We arrived at KYUEM last night, having been traveling for around 20 hours. The flight was long, but not busy, so there were a few spare seats scattered about for stretching out; and we managed to get past the thermal scanning and passport control, and all our luggage made it safely.
We were greeted by our student hosts and their accompanying staff, who made us feel very welcome straight away and guided us to the bus. They were very apologetic about the terrible wet weather, but having left the UK in the middle of gales and heavy COLD rain, it is blissful to be in a warm environment where the rain is not like ice!
When we arrived at KYUEM, we were treated to a welcome reception in the staff common room, which began with a fresh coconut each. The tops had been sliced off and the coconut water had become a softly set jelly, which we ate with spoons. It was my first experience of a really fresh coconut, and certainly one I'd like to repeat. We also tried some other seasonal local fruits, and got to know our hosts a little better, before retiring to bed.
We're all a bit sleepy today: a combination of jet lag and being unable to sleep last night, perhaps due to the excitement of being in a new place. This morning, we've worked in groups to look at problems facing our local and national communities, and formed our working groups of four for the presentations on Friday. Everybody has picked a topic in the form of a problem facing the international community – there is heavy emphasis on global warming – and have had skills sessions on how to tackle problems in different ways.
The weather is hot and clammy, but not sunny, yet. It's very green and there are a lot of animals around, from the many stray cats to the frogs who sound a little like they are mooing when it gets dark!
Tomorrow we're going to the Cameron Highlands to visit the Boh tea plantation, and a Buddhist monastery.
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