During the class, I sit to one side and watch. I'm not learning much, because the class is presented in Mandarin (I think). At the end, I join the class in sampling whatever has been cooked. There is little for me to do as the participants willingly stack the chairs. I wheel the partitions back behind the kindergarten. Usually someone helps with that.

When the class finished on Tuesday night, I had a drink of water from my Tupperware cup. I put the cup away in my bag which was leaning against the wall a few feet from where I was sitting. Then I headed off to the kindergarten with the partitions. When I finished, I went to grab my bag so I could head home. It was gone.

I thought someone must have tidied and put it away. When I couldn't find it, I asked around. Everyone started searching. But most of the course participants had left. Someone rang each of them to see if the bag had been picked up in error. It was soon obvious that the bag had been stolen.

Everyone was most concerned and very helpful. In my bag was just about everything that was of practical importance to me: computer, mobile phone, passport, Visa card, drivers licence, diary, notebook, etc, etc.

Someone took the initiative to make a call to find out what I had to do to cancel my Visa card. In no time I was talking to my bank in Brisbane and my replacement card was on its way.

It was past midnight by time we left. Someone drove me home and picked me up again the next morning. We drove to the police station and made a report.

The worst thing is getting a new passport. They need all sorts of ID. Unfortunately, most of that was in the bag. To make it worse, the woman at the Australian Embassy and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs website disagreed on the requirements. Fortunately the woman changed her mind when I quoted the website.

Fortunately, all the information stored on the computer was backed-up on a hard-drive that I bought last year. What a good investment that proved to be. I need a Macintosh computer to access that information. Fortunately, at Tzu chi, they have a couple.

I do not believe my bag was stolen by anyone from Tzu Chi. It was either: one of the course participants; a husband or boyfriend of one of the participants; or a stranger who wandered in and pretended to be one of the above. In any case, my chance of getting anything back is close to nil.

I find that I am a little lost without my computer. It is the tool with which I express my creativity. No point in taking photos now. I have lost my means of processing them. I love manipulating my photos to make them into the best expression I can of the world I am seeing in my travels. I cannot add to or change my web site, which I see as the gallery in which I display my photos to the world. It is not just a gallery of photos it is also a collection of and means of publishing my writing. And when I say 'display to the world', I am not exaggerating. Just the other day Gabby got a letter from her sister in Switzerland. The sister did a search for 'Melaka' on the internet and found my site. She printed the page and posted it to Gabby who was quite excited.

For what it's worth, State Library of Queensland have paid me the honour of archiving my web site, along with other interesting sites created by Queenslanders. All the changes are recorded and will be accessible to interested persons in the future.

I cant wait to get another computer so I can indulge my creativity once again.

I also have 700+ (I think) tunes recorded onto my computer. I miss being able to listen to my favourite music. It is an important form of relaxation for me.

Today I have written four letters—by hand. 90% of the content of each was the same. How much simpler copy and paste is than rewriting each one longhand.

Tracking down the nearest Apple computer dealer is my second priority—after replacing my passport.

Looks like I am here in Melaka for a few weeks while this gets sorted. I have still not decided where I am heading next. There are four places on my short-list. At the moment, India is at the top.

3 Brother Yap
Sunday 21 March 2004

My main role at Tzu Chi is to edit articles that have been translated from Mandarin. Tzu Chi have several volunteer translators. So far I have only met one. He is known as Brother Yap or Uncle Yap, depending the age of the person addressing him. Tzu Chi members think of each other as family, hence titles such as Brother, Sister, Uncle, Grandfather. If I am not called John, I am usually referred to as Brother. So far, I have not made it to Grandfather status.

Brother Yap is a retired bank manager, about ten years older than me. Most Tzu Chi members are vegetarian. When staff and volunteers are fed at Tzu Chi it is always vegetarian. I like it. Since I have started travelling it is the closest I have found to what I would cook for myself back in Oz. When I first met Yap he invited me to come and eat lunch with him at a restaurant. I was told later it was because he does not like to miss his meat.

I am concerned, with my editing, that I should not make so many changes that the translator thinks they are just not getting it right. On perusing my edited versions of his translations, Yap agreed with everything that I had done. Apparently he has not been happy with previous editors of his work. So, I have made a friend.

