Meet Our Newest Board Member Bob

Cricenti 1968-70 Fisheries

I graduated from Williams College in 1968 with a BAin math in which I had picked up a smattering ofcomputer science. I come from a rural town in New

Hampshire where mygrandfather had started afarm and a grocerystore. My Dad ran thegrocery store, but I hadlearned my way aroundcows and corn. Fromearly on I wanted to jointhe Peace Corps andwhen the time came, Iasked for an agriculturalproject in Thailand.Agriculture because Iknew a little about it andThailand because of themystical allure of theEast and that was theonly country that I knewthe name of other thanViet Nam. When aposting came for afisheries project inMalaysia, I figured thatI actually knew as muchabout fish as I did realfarming and as muchabout Malaysia asThailand.

Our project was two-fold. We surveyedfishermen concerningvarious inputs to income

(size of boat, time spent, gallons of diesel, gallons oflubricating oil, etc.) and income. By not too long Irealized that I was in a village of independent boatsunlike some villages where a towkay or anassociation owned the boat and did marketing. I hadto walk a line in my survey between what I was toldand what I could see when and if I was at the dock atunloading time. We were to see if there was anoptimum boat to use and also to establishfishermen’s cooperatives to aid in purchasing,marketing, and storage. (Cont. p. 5)

Bi-Annual Election of Board of

Directors Officers October 31, 2012The time has come to elect our various officers for atwo year term. Are you tired of the same oldleadership of Friends of Malaysia? Want a newdirection? Do you have new ideas and want to takethe helm of this vibrant, award winningorganization. Now's the time to seize the leadershiprole. There are plenty of places to serve and berecognized by your adoring members.

President Runs the meetings, keeps us goingVice President of Programs Finds projects Treasurer Pays the bills keeps, the accountsMembership Director keeps the records of whoSecretary minutes of meetingsWeb Master updates our web site with new materialNewsletter Editor coordinates and distributes Blogger keeps us up to date with membershipSocial Media Coordinator gives us a presence It is time for a change and new leadership.Nominate your self or a friend to become a leader inthis dynamic award winning organization. Sendyour nominations and the office you want to run forto Barry Morris, President conway162@yahoo.comwe'll get you on the ballot. These officers are the

Di-dalam

New Board Member......1

Election of Officers.......1

RPCV Gathering

Minneapolis.................2

Latest Service Project..2

Searching for RPCVs..2

Malaysia CelebratesFifty Years of PeaceCorps............................4

Our Image....................4

Volunteer Stories..........5

face of Friends of Malaysia, join the few brave soulsthat make us an award winning RPCV group.

Friends of Malaysia “Shows the Flag”

at RPCV Event in Minnesota by Mike

Anderson and Karen Flolid

Minnesota hosted the June 29-July 1 “Peace CorpsConnect 2012” conference which brought severalhundred former volunteers from the Midwest andelsewhere together in the Minneapolis ConventionCenter to remember and rethink their service as a life-defining experience. The attendees reminisced,networked, participated in various career-trainingworkshops, and -- most importantly -- discussed whatthey could do to support the third goal of the PeaceCorps and “bring the world back home.”

B.R. Dori Wozniak, Gaila Hagg Olson, John Wozniakand Karen Flolid, F.R. Mike Anderson and Laura Kingat the recent gathering of RPCVs in Minneapolis

The Friends of Malaysia, one of more than 150 PCValumni groups affiliated with the National Peace CorpsAssn. (NPCA), was represented at the regionalgathering by two of its Board members -- Michael H.Anderson (West Malaysia, 1968-71) and Karen McClayFlolid (Sarawak, 1965-68). Both Mike and Karenjoined Peace Corps Malaysia while living in Minnesota,and they are proud of the many contributions the nearly4,067 Peace Corps Volunteers made to Malaysia from1962-1983 and their home state has made to the PeaceCorps. For example, the late former Vice President andMinnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey was an earlyadvocate of the Peace Corps, Minnesota has long beenone of the top Volunteer-providing states, and theUniversity of Minnesota is one of the top five schoolscontributing Volunteers. (Cont. p. 5)

Service Projects Reviewed and FundedAs a group we try to identify projects in Malaysia that

contribute to the development process and help tosustain activities that are similar to the projects thatPCVs supported during our years of service. Overthe last few months we have identified three projectsthat we as a board felt were worthy of investing in.The most recent is to help the Borneo project(www.borneoproject.org) with the distribution ofbooks written in the Penan language and focusing ontraditional stories, sukit, of the Penan people. Wesupported the haemodialysis Association of Klang

New Haemodialysis Association Building of Klang

with a $500.00 donation. Part one of a two partarticle can be read at their blog spot: http://bbra-

klang.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html Wehave also donated US$250 to Cheshire Home to helpprovide improved transportation for parents ofdevelopmentally disabled children that attendCheshire boarding School in Kuching Sarawak.

