For the sake of being obnoxious…

…I’d just like everyone to know how freezing it is here today. Like, we’re talking the temperature has dropped to TWENTY-FOUR degrees celsius… I almost considered trying to work with the air conditioning turned off… but not quite. Um, that’s all!

November Insanity

As you can tell from the lack of blog postings, these past few weeks have been at best insanely hectic.

Near the end of last month, Daniel and I made a big decision, which involved Daniel declining a 1 year contract with a Pharmaceutical company here in Singapore. Instead of the contract, Daniel has decided to pursue developing commercial software based on his own business ideas alongside long-time friend, and now business partner, Jeffery DeJong. Jeffery and Daniel met initially at Willingdon church and this past January Jeffery moved to China to work with ICC (International China Concern) where he worked in orphanages and performed business analysis. Jeffery will be coming to live with us here in Singapore during February and March of the new year. Dan and Jeffery will spend many long hours coding and drinking coffee to ready their product for a trial run when Jeffery heads to England in April where he’ll spend six months at ICC’s head office testing their software. In many ways this was a big decision to make with the risks involved, however, in so many more ways the decision was really quite easy. We have prayed about this choice and feel God’s peace in our hearts.

Parent-Teacher Interviews ended today with my last interview. There was much preparation involved in putting together portfolios for each student with selections of their work thus far. There has been much assessment on the brain these past few weeks. The interviews went very well but felt a bit like a whirl-wind as they ran after a full day of teaching Thursday from 3:30-8pm and then all day Friday, each interview scheduled into a 20 min. block. Dan and I went to see Harry Potter once it was all done but I wasn’t much company with my eyes glazed over. Our weekend was incredible with our biggest plan being a short bus ride to Holland Village in pursuit of Starbucks’ new holiday drinks. It is sad to say they don’t have the Eggnog Latte or the Gingerbread Latte on this side of the world…we settled on the Peppermint Mocha.

Deepavali and Hari Raya Puasa

Earlier this month, Singapore celebrated Deepavali (November 1st) and Hari Raya Puasa (November 3rd).

Deepavali is a Hindu holiday celebrated on the new moon of the seventh month. It is also called “Festival of Lights” which is evident from a short trip at this time to Little India where the street were alight. For Hindus, this celebration marks good’s triumph over evil. During this time, Hindus light oil-lamps, decorate their homes with Rangoli designs and take part in different sets of fastings and feasts. One of my students’ moms came in and showed the students these Rangoli designs which are typically made from rice powder and coloured chalk and decorate the floors of homes. This mom also played some Indian music and gave the children some traditional Deepavali sweets to try. These sweets included Kheer (made from rice, milk, sugar and raisins) and Rasagolla (made from milk, floor and sugar). I liked the Kheer best!

Hari Raya Puasa marks the end of Ramadan (1 month of fasting) for Muslims. In Malay, Hari Raya means “Day of Celebration”. Puasa means “fasting or abstaining” [In January Muslims celebrate Hari Raya Haji which is know as the pilgrimage festival because it marks the end of the long journey to the Holy City of Mecca]. Hari Raya Puasa includes going to the temples to pray, asking elders for forgiveness, handing out money packets to the younger generation, giving to the poor and great feasts of spicy and sweet dishes. Another mom from my classroom came to read a story about the history of Hari Raya Puasa and shared with us a special cake of many layers called Kue Lapis.

Hey, Hey We’re The Monkeys

On Sunday, Dan and I took a quick bus ride over to another nature park close to our area of residence. It turned out to be a great hike up to the Summit, which is Singapore’s highest point at 164m above sea level. Parts of the hike, particularly the stairs, reminded us of the Grouse Grind (gone jungle).

The highlight of the park was most certainly the monkeys. There were many of them and they weren’t afraid to check you out either…especially if they were under the impression that you were carrying food, right Dan? Though we knew this important tidbit of information ahead of time and didn’t bring food with us, we had no idea the monkeys had now learned that a plastic bag often equaled food. Dan happened to be carrying a plastic bag for our camera in case we got rained on. The monkeys were getting very exited and I must say that Dan was too! The mother monkey with the baby received most of my attention.