Last Wednesday, I stayed back for the evening recycling session. (Very exciting. We sort black and white paper from everything else. But the company is usually good so we have a lot of fun.) Yap invited me to come to his house for dinner first. It seems that his wife regularly cooks for the Tzu Chi employees and volunteers. There was a huge spread of food. The Tzu Chi people sat around the table and helped themselves. Most of the food was vegetarian but Yap and I got to have some fish too.

This was my first opportunity to experience the suburbs of Melaka. Yap¡'s house, which he proudly told me he designed himself, would fit well into any Australian suburb. It is on a large block of land, high on a hill. The house is about 30 years old. I would describe it as being multilevel. Verandas take advantage of the view. There is a large durian tree in the front yard which he tells me produces a bountiful crop. I hope we are still friends when the season comes. There is a mosque almost opposite, so like me at Sama Sama, he can benefit from the prayers that come over the loudspeaker several times a day.

Yap and his wife have five adult daughters who are all high achievers.

2 Independence / interdependence
Thursday 18 March 2004

It is interesting to compare what we might call social skills in different cultures. When I was back at MSU I read a book from the library that made comparisons of cultures. In general, they describe two types of culture: independent and interdependent. According to this book, Australia is the second most independent culture in the world. Can you guess the first? Most Asian cultures are interdependent.

I met a Chinese woman recently who is single, must be nearly 40 and she still lives with her parents. Her brothers, sisters and their families all live close by. Thais are much the same.

The book said that people from independent cultures are good at social skills, ie making new friends etc. People from interdependent cultures are better at working within a family or a group. When I first started at MSU, no one took me around to meet everyone or showed me the ropes. Not in an official sense. It was left to an American (independent) woman to take the initiative to do this. At Tzu Chi I was introduced to everyone in the place.

When I raised my children my goal was to make them independent of me. I wanted them to be able to stand on their own feet. I think many of us in the West do something similar. I recently observed a German family over several weeks. There were two children who were, I think, both under five. The children received only minimal attention from their parents. They were staying in the guest house and the kids had the run of the place which included the freedom to annoy the hell out of each other, the house pets and at times other guests.

In Asian countries what I see is that parents expect their children to stick around as adults and be part of their lives. At MSU, part of the assessment of my students included an ‘oral’. They had to be able to hold a conversation with me, in English, on random topics chosen by me. One of the questions I would ask them was, ’What do you plan to do after you graduate?’

Probably nine out of ten of the girls in particular would answer something like, ‘I am going to go back to my village and look after my parents. They are getting old.’ Usually their parents were younger than me.

My Thai students rarely showed signs of teenage rebellion. Almost all were respectful of older people including their parents. Most felt it was appropriate for them to obey their parents at all times.

I do not judge either of these ways as being better. I do, however, find it interesting to compare cultures and to realise that there is not just one way to do things.

1 What I am doing in Melaka
Sunday 7 March 2004

Have been in Melaka now for five or six weeks. It is an interesting place to be. Quite different from both Thailand and Singapore.

There are many different people here. I see mostly Chinese as I am living in Chinatown. There are also Indians who live in the area too. And there are Malays living not far away. This town was colonised by the Dutch, the Portuguese and the British. The society is a mixture of all of the above.

This area is quite old. Some of the buildings have been here for about 400 years. I am told the building I am staying in is about 300 years old.

People are quite religious. We have a Chinese Taoist temple just across the road. In the next block there are both a Hindu and Muslim temple. Further along there are two Buddhist temples and a Methodist church. All this in the one street, though the name changes with each cross street. If you look inside the houses most have a shrine, to whichever form of god they worship, in their front room. There are often religious festivals. Last Friday I got up early to see a festival at the Hindu temple. It was very crowded with people dressed in what we used to call Sunday best. Lots of nice saris. I waited outside the temple with my camera while the worshipping was going on inside. Eventually they came out and a statue of a god was taken up onto an elaborate high carriage. People made offerings of food that were passed up. A small child was passed up to be blessed. Then people started smashing coconuts. This has something to do with getting rid of their sins. The carriage was drawn by two bulls. It stopped every so often along the road while more coconuts were smashed in its path.