Looking for Lost Malaysian Peace

Corps Volunteer By Thaine H. Allison, Jr.

From time to time, as web master, I receive an emaillike the following: Hello, I am looking for MrErnest from New York who served as a peacecorp in Perak, Malaysia in 1976. We met inPenang the same year and lost touch afterthat. Could you please help by forwarding mehis email address or my email address tohim? Thank You, Farah

After a few questions I usually get a response like:Hello, I have been informed that the lostpeace friend Mr Ernest I am looking forcurrently resides in New York. He served inMalaysia in 1976. I would most appreciate ifyou could provide his full name (last name)and his current contact info in New York. Iam looking forward to locating him toestablish contact again. Thank You, Farah

After a few more questions I get clarifications like this:Hello, peacecorpsconnect indicates that MrErnest I am looking for is actually Mr Ernest D'Ambrosio who matches the info given. They haveprovided his Linkedin profile and upon checkingwith Google, he is now the managing director ofThe Innovation Group based in the GreaterPhiladelphia Area. If you know him, could youplease furnish his email address as I have triedemailing a couple of times to his company's infodepartment but there is no response. ThankYou, Farah

Unfortunately there is no complete record of allvolunteers that served in Malaysia, or the Peace Corps.The National Association of Returned Peace CorpsVolunteers is trying to locate the 250,000 RPCVs:http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/findthe250k/

In the mean time one can see that the name has changedfrom Mr Ernst to Earnest D'Ambrosio. Sometimes I amable to locate the RPCV, I never send the info to theperson inquiring , I send the info to the RPCV and ask ifthey want to reconnect. If so then I provide the email ofthe searcher. If you know “Mr. Earnest” Please sendme a note: thaineallison@gmail.com and I'll make theconnection.

Malaysia Celebrates Fifty Years of

Peace Corps 1962-2012

Starting with the grand celebration at the MalaysianEmbassy in Washington DC, the Malaysiangovernment, the American Embassy and the NewStraights Times have coordinated a variety of events inMalaysia. The American Embassy facilitated a PeaceCorps photo exhibit that is now traveling the country.http://malaysia.usembassy.gov/pcv_photoexhibit.ht

ml Other links take you to a variety of Peace Corpsconnections including a Facebook group pagehttps://www.facebook.com/groups/201309356552602/

and the New Straights Times web site athttp://www.nst.com.my/streets/northern/peace-

corps-pass-50-years-in-a-flash-1.106636 search forothers on Google. There is also a Peace Corps Malaysiablog featuring various volunteers thoughts athttp://peacecorpsmalaysia.wordpress.com/ The firstvolunteers to arrive in the British colonies were also thefirst group to train in Hilo Hawaii during the summer of1962. North Borneo/Sarawak I in September of 1962.Dee Bear at Oregon State University has written adetailed history of the Peace Corps in Sarawak and you

can read it and other issues of Apa khabar athttp://issuu.com/friends-of-malaysia/docs/people

_to_people__the_peace_corps_in_sarawak

Group I Sarawak Arrives Kuching September 1962

Hilo, Hawaii Summer 1962 Language InstructorsLucas Chan and Eldred Chin, a day at the beach

Our Image: Friends of Malaysia and

CatchaFire Team Up to Update FoM

About five years ago our original web master passedaway and we were left with an aging site, little expertiseand calls for a new and updated site. After trying invein to find a volunteer amongst our membership, localcollege students and begging and pleading wediscovered CatchAfire.org in the Wall Street journal.They link skilled technicians with non-profitorganizations to help them develop their organizations.Technically at the time they were only serving localNew York organizations but we pointed out we had acouple of volunteers in the NYC/NJ area and ithappened that the founder of the organization was thedaughter of a Malaysian immigrant to Australia.

