The Equatorial Guineans

Folks,

We're at the end of the winter inter-session, the period of time between the 'Fall' and Spring semesters. We're back to the regular semester from Monday.

The pic of the week shows the group of Equatorial Guineans that I met on my last day in Malaysia. 

The Equatorial Guineans

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On my last day, I checked out of my hotel at mid-day, and I didn't have my flight until after 7pm, so I booked myself on an 'island hopping tour' for the afternoon. The minbus came to collect me, and then continued to another hotel where we collected another group. They arrived onto the bus in great form, complete with cans of Carlsberg and a bottle of Martini. They were African, but when I listened I began to realise that they were speaking Spanish.

They are from the small country of Equatorial Guinea in Central Africa between Cameroon and Gabon. I had only heard of it before because they had a famously hopeless swimmer in the Olympics a number of years ago. 

They were just on a weekend trip to Langkawi, and are studying in Kuala Lumpur. As such, they were students away for the weekend, and they were going to have a good time. Two of the girls had drunk half a bottle of Martini waiting for the bus, and the second half was finished on the short journey to the boat.

I got chatting to them on the bus (a rare opportunity to practice my Spanish), and they rewarded me with cans of Carlsberg.

When we got on the boat they sang and danced their way through the tour. The others on the boat, a Muslim Malaysian couple and an Australian couple, didn't know what to make of them. The Australian couple were bemused, and didn't like that they kept getting splashed as the EGs tried to splash each other, and I think the Malaysians were a bit shocked. I don't think either couple could understand my relationship with them. I'd arrived with them on the bus, was drinking with them, and was obviously entertained by them. I think they assumed I was some sort of 'Daddy'.

I laughed my way through the day because I was so entertained by their optimism and energy. They invited me to have dinner with them that night, but I was going directly to the airport. I'd love to have spent more time with them.

Malaysian language

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The language in Malaysia is Bahasa Malaysia. They use the Roman alphabet, so it's easy to read. And as a tourist, its very easy to find people who understand English. But what I really liked was that they have also taken many English words from their time as a British colony, and they've just spelt them phonetically in Bahasa Malaysia. So from the airport I went to Sentral Stesen, you can get a bas or an Eksekhutif Teksi, shop in the farmasi, talk to the polis, or go to a refleksologi klinik. 

Work

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I've had a great break this inter-session, because I haven't worked since 22nd January. I had 2 weeks holidays in Malaysia, and there was nothing scheduled the following week. I had a one to one class scheduled with the president of the college for the past two weeks. But he was on holidays for the first week, and is too busy this week. 

But next week it's all changing. We are waiting with bated breath for our schedules, because that puts a shape on our semester. The new teachers are arriving and we're having farewell's for those that are departing.

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Well, that's it for now. So until next time,

Annyeong-hi kaseyo.

Éamon

Today's headline in Kookmin Daily: President Lee calls for sweeping crackdown on corruption in education sector