This is an update for people that know Sue and I about where we are and what we are at, at Christmas 2011.
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| Sue and I at a local wedding |
Well, where we are at is Borneo! Sue got a job here with the British Council in September 2011 on a two-year contract. She is a mentor to teachers of English in five rural state primary schools. This is a project run by the British Council for the government of Malaysia. Two of the schools are by beaches that face the South China Sea and one is on the other side of a wide river across which she has to be ferried in a small wooden boat. I stayed in Italy to mothball the house and then flew to the UK to do a one-month Cambridge CELTA course to teach English to speakers of other languages. While in the UK I also did a British Humanist Association course to conduct non-religious funerals. I had planned this before Sue got the job offer in Borneo and decided to go ahead with it, although it will now be at least 18 months before I can think about practising this skill.
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| Our living room |
I got to Borneo, exhausted, in early December. While here I plan to make myself available to teach English, probably to private students, as a way of feeling connected. We have rented a house in Saratok, a small town in Sarawak, one of the two Malaysian provinces in Borneo. In between the two provinces is the Sultanate of Brunei, while the South of the Island is part of Indonesia. There are three other British Council mentors in Saratok who are away on holiday right now.
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| Our kitchen |
Borneo is a fascinating and culturally diverse place and Saratok is no exception. The local community is a mix of Chinese, Malay and Iban (one of the groups of indigenous people who live in Sarawak and known collectively as "dyaks"). The town has several mosques and churches.
While we are here I plan to use the opportunity to explore Borneo and its culture. We also intend to use Borneo as a platform for travelling to other parts of South-East Asia and India.
