Tourist for a weekend

My oldest son, James, is with me for a holiday at the moment. He’s been living overseas for most of the last few years, so this time with him is very special. We hired Fernandez (friendly and knowledgeable taxi driver) to do ‘the tour’ around the island. It’s a must for every visitor to Penang. I think you could drive around the island comfortably, without stopping, in about 2+ hours. We took 8 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday!
I won’t fill this post with everywhere we went – just a few places.

The spice farm. This pic doesn’t actually show any spices – they’re not that interesting to photograph. But I liked the variety of mortars and pestles displayed, and you can see some lemon grass and limes and torch ginger in there. We enjoyed the most delicious nutmeg drink here. My knowledge of the uses of nutmeg has grown – it’s delicious candied for a snack too.
We walked in the National Park and are both keen to go back for a day of walking, and visited the batik factory. The Butterfly Farm was delightful, not only for the beautiful butterflies, but also for the lovely flowers growing there (butterfly food), and the insects.

Don’t you love the bright red ‘lipstick’ on this one?

Some flowers - notice the butterflies on the flowers in the lower pic.

And check out the ‘man face’ beetles, looking like faces from a totem pole.
Ahh the tropical fruit farm ... I adore tropical fruits.

I’ve developed a taste for the fairly bland dragon fruit – I love the texture.
But my favourite must be langsats, a fruit that is native to western Malaysia, but one I’ll be trying to grow when I get home. To me it tastes a bit like a lychee only creamier and better.

In this pic you’ll see the langsats are the small ovoid brown fruit on a stem surrounded by bananas. Mangosteens are the larger reddish brown fruit and they, too, are to die for. Also in my fruit bowl you’ll see ripe and unripe mangos and a papaya (pawpaw) beside the bowl. My breakfast these days is a fresh fruit salad with a little orange juice squeezed over it.
We spent some time admiring the beautiful Buddhist temples. Kek Loc Si was begun in 1890 and is one of the largest in Southeast Asia.

You’ll see many classical photos of this beautiful temple and the amazing Buddhas and the huge bronze statue of goddess Kuan Yin, so I thought I’d put up something different - my photo of the dragons on the roof that must surely be to protect the goddess.
Next post will be back to the fantastic food we’re eating, which seems to be the majority of photos I’ve taken!!

Family time

I've spent a week with my husband in Bali - a long-overdue holiday we'd booked before I knew I was coming to Penang. It came at just the right time. Everyone is so very friendly, but a little bit of homesickness was creeping up on me.
And now I'm back in Penang and my oldest son has come up to join me for 10 days. He's more adventurous than I am. I left him with the Lonely Planet Guide to Malaysia and a book just on Penang while I came to work ... I can imagine what he'll have planned for me! For example this morning he caught the teksi (that's bahasa malay) with me and quizzed the driver about all the best hawker stalls for breakfast. We stopped and had THE BEST koay teow th'ng I've had. It's a thin soup with flat rice noodles, a few shreds of pork and chicken and some fish balls - don't know what the other flavours were but, yummy. It's served with a little bowl of sliced chilli and soy. This is a far cry from my usual breakfast of poached eggs or cereal that I eat in Aus.

Sam and Kathy and I are progressing well with the Gateway website. Kathy brings the 'youth' perspective to it, making sure it's not a staid old site! It's been a lot of fun researching the internet to find good websites to link to to make this a place you'll really want to have bookmarked for easy access. We're going to put some news feeds in too (on breastfeeding), so when you go to the site you'll be able to see what's happening around the breastfeeding world. And a Twitter feed too ... I'll leave that one up to Sam and Kathy to work out!

This is Kathy trying to teach me about Twitter...

Deepavali - a Hindu celebration

I'm so lucky to be here during the Festival of Light: Deepavali. This festival is the most auspicious for the Hindu and is celebrated with family and friends. People buy  new clothes for the day and will share yummy sweets and other foods. Last night an Indian colleague here at the WABA office took me to Little India with her. She warned me it would be busy and noisy - she wasn't wrong.

The shop owners have opened stalls on the pavement and roadside that are filled with flowers and decorations for the home. The atmosphere is electric with the number of people around and delicious smells and the music (verrry loud!) all adding to the excitement in the air.

