This and That...

How shall I start my 7^th blog of my time here in Malaysia? By telling you that for the start of the raining month it poured cats and dogs for an entire day; or by sharing the exciting news that I now have a functioning washing machine here in my new (permanent) project. For all of those who missed my latest update I moved from the small village of Balik Betong to the center of Georgetown, Penang.

Since I got a lot of questions last blog what exactly it is that I do in 2 Way Center, I will try and give a brief summary of what I expect (I may end up doing something different) to do the next 10 months. Since 2 Way Center is an assessment and intervention center for children and teenagers with mental health issues I expect to do exactly that. Assessment, as in see on what level the child can read, write, do math and how high (or sometimes low) the IQ is of the child. After this first step, we then create an Individual Education Plan (IEP) to work on the individual weaknesses.  Since it is individual learning you need one teacher (that would be my role) per child. Although this is very time consuming, it is sometimes the only way to teach a child with learning difficulties, ADHD or autism.

Today was the first time that I was allowed to do an entire hour of teaching by myself. I cannot explain how much fun it was to teach my student how to read and write. I am not saying that I want to do that for the rest of my life, but I am definitely looking forward to teaching this year. I am sorry to say that I cannot tell you more about my day to day work since the first week was mostly orientation and getting used to the different reading/math -tests.

Because I do not write these blogs in one sitting another day has passed. Today I used my new washing machine to finish my off my dirty laundry from the last 3 weeks. I have to admit, that I might have had too much fun while hanging up my clothes (see pictures below). After a morning of reading, laundry and not being able to follow any tutoring, because they were either held in Bahasa Malay (official language of Malaysia) or Hokien (a Chinese dialect that is wide spread in Penang) I was surprised and completely unprepared to teach. I had the great privilege to teach a six year old Chinese girl with dyslexia how to read, write and how to do simple addition and subtraction with numbers below 10. After the class, I was talking to the mother of the child, I was surprised not hear complains about my light and upbeat style of teaching, but rather be thanked for having worked with her daughter. The mother seems to have appreciated a teacher who speaks English without a heavy Malay, Indian or Chinese accent.

Although you might be surprised to hear that I have a life outside of the tutoring center, it is true. During my weekends my activities range from going on a cruise to hiking in the jungle.

A colleague of mine, here at Two Way Center, has been kind enough to take me hiking, once in the national park of Penang and once in the jungle surrounding the botanical garden. Down below I will post pictures of these adventures and bits and pieces of my everyday life here on Pulau Penang.

This is how a Tobi looks who forgot his umbrella at home during the raining season.

  

Entrance to the national Park here in Penang

 A beautiful beach that was the destination of the hike... went for a swim after 3 hours of humidity and sweat!

 When leaving the Park.

 As a good German citizen I took part in the election by mail!

 Sunset over Penang!

Rainbow!!!

The second hike, yes I ate sausages from a campfire in the middle of a jungle.

Finally my washing machine has arrived and has been in good use ever since.

 And as always thank you for reading my blog and if you have any questions please write me under tmvolkmer@hotmail.de or leave a comment.

P.S.: I would like to thank my local supermarket GAMMA whose free wifi was used to upload this blog ;)