Truly Malaysian, not?

Being an exchange student myself, I was taught to be like a sponge, to have an open mind and to soak, adapt, and respect different culture’s perspectives, values and approaches.

We are pretty much Malaysians when it comes to Hari Raya, Deepavali and CNY but when comes to Haji, Thaipusam or Chap Goh Meh, there’s a whole different story all together. Probably because they are not any main stream festivals that other races would be likely to celebrate. Or the biggest probability is there’s no eating and be merry… hahaha. You know how Malaysians we are when comes to food. I was lucky enough to witness the ceremony of slaughtering cow during Haji…( oohh..that was cool!!); recently I volunteered to bring a group of exchange students to Batu Caves to experience the whole Thaipusam excitement (yes, it was my very first time). Well, as for Chap Goh Meh, I’m not sure what exactly need to be done. If I’m not mistaken, we supposed to toss oranges into the sea as a sign of looking for soul mate, more or less like Valentine’s Day, not? Correct me if I’m wrong.

Bringing the exchange students to Batu caves had indeed brought me down to memory lane where it reminded me that I was once like them too. Most of exchange students were so excited and dressed up for the big day. As for volunteers, we just tugged into t-shirts and jeans. It was packed and crowded at Batu caves although not as bad as last year as many were afraid of the Hindraf riot might take place. I’m not sure if the students had any cultural shock, but the feedback I received was “Wow, amazing!”, “cool!”, “awesome.” Even me as a Malaysian, think it is an eye opening experience. Witnessing the trance, the piercing, and the jumping around with my two naked eyes was one scary scene. I’m not against nor supportive on the whole piercing idea although it was more like self torturing. For me, I think it is a very subjective matter that has no wrong or right, where different people have different ideas and opinions.

Free haircut anyone?

This is so uncivilised!! I wondered why they can't find a proper dump site

The smiley faces of volunteers- me, eric and roy

After tiring day climbing all the way up to the cave, then we had lunch at an Indian restaurant. To be frank, I hardly use my hand to eat; it’s like once a decade. I mean there are forks and spoons available, might as well fully utilize them rather taking the hassle of washing my hands *grin*. And also, because of hygiene purposes especially just coming back from a big crowd. At first I was reluctant to use my hand, but when I see the entire exchange student were using hand and then I turned around, seeing Eric was using fork and spoon. The thought of being true Malaysian came across my mind, why a bunch of European kids were willing to step out of their comfort zone and couldn’t I as a Malaysian do that? So in the end, I DID wash my hands, with anti bacteria liquid soap and had fun getting my hands dirty!

When I was far away from Malaysia, I was so proud of being a Malaysian and feel a sense of pride just by looking at the glorious sky scraping towering Twin Tower on the post card. Now I’m back at home, I tend to take things for granted and the heart of patriotism somehow faded. Well, human nature I guess.

One thing for sure, the grass is not always greener on the other side. Our land is rich of cultural diversities waiting for us to explore and learn from one another. Most important, it is where my root belongs.

Interested in hosting a foreign exchange student? Or looking forward to be an exchange student yourself? Check out http://www.afs.org.my/ for more info.