Lots of stalls also sold the sweets and biscuits which are special just for this event. I've bought some and am looking forward to trying them, though have been told that the home-made ones are better.

This design on a table is a rangoli and is being made from coloured rice  (see artist in background who didn't want to be photographed). I've seen a few of these around town now - on the floor of shopping centres, in hotel foyers, etc. Apparently on Deepavali morning (this coming Friday) oil burners will be placed in the middle and lit.

We also dropped into the many sari shops - all busy with shoppers buying new clothes - another tradition of the day. Oh those fabrics are just beautiful! I never see fabrics like that in the shops in Australia.

Friday one of the WABA staff is holding an 'open house' at her place to celebrate the occasion. I'm very much looking forward to sharing the traditions and fun on the day.

Some Penang observations

Motor cyclists here are suicidal!! Ducking and weaving through the traffic no matter what speed it's going.
Rain is a part of every day. With it the humidity drops and a cool breeze blows - delightful!
Standing in front of a fan after you've dried off following your shower will stop you perspiring long enough to let you get dressed.
Food is a very important part of each day ... and for this newbie to the cuisine I'm having fun working my way through the whole range available (have I got enough time!!)
Walking/jogging is difficult along suburban roads that have uneven paving stones. Is this why I never see a local out walking/jogging when I go?
EVERYONE in Penang is happy. Smiles are infectious.

Youth for Breastfeeding

This video was created by the Youth team attending WABA. They're a highly motivated, fun-loving and inspirational group.

In summary ...

I would like to set the record straight here - it would be very easy for the those who know me to assume that the location of a conference at a beach resort in warm sunny Malaysia was a disguise for an R&R opportunity for this Aussie beach-babe and her two willing compatriots ........ 

How wrong you would be!
We were heavily ensconced in international policy and political intricacies of breastfeeding advocates whose lives are threatened on a daily basis as they stand up for what they believe in.

- We voted on consensus for the correct use of Plumpinutt in cases of medical emergency for malnutrition.
- We were present for the launch of Youth for Breastfeeding- the young leaders of future breastfeeding advocacy.

- We formulated action plans for WABA to proceed with mother-friendly practices.

- We discussed gender sensitive national policies and women's and baby's rights.

- We debated rights/wrongs of expressing vs feeding at the breast.
- We pledged to continue our work to tell the world that mothers and babies need to stay together.
- We were reminded of the power of money used by infant formula manufacturers against the power of the people protecting breastfeeding.
- AND
- We always wore a hat and sunscreen so we aren't bronzed (haha!)

the GBPF, the GBPM and the SCM

Haha - one of my biggest learning curves so far has been to learn all the new acronyms. I now have sympathy for newbies coming into medical-speak.
Anyway, the GBPF (Global Breastfeeding Partners Forum) was an exciting 3 days of presentations and workshops. It was like no conference I've ever attended before - this 'conference' had different goals. Most conferences are just to impart knowledge, whereas the Forum had plenary sessions addressing certain themes (sharing knowledge), followed by targeted workshops for the audience to discuss how the knowledge could be applied or disseminated. What was very interesting though was the participants came from 36 countries, so the perspectives were often illuminating to my limited world experience. Note takers were assigned to each session to record the comments ... you'll see why soon.
It wasn't ALL work and no play. There were some wonderful dance and mime presentations ... and the WABA Secretariat did the WABA Crawl - I hope someone has put it up on Youtube... it was fun.

After the GBPF was a day of the GBPM (Global Breastfeeding Partners Meeting). Now of course you'll all know that WABA has 5 Core Partners (LLLI, IBFAN, ABM, Wellstart and of course ILCA).  This meeting was for them and the Regional Representatives. Apart from the usual reporting stuff, the ideas and actions from the previous workshops was presented and these were then categorised and prioritised according to importance and ability to achieve given the resources at hand.
It was a very interesting process for me, and one that I feel was very effective.

After this was a day off!! My feet felt wonderful after the reflexologist had done his thing and the masseuse, who does traditional Malay massage, gave me strict instructions on how to stop the tension and knots she had such trouble getting rid of in my neck and shoulders (basically, keep away from computers!! if only!)

Got to finish for today, but will add more tomorrow .. and some pics.

