Update 1: Long Flights and New Languages

Monday January 23rd, 7:10pm AEDST, 4:10pm MYT

We have arrived without dying or getting lost. I count this as a success.

We flew out of Gold Coast airport yesterday morning at 9am Australian time (it feels like half a week ago) and settled in for an eight-hour flight. We were kind of over waiting by the time we’d waited in all four thousand queues, but the anticipation helped a little — that and the occasional nap. Our flight consisted of intermittent sleeping, reading, listening, eating and laughing, and the odd question about high-altitude insanity. Unfortunately we were perfectly positioned to hear all about the emotional ups and downs of the five girls in the row behind us (although really, how could they possibly get through all of it in a mere eight hours?) but otherwise the journey was pain-free.

Arriving at KLIA was a bit of a shock after the jumper-worthy temperature of the aeroplane, but wasn’t any worse than your average North Coast summer (99% humidity, Dad?). Thanks to the earnest insistence of family and friends that Malaysia’s equatorial location would result in an experience somewhat akin to the Saunas of Hell, I was a touch disappointed, but generally pleased that we’d not be drowning instead of breathing.

We were picked up from the airport by a group from the Shepherd’s Centre Foundation in Semenyih, the orphanage at which we’ll be staying for roughly the next week. We’re staying in a little two-storey house a few streets over from the main part of the orphanage, which is comprised of a street of buildings. They own almost the whole street bar a few houses in the middle, which (I think) are currently being used as a recording studio, of all things. They’ve turned these houses into the core of the orphanage; church, school room, kitchen, dining hall, a house for the girls, a house for the boys, etc. The staff (volunteers) live in the neighbouring houses and streets; Pastor Jacop and his wife Bridget live in the house opposite the one in which we’re staying, which is generally given to visitors here.

Feeling pretty hungry and tired (we arrived at 3:30pm MYT, 6:30pm AEDST) we quickly checked out the house before raiding the kitchen and chilling out with some cereal and tea and a good book each. We spent some time on the balcony upstairs looking over the rooftops of the rambling houses surrounding us and enjoying the early Year of the Dragon festivities; the crackers and fireworks and atmosphere were all really cool, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the celebrations.

This morning we wandered around the orphanage (the no shoes rule is my favourite part), which included getting to know some of the kids while we helped chop vegetables for lunch. We spent some time talking to a guy on the staff called Michael, who told us how he came to be a Christian and working at the SCF, before settling down in front of the Disney Channel with a handful of kids before lunch. There are around 97 kids here without including the local college kids, which made for an interesting (noisy) lunch experience in the dining hall, which was, incidentally, delicious. The lunch, not the building. It’s a bit disconcerting not being able to communicate with a lot of the people here, but makes for interesting communication. Bridget told us that they speak four or five languages to the kids because of their varied backgrounds; one sentence might contain a mix of English, Bahasa and Chinese, to help the kids communicate more easily with each other.

At the moment we’re sitting in the main office, using one of their ancient computers to check our emails (and attempt to convince Optus to let me use my phone.) We’re investigating the available wi-fi, so hopefully this will get posted online soon enough.

The generosity shown by everyone has been amazing, we feel so comfortable here. I’m looking forward to getting to know the kids better, and we’re all really excited to explore for the next few weeks!