After Melly & Diana left for Kuantan, I was left to work at Selangor on my own. MFD finally arranged time for me in a classroom during the school week. I was sent to a pre-k class (only four students enrolled) and I was surprised to see that only one student was present. Since attending pre-k is not required, it is entirely up to the parents to drop their child off at school or not. The teacher admitted that students' attendance isn't stable. I watched while she taught the only present student (six years old boy) who sat there, recording numbers and doodling in his journal. He had absolutely no conversational skills and refused to say anything other than answer the teacher's questions with single words. Later, I found out that a second student was asleep in a corner on the other side of the room. He was sick with a fever and his parents weren't able to pick him up due to work. So his pre-k classroom became a daycare for him until his parents picked him up. At one point, the sick student got up and pulled out some toys and the working student joined him. They spent the next half hour playing with puzzle pieces without saying a single word to each other. The teacher asked me a million questions about American Deaf schools but after that, she engaged in a long side conversation with my interpreter and left me sitting there.
The next day, we returned to the school so that I could continue to observe pre-k. But I was both surprised and not surprised that no students showed up. The teacher was alone in her classroom and apologized about us coming all the way for nothing. On a brighter note, I got to see the UPSR students (our first group in Malaysia!) It was good to see them even if for a short time. They actually thought I flew home to America and back in three weeks!
After a disappointing round at Selangor, I couldn't wait to get out of there and get to Kuantan. It took four long hours but I was reunited with Melly and Diana! The campus there is just like Selangor's but smaller. We held our usual English camp there and I was more than happy to see that the students were very smart. The majority of them knew basic English vocabulary and had some sentence structure. They were able to answer questions and so on. Their sense of humor really stood out and we just could tell that they were happy especially since they spend every waking minute together (all of them live at the dorm). There is only one Deaf teacher at this school-- the rest of the teachers are hearing and know little sign.
One thing we were surprised to learn, most of the teachers who teach at Kuantan right now are actually teachers for students with learning disabilities. They graduated with that sort of major and only work at the Deaf school right now because they were placed there by the government. They learned sign language and work with Deaf students not because they wanted to but because they had to. Almost all of the hearing teachers kept asking us if the students we worked with understood us. They kept implying that they weren't smart enough and looked as if they were almost apologizing for the students' "slowness". It took all I had to keep from explaining that the students were not slow, it is simply their lack of knowledge. There is a big difference between our (Melly, Diana and me) and the hearing teachers' style of teaching. These teachers expect their Deaf students to sign along with them as they review materials or go over new concepts. But what they don't realize: are the students really absorbing new information or just repeating? In our education courses at Gallaudet, we have learned that one of the surefire way to know if the students are actually learning is to keep asking them questions. Once they are able to answer our questions regarding new materials, we will be able to tell if they've understood.
We can clearly see that the teachers ARE trying to teach. I hope they will keep improving. We have never once heard the students complain about their teachers so that shows me they admire and listen to them.
Kuantan has the best cafeteria food! They kept us full all day and had stuff we were actually willing to try. All through my stay there, I ate with my hands, using the shovel method. I haven't used silverware in a long while. Not only that, I've also given in to using the floor toilet (even if it took me three weeks!) It's almost rare to find toilet seats so we have to squat and pee through a hole in the ground.
The students were loaded with a million and one questions and were not afraid to bombard us with them. They would ask random questions and especially wanted to know when we would leave the campus. Everyday they asked the same questions and that's when we saw it. They would miss our company. We girls would sit around with them, answering their questions big or small. "Are your parents Chinese?" "Why do you have moles?" "Have you seen an UFO?" Little girls would point at my tattoos and ask how I got them ("somebody drew them on me while I was asleep.") A young girl even gave up her stash of pandan cookies and presented us with one each.
Bottom line: they craved attention from stimulating people-- namely people who knew fluent sign language. They needed people who would keep up with their communication level and listen to them. They needed people other than staff who tell them to line up and to take their baths. Don't get me wrong, the staff there are wonderful and really take care of the students but when it comes to simple conversation, it just doesn't seem present.
I ended up staying at Kuantan for a week instead of just a couple of days. I felt that I would benefit more there than hoping students show up at Selangor. And I'm glad I did. Anna got a text message from the warden the day we left that explained the children's reaction when they found out we were gone. Even if we told them a thousand times the exact date and time we were leaving the school, they just wouldn't believe it. When they realized we didn't show up at mealtime, they actually went looking for us. I wonder how they felt once they found out we were really gone.
After Kuantan, we returned to our apartment at Kuala Lumpur and packed up. The next day, we took a 5 hour bus ride to Penang, an island west of Malaysia. It cost us 25 RM (about nine US dollars) and with some prior research, we were able to navigate ourselves to Baan Talay, a homestay, in a taxi. We checked in and to our relief, this place is way nice. I'm actually writing this right now in the comforts of our own room by the beach. I have to say that the beaches here at Penang is overrated (maybe because I was so blown away by Siloso Beach at Singapore?) The people who run this homestay-- KD and Saracha are really cool. The vibe here is pretty mellow especially with other white travellers (European and Australian).
More later with pictures of Batu Caves and Kuantan (I'm behind, I know!)
"Falsehood has an infinity of combinations but truth has only one mode of being."
-Jean Jacques Rousseau
