Tag: FELDA

Small Moments, Large Impact – A Final Reflection from Thomas Gabel

tsg5162Post-Trip Thoughts

As I take time to reflect on the past month, I simply cannot believe how different things would be if I decided to pass on this life-changing experience.

Over the past five years, a good portion of my time has been dedicated towards activities through the National FFA Organization. As that chapter came to a close with my retirement as a Pennsylvania State FFA Officer in June, I found myself struggling to find my place. However, I was blessed with the chance to find a home in a different facet amongst the agricultural education community. This experience has been the perfect transition for me as I prepare to tackle four years at The Pennsylvania State University.

How do you capture all of the feelings, emotions, lessons learned, connections made, and impact felt over the course of one month?

The ability to make lasting friendships with agricultural and life skills educators in both Malaysia and the United States is so special, that I cannot capture the feeling properly in words. Somewhere in between developing lesson plans, interacting with students in the classroom, and all of the traveling, cultural experiences, and conversation in between, I found myself growing and learning in order to better myself as a future agricultural educator and agent of change for the next generation of leaders in the classroom. And while that is fantastic, it still does not solve the problem of how to capture the authentic #AgEd2Malaysia experience. However, sometimes the smallest of moments can leave you speechless, and these moments truly bring to life my journey in Malaysia

Students are the future of this world. How lucky are we to have been able to interact with schools across Malaysia and to teach in three of them! At each and every school, I have been amazed at the passion and dedication of each student towards expanding their horizons and learning more about agriculture and the world around them. I also came to realize how similar students everywhere are, as I shared a moment discussing Fortnite, dance moves and Shawn Mendes at Kolej Vokasional Dato’ Lela Maharaja. These individuals have the passion, humor, and dedication to make an impact on this world and I have been blessed to get to know them.

The aquaculture class after our lesson on innovations in agriculture!

Childhood excitement leads to adulthood joy. Growing up, I had dreams and aspirations of becoming a paleontologist and therefore made sure to study everything there was to know about dinosaurs with the assistance of many documentaries. Somewhere along the line, I became fascinated by a certain bird that shares some commonalities with the legendary velociraptor.

As our group ventured into Kuala Lumpur’s Bird Park, I never could have imagined that this very bird would be waiting for me. With Shelby and Kaitlin as witnesses (and due to the superior scouting of Dr. Husna), I found myself rushing to and marveling at the world’s most dangerous bird, the cassowary. This mesmerizing specimen’s middle claw has the ability to cut through most surfaces and can prove deadly. After spending over 40 minutes admiring this bird, Manny and I found ourselves passing the exhibit later as the cassowary showed off its territorial call, registering at around 23 Hz. Pure fascination is something that is rarely attainable, but happened multiple throughout this trip, whether it was pineapples, mangroves, cultural exchanges or a cassowary.

 

Lifelong friends and one of kind socks!

Socks can bring tears. Everywhere I go I buy socks. From Indianapolis, the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. Capitol Building, Boston and even a layover in Amsterdam, I have purchased socks to document my time there. Much to my dismay, touristic socks are nearly impossible to find in Malaysia, even at places such as the Bird Park (cassowary socks would have blown my mind), the Petronas Twin Towers, Sabah, Melaka and any other location we visited. Defeated, I was prepared to board my flight heading back home without any socks. Until a few individuals left me completely speechless, as Yazlin, Fatin and Suhanna risked missing our bus earlier to rush back into a store, purchase socks, and then transform into custom Malaysian socks. It is little things like this that show how amazing our friends at UTM and in Malaysia truly are. Forever thankful.

Family transcends all borders. After over a week spent at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, our group transitioned into the FELDA Ayer Hitam community for a homestay. I had no idea what to expect, but what I found has impacted me for the rest of my life. Love is universal and can be shared with every individual you come into contact with. My new family of Ayah, Ibu, Eno and Izzat showed Huzaimi and myself nothing but love, hospitality and compassion as they opened their home to two complete strangers.
Huzaimi and I’s new family

Over the course of four days, we shared many laughs, stories and Izzat found a way to beat me in every game he could think of. These four days showed me how small the world really is when you are lucky enough to find people who will share their love. As Huzaimi and I prepared to depart, we were given some parting gifts, including a stitched cat(in the spirit of the family’s two cats, Baby Shark and Mamma Meow) with a quote that nearly brought me to tears.

“Life is full of quiet moments,
big dreams, joyous laughter, heartfelt tears.”

As this experience ends, I am left to ponder this phrase once again and am thankful for all of these moments that I have experienced with all of you. Here is to all of the memories to be made and new opportunities to tackle.

Thomas Gabel (gabel_thomas) is a pre-service agricultural education candidate(#psuaged22) at The Pennsylvania State University(@TeachAgPSU).

 

The Value of Community: Saturday at FELDA Ayer Hitam – Day 13

Shelby D FaulknerAgriculture

The community members of FELDA Ayer Hitam could not have been more welcoming. The sense of family that is built within their community is endearing. It took no time at all for them to accept us as their own and to give us a taste of what their daily lives are like. Saturday was no exception as we were given the opportunity to participate in activities that community members do for fun and explore where many of them make their livelihood in the palm oil and rubber plots.

