OK, here is a practical question for you. So you are in the restroom to use the squat pot. Now you have to get pretty low to the floor in order to ...umm...aim correctly. How do you do that without getting your pants dirty on the floor? Do you roll them up to your knees first?

OK, seriously, my Diet Coke almost came out my nose when I read that! :lol:

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Wait til I tell my pastor's wife that. She will LOVE it!! :lol:

Awww, You are TOO kind. :D

The Indians here do only eat with their right hand. I have not noticed it as much with the other groups. You also conduct business with only your right hand (give/accept money or business cards, etc.). The folding cloth chair with a hole in it is a GREAT idea! And I am going to have wet wipes and tissue wherever we go. The toilet thing is more funny than shocking but the traffic? That is just ridiculous.

Thank you for the important correction.

Combine a hand bedet with a "squat pot" and you have something even funnier! I am supposed to squat over a hole in the floor to do my business? I am way too prissy to do that. :D

I just read all 3 books about 3 weeks ago. I thought they were pretty violent. Perhaps for a 14yo boy but not an 11yo boy (my ds is 11yo and I would NOT let him read these). BTW, Dekker's other books get progressively darker. I read "Showdown" and had nightmares.

Since someone asked about the hand bedets in Malaysia: First, if you didn't already know, the public bathrooms here do NOT have toilet paper...at all. Instead they have "hand bedets" which is basically a handheld shower head that you are supposed to use to wash your "private area" after you use the toilet. Then I guess you just drip dry? The other problem, of course, is that water (and other things I don't want to think about) sprays everywhere. So our pastor's wife needed to use the bathroom at a restaurant but she was not about to SIT on the toilet seat as it was wet and disgusting. So she did what most women do in that situation...she "hovered". Well, unfortunately, she lost her balance, fell against the stall wall, her purse strap got tangled with the hand bedet and water started shooting upwards EVERYWHERE. It soaked her AND the lady in the next stall who started screaming and ran out. :lol::lol::lol: So yeah, I carry toilet paper in my purse.

Yes, only with about ten times more cars! Here is another example..... Today, at a main intersection, the traffic lights stopped working. Now in Detroit, when that happened, everyone knows you automatically revert to a "four-way-stop" system where you all take turns in order going through the intersection so that you don't crash into each other. Well not here. What we had here was TOTAL CHAOS. Everyone was trying to go at the same time so it was a huge gridlock mess and everyone was blaring horns. Just ridiculous.

:lol::lol::lol: Thanks, I needed the laugh!

It's only been 3 weeks...am I allowed to have a rant yet? :tongue_smilie: It's the traffic. The horrible, lawless traffic. I thought driving on the other side of the road and the other side of the car would be tough. That is NOTHING compared to driving when there are NO rules. Even still, I am getting used to the thousands of motorbikes who drive wherever they want. And I am getting used to people weaving in and out of traffic, straddling the lanes, randomly stopping and parking their car in a traffic lane thereby making everyone else have to go around them :confused:. What I am having trouble with is the people who cut you off within a fraction of an inch, people who think "merging lanes" means to speed to the end and then cut in front of you almost taking your front end off, etc. When asking around about the terrible driving behavior the answer I get is "It's a cultural thing. It's not wrong, It's just different." BALONEY. POPPYCOCK. BULL-PUCKEY. HOGWASH. HOOEY. MALARKEY. Rude is Rude in any language and any culture. When you drive in a way that endangers my life, it is not a "cultural thing" especially if you are trying to say it is "acceptable". Sure, it might be a cultural thing in terms of common in that culture but it doesn't make it acceptable to treat your fellow humans in that way. There seems to be this pervasive "ME FIRST" thing here. They cut in front of you in line at stores and when they drive. Drivers coming out of side streets literally just turn right into traffic on the main road and it is MY responsibility to stop so I don't hit them??? Of course, in their defense, if they didn't do that they would never get on the main road because NO ONE will let them in EVER. We've slowed to let people in and the cars behind us blared their horns at us. I've never seen anything like it. I am sure this happens elsewhere but I am not in those other places...I am here. I am from Detroit and I thought WE had aggressive drivers. HAH! Detroit is a bunch of old ladies compared to Penang drivers. Will I get used to it? I suppose in the sense that it will become familiar to me. But will I get used to it in terms of thinking it is acceptable behavior? Nope. A little regard for your fellow man would go a long way, ya know? OK rant over.... :rant:

oh my! praying for you sweetie....:grouphug:

:iagree: I LOVE heels and I work in a world of men. When I have to go to a cabinet meeting full of suit-and-tie men, I love walking in with my high heels and a skirt. I love being feminine AND powerful. :cool:

This is definitely a perspective I have not heard before. Can you explain more about the war debts?

This was pretty much the gist of my answer in the class but not quite as detailed as yours. You made some excellent points!

