To my astonishment I notice that I have done a lot. After my arrival in Kuala Lumpur on the 18th of July I flew to Georgetown, Penang. But to my surprise I was not going to stay in Georgetown! AFS had a different plan for me. I was supposed to live and work close to Balik Pulau. To be honest I felt rather uneasy during the drive from Penang International Airport to my new home. Why were we driving away from Georgetown? And if it took 45 minutes to drive with a car, to drive from Georgetown to Balik Pulau, how long would it take us with public transportation?
The fact that we could not leave the project after 4 pm to get food was one of the rasons I decided to pressure a project change as soon as possible. In a city, Georgetown, that has around 800,000 inhabitants how hard could it be to find a new NGO (non-government organization) which would take us in and provide accommodation for us (with "us" I mean myself and another German AFS volunteer)?? Difficult it seems, because after endless e-mails and phone calls with my organization, although they had agreed to move us out of Balik Pulau, there was talk about moving us to a different state within Malaysia. Although I was not happy with this possibility, I still went ahead with our project change. I felt that our reasons to leave Balik Pulau were completely justified. Because we had no means of transportation (due to insurance reasons I am not allowed to drive a car, motorcycle or hitchhike here) to take us from our project into the next village.
So when we left Balik Pulau with our suitcases packed, I was unsure where the journey was going. The first night I spent on the floor of another German AFS volunteer, who was kind enough to take me in. After that all seven of the 18+ volunteers were on our way to Ipoh to celebrate Hari Raya (see my last blog). After a week of fasting and celebrating, we (this time 3 AFS volunteers and myself) visited a group of AFS girls in Kuantan. After some days at the beach and a lot of cockroaches in their house our little group of now 5 people (4 guys and one brave girl) embarked on a journey home to Georgetown. What was supposed to be a ride of 9 hours ended up to be at least 13 hours! Finally after the endless bus ride we were in Penang. But not Georgetown-Penang but rather Butterworth-Penang. While Georgetown is on the island of Penang, Butterworth is on the mainland. To make a long story short: the five of us were forced to take two overpriced taxis home, because all of a sudden the taxi drivers decided to abide the rules of only 4 people per taxi.
That week I finally received information about my new project. I am now based in a project in the center of Georgetown, called 2 Way Center. 2 Way is a center that provides assessment and intervention for children and occasionally teenagers. The children mostly have either autism, attention deficit or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), dyslexia or any kind of mental health issue such as trauma and selective muteness.
As you might be able to tell I am looking forward on working on this new project, and I am very glad to have summoned the courage in Balik Pulau to ask for a project transfer.
I am very sorry to say that I did not find any good pictures to post for this blog, which is already my sixth one!! I hope you understand, and as always thank you for taking your time to read my blog. Feel free to write me an email if you have any questions at all at tmvolkmer@hotmail.de.
Last but not least I would like to congradulate my cousin Lindsay and her newly wedded husband Tim. All the best for your future, Tobi.
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