Beautiful Malaysia

Hi Everyone,
Casey and Sarah are helping me blog about the trip to Malaysia and my travel adventures. I will add as much color as I can and it won't be tough to do with this beautiful country. This is my 2nd trip here; spent 2 weeks the summer of 2006 with Rosemary Caffarela at the invitation of the Malaysian Queen for a summit on breast cancer. The project was started by Rosemary, a professor of adult education at Cornell U, and Maznah Mohamed, another professor of adult education at U of Putra Malaysia. The initial project in 2003 - 06 was to translate materials about breast cancer from the American Cancer Society into the Malay language. The project has now over 20 pamplets and material that are translated. More importantly, with the dedication of Rosemary an Maznah and their families, they have created a cadre of volunteers (women who have survived breast cancer) that give advice and support to women newly diagnosed. I joined the project in 2005 to help with education an training sessions. Students in our graduate program at WWU have been involved in helping write proposals, sharing ideas and generally giving moral support to the project. Rosemary, Maznah and I are breast cancer survivors and this is how we want to help give back!

I will tell you a bit more about the project as the next 3 weeks continue while I am here. If you haven't been in this part of the world, you would think that the whole world is green! It is very lush and tropical and always warm and steamy! I arrived with long pants, shirt, jacket, socks and the soul of a true Pacific Northwesterner - I think I even had some moss clinging to my shoes.

After work yesterday, Sharan and I stopped at the little store next door to her complex to eat a bite and get milk. On the wall with local announcements was a notice that 2 cobras had been spotted in the complex where Sharan lives. I have to say when I went to the car, in the dark, it gave me pause to walk over and open the car door. More later