Well, let's see... 1. at my son's first birthday we went all out (crazy new parents). We had about 100 people, rented tables and chairs for the backyard, decorated, had food catered, etc. On the morning of we woke to a really unusual heat wave (it was about 95 degrees in the first weekend of June which is super hot for michigan). Everyone was so hot and miserable that no one would eat our expensive catered food...but the beverages ran out quickly. We ended up opening presents as fast as we could and people left. Oh, and my son ate too much bean dip and puked all over his cute first birthday outfit. 2. at his second birthday, we had another (smaller party) at our house in the backyard. The morning of I woke up with the stomach flu and was violently ill and missed the whole thing. 3. at his third birthday, we had a torrential downpour and ended up with 40 people crammed inside our tiny house. 4. at his 4th birthday party, we had it at gymnastics place where they would get to do tumbling etc. There was a huge accident blocking access to the place and by the time everyone got there our time was up and we had to leave. 5. at his 5th birthday, we went to Chuck E Cheese. He had invited some kids from his preschool class. Well they came along with all their older brothers, sisters, parents, etc. and we ended up paying for about 4 times as many people as we expected. 6. at his 6th birthday we tried having a birthday party at his karate studio. The morning of he woke up with the stomach flu so we ended up postponing the party until the next week. That one ended up being OK. by his 7th birthday we finally learned our lesson and stopped having parties as we seemed to be cursed. Now we just do fun family things to celebrate. :D

I haven't posted any of the debate questions from my class lately because, to be honest, they haven't been all that interesting. :tongue_smilie: (and yes, I am still taking classes all the way from Malaysia...gotta love technology!). In light of threads on here regarding pacifism, I thought some of you might enjoy this topic from last week's debate: "Christians living in the American colonies in the 1770s had some difficult decisions to make. Romans 13, for example, speaks of obeying political authorities, since they are ordained by God; but many came to believe that revolution was ethically admissable under certain circumstances. IF YOU HAD BEEN A BIBLICAL CHRISTIAN LIVING IN THE 1770s, WOULD YOU HAVE PARTICIPATED IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. IF SO, AT WHAT POINT, TO WHAT EXTENT, AND FOR WHAT REASONS? IF NOT, WHY NOT? USING YOUR OWN CRITERIA, SHOULD AFRICAN SLAVES HAVE REVOLTED AGAINST THEIR COLONIAL MASTERS IN THE SAME PERIOD?" This lead to a lively debate in my class and I'd love to hear what you all have to say about it!

Wow, I am so glad I asked this question. There is so much to learn and the women (and men!) here are always so full of knowledge. I definitely know a lot more about burqas now and have a better understanding. Thank you!

As far as the food, lots of rice and noodles (of course), most of the food is spicy but not all. Lots of chicken and seafood dishes. Curry is big here too. It is sort of like Chinese meets Indian meets Thai food. I really don't know what most of it is called (yet) but I am working on it. There are some pics on my blog of some of our favorites. I am not sure about the 3 meals thing. The stalls are pretty busy all day long so I think they do have 3 meals. Iced coffee is really big here too.

Seriously, I am going to get huge if I don't watch it. The food here is wonderful and addicting and cheap! It is actually cheaper to eat out than it is to buygroceries and cook. Oh darn. :D

The only day that is remotely possible for us is on Saturday.

Thank you for all the great info. I was mostly curious about the drastic difference between muslim men and women in clothing. I think I expected to see the men less "western" looking in their dress since the women seemed to take their dress so seriously. I thought the decorative burqas were beautiful!! Very ornate and eye-catching...all black with shiny silver beading in fancy patterns. I just wondered why they would choose to make them so "eye-catching" when I thought the point of the burqa was so people wouldn't look at them. There is obviously a lot more to burqas than meets the eye! I admit that one of them was so beautiful I kind of wanted one. :D

One of the best things about living in Malaysia is the variety of cultures and religions living fairly peacefully together. Malaysia is technically a Muslim country and even that comes in a variety of forms. I have great respect for many of the traditions of other cultures. For instance, even though I would never personally wear a burqa, I agree with the idea that modesty in women is underrated. It is my opinion that too many young girls and women dress too immodestly for this conservative's taste. So again, while my version of modesty may take a different shape, I respect the modesty behind the wearing of the burqa. BUT What I don't get is the HUGE difference between modesty as it relates to Muslim men vs. women. For instance, at the mall yesterday I saw many Muslim couples where the woman was dressed in full black burqa with only her eyes showing and the man was wearing a tight-fitting t-shirt, shorts, flip-flops and a baseball cap on backwards. And this was the norm. I guess I don't understand why the women are so formal and reverent in their attire and the men look very "westernized". It just struck me as unfair. Question #2: If the point of the burqa is to keep the woman from drawing unwanted attention to her face and/or body then why do the women wear burqas that are heavily adorned with shiny beading and sequins? The burqas I have seen here are quite ornate and definitely draw your eye to them. Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose? If anyone has deeper knowledge of burqas I would love your perspective.