August 11 11:05 am Kota Kinabalu
Hi Everyone,
Just a quick bunch of photos from my “luck and chance tours” with Valerie. You’ll see why as I tell our story.
Here are Stephen and Valerie. We had just been to the State Mosque and were walking past these group of homes built over a canal. They were quite poor but picturesque. Not the best photo of Stephen and Valerie, but at least it is from the front.
Stephen and Valerie were going to the Mosque and invited me along. Randal was doing boat things. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside. Both Valerie and I had on our mid-shin pants and wraps. Hers was a lovely, wispy peach color and mine was my huge tie-dye green cotton sarong. Stephen wore shorts and just offered to wait outside while Valerie and I went in to explore. We left our shoes and walked on the cool tiled floor through the building.
We wandered around outside and inside and felt as if we weren’t getting much from our experience. We found a small room with women praying wrapped head to toe in shawls and robes. We didn’t want to interrupt and it was warm in that room wrapped in my green tie-dye. But we also didn’t want to just leave. So when the men started leaving their huge air-conditioned prayer hall, we asked if we could go peek inside. We were answered with smiles and passed along until the exact right man told us that he was in charge of tourists and he would take us into the huge prayer room and explain about the prayers and mosque. But first we had to put on tourist robes so that everyone would know we were tourists. Valerie guessed the robes were there so tourists would be adequately covered. I think she is right. So I put on a huge robe that looks like a choir robe and then my huge green tie-die shawl over my head. Rats, no photos since I’m sure that I looked a sight. Valerie looked just fine in her wispy peach scarf tied perfectly over her head. My bouncy hair wasn’t helping any, either. But vanity aside, we walked back to the big prayer room, robes dragging behind, and our guide showed us how Muslim prayer was performed and told us the 8 principals of the prayer. He told us how men stand shoulder to shoulder and how they must not move around and disrupt their concentration. If they must move it is 2 small steps and then pause and 2 more if needed until they are where they need to be. He showed us how they place their hands and feet and head when they pray. He told us about the decorations in the hall and how many tons the giant chandelier weighed and why tourists aren’t allowed to stand under it, just in case. Most interesting to me was the hexagonal beehive symbols all around the wall. Inside the hive, tilted a bit was a 6 pointed star which to me is a “Jewish star.” Valerie asked him about the hexagonal design and he mentioned the beehive symbolism. But he also mentioned the Star of David saying that the Jewish religion, like all religions had symbols and good points and should be respected. I don’t know how we all thought before 9/11, but since then I wonder if we respect the Muslim religion as much as they seem to respect our religions and us as people. I hope that Muslim women from Malaysia who wear head coverings are treated as well as I am here not wearing a head covering. My Sox hat doesn’t count.
Another day Valerie and I went to the State Library Reference Library
http://www.ssl.sabah.gov.my/ is the web address. I had already been to the State Library lending library which I guess now is the City Library….. But since this was the newer library, opened in 2004 I wanted to see it. It isn’t on any of the maps so with just the street address we took a taxi and hoped for the best. The helpful security guard and desk staff at the marina had told the taxi driver where it was and with only one small mistake we got there. Luckily I had seen a picture on the web site. I had been looking for the information about the library in town that I had visited and found this site and was really unsure what library was what since the sign outside the city library said State Library as did the map. Old sign, old map… But I recognized the pink building and in we went. Needs have obviously expanded since 2004 because the library is building up to add more space.
Saturday and Sunday the library hours are 9 am until 2 pm. But there is just a small staff and the front information desk isn’t staffed.
Guards took my backpack so I am not sure who uses the blue lockers on the left side of the photo. But they are a good idea so you don’t have to worry about leaving your stuff unattended. None of the signs offered any English translations. But they do use Dewey Decimal System as our library at home, so I could find the art books. And most of the books were written in English!
Lots of computer access but most students were using the paper materials available. I recognized many titles that we have in our library and many paper sources like Facts On File that we no longer update in paper format and neither do they.
Where there is a library, there will be a library display!
They had an up-to-date, varied, and interesting magazine collection. Some written in English and some not.
From their version of Glamour Magazine
Because it was Sunday, most staff were not there. But I found that none who were there wanted to chat about libraries. In China, in the Public Library and High School library, the librarians were very interested in exchanging ideas and answering my questions. The library staff in the very small Olongapo library also responded when I said that I worked in a library in the U. S. But in neither of the libraries here have any staff shown any interest discussing libraries with me. So I can’t tell you any more than you see in the photos or the web site. Sorry. I will do another email about my trip to the City/State Library.
After the library Valerie and I walked back to the museum complex that we had visited previously. The art gallery was having a water color exhibit. It didn’t look so far away on the map so we walked. We left the library and walked to the main road and took a left. Should have taken a right. We asked a man having his car repaired for help. He offered to drive us and we both had no doubts that it was quite safe to agree. So in about 10 minutes we were off to the Art Gallery. We had to buy entry tickets to the museum, unfortunately. There were about 30 paintings and I enjoyed seeing them. They were all better than I could do, at least most of them. But nothing made me go wow. Too bad. http://www.sabah.gov.my/artgallery/ is an interesting sight about current art in Malaysia
Since it was cheaper to get a taxi from the hospital down the small driveway from the museums, we walked there and saved 5 or so ringgits. It would have cost more to have a taxi sent to the museums to get us as we found our last visit. Though it was less than $3 US we still felt like a cheaper taxi down the drive made more sense. We walked, got the taxi and returned to the marina. Valerie came to Doramac for a cool drink and one last chat. She and Stephen would be off to Sandakan for 3 days to visit Agnes Keith’s home, see the wildlife and other sights and wouldn’t be back till we had left. Or we thought we would have left. Now our lost package coming from Australia seems to be in West Malaysia. If we can wait an extra day for it, we may so I’ll be able to hear all about their trip.