Bathroom Finding

These last few days have been pretty difficult as far as finding new people goes. When you live in an area where 90% of the people are Muslim it makes it really difficult.  And because Malaysian law says that it is illegal to approach or teach Muslims, our pool of potential investigators is small.  We go knocking, we ask people where Christians live, we see people in Pasars and try to talk to them, but most of the time it just doesn't work.  So yesterday my companion and I heard of this brand new way of meeting people.  So revolutionary and so effective that it would work anywhere, even here in Sandakan.  The method is called bathroom finding. It involves, the missionary, me, needing to use the bathroom but having no public restrooms.  We find a nice looking neighborhood and knock on the first promising door.  What happens after than is i make a very pained expression and say "Maaf gangu tapi saya perlu guna tandas! Boleh kah saya gunu tandas mu skejap sajah?"  They look at you like what are you doing, but you keep on talking before they can say no.  You quickly say, "skajap sajah, saya dari Amerika and tak tahu di mana ada tandas, minta!"  Then they say, OK.  You go use their restroom while your companion has a prime time to talk to them.  You take your time take a look around the house to make sure they arn't Muslim and then make your way back to the front door.  If they aren't Muslim its a thumbs up and you continue talking to them for as long as they will let you.  This does work!  We were able to talk to these two ladies for over 30 minutes, and they were Christian!

Gawai and 1 year!

So I thought I would give you a little preview of what my life is going to be like this next week.  This next week is going to be the biggest holiday of the year for the native Iban people.  And because 90% of Bintulu is Iban, everyone is going to be celebrating Gawai.  What does this mean for me?  It means that no one is going to be out of down, and everyone who stays at home is going to be drunk out of their mind.  Everyone in Sarawak has a "kampung" house, which means they ALL have a second house in the jungle.  They are called long houses, the longer, the more prestige.  If  you have time, Google long house in Sarawak and see what comes up.  These houses are just amazing and they are just huge!  Anyway, every year people make their pilgrimage back to the long house to celebrate Gawai.  So it looks like I might be out of a job for the next week or two   I love all you guys!

ps. I almost forgot this Friday marks 1 year out on my mission!  Wow, time flies

May Day

Yesterday in celebration of May Day we had a big BBQ party, it was amazing.  It had rained in the morning so it was a little over cast making it not too hot for a beach outing.  The water was too warm but luckily there was a stream that fed into the ocean with cold water!  

A good turn out

The Beach

It was bring your own rice BBQ, no rice for us, just meat

 Me with Sister Rammy, one of the sweetest ladies you could ever meet 

Trying to keep the sun off  

Me after the Beach, i was so sunburnt!  And so sandy and wet after the water fight.