Brisbane to Penang

We're here! We made it! Only a little over 9 hours flying time, but it was a 17-hour day door-to-door. Bridget, who needs to go into a deep meditative state on take-off and landing,  has now found a greater fear - Penang taxi rides!
I'm staying at the beautiful Bayview Resort Hotel - right on the beach, which would be very tempting if the sessions and presentations weren't so interesting, inspiring, exciting ... I can't think of enough descriptors. I'll write more about them later. I'm sharing my hotel room with Johanna, the ILCA/WABA Fellow from 2008. This is a great bonus - she didn't get to sleep until after midnight last night as I plied her with questions about what my working and social life is going to be like for the next 3 months.

The Health e-Learning crew saying goodbye!

Leaving tomorrow!

This morning I farewelled my home, and the chickens and the vegie garden and my lovely comfy bed and travelled to Brisbane to work the day in the Brisbane office, staying overnight ready for an early departure tomorrow. After agonising about what to pack I finally decided on a few cotton skirts and tops, and anything I didn't have would be easy enough to buy over there. And checked 5 times that I have my passport!
Bridget and Samantha are both coming to Penang for the conference and we'll be travelling together. Having them come with me for the first few days makes the whole trip seem less daunting.

I've been reading every word on the WABA website, making sure I have a good understanding of all their current, past and future projects, and getting an idea of who's who. Wow there's some names in WABA who have had a huge impact on the lives of infants through their work with breastfeeding over the years! What a privilege for me to be working with these people. Not long now!

The preparations begin

I'm to start the Fellowship by attending the Global Breastfeeding Partners Forum from the 17th to 19th October. That gave me about 3 weeks from being notified before leaving! Yikes!! And as luck would have it, I'd already registered to attend the Susuibu conference in Kuala Lumpur from the 3rd to the 10th Oct!!!! That didn't leave me much time to prepare for a 3-month trip away - 5 days to be precise!
I'll be leaving my husband at home to look after the home, my big vegetable garden and, of course, to continue running our business - he'll get plenty of help doing that from Sam, Bridget, Freddy and Trinity!

After accepting the position the doubts began to creep in - 'what if I'm not able to do what they want me to do?', 'will I miss my husband too much?', 'will he really eat all the vegies that will be ready to be harvested while I'm away, or leave them for the caterpillars?', 'how will they cope at work without me?'. Needless to say all those being left at home have reassured me that they'll manage admirably without me. Only time will tell whether I am what WABA needs, and yes I'm sure I will miss my husband a lot, but the time will fly by.

Initially I regretted having to go to the Susuibu conference as I thought I could have used that time at home to prepare for the longer trip. But as it has turned out I met lots of wonderful friendly Malaysians which assured me I won't be lonely, and Julianna from WABA who I will be working with in Penang and who really made me feel that I will be welcomed.

I was a bit worried about what I should wear and how I should behave in this predominantly Muslim country. Again though I had nothing to worry about - during my week in KL I saw that dress in the city was not dissimilar to my home town of Brisbane (shorts, sleeveless tops were common); but felt that when out with my Muslim colleagues a skirt to the knees and a top with at least short sleeves to be more respectful.
I also had misconceptions about Muslim women, thinking they were quiet, reserved and subservient to their husbands. Not so!! A more vibrant, fun-loving, empowered group of women I have yet to meet!! And the few husbands I did meet were wonderfully supportive of their wives and their activities, and great dads!

The weather is hot with very high humidity all year round, with the few months I will be there having the highest rainfall. Hmmm tropical downpours will be interesting to experience. Clothing-wise it'll be loose, natural fibre fabrics. With the cost of clothing over there I think I'll only be packing a few clothes to get me through the first week and buying more once settled - a half empty suitcase going over, laden coming home! Don't let me forget the umbrella though, please!

Tomorrow I'm packing.

WABA and the ILCA Fellowship

About two to three weeks ago Angela from ILCA greeted me on the phone with, "You've got the WABA Fellowship".
For those unsure of what WABA is, here is a small synopsis from their website:
"The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) is a global network of individuals & organisations concerned with the protection, promotion & support of breastfeeding worldwide.
WABA is in consultative status with UNICEF & an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC)."
ILCA (International Lactation Consultants Association) is a member organisation of WABA, and it is they who are sponsoring my Fellowship to work with WABA.

This blog of my experiences in Malaysia and with WABA was suggested by my friend Diana. I hope you'll find my journey interesting and fun to read about.