Archive for May, 2014
Peranakan Museum and Masjid Kapitan Kling
A few weeks ago as part of our Religious Experiences class, we had a visit to a main Mosque in town. The outing took most of the afternoon and started with a vegetarian Indian lunch which was delicious as usual. After lunch we visited the Peranakan museum. The word Peranakan is used to describe the […]
Coral Reef Survey at Mak Kepit Beach
Besides studying turtle conservation at Mak Kepit beach on Pulau Redang (Redang Island), we also had the opportunity to snorkel right off of the beach. There are many different kinds of corals on the reef, especially Acropora sp. (hard branching coral) and mushroom corals (Fungia sp.). For our assignment, we needed to perform two different types […]
Giant Top Spinning
On our East Coast trip, we stopped briefly in my old Peace Corps town of Pasir Puteh, Kelantan. I taught at a secondary (high) school there from 1972-1976. On this occasion, we had been invited by a friend of mine, Mr. Nazife Ismail, who is a teacher at another school, Sekolah Menengah Gaal (Gaal Secondary […]
Gustie Gamelan Orchestra
A few weeks ago, as a part of their Malay Language and Culture course, the students visited the USM Museum. There they found an exhibit of a complete set of gamelan instruments. A traditional gamelan music teacher worked with them for just under an hour, after which they produced some pretty fine sound!