Massive Mumblings from Malaysia

Visit #4

This time the clinic smelled like a nursing home. I hadn't noticed it when I was there two days ago.

My symptoms: sore throat, especially when I swallow; swollen glands; headache; achy body; earache. I didn't know if I had a fever.

The same doctor and this time I noticed his name: Dr. Amajarit (or something) Gill. I figured it was a good sign that his second name was nearly my first.

The diagnosis: acute follicle tonsillitis. I'd gone to the doctor because I thought it might be strep throat. When I heard tonsillitis, I had to fight back tears because that fear had worried to me, too. There was no way I wanted to have to go to the hospital and have my tonsils removed in a country far away from home, without my family, and where the ice cream isn't as good.

Luckily, they don't just go and remove your tonsils on a whim anymore these days. It's gotta be severe and you have to have recurring tonsillitis. This was my first bout with it, as far as I know.

Instead, I got an injection in my butt.

Which made me recall the last time that had happened: I had gotten a shot so that I could go to kindergarten. Not sure what it was for, exactly, but your standard going-to-school type. At that time we lived in small town Hills, Iowa. I used to push my doll carriage to the corner to wait for my big brother to come home from school.

I proudly told him I'd had the shot (because it meant I got to go to school, just like him!). He asked me if it hurt and I said no. Then he hit me there and said, "Now does it hurt?" Evil brother.

So all day yesterday and today I've been sleeping and watching movies. Goonies, Heist, American History X (don't know how I hadn't seen that one before. Good movie, plus my fellowship to do refugee legal aid work in Cairo last year was funded by Yale alum Ed Norton. Never was sure why he had specified projects in the Middle East and Central Asia and am sorry it didn't mean I got to met him!), Mulholland Drive (weird movie, which should be expected by director/writer of Twin Peaks, I suppose, but I hadn't know that going into it), The Usual Suspects (thought I'd seen it, guess I was wrong).

Microcosm

The Cafe is right by the pool. Open from 11am - 9 pm, except on Sundays.

It is run by a Chinese family and one of the helpers is their Indonesian maid. Sometimes the young woman's 5 year old daughter is there and she is the cutest giggle-box I've seen in a long time. A few days ago, when I was doing work on my laptop there, I let her listen to my headphones. Then she showed me how she could spell. B-o-y. Boy. G-i-r-l. Girl. She could count in English and Malay. And she speaks Chinese, of course. More spelling. T-i-t. Tit. Giggle giggle giggle. What?! I thought. Why does she know that word!? Who taught her it?!

I practice my Arabic with students from Oman and Yemen (but most of the Yemeni live in Saudi). I meet a Chinese Malaysian girl and her French girlfriend and their Scottish roommate. A Pakistani man strikes up a conversation.

Two Turkish women, each with 2 and 4 year old daughters, invite me to join them while their kids are playing in the pool. One used to be a high school teacher in Turkey, but quit when the government forbid hijab (headscarves) from the public schools. She wanted to know if it was true if a lot of young Americans have lost themselves, using alcohol, making trouble, shooting each other. A Korean mother sits with them.

The old Irish man talks at me, not to me, so I try to avoid him. I realize the young Indian guy looks familiar because he works at nearby Starbucks. He introduces me to his French girlfriend who is leatherizing her skin by being poolside all day, everyday.

There's a transsexual who is sometimes there and one day a man came and yelled at her in Malay. I shot arrows at him: Don't air your dirty laundry in public. His eyes were bloodshot and at the end he added in English something about her saying he was gay, for my benefit most likely.

The guards in my building are Nepalese mostly.

There's a Cypriot who grew up in Singapore; I mentioned him before because he says ridiculous things like, all Chinese Malaysians make me want to throw up. There's an Algerian footballer. And a Filipino businessman who is lonely.

A few new faces lately, to keep me entertained.

Note: A friend from home recently inquired if I ever did any work. The answer is YES! I just don't bore you all with those details. Just yesterday morning I went for an interview two hours outside KL (before collapsing in my bed the rest of the day). And I've cut that 3 pages of To Do in half.