With some creative negotiating we established a fourphase project for technical assistance from CatchaFire.The first was social media (completed a year ago);Second,branding of the FoM, who we are and what westand for (nearing completion); Third and Fourth Logoand Web Site Design. We have a great technician tohelp us with these two final phases of the project andhope to have a new web site up by fall. We have somepromised donations to help with the actual programingand are looking for a volunteer to help with the designphase. This is the look, feel, content not the actualprogramming. We need some one with an eye for colorand design to help with facilitating the web pageredesign.

Volunteer Stories

As they say we're not getting any younger, it's time towrite your memories, either in short form and send themto FoM or Peace Corps Experience: Write and Publish

Your Memoir by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras, 1975-1977) explains how to write, publish and promote amemoir. Available on http://Amazon.com. Mean whilewe have our own.

Married Life As a Peace Corps

Volunteer by Thaine H. Allison, Jr. North

Borneo/Sarawak I

I have identical twin grandsons and a common questionthey get asked is “What's it like to have a brother thatlooks just like you around all the time?” They alwaysseem a little confused by the question and generallyrespond that they have no other experience than abrother since early in the pregnancy.

Most Peace Corps Volunteers are single and stay single

through their Peace Corps experience. Of courseAmerican values and mores about marriage havechanged a great deal in the fifty years since I gotmarried, and twenty four since I got divorced for thatmatter. But I was half of one of six married couplesthat went to north Borneo and Sarawak in Septemberof 1962. I can't speak for the other half, (maybe thatis a lesson I should have learned long ago and Imight still be married!) but thought it might be funexploring some of my married guy experiences orobservations.

All of the couples that entered training that June inHilo, Hawaii were married one to three years,generally fresh out of college and each person waseager to be a PCV. Just for the record all but one ofthe couples are divorced and most are remarried.(Cont. p. 6)

Malaysia's Ambition to Become An

Asian Hub for Western Education

May 5th 2011 | NUSAJAYA, JOHOR STATE

ONE corner of a foreign field is becoming for everEngland. It is in Johor on the southernmost tip ofpeninsular Malaysia, opposite Singapore. At a sitecalled Nusajaya, workmen are finishing a newcampus of Newcastle University. Nearbyfoundations are being dug for SouthamptonUniversity. And down the road MarlboroughCollege, one of England’s most famous public (thatis, private) schools, is building a Malaysian campusfrom scratch. If all goes well, the 900-odd pupils willhardly notice that they are looking out over palm-oilplantations rather than the Wiltshire Downs. Within afew years thousands of students will be enjoying anEnglish education in this steamy bit of Asia .“Educity”, as the Johor complex is called, reflectsMalaysia’s grand strategy to become a centre forWestern education. The country wants to meet strongdemand among Asia’s new middle classes forEnglish-language schooling.

As we lost more and more trainees via the deselectionprocess the anxiety levels increased among all of us andbetween husbands and wives. If one of us failed thelanguage, me, exams then we would drag the other outtoo. This added to the tension between us. Ourconfidant, intimate partner and built in tutor wasmissing for most of the second half of training.

As trainees who didn't “cut the mustard” were led awayin the night never to be seen or heard from again someone wrote new words to “Oh My Darlin Clementine”“Operation deselection for the protection of the Corps,

if you are no good, you are dead wood, we can always

get some more.” The married guys were thrown in withthe single guys, but not quite, since we had a spouse onthe other side of the island. Somehow we survivedtraining, were selected and sworn in as Peace CorpsVolunteers and off we went to North Borneo andSarawak. We of course had to face more in countrytraining, agriculture volunteers were once again sent offto the countryside while our wives stayed behind tolearn about the local teaching program.

Finally after another six weeks we were posted to oursites to start our assignments. The locals were quick tonote that we did not have children. What was wrong.Didn't we want many children? You have two incomes,one house why do you not have children? For the firstsix months I explained that American's were likeelephants, “their gestation period is three years.” Next Itried to explain that she was very shy and in time itwould happen. Each passing month brought morequestions and no really satisfying answers.

Muslims in my little town reminded me that it was goodto have up to three wives and I could obviously affordthem with my big American pay check and a wife thatalso got a check. Might they arrange something so Icould have children? I think this put a bigger stress onmy wife than me because there seemed to be anassumption that it was the woman's fault that she did notproduce children. It led to some interesting discussionsat our little dining table.