Just over a week ago, I was reading a Buddhist book in the cafe where I have breakfast. It was written by a Taiwanese Buddhist nun who is known as Dharma Master Cheng Yen. Her concept of religion is to do charity. She was visiting a hospital in Taiwan some years back and saw a pool of blood on the floor. She asked where it came from. She was told that a pregnant woman with complications had been turned away because she had no money. This motivated Master Cheng Yen to set up a hospital for the poor. She has since also set up a university. When I read this I felt inspired. I thought that I would like to volunteer to work for her in some way. It was just a thought but I wondered if I would need to go to Taiwan to do this.

A few days after this a young English woman, Sarah (see Friends page), turned up here. She is my son, David's age. We got on quite well. She is a Buddhist who has spent the last six months in India and Nepal doing a mixture of pilgrimage, trekking and study. She told me that she had sat next to a Chinese woman on the bus from Singapore who was involved in a local Buddhist charity. She was going to dinner that night with Eileen and her husband Boon, a gynaecologist. When we talked I realised they were involved in the same charity that I had read about. It had grown and was now operating in Melaka. I got myself invited to dinner too.

The upshot of all this is that I am now doing volunteer work for the local Tzu Chi (Compassion Charity) branch. When I first got there I was introduced to everyone in the place. Then I was taken to the library and told to read. About five minutes had passed when I was interrupted with a request to edit a few articles that had been translated from Mandarin. That kept me busy for the rest of the afternoon. A bonus was that I got to spend the afternoon in air conditioning.

That was about a week ago. Since then I have bought a second-hand bicycle to get me the four kilometres from my guest house to Tzu Chi. I go there most days. I do a lot of editing. I help set up for a vegetarian cookery class; I help sort recycled paper and whatever else they ask. Everyone is very friendly. Perhaps I will keep doing this until it is time for me to move on somewhere else. Will see what develops.

© copyright John Shield 2003 - 2004

To read this in the order it was written scroll to the bottom and start with number 1.

April 2004, includes: My first trip to KL; Passport; New computer; Karma.

May 2004, includes: Getting it all together; Across the street culture; It's happened again; Writing process; Sincerity; Boring; Why?; Bag snatchers; Cross-cultural communications; Listening without projections; Malaysian or what?; Definitely Malaysian; Battling Bunga Raya; Free food.

June 2004, includes: A democratic proposal; Towards a mail-forwarding etiquette; The smell of durian; Almost free food; Charity fair; Fighting evil; Attempted robbery; Smokers; Cyber cafes; Tropical fruit-lovers paradise; Consumer society; Another snatch-theft death; Passport application—again; Why I prefer squat toilets; If I had a mothball in this hand; Troubles in southern Thailand; Ninety-one today; Going back; Stopping the snatchers; Karma and choice; Hazy skies; Formula for happiness; Where to next?; Trishaw respect; Desire for union; My new grandson.

July 2004, includes: No water; Malaysian society & politics; Buying a camera; KL scam; Attachments; Garage Band; Grandchildren; Moves; Farewell Tzu Chi; Travelling: Melaka - Penang; Women in black; Bureaucracies: I can cope; Giving with no expectations; Back in Thailand; Making merit.

August 2004, includes: Back to Mahasarakham; Independence; Passing time; Observations from the omelette shop; Pad Pak; Procession; Storm; Famine?

September 2004, includes: Street vendors; The omelette shop; Shopping in Sri-sawas; Restaurants; Off to Udon; In Udon; Toad soup; Buying speakers; Sweet talk; The price of happiness; The right to vote.

October 2004, includes: The real issue; Who are the real Australians?; The Best?; Out of Thailand; Instant Millionaire; Nong Khai to Vientiane; National Library of Laos; Social security in Laos; Please help me!; Lao delicacy; Everyone wants a sponsor; Vientiane markets; Of girls and bombs; Pronunciation of names; Being dead; Renting a bicycle; Losing and gaining customers; Making plans again; Bun Nam Festival; Party's over.

November 2004, includes: Visa applicataon; Lao Tradition show; At the bus station; I didn't make it; Tips for travellers to Vientiane; Visit to an Isaan village; Crickets and grasshoppers; Don't eat cockroaches; Village of the Red Waterholes; Thai winter; All Asians look alike?

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