Adventure Time with Keri!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

It has been a very tense 48 hours over here. Not only have there been multiple fatalities on both sides and the rebels refuse to surrender, but there are rumors that the rebels or factions of the group have infiltrated the whole coast already. Last night was extremely tense when we heard that there had been an exchange of gunfire downtown just a few miles away from us. No one knew for sure whether it was related to the rebels or not and there is still speculation as to whether they were or not. I think that’s the most frustrating thing is not knowing anything for sure. The government refuses to let out too much information which has caused even more rumors to circulate by word of mouth and on the social networks. There have been rumors that there has been more exchange of gunfire downtown this morning. Our family has been taking precautions and most of us have decided evacuate to another town that’s further away from all the commotion right now. There is talk that they want to fly me out to the other side but there may or may not be flights going in and out right now. Am I scared? No. Concerned? Yes. There are precious lives at stake here. Many of my friends are either still on the islands or in town and some of my family has decided to stay put for the time being. I’m also very frustrated by the fact that this whole fiasco has disturbed my vacation here. Is that selfish? Yes, but then again, if this wasn’t happening then everything would be fine and dandy and no one would be in danger in the first place. All I wanted to do was come here to hang out with my family [peacefully] and dive as much as possible. I was actually supposed to go diving today too. Sigh. I just want this to be all over with as little bloodshed as possible, but it’s never ever that easy. This could be dragged on for as little as days to as long as months. Now my family is talking about sending me back home for a while till this dissipates. During dinner my uncle was making a bunch of phone calls (well, more than usual). Apparently a lot of the locals had to evacuate from their villages and got rounded up at a school. There were hundreds of them that were there and b/c they evacuated so quickly they had no food and no water. Not only this, but they were not allowed to leave or come in, so no one was allowed to go get anything. My uncle’s workers called him up to tell him this, so my uncle told them to take all the bread from their bakery and give it to them. When they tried to go in to give them food the military wouldn’t even allow them to go through. After a bunch of phone calls they finally got the police to take it in to them.

Monday, March 4, 2013 

Last night we pretty much drove around town, ate, and hung out at the hotel’s restaurant/lobby area looking up the latest news and waiting. This morning we were still waiting and after breakfast my aunties and I went to go get facials while we waited some more. I think this was the longest facial ever. The whole process took an hour and a half, granted there were three of us at the same time, but they were being efficient nonetheless. Fanny, the owner, always has food and never ceases to offer us tons of it for us to eat. There were snacks that were handed to us and then a plate of food was passed on to me and felt obligated to eat it. I feel like I'm always eating!! Haha. After we were done news that some of the intruders were caught was cause for much relief from everyone. We decided collectively to go back home after lunch and so we all checked out of the hotel. I had a hard time eating lunch since I had already eaten, but my family kept on telling me to eat and eat. If there happens to be an actual war and our food gets rationed I’m going to be the first to die b/c my stomach is so stretched out. Haha. We decided to go to the pasar to get veggies before going home. While we were there, Aku Apo suddenly came to get us and told us we couldn’t go back anymore. Apparently more rebels had landed and it was unsafe to go back. This is what I don’t understand: how are these people just landing wherever they please? Isn’t the military and police force supposed to be monitoring the coastline? It is true that the boarder is very porous, but for goodness’ sake, step it up a little! Anyway, we were all bummed out and went to my aunt’s house to hang out and talk…except I definitely was reading my book and finished it. We went back to the same hotel and had to check back in. Sigh. More waiting. This is getting old.
After chilling in our rooms – I tried to learn a bit of Thai which is proving harder than it looks…I have enough trouble with the little Chinese and Malay I know let alone another challenging language – Auntie Belinda and Beth went to go get their hair washed at the salon down the road. Yupp, that’s what we do when there’s a crisis. Eat, sleep, and get facials and our hair washed. What a life, huh? I guarantee you don’t want to be in our shoes at the present moment, though. The waiting game is more frustrating that you know. We went to dinner (fish jook FTW!) we dropped by my cousin’s house to talk and hang out. My cousin has the cutest twin girls and a little boy. The twins are extremely shy, cunning, and smart. They’ve never quite warmed up to me after all these years…haha. Oh well, I still love them.  The 4-yrs old boy, although shy at first, sat with all the grown-ups for the longest time. He’s rambunctious and loves his iPad with a passion. I swear he’s better at using an iPad than I am. I finally got him to show me what he was playing on it, which happened to be a kid’s version of Temple Run. Lolol! It was pretty funny and I ended up being his cheerleader. He then proceeded to try to make me listen to Three Blind Mice and The Wheels on the Bus on Youtube, but the internet was being extremely slow and it wouldn’t load. We ended up singing it together instead. Apparently cheering on a little boy while he plays his game and singing with him (with hand motions!) makes you super cool b/c he kept on telling his mother that I was fun. Hahahaha. I think he was just excited b/c his school was cancelled the next day. 