We set up house keeping in a standard level fourgovernment house made of asbestos and local timber.There was a water tank that captured the rain water offof the roof, an out house down a concrete path andkerosene lamps to be lit each night. We did have manyadvantages living in a small town (Bandau, KudatDistrict now called Kota Marudu) without a lot ofdistractions. Every Sunday was tamu day and we couldget fruits, vegetables, fish and other goods came fromthe Chinese tauky who had a range of items for sale.

Photo 1: Our Standard Government House BandauKudat

But there was this traveling thing again. As Iestablished my language ability and began to venturefurther away from home to reach out to the variousfarming villages in my area it became necessary tobe gone over night. I averaged about ten nights amonth gone from home.

We had hired a local young woman to help with thelaundry and basic chores around the house. Shedecided that on those nights that I was away sheshould come and stay in the spare bedroom. It turnsout this was her way to have her boy friend sneak inand stay the night. At some point she was found outand it was decided that she would not stay overnightany longer.

A few weeks later I spent about a week on one of thedistant islands (Bangi) working with local tribesmenplanting coconut trees. See photo 2.

Photo 2 Planting Coconut Trees Bangi Island

I returned to Kudat and was scheduled to meet thenext day with my boss to discuss progress. Thatevening I met my boss at the wharf in Kudat and hehad just returned from my town, Bandau. He was

too embarrassed and upset to speak, other than to saysomething terrible had happened and I should get homeas quickly as possible something unthinkable hadhappened. I was due back home the next day.

No boats were scheduled until the next day, to arrive athigh tide, and there was no road to Bandau. I calledhome on the police telephone, a cloths line wire that ranthe 60 miles or so through the jungle and was able tospeak briefly to my wife, I was in near panic since myboss would not tell me what had happened.

She reassured me that all was well and she would tellme when I got home. After a rather sleepless nightconjuring up all sorts of worries I skipped my meetingwith the boss. I had to wait until ten AM for the tides tobe right for our navigation up river. I caught the boatand was pretty fidgety during the some what pleasanttrip. After an uneventful passage I arrived home fourhours later on the high tide. I found her teaching in herlean-to class room, photo 3.

Photo 3 Primary School English Classroom Bandau,Kudat

Photo 4 Elementary students at Bandau GovernmentSchool

It seems that our trusted helper had had a self inducedmiscarriage in our kitchen from taking herbs to abort

her pregnancy. The local dresser, nurse, had done aD-n-C on our kitchen floor. I guess we both learnedto take these things in stride. One time I had the opportunity to travel during aschool holiday period so off we went together. Wevisited a long house village about 12 to 15 miles offthe road. We rode my motorcycle as close aspossible, parked it and walked the trail in. Thefarmers who lived in the local long house (Photo 5)were having trouble growing crops because they hadno irrigation water during the dry season. Theywanted me to help them design and build a way toget water to their plots. This was a fairly arid regionof the peninsula and the streams were short andoften ran dry in the dry season.

Photo 5 Runguse Dusin Longhouse, Kudat District

After introductions and some listening time it wasdecided that the farmers and I would walk to astream about a half a mile away and explore how tomake water flow to the fields. I looked at the NativeChief's wife and asked her to take care of my wife.This was the first time that a white woman, and man,had ever come to their village and for most of theinhabitants the first time they had a seen a whitewoman.

Photo 6 Some of the young Runguse girls and children

We, the men, went off on our little expedition. We cameback a couple of hours later and there was my wife inthe middle of a circle of women and children about 20deep, close to 150 women and children surrounding herand taking care of her as I had asked. They were askingquestions, touching her hairy arms, questioning aboutchildren and “woman” things. Fascinated by a womanwho came from a place, jauuuuu, far away.

I returned several times to the village to finish theirrigation project, always by myself but never withoutquestions. We were able to establish an irrigationsystem that also brought water to the village fordrinking and bathing. This reduced the work load of thewomen, increased crop yields and established somecash crops to supplement family incomes. Being married we had advantages of being seen as aregular couple. We shopped at the tamu, the farmersmarket, on Sunday morning. Many of the farmers weremy “clients”. People would bring their children to ourhouse to show them off and we were invited tocelebrations of life, weddings and christenings, anddeath funerals and designated holidays. We had ourchoice, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and animist. At our second Christmas in country it was time to go onvacation, eighteen months since our arrival. On themorning that we were to depart there were about adozen women at our front door. I was kind of used tothis because they come for rat poison, seeds and othersupplies that I occasionally had available for them. Thismorning was different, they wanted to see Mem Allison.

