First couple of days cont.....

down and hit the half-court shot at halftime which he missed by the smallest of margin! Had he made the shot, we would all have been sitting on some beach in Thailand with all expenses paid! The KL Dragons lost but we had a great time and took pics with the stars of the KL team.

12/06

Today was a looooooooong day! We had to be at the embassy’s office here at 8. The briefing at the office was very informative and productive. We met the Public Affairs Officer, Deputy Political Counselor, Deputy Economic Counselor, Consular Officer, Foreign Service Health Practitioner, and the Regional Security Officer all of whom which had very valuable information. We learned about the government, policy, political groups, economic ties with the U.S. and civil trade, health concerns, and productive didactic techniques. I believe that this formal education on the embassy’s purpose in Malaysia was great. Not every day do you hear about the smaller countries and their governing bodies from someone who deals directly with them on a consultant basis.

Lunch was served back at the MACEE office where we were introduced to some government officials from Terengganu, the state where I’ll be teaching, and a little bit about what they expect from us. I couldn’t help but think to myself that this is going to be great as we are able to influence such a large number of individuals in a positive way. THANK YOU GOD

Bahasa Malaysia lesson again today from our instructor. The language is really not hard and I’ve really been able to pick up on a lot of it from TV and other forms of media i.e. newspaper. This jet lag is nooooooooo joke. As the guru or teacher continued with instruction the look of complete lack of sleep had settled on our faces. There was more bobbin’ in that room than in an Ali fight. We were informed through our cultural expectation segment that Malaysia is racially divided as well as ethnically. Scary right…..I mean what would that mean for me, an African-American Christian male traveling and teaching in a 96% predominantly Muslim territory? Something to think about; gotta stay on my toes!