 

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

This morning everyone was in a better mood b/c they heard that the shootings weren’t directly related to the siege. Apparently it was a bunch of druggies that took the opportunity to place even more fear in people’s hearts. Stupid people. It is still dangerous nonetheless b/c of the situation at hand. More followers are likely to be coming to back the sultan up if they are not here already, which is a huge concern. During breakfast my uncle was laughing b/c apparently either the police force or the military (I can’t remember which one) were poorly equipped and had to borrow my uncle’s boats. Lol. So much for a vote of confidence. Auntie Belinda, who has been the worst at keeping calm (“My teeth are clenched!”), was trying to make herself feel better by telling us all, “This is all in the hands of God. Those people are working for the devil. We just have to trust God.” And then she proceeded to tell me she was going to hide behind me if anything happens. Haha. So I told her, “You keep telling yourself that till you actually believe it.” Lolol! She’s hilarious and I don’t know what I’d do without her. Actually, I don’t know what I’d do without any of my family here. They’re awesome and so caring. When I found out I was going to be here for so long I was excited b/c that meant I would be able to spend time with all of them. I didn’t realize how much time I would be actually spending with them. Haha! But, I’m not complaining. They’re fun to talk to and hang out with. Anyway, after breakfast we all packed up, checked out, and headed over to my aunt’s to pick up my other aunt (I have a lot of aunts and uncles if you couldn’t tell). We headed to the pasar to buy some veggies and groceries since a lot of the shops back at home were still closed. We went on our way and then a third of the way through my uncle in front of us suddenly called us and pulled into a small shopping complex. All of us were thinking, “Uh oh. Not again!!” We were afraid that we couldn’t go back again b/c something else happened. Nope…my uncle was just thinking ahead of all of us and decided we should stop to eat before getting home since not many places were open and we didn’t want to use up all our groceries already. Haha. What a relief! After yummy soto and rojak we headed back and made it home in one piece. Things were very quiet. There were only a handful of cars on the main road that usually has tons of traffic at any given time. We’ve pretty much stayed at home all day except to drive around to see if anything was open. I was talking to my friend online at some point. He’s a divemaster on one of the nearby islands. Apparently they still have guests that want to go diving at this tense time, most of them being from China. I commented that they weren’t afraid probably b/c their country is communist and they’re used to this stuff. Lol. At night we were listening to the outside while we were all sitting around on our respective devices. We all commented that the silence of no cars, no people, on the road was quite eerie. 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Today has been another quiet day although a lot more shops and more people were out and about. We went out twice to drive around and also b/c Auntie Belinda had to mail something out. Apparently everyone still needs the post office b/c there was a huge line and the mail was piled high. We actually had to go back later since the line to mail things out was so long. It was good to see things slowly crawling back to normalcy. Unfortunately it’s still not entirely safe out there and so that means no diving for me. Sad face. There are tons of reports that the sultan’s followers are coming to back him up still and all these other rumors. Yesterday the Malaysia gov’t tried to bomb the area that has all the rebels and the leader claimed they missed. How true it is, none of us really know. They could either be dead or running around here for all we know. I know that even if they succeed in getting completely rid of all the rebels there will be more trouble later. There is no win-win solution here, I fear. I also fear that the Malaysian military and police force are not equipped well enough to ward these rebels off. They have only known peace for the last half century or so and don’t have enough training against these people that are willing to die in a foreign place no matter what, even if they do claim it’s theirs. I won’t even go into the subject of all the Suluk and Tausug  people that have been here for a long time just looking for a better life. What about them? You can’t tell me that all of them are bad people, can you? On another note, both my family and I believe the Malaysia gov’t needs to invest in bullet-proof vests for their police force. Unfortunately, not all the police have vests, only the higher ranking ones have them. I believe that if the police that are doing their rounds (and raids) have vests, there would be less bloodshed and more confidence in our forces. That’s just my two cents though. There could be other underlying reasons why they don’t have them that I don’t know about. Anyway, I really haven’t done much today except for hang out with the dogs outside and my family inside (although Auntie Belinda did come hang out with the dogs with me b/c the breeze was amazing), and sit around playing on the computer and talking about conspiracies. We did try to go to the plantation to look at something, but it started raining and it was too muddy to go off-roading into the depths of the plantation. So right now, Auntie Belinda is killing mosquitoes with this tennis racket looking thing that zaps them and she goes, “I could’ve been a tennis player!! Mosquito slayer!!!!!” Hahahah. This is our life. I wouldn’t trade it for anyone else’s. 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

The town is slowly going back to normal. More so in the morning than the afternoon as many shops aren’t willing to stay open all day. When we went out for breakfast we had to circle around twice to find a parking spot while crawling at the pace of a turtle b/c more and more cars are out and about now. My auntie believes that her flowers outside bloomed because good things are about to happen. =) We sure could use some right now. I feel like a prisoner within our gates. Ok, I just wanted to write that b/c it sounded dramatic. Hahaha…but, honestly it’s really not that bad. It’s just that we’re taking precautions and don’t want to be stupid about going out so much and stuff, which is why I haven’t gone diving this whole week. This makes me incredibly sad, especially since all my diving friends saw a WHALE SHARK this week. It’s only the TOP thing on my list of things to see whilst diving. No big deal. *Excuse me while I assume the fetal position and rock myself to sleep.*
Lol. I’ll get over it. Other than breakfast we went to the plantation to check things out there…and to look at rocks. Don’t ask. Lol. We hung out with the dogs some more while enjoying the breeze outside. Even though we haven’t been doing much except stay at home, I’m thankful that we have electricity, running water, internet, food, and a loving family. We’re doing better than a lot of people out there so I can’t complain. =)