Packing up (again)

Time to pack up and move again.  Our little 2 week "vacation" here in the apartment ends tomorrow when we move into a temporary house.

                                                             "Hornbill" Apartments

Temporary 3-bedroom Home:

Here's how they (BSP-Brunei Shell Petroleum) do things in Brunei...  first you stay at either the apartment or a local (not very nice) hotel for anywhere from 1 week to who knows how long...  


Then you go into a temporary house IF one is available.  If not, you continue to stay in the apartment or hotel.  If so, you move into the temporary house for the next 2-6 months, waiting for a permanent house to become available.  


The permanent house you get is based on family size.  In this case, we actually benefit by having 4 children.  For one thing, we'll get a 4-bedroom home.  For another, we probably won't have to wait as long as the families with 2 or 3 children who are all waiting for a 3-bedroom home.  This is one of the rare instances where we are at an advantage with a larger family!


Obviously, they don't make the settling-in process especially easy.  But, at least our temporary home is not far-removed from "camp", and it's just down the road from the SupaSave grocery store.  Now I just need a car to get to the store, and everywhere else for that matter!   For those who were rooting for the "Mystery Machine", it had already sold by the time Keith called about it.  I guess it wasn't meant to be...  Still looking for the right vehicle.


Gotta go pack now!!!  

Cheetos are saving my life!

After a trip to the local grocery store, Landon was SO excited to have found Cheetos.
He said, "You know why I'm glad Brunei has Cheetos?"
Me: "Because you love them?"
Landon: "No.  Because they're saving my life."

We have found some other American products that have "saved our lives" here in the beginning.  It's exciting to see what they sell amongst the local products.  Of course, these things may not always be available...

    BREAKFAST                                                             

SNACKS

LUNCH

DINNER

It certainly makes the adjustment a bit easier to have some familiar foods available to us!

A lesson in Malay

The local language here in Brunei is Malay.  We are very lucky, however, because nearly everyone also speaks English.  On the other hand, it's kind of embarrassing (to me) that we Americans are almost the only ones who don't speak multiple languages.  The Europeans, South Americans, Asians, etc. all speak at least their own language plus English.

Even though we don't have to learn Malay to communicate, the locals greatly appreciate any efforts you make at speaking their language.  Hoping to assimilate into the culture at least somewhat, I have been picking up some phrases from the sweet cleaning ladies here at the apartment.  Now you can learn some Malay too!

How are you?
Apa Khabar (a-paw kuh-bar)

I'm good.
Khabar baik (kuh-bar bike)

Good morning
Selamat pagi (selawmut poggie)

Good night
Selamat malam (selawmut mollem)

What is your name?
Siapa nama mu (see-ahpa nahma moo)

What time is it?
pukul berapa (pookle barawpa)

Thank you
Tarima kasih (tareema kah-see)

Goodbye
Selamat jalan (selawmut jhollen)

I don't think I'll become fluent, but maybe I can pick up a bit more over time.
 Selamat jalan!

New Friends

Tonight we are going out to dinner with a nice part Irish, part Dutch family we met here at the apartment.  In typical fashion, Natalie first befriended their daughter at the pool, and the boys soon started playing with their son.  That was about a week ago.  Since then, our kids have been going back and forth between apartments, getting to be better and better friends every day.  The mom and I have hit it off with our love of reading, and our husbands have run into each other in the hallways at work a couple of times.

 Tonight, however, we will get together as complete families for the first time.  It's always tricky trying to make "family friends".   Either it's difficult to get everyone to like everyone else and get along, or you don't like how the other couple disciplines their children (or how they DON'T discipline their children), etc, etc.  I am not referring to anyone in particular, if you're starting to wonder!

Anyway, we will see how tonight goes!  Following dinner, Natalie is having their daughter over for a sleepover.  What's one more kid in the apartment?  :) We are looking forward to school starting on Sept. 5 so that the kids can make even more friends, and I can meet more moms too.

To our friends back home, we miss you all!  As the saying goes... Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver, and the other gold.

A few unusual things

I've snapped a few pictures of some of the uniquely Bruneian things around our apartment.  Enjoy!

The green arrow is on the ceiling in our apartment, and in public places.  It points the way to Mecca, the direction in which Muslims should face when they pray.

Not your typical microwave keypad.  Where's the popcorn button??

And how common is "steam meat with soy"??

There is no central A/C.  Each room has its own unit mounted near the ceiling, with a little remote mounted on the wall.  No heat either, because we'll never need it!