I busied my self with packing while the womengathered around, each had a handful of cash. Theyexplained that they knew the reason that we did nothave any children was that my wife must have somekind of obat, medicine, that prevented her from gettingpregnant. What ever it was, what ever it cost they“were tired” of having babies. They wanted some ofthe obat. Could she bring them some from the city?This is one of those moments when you realize there aresome things you can not do, no matter how much youwould like to.

Being married had its advantages, and sometimes itsdrawbacks I suppose, but as the twins say I was neversingle while I was a Peace Corps Volunteer so I don'tknow how else it would be. Maybe if I re-enlist as avolunteer I'll learn what it's like to be a single guy in thedeveloping world. I'm sure that there are many storieslike this. Please send them along and we will includethem in our newsletters. thaineallison@gmail.com

We have another

new board member

to introduce. Dr.Michael H. Andersonrecently retired fromthe US ForeignService with nearly30 years ofdiplomaticexperience as apublic diplomacyand Asian affairsspecialist workingfor the Department of State and the US InformationAgency (USIA). His embassy postings included thePhilippines (twice), Papua New Guinea, India(twice), Pakistan, Singapore and Indonesia. He alsohas been a journalist, a teacher and an informationofficer with UNICEF.

Mike, who now lives in Arlington, VA, is originallyfrom Minnesota, and credits the Peace Corps withbeing a life-shaping experience. It got him interestedboth in Asia and in a career in international affairs.Fresh out of the University of Minnesota with a BAin journalism, he joined the Peace Corps in 1968 andjoined Group XX for training in both Hilo, Hawaii,and in Kuala Trengganu.

For two years, Mike taught English at apredominantly-Malay primary school, SekolahKebangsaan Pusat, in Sungei Patani, Kedah, a smallWest Malaysian town between Penang and Alor Star.He then extended a third year and transferred toKuala Lumpur, where he was attached to theSoutheast Asia Press Center, which was establishedin 1968 by local and regional media organizations,foundations and the Ministry of Information toprovide in-service training to journalists. While atthe Center, which later became the Malaysian PressInstitute (Instituit Akhbar Malaysia), Mike used hisjournalism skills to help foster greater mediaprofessionalism and also was part of a team whichhelped the new University Science Malaysia inPenang introduce the first university-level masscommunication courses into Malaysia.

Mike went on to earn a University of Hawaii PhD inPolitical Science while on a scholarship from theEast-West Center in Honolulu. His field researchwas conducted in 1977 in Indonesia and Singapore,as well as in Malaysia. In 1981, he joined theForeign Service, and spent nearly all of his careerabroad managing media relations and culture and

educational exchange work through US embassies inSouth and Southeast Asia.

Mike says whether serving as a PCV or a diplomat hehas felt privileged to be able to help promote mutualunderstanding, work with host-country institutions andexplain US society and policy. His only regret was thathe was never assigned as a diplomat in Malaysia.Working in nearby Asia-Pacific nations, however, gavehim opportunities to holiday in or transit Malaysia so hehas been able to observe the country’s many remarkabledevelopments over four decades.

North Borneo/Sarawak I Volunteers June Jensby (Blair),Lynn Patterson (De Danaan), John English, ThaineAllison carry the Malaysian flag at the 50th anniversaryof the Peace of the Peace Corps September 2011

Malaysian RPCVs gather at the Malaysian Embassy inWashington DC September 2011

Peace Corps Volunteers Educating CongressSeptember 2011

FRIENDS OF MALAYSIA BOARDOF DIRECTORS

Barry Morris, President

Thaine Allison, Jr., V.P. of Programs

Margie Hazelton, Secretary

Lynn Juhl

Paul Murphy, Treasurer/ Membership Director

John Pearson

Mary Quattro

Rod Zwirmer

Michael H. Anderson

Marjorie Harrison

Karen Flolid

Bob Cricenti

Eduardo Lachica

Learn more about the Friends of Malaysia at our website: http://FriendsofMalaysia.org

Want to contribute to Apa Khabar or join FoM? Contact us at webmastser@FriendsofMalaysia.org orthaineallison@gmail.com