Garmon’s Tales

Today we decided to check out “Arab Town” and Sentosa Island.  Arab town is the Arab section of the city.  If you’ve ever wished you could find an abaya in a variety of colors, this is the place for you.  Actually, we really learned a lot.  We found out that in Saudi Arabia, women must have a black abaya, but in most other muslim countries, the abaya can be colored.  It is secured with exquisite broaches – a larger one on the shoulder and small ones under the neck and at the other shoulder.   I visited my first mosque and in doing so learned many new things.  Did you know that hotel rooms all over the middle east and Asia have a green arrow in the room which points to Mecca?  That way, guests know which way to face when they pray.  At the mosque, there was a large prayer room for men and an upper, separate prayer room for women.  We tiptoed upstairs and found a woman, all dressed in ceremonial white robes and veil, performing her prayers.  Over in the corner was a large garment rack full of white ceremonial gowns and robes.  We were assuming that women came to the mosque, put on their robes and prayed.  Isn’t it interesting how that sounds familiar to some things that we know about?  I also learned that muslims pay a tithing equivalent to a certain amount of rice and other foods and that money goes to feed the poor. Also a familiar concept.

Around the streets of Arab town were more fabric shops.  They have bolts and bolts of intricate silks with hand embroidery and hand bead work.  Many of them also have tailors on site and they all beg you to step into their shop and let them make you something.  One shop owner was telling us about several royal families whose women come to his shop and choose bolts of fabric to take home and have their personal tailors make gowns.  I kept thinking how much Madeline would like to have a prom dress made here.  They also had a number of shops that made beautiful table linens.  I bought a pretty tablecloth for Bonnie that was made by carving a relief design in a wood block and using vegetable dyes, stamping the design repeatedly on the cloth.  Both Bettie and I thought they were so beautiful!

After having an Arab snack, we decided to grab a taxi and head over to Sentosa Island.  Sentosa is a very small island right off the coast of the island of Singapore.  It is accessed by both train and car.  It is kind of like a Disneyland in that it’s all kind of fake.  Singapore doesn’t have beaches, just shipping ports (it’s the largest shipping port in the world) so the Singaporans have decided to turn Sentosa into a resort island.  They trucked in tons of white sand and created beautiful beaches.  They planted tall palms and even added beautiful clumps of rocks here and there (but the rocks are fake).  The island has several casinos and over-the-top resorts.  It’s kind of Las Vegas in Asia.  They have just finished a huge Universal Studios theme park that is set to open next weekend.  There is also an Aquarium, a nature preserve, a huge butterfly house exhibit and lots of restaurants.  We headed to the water, kicked off our shoes and waded in the South China Sea.  It was soooo hot today.  The water was almost not even cool enough to be refreshing.  Our taxi driver was telling us Singaporans are not allowed in the casino unless they pay $100 per person.  Foreigners however, are welcomed.  The Singapore government does not want its citizens to be corrupted by gambling but sees casinos as a great way to bring more money to the country.  We explored the island for a couple of hours until we were literally melting.  We then came back home and cooled off with a dip in the pool.  Gary came back from work really tired and drained.  It doesn’t seem fair that he’s working so hard and I’m playing.  We leave Singapore tomorrow afternoon to head to Malaysia. From what I understand, our standard of living will drop a couple of notches there – in preparation for the culture shock I’m about to encounter in India.

Last night, when I was heading upstairs to bed, I smelled smoke.  I asked Gary to come out and see if he could smell it too.  We opened our windows and realized it was very strong outside.  I wondered what could be burning to create the smoke.  Tonight I could smell it again.  When I asked, I learned that the smoke was from burning the jungle to clear land in Indonesia.  That seems so far away and I was surprised to learn that it’s only about 100 miles away.  I guess the smoke can sometimes cause pollution and visibility issues in Singapore.

I also had a long talk with Blessie today about her life.  It broke my heart.  She makes $11/day to clean and cook for the Mauldins.  She tries to spend no more than $10-$20 per month, and the entire rest of her pay is sent back to the Philippines to support her son and parents.  Her greatest wish in life that she could not imagine ever happening is to own a camera.  She often wishes she could take pictures of things and send to her family.  I wanted to run right in and give her our camera, but we were under strict orders from the Mauldins to tip her no more than $25 for our time here.  Not wanting to undermine their wishes, we are going to try and find out if we can do more.  I did find out that her son recently joined the church.  He’s only 16 and she often calls to tell him about things she reads in the Ensign.  I asked her if she’s ever read the New Era.  Blessie has only been a member six months and didn’t know there was a magazine targeting the youth.  I asked if I could send him a subscription.  She was so excited and said she’d get me his address before I leave.  It sure makes you appreciate your blessings when you learn how hard life is for other people.