Its been nearly a month now that I've been in Malaysia. When I look back, it feels like I've been here for ages. Its amazing how quickly new situations can become normal and comfortable. But when I look forward, and realize there are only two weeks left, I feel like I haven't had any time at all, and there is still so much to do.

All of the Chin people I meet here are very thankful, even though I'm not sure that my being here alone is worth such thanks, it still makes me happy. Several have told me that I am the first person to ever come and live with the Chin like I have. I'm not sure if that's true if you include the Chin in Burma and India, but it seems to be true in Malaysia at least. In light of this, I feel like I should be doing more to record my experiences, like I should be keeping some kind of personal journal that if found 50 years from now would inspire movies and books. As it is, everything I've written you've seen here on this site.

Still, I want to share more about the things I've been doing everyday. Last weekend I had a fantastic experience visiting Chin who are working outside KL. But for various reasons I can't really give the details of the trip, perhaps later. The last week, though, has been heavy, to say the least. Squeezing it all into one post, though, is difficult, so I'll have to give you installments, not necessarily in chronological order.

On Wednesday I went with Simon and Van, the CRC secretary, to visit a man in the hospital. I'm not entirely sure why Simon brought me, except that he always brings me everywhere with him. And I'm not entirely sure if I wish I had been there or not. The man had been in an accident on a construction site, suffering a head injury. When we visited him, he was already hooked up to oxygen; he had severe bleeding in his brain but the doctor was unable to operate. The man was not actually working on the construction site, he had only just arrived in Malaysia from Burma a few days earlier, and was there looking for a job. He passed away the next afternoon, though whether he died on his own, or because they turned off the oxygen, I don't know. Neither do I know who would have been responsible for that decision. He had a wife and children in Burma, but here, he had only some friends and neighbors from the same village.

We attended his funeral on Friday, along with what seemed to be several hundred others. Funerals here are arranged by the Pastors and church fellowships. There is a Christian cemetery where they are allowed to be buried. The service was held in the cemetery, on a hillside under a large tree overlooking the grave site, which men where still digging as people arrived. The coffin arrived directly from the hospital, and was placed on the ground for viewing. There was a short prayer service and some of the most beautiful hymnal singing I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. There was a eulogy from a friend, and a song from a small group of some fellow villagers. The coffin was then carried to the grave to be lowered in. The man, whose name I can't now remember, was only 37.

As we arrived at the cemetery, there was a call that one more Chin had passed away, and another was in intensive care after a car accident. That person has also since died. They were both passengers in a car driven by another man who was taking them here to this neighborhood, I believe. There was a road block set up though, and I guess they tried to flee, but were given chase by the police. The chase finally led to an accident. The report is that the police, who were not necessarily aware of who was in the car, fled the scene of the accident, leaving them all to be found later by the traffic police who were unaware of what had happened. Those two had also just arrived in Malaysia.

On Sunday, we went to visit the jungle camp in Putra Jaya. The camp of about 300 had to relocate earlier in the week because they had been evicted from the previous location. The new location is just off the highway and overlooking their construction site and the new city of Putra Jaya. On the hill-top on the opposite side of the valley is the palace. They have no water source installed yet, but otherwise it seems to be much better than their old site. Its not so deep into the jungle, and there were not nearly so many mosquitos or steep steps to traverse. Its amazing that in just 4 or 5 days it seems they've built a new little village. The huts have frames built from discarded lumber and small trees, with plastic sheeting for roofs. A few have plywood and screens for external walls. Inside are raised platforms for sleeping. Its not much, but it has about everything you'd expect to find in a jungle village - chickens, dogs, puppies, a church, a corner store, and a cinema. Really. There's no TV in the cinema yet, but its all set up with benches and everything. They have plans to level part of the empty field for a soccer pitch. You know those games where you get asked things like, if you were stranded on an island, what would you bring? I would bring a Chin construction worker.

Later that evening we went to a party at the apartment of a couple going to Denmark on Wednesday. As one would expect, there was lots and lots of food, but only a little drinking for the 'elders'. Of course I got to drink with them. This next week there are a few big groups of people leaving for North America, Denmark and Norway. Its a somewhat strange experience to be with people here before they resettled, to know that these people who grew up in the same villages, although they will always be Chin, before long, they will also be Danish, or Norwegian or American. But if I get started on that now, this will become a whole other post. So I will save my thoughts on that for later.

Apart from visiting people and being serious, I've also spent a lot of time sitting around the CRC offices. There has been much Scrabble playing of late. I like to think I have a pretty good vocabulary, but I stand little chance against Uncle, who I believe studies the dictionary when no one is looking. Today I was given a 'Chin National Day' t-shirt. You might be surprised to know that they have their own t-shirts, and perhaps you are wondering how it is that they can wear t-shirts advertising their nationality in a country where they are illegal. I too, have wondered the same thing, but its just one of those little oddities that shows things are rarely what you expect.