really interesting, and the guy who leads it is great. His English is fantastic (he got his MBA in Canada). Unfortunately I think we would have benefited from this more if it had been a bit sooner. We already know much of what we're told: never point with your index finger (instead with thumb, resting on top of fist), never offer something to someone with your left hand, wear modest clothing, no PDA. I struggle with whether or not I will ask why we have to do these things when half the locals don't. I see skimpy clothing on locals from time to time, and index fingers, left hands, and PDA are everywhere. It's for the sake of the stricter Muslim/Malay population and to show them respect, I know. But do I need to show much more respect than the rest of the locals do?

We do learn some new things, such as the distinction between Malay and Malaysian. The former is a racial/cultural group. They are sort of the ethnic Malaysians. Indians and Chinese Malaysians have been here for generations, but they are not Malay. However, everyone is Malaysian. There is also another group called "Orang Asli." They are the indigenous people. Officially Malays are muslim and cannot change they're religion (though a few do convert, but not officially). We learn that there is a religious police, but that we're not likely to see that here in Penang since it's much more liberal (go figure, we totally thought KL was more liberal, but apparently not). We're told about a Canadian couple got a visit late one night in their hotel room in nearby Lankawi from the religious police. They were thought to be sleeping together, unmarried. Turns out, they were married with different last names (uh-oh).

We also learn that you should never discuss race relations with Malays or the Bumiputra policy (like affirmative action) unless to praise it. Apparently, though the Malays are still the majority overall, the Chinese dominate the business world in Malaysia, so the government came up with the policy to ensure that Malaysia's native sons get jobs. We also learn that one of the most obscene hand gestures you can do here is the same as the hand sign we do with Regin for potty/toilet! Oh man!

A local expat comes to give some further training. Maggie, an Irish woman who has lived here for 9 years, is quite a character. She knows it all about Penang. She has even written a book! She used to be the president of the IWA (International Women's Association, formerly AWA -- American Women's Association), and she has the gift of the gab. She's great. She reminds me of the British Isles a tad (though I never really knew any Irish people there) and she almost feels like home. She has oodles of stories to tell about life here, in Africa, and in India. Here is where her heart is. She's finally bought a home, and she tells us that 6 out of every 10 expats here returns to/stays in Penang. She says it took her 2-3 years to finally go to a wet market. Phew! I don't feel so bad then that I haven't gone yet. She says it's a must though.

She talks a lot about the lifestyle here and about socializing here, but it's all about the expat community. Even her book, about food in Penang, doesn't seem to talk much about Malaysian/Penang cuisine, it's full of foreign recipes and expat stories. Ok, I have only flicked through it so far, but the general vibe with her (though friendly, wonderful, and helpful) seems to be that life here = life with other expats. I hope we can get to know Malaysians too!

They leave at dinner time. We have just enough time to grab a bite before we're off to sleep. We have some sleep debt to get out of.


TUESDAY
Our trainers are back today. The first part of the day we do a personality analysis of George and myself. George's is pretty accurate. Mine is in some areas, but isn't at all in others. We compare that to Malaysians to learn how we can fit in here. It's very interesting, but I wonder if we will apply any knowledge we gain here. But we do learn that the word "amok" as in "run amok" is Malay. Apparently people here are raised never to show emotions, so they bottle it and some of them eventually go "amok."

The afternoon is with Maggie again. More stories and talk about the IWA. She has so kindly done a bunch of research for us and has looked up some information on doctors and stuff for us, and written down phone numbers so that's great. Unfortunately she doesn't have an Endo to recommend for me. She suggests that I just call the hospitals and find out the credentials of each one, specifically where each one has studied. I feel a twinge when she says that. It seems prejudiced to favor doctors that have studied in Europe or the States, but then, don't I probably have a little of the same prejudice? I don't know. I don't really like doctors anywhere, and I don't like the (what seems to be) narrow-mindedness of American medicine. She tells us that the medical system here is great. You can trust the doctors for the most part, and you can walk in, see whatever specialist you want, get whatever MRIs you need, all in the same day if you want to. No waiting. She says they tend to over-prescribe (something Carmen has also warned us about), but that you don't have to get official prescriptions. If you know what you need, you can just ask the pharmacist. Ah ha! That's why the pharmacist in KL just handed stuff to me, even though it was behind the counter!

We've asked Maggie about language issues. She says everyone here speaks English and there are never any problems. But she and the other trainer tell us to simplify, break up sentences, avoid if/then-type sentence structures, and learn to say things like, "can or not?" For example. If you have a technical question about whether your internet connection will be fast/reliable enough to handle internet gaming, simply ask, "Play games, can or not?"

The two of them are there with us for the full day again. Despite my efforts to plan food for the day, I'm crashing by the end. And I still haven't seen a doctor for my stomach pain.

In the middle of the day we receive our delivery from IKEA.
YAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!! We spend the evening building furniture.
This is going to take more than one evening though.