   Little steps (1-2 inches) are all over the place!  I don't know if this is true or not, but one lady told me it's a Chinese thing... meant to "trip up" any bad spirits trying to move from one room to the next!  Hope it doesn't trip up Lacy here!

No dishwashers.  Even homes (at least the Shell ones) don't come with a dishwasher.  You have to buy it separately- and they are extremely small, or the Amah spends a lot of time washing dishes!  I'm missing my dishwasher while we're here in the apartment.  Dishes for 6... ugghhh...

The one and only outlet in the bathrooms... for shavers only!  

Guess I'll be drying my hair elsewhere.  But the picture of the little guy is fun to look at while brushing your teeth!

All of the toilets have sprayers attached to them.  Mini bidets. 

 Ironically, the toilet is an "American Standard".  In a lot of public places, they have squat toilets!  Yikes!

 

The Sultan is on every piece of currency, (and his picture is posted in every public shop.)  The money is colorful, and the bills all have clear plastic parts (the fancy design on the left, outlined in white, is see-through.)  

The unit of currency is the Brunei Dollar, and $1.00 in Brunei equals approx. $.80 in US.

Monkeys!  

Not in our apartment, but I had to include pictures of our local "squirrels".  :)

Exploring

This weekend we were anxious to get out and about to explore our new surroundings.  Keith was looking for a national forest, but his only "map" was the satellite image from Google Earth.  As it so happened, we ended up stumbling upon several cool spots in our search for the perfect "nature trail" to hike.

The first spot we accidentally discovered was this beautiful lake with picnic areas, a walking trail, and a large, fun playground.  We were tempted to get out and enjoy some time here, but decided to save it for another day.

Keith let his nose guide him to where he thought the national forest would be... well, we turned off into a bunch of trees and headed up a narrow winding road that was reminiscent of the Road to Hana in Maui (another amazing place!)

Even though we didn't find the particular trail for which Keith was looking, we did find this trail...

We saw giant ants (and I mean giant... like 1 inch long!), red dragonflies, and LOTS of mosquitoes.  Some things don't change on the other side of the world!  

Next, we stumbled upon some beautiful gardens, the National Forestry Center, and a museum!

Terima Kasih means "Thank You" in Malay

This was the exit at the museum

Our last discovery (of which I didn't get any photos) was a huge recreation area with lots of hiking trails and an awesome playground for the kids.  By this time, however, the kids (and I) were tired and ready to go eat lunch, so we plan to return another time.

We drove back to Seria town, where we ate at a local fast-food restaurant called Jollibee.   It's kind of like a KFC, but instead of mashed potatoes, you get a ball of rice as your side dish!  Very Asian.

We had a great time exploring, and all of this was within just 25km or so (gotta get used to metric!)  Just wait until we really venture out into the Borneo jungle!!!

Perks of living in Brunei

You still may be asking yourself, why exactly would we want to move our family to the other side of the world?  Especially since I said I'd never do that, and we hate to leave behind our extended family and friends??  Well, there are definitely some perks to living here.  Caution:  after reading the following, you may want to move here too!  :)

-Family life: Because of the school and work hours, and the proximity of everything, we will have more time to spend together as a family.

-Education: The children will attend an international school and receive an exceptional education in an environment unlike any other.

-Activites:  Through the Shell Panaga Club they offer all kinds of activities for the children (sports, swimming, karate, dance, gymnastics, music, etc.)  Everything is in one location, so there's no driving all over town in different directions to take kids to their activities!

-Outdoor living:  Although it is hot year-round here, it is also surprisingly mild quite often.  There is clean air, tropical jungles, lush forests, beaches, and all kinds of places to explore and enjoy the great outdoors.

-Peaceful and safe:  The country's full name, Brunei Darussalam, means "Abode of Peace".  It is peaceful, laid back ("no worries"), and quite safe to live here.

-Cultural experience:  BSP (Brunei Shell Petroleum) employees come from all over the world, so we will have a very multicultural/multi-national experience here.

-Opportunity to travel:  We will be able to see and experience things on this side of the world that we would NEVER be able to otherwise...  Singapore, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Bali, Hong Kong... Brunei is centrally located to all of these amazing places!

-Amah:  It is the norm to have an amah (housekeeper).  All of the homes actually have amah's quarters.  We met an amah on our preview trip here in June, and we will be hiring Rosalyn very soon!  This is perhaps my biggest perk... someone to help with the laundry and cleaning!  And a live-in babysitter so I can be free to run to the store without kids!  Of course this also means more family time, since I won't spend ALL my free time cleaning and doing laundry!!  Yay!!!