In the morning, we were able to participate in a Zumba class with the women of the town. Most of us were expecting an easy workout, but were in for a rude awakening when we saw that the instructor had Zumba branded clothing and a wireless headset. Needless to say, we laughed the entire time and were worn out by the end.

 

After Zumba, we were taken to see the rubber and palm oil plantations of the FELDA community. When this community was settled, 336 families made this area their home and were given 3 hectare lots to grow rubber trees. As consumer demands have changed, many of the plots now hold palm oil trees instead of rubber. Community members are able to share machinery and can also market their crops together with other community members.

We continued our day by participating in traditional games like coconut bowling and netball (basketball, but with no backboard and the ball isn’t dribbled). As we gathered at the community hall to play games together, I was fascinated by the number of people that drove their motorbikes to join us or heard the commotion and walked over to see what was going on. People of all ages were gathered together laughing and cheering for one another.

To wrap up our day, we all gathered once more at the community hall for our closing ceremony. Our meal was served on plates large enough that 4 people could share one dish. We sat on the floor and enjoyed the company of our host families for our last meal together. The ceremony continued with the exchanging of gifts and ended with dancing.

As you can see, community is not just a word to the people of FELDA Ayer Hitam; it’s a way of life. After having the opportunity to spend time with these people, I hope that I never take the value of community for granted again.

 

Ms. Shelby Faulkner (@ShelbyDFaulkner) is a third-year secondary agriscience teacher/FFA advisor at Ridgemont HS in Mount Victory, Ohio.

 

Cultivating Relationships–The Story of our “Home Stay” – Day 10

Darla Joanne RombergerCulture

Wednesday, July 18th marked the start of our homestay at the FELDA community in Ayer Hitam, about an hour north of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Read more about the mission of the Federal Land Development Authority and the purpose of its establishment in 1956.   While becoming a part of the FELDA community, American Agricultural Education students/teachers were paired with an agricultural education student from UTM and placed with a family who expressed interested in hosting. Ms. Yazlin Yaakop (UTM) and I were placed with Mr. Abd Rahman Bin Md Basri (Rahman), his wife Maruyah Binti Mohd Irsat (Mar), and their family.

Mar’s oldest son, his wife, myself, Mar, and Yazlin after my first meal with my host family.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the leader of the community and the liaison for our trip, Zol. After being introduced to our host parents, our group of US students/teachers and Malaysian students gathered our bags and traveled to our new home for the next 4 days. On the short drive to our home, Yazlin started a conversation with our host in Malay. Usually, I am very conversational, but I suddenly realized that the next 4 days would challenge me as I would need to depend upon Yazlin’s translations to communicate with my host parents. I became more and more thankful for Yazlin’s ability to speak both English and Malay and wondered what I would have done if I wasn’t paired with one of our friends from UTM.

Our first night consisted of refreshments at 5:00 pm (i.e. a small meal between larger meals), then preparing to visit Rahman and Mar’s oldest son at his home in Ayer Hitam, a short 10 minutes away at 9:00 pm. I quickly learned those evening activities (including the night meal) start much later than in the United States.  Other members of our #AgEd2Malaysia team enjoyed visiting their neighbors, going out to eat with their host families, or watching the popular catfishing tournament. I experienced a variety of emotions while enjoying our meal that night—happiness, awkward silence, confusion, and anxiety. Slightly nervous about the social dynamics during the rest of my homestay, I quickly agreed to go shopping for make-up (at 10:00 pm) with Rahman’s daughters. This experience really helped to break the silence as we shared our interests in shopping.

The next morning consisted of nasi lamak (coconut rice) served with a fried egg for breakfast and a friendly conversation over the photo album I brought from home. I am so glad I got the idea to bring photographs while reading I Will Always Write Back. The pen pals in this book always enjoyed viewing photos of each other’s family, so I thought this was a great idea to share photos with my host family. I left the house that morning for our scheduled group tours with a renewed confidence that I had found a way to have a conversation with my host family.

Our first family photo before attending the community party.

As we continued to share more meals and participate in the evening activities scheduled by the FELDA community liaison, I felt more accepted and we continued to swap stories about our families and interests. I felt like a part of the family when Mar loaned me her traditional Malaysian clothing to wear for a party that evening and Yazlin helped me pin my hijab in place. Rahman must have been proud as he insisted that we take a family photo before we left for the party.]

Becoming a part of the FELDA community for a short 4 days has been one of the most challenging yet rewarding opportunities I’ve been a part of during my past travel experiences. Perceived obstacles such as cultural norms, a language barrier, and multi-generational homes quickly faded as I was greeted with genuine hospitality and a family willing to teach me about their culture while I shared about my culture. This experience has allowed me to realize that the most important facet of life is the people we encounter and the relationships we cultivate with them. I will never forget the Basri family and hope that somehow I can repay the hospitality they’ve shown me in the future.

Ms. Darla Romberger (@DJR_131) [Cumberland Valley High School (@FlyCVEagles)] is a secondary Agricultural Science Teacher (@CV_AgSciences) & FFA Advisor (@CV_FFA1954) in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania!