The Conference

I thought you might get a kick out of the program for the conference I will be presenting my paper at tomorrow; the following link should get you there: http://incoh.usm.my/INCoH2011_Parallel_&_Poster_Sessions.pdf Please note the list of names, none of which I can pronounce, and the dinner which is "traditional." There ARE those days when I yearn for that pleated tartan kilt with the big pin, a round collared white blouse and perhaps my old saddle shoes.... Instead, yesterday I painted my toes and urged Pearly to do the same, but when she saw the way I slopped on the polish, she declined.

This morning I took the bus out to the Park Royal Hotel where the conference is being held, just so I knew I wouldn't get lost, and on my way back, I realized that I am relieved that I did not buy that wee house in Penang.

There are an endless number of spokes sticking up into the sky, all ungodly apartment or condos with balconies, views, you name it, and the traffic is ghastly; there are simply too many people on this island, which is a sin, BUT where I am is much more civilized (or not) and we can go to the food stalls and get a to-die-for dish for 3-4 ringgit, a little over a dollar. Feeling ethnic today, I found a lovely hot Chinese "bao," a round roll with sweet bean paste inside, and then bought a nasi lamak, rice shaped in a 3-d triangle (what IS that shape called?) with some spicy sauce on it, some salted fish (or, what I feared, meat) and a half a hard boiled egg on top, all wrapped inside a beautifully folded banana leaf. Now I feel like a stuffed piggie, so loaded up with carbohydrates that I will probably wilt in an hour.

IF I can upload one more photo, I shall show my landmark for getting back to this house; it is a

corner house that looks to me like the chrome on the front of a car; I have restrained myself and not said anything about "the look," but it does remind me of one other tidbit I learned from my Chinese Malaysian friend who shall remain nameless. I understand that the hotels in Penang have to engage full time a staff doctor for the holiday months of August through October when the Arabs come for vacation. Why? I am told that the vaginal injuries are profound during those months in the hotels. The thought is so horrifying to me that today as I sat on the bus, watching a little family of three very small children, a nice looking dad in jeans and t-shirt and a teeny mom, covered completely but for the slit for her eyes, I wondered. That's all. I just wondered. And I worried for all the women who are covering up for somebody and something else that torments or paralyzes them in ways that keep them quiet, restricted but trapped. I know. Who am I to say or even question others' beliefs and lives?