-Purpose:  Keith and I feel that we have a higher calling and purpose here.  During our marriage, we have "planted" and led adult Sunday school classes at our churches in both North Carolina and Houston.  Maybe we will be able to do the same thing for the expat community here in Brunei.  Or maybe we'll start up a home church, or Bible studies.  Since it's a Muslim country, there are not a lot of opportunities for Christians to worship.  We believe God has called us here for a purpose greater than just the "perks" mentioned above!

Car Shopping

Shell gives us a rental car here for 2 weeks, and as most of you know, they have given us a standard transmission.  I can not drive this car!  Keith is doing pretty good with it, but I am not about to try to learn how to drive a stick shift (left-handed!) while also thinking about driving on the left side of the road in a new & foreign place.  We won't have it in 10 more days anyway.  Sooo... we went car shopping today.


 It is not like in America where there's a huge dealership lot, or multiple dealerships in a row, with thousands of cars.  You have to search for the tiny dealerships that have about 10 cars on hand.  They don't sell used cars at these dealerships either.  Since Keith and I have never bought a new car, we aren't going to start now.  Especially since a new vehicle equivalent to our Honda Odyssey would be $109,000.  I am not kidding.  In US Dollars that would be about $85,000 I think.


So, we had to locate some used cars.  This is fairly easy, as they just park the cars in the grassy median along the main road.  Unfortunately, vehicles large enough for our family are hard to come by.  We found one Mazda MPV that I kind of liked... gold, with gray leather interior.  A 2008.  It's $32,800.  Our other option is an old Scooby Doo Mystery Machine type of van for $3,800.  Fun!  The price is great, but I wonder if it even runs???  We did see a few others in between, but nothing that really caught our eye for the right price.  So, no car for me yet!

What are we doing on the other side of the world?!?

Although I have kept a personal journal since I was in 3rd grade, I am one of those people who said I would NEVER have a blog.  I am also one of those people who said I would NEVER move to another country.  I am eating my words, because obviously I am now doing both of those things!


So, HOW ON EARTH DID WE END UP HERE?


About 7 months ago, Keith called me from work (at Shell in Houston) and said, "What do you think about Australia?"  I think I said something like, "Australia is nice, and I like their accent."  He asked what I'd think about moving there.  For some reason I didn't immediately tell him he was crazy for asking me that, but rather I actually considered the possibility!  Well, that opened up the door in my mind for being an expat, and when the Brunei opportunity came available, Keith thought it would actually be a better fit than Australia.  My first question was, "Where is Brunei??? I've never even heard of it!"  


So began my geography lesson... Brunei is in Southeast Asia, on the island of Borneo.  Borneo is divided up mainly between Indonesia & Malaysia, but a tiny little piece on the NW side, by the South China Sea, belongs to Brunei.  It is 5 degrees north of the equator, and pretty much about as far as you can get from Texas.  Literally.  It is truly on the opposite side of the world!


Keith and I started praying about where we should be... whether Australia, Brunei, or Houston.  I started getting the answer that Brunei was going to become home.  BUT... Keith still had to apply for the position and be accepted.  In late March he got the word that he'd been hired.  SURREAL is all I can say.  What on earth were we thinking?  Were we really going to do this?  Surely it would somehow fall through.  I didn't even have a passport!


Fast forward to August 15 when our family of 6 landed in Brunei, after a 32 hour trip.  That alone was a bit insane with 4 kids ages 8, 7, 4, and 1!  People on the plane would ask if we were on vacation, and it was so strange to reply, "No, we are moving to Brunei."  Wait, did those words just come out of my mouth???  Yes, they did.  Holy cow.  We ARE really doing this.  We are actually here.  It still feels surreal.  Like it's just a vacation.  I don't know when reality will set in, that we are, in fact, living on the opposite side of the world.  It's crazy!


Who knows what amazing adventures lie ahead for us, and what God's plan is for us over here?  That remains to be seen.  For now we are going to embrace the experience.  Today is our 4th day here, and so far so good!  The kids got to feed monkeys today, we enjoyed a nice, cool day on the playground (yes, it was overcast and cool this morning!), and I ate some yummy Singapore fried noodles for lunch.  This afternoon we plan to go to the pool.  Keith has the day off because it's a Muslim holiday celebrating the revelation of the Quran.   Brunei is a Muslim country, although they are tolerant of Christians.  Not sure what we'll do for church though... stay tuned for that one.


I hope to share our experiences, as well as the unique culture, with our family and friends through this blog.   So many people have requested it, so I hope I don't disappoint!  Thanks for reading!