YAGM Malaysia: No Strings Attached . . . ?

The following post was copied from the YAGM blog and it had our family Mooncake Festival dinner in it where we invited the entire team to come and join our celebration. We had a good time.

This is their blog : 

http://yagm-malaysia.blogspot.my/2011/09/no-strings-attached.html?spref=bl

No Strings Attached . . . ?

By Cindy
14 Sept 2011

How Beautiful Are The Feet That Bring The Good News & The Ties That Bind - Sept 2011

In many instances we long for this situation. No commitments, no obligations, no strings. This is not the case with my year of service. Recently our group all set off for our placement sites- we are now scattered around Kota Kinabalu and Sabah (we have 3 people that live 1-7 hours away from KK). Our two-week orientation period was over, the connection we made as a group broken…or was it. 

Before heading out, Peter, our country coordinator, lead us in an activity that reminded us not only of the many experiences (and there were a ton) we had over the last weeks, but also that those experiences keep us connected. After a few minutes of reflecting, (the picture above) is what our circle looked like.

This is only a small representation of all the stories we shared as a group since getting to Malaysia 2 weeks ago.

The stories are all connected and the stories connect us all. From this point on, many of our stories will not be experienced together, as a YAGM group, but with our new communities. As we make connections at our placements our new challenge is to share the stories- with our fellow YAGM and with people back home.

 We will gather back as a group near the end of November for some reflection, check in time and to share those stories. The stories we bring from our individual placements sites will enrich all of our experiences and continue to connect us. The power of a story can show us how very different…and very similar we all are.

 Even this early in the year, I can see the connections- how things are so very different and yet so familiar at the same time.

 One particular story was last Saturday- we were invited to a Mooncake party, a Chinese festival. The Moon Cake festival is a lunar harvest festival that has origins in 14th century China during the Yuan Dynasty. It is said to commemorate a rebellion over the Mongols. To plan this rebellion, messages were placed in moon cakes and sent around China disguised as cakes in honor of the Mongol emperor. A successful rebellion occurred and the Mongols were overthrown. Since this time, a mid-fall festival has been celebrated with moon cakes and lighting lanterns (thanks to my fellow YAGM for this info!).

It was a truly delightful evening; there was so much food, lots of laughter, crazy kids running around, and too many desserts. Sound familiar??? It could have been any holiday I’ve been to in my last 30 years. Especially the food part- when we meet, we eat! No matter what the holiday is celebrating, the core reason for getting together is to see family, be in fellowship and let’s face it- eat a lot. While there was no green fluff (my favorite food at family gatherings), there were people to talk to and kids to play with.         

After stuffing ourselves it was lantern lighting time complete with a walk around the neighborhood.

Our laughter and conversation filled the night air as we walked the streets in celebration.  We walked for about 30 minutes before heading back to the house for Mooncakes. Mooncakes are traditionally made with lotus seed or sweet bean paste and have an egg yolk inside. There are also chocolate ones! As with any holiday, there was an abundance of desserts! 

There were plenty of kids at the party too and one lady had a box full of face painting supplies. We all got our faces made and then turned to “Uncle Pete”- fun was had by all as an 8-year old decorated our country coordinators face.

As we continue to experience these stories, our challenge is to figure out how to share them. How to show people back home that there is a very rich culture in Malaysia- the Mooncake Festival was just one of the many holidays we have gotten to celebrate so far and we look forward to many more to come in the next year. There are many differences here; life here is very different than in the United States. But it is also very similar in many ways. We all love to celebrate important events, we all love to gather with family members and we all have a crazy “Uncle Pete”.

The stories I get to share as this year progresses helps to bind us together, tie us together with stings of experiences that help us understand, respect and live with each other.

There are strings…

…we are attached…