A weekend at home (KL)

Doug getting ready for the weekend

The most common question among retirees we meet is "how do you spend your day?" I have a few weekday routines - volunteering at Empower, taking Bahasa Malay lessons, and senior citizen yoga. The weekends fill themselves up. This weekend consisted of: three tasty, inexpensive meals; viewing a documentary on a refugee camp followed by a Q&A session with the director; an outstanding production of Philadelphia Here I Come.

This is Malaysia, so meals first. We ate three Indian meals. We had a vegetarian banana leaf lunch at Sri Ananda Bahawn, across from Bangsar LRT, several months ago. IMO the gravy was outstanding and the breakfast menu looked tempting. Another time for dinner we had sizzling meat dishes, tasty but one dish would have satisfied both of us. On Saturday we stopped in before going to a lecture. Doug had a  masala rava dosa (thosai) and I had Chinese noodles - an acceptable balance between price and taste. Sunday morning we met friends for breakfast at Aiswaryi, which is walking distance from the house. Too late for thosai,so we settled for roti canai, roti pisang, and roti telor. We learned that a stall in front of the restaurant serves uppuma in the evening - a favorite of mine - so we will look for an excuse to each there soon.

Chinese noodles & masala rava thosai

We RSVP for every lecture that seems interesting and convenient. On Saturday we saw the documentary film, One Flew over Dadaab followed by a Q&A with the film maker, Andre Vltchek. Dadaab is a refugee camp in Kenya. It shelters over 650,000 refugees. The film made a convincing case that there is no such thing as a good refugee camp. Two women who were interviewed together, didn't even look at each other. The schools used ancient blackboards with worn out surfaces. Ghosts of previous lessons showed through. In one shot most of the students seemed engaged with the lesson. The few students were spread out and did not seem to interact with each other. Andre answer most questions by saying "it's complicated." A totally honest and appropriate answer. What political forces drive people from their homes? How much does bribery dictate who gets opportunities? What is the price for reporting on a refugee camp,e.g.,  what restrictions does one have to agree to to get access? How much to interview subjects censor themselves before speaking? We didn't leave with answers, but we surer of our information. We had the added pleasure of meeting interesting, congenial people.The woman who sat next to me is a recently retired law professor from Sarawak; she talked about being by Peace Corp volunteers in high school. She wore a hjab and her name was Marilyn! Malaysian constantly defy stereotypes.

 In Malaysia refugees live in city and towns throughout the country. Their legal status is ambiguous and the children cannot go to government schools. At the same time refugees >are not isolated from the larger society. Their communities have developed support systems and they . Not a good or desirable situation, but perhaps it does not condemn generation after generation to an aimless struggle to survive.

KLPAC - lots going on (but posters are a bit far from public view

On Sunday we indulged in our first love, theater, with some trepidation. In the US we saw at least 50 plays a year, mostly dramas. In KL we have seen a few plays; hardly any stick out in our memories. This weekend that changed. We saw Philadelphia Here I Come. The play written by Brian Friel. was adapted. The KL production did not take place in Ireland, but in suburban Cheras

It was an outstanding production. The cast made me forget that they were telling an adapted story. Sometimes I found it painful to witness the characters making bad decisions. We left the theater buoyed by the knowledge that one can see fine plays with good local actors.

Director engaging audience in a pre-theater chat