Meet Our Newest Board Member Bob Cricenti 1968-70 Fisheries I graduated from

Williams College in 1968 with a BA in math in which I had picked up a smattering of computer science. I come from a rural town in New Hampshire where my Di-dalam grandfather had started a New Board Member......1 farm and a grocery store. My Dad ran the grocery Election of Officers.......1 store, but I had learned my way around cows and RPCV Gathering corn. From early on I Minneapolis.................2 wanted to join the Peace Latest Service Project..2 Corps and when the time came, I asked for an Searching for RPCVs..2 agricultural project in Malaysia Celebrates Thailand. Agriculture Fifty Years of Peace because I knew a little Corps............................3 about it and Thailand Our Image....................3 because of the mystical allure of the East and that Volunteer Stories..........4 was the only country that I knew the name of other Malaysia and Western than Viet Nam. When a Education Hub.............4 posting came for a New Board Member.....6 fisheries project in Board Members..........12 Malaysia, I figured that I Application.................12 actually knew as much about fish as I did real farming and as much about Malaysia as Thailand. Our project was twofold. We surveyed fishermen concerning various inputs to income 1

(size of boat, time spent, gallons of diesel, gallons of lubricating oil, etc.) and income. By not too long I realized that I was in a village of independent boats unlike some villages where a towkay or an association owned the boat and did marketing. I had to walk a line in my survey between what I was told and what I could see when and if I was at the dock at unloading time. We were to see if there was an optimum boat to use and also to establish fishermens cooperatives to aid in purchasing, marketing, and storage. (Cont. p. 5)

Bi-Annual Election of Board of Directors Officers October 31, 2012

The time has come to elect our various officers for a two year term. Are you tired of the same old leadership of Friends of Malaysia? Want a new direction? Do you have new ideas and want to take the helm of this vibrant, award winning organization. Now's the time to seize the leadership role. There are plenty of places to serve and be recognized by your adoring members. President Runs the meetings, keeps us going Vice President of Programs Finds projects Treasurer Pays the bills keeps, the accounts Membership Director keeps the records of member Secretary Takes minutes of meetings Web Master Updates our web site Newsletter Editor Coordinates and distributes Blogger Keeps us up to date with membership Social Media Coordinator Gives us a web presence It is time for a change and new leadership. Nominate your self or a friend to become a leader in this dynamic award winning organization. Send your nominations and the office you to (Cont. p. 2)

Continued from page 1, election: want run for to Barry Morris, President conway162@yahoo.com we'll get you on the ballot. These officers are the face of Friends of Malaysia, join the few brave souls that make us an award winning RPCV group.

University of Minnesota is one of the top five schools contributing Volunteers. (Cont. p. 7)

Service Funded

Projects

Reviewed

and

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 Corps Connect 2012 conference which brought several hundred former volunteers from the Midwest and elsewhere together in the Minneapolis Convention Center to remember and rethink their service as a lifedefining experience. The attendees reminisced, networked, participated in various career-training workshops, and -- most importantly -- discussed what they could do to support the third goal of the Peace Corps and bring the world back home.

As a group we try to identify projects in Malaysia that contribute to the development process and help to sustain activities that are similar to the projects that PCVs supported during our years of service. Over the last few months we have identified three projects that we as a board felt were worthy of investing in. The most recent was a US$250 donation to the Borneo project (www.borneoproject.org) to assit with the distribution of books written in the Penan language and focusing on traditional stories, sukit, of the Penan people. We supported the haemodialysis Association of Klang

New Haemodialysis Association Building of Klang with a $500.00 donation. Part one of a two part article can be read at their blog spot: http://bbraklang.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html We have also donated US$250 to Cheshire Home to help provide improved transportation for parents of developmentally disabled children that attend Cheshire boarding School in Kuching Sarawak.

B.R. Dori Wozniak, Gaila Hagg Olson, John Wozniak and Karen Flolid, F.R. Mike Anderson and Laura King at the recent gathering of RPCVs in Minneapolis The Friends of Malaysia, one of more than 150 PCV alumni groups affiliated with the National Peace Corps Assn. (NPCA), was represented at the regional gathering by two of its Board members -- Michael H. Anderson (West Malaysia, 1968-71) and Karen McClay Flolid (Sarawak, 1965-68). Both Mike and Karen joined Peace Corps Malaysia while living in Minnesota, and they are proud of the many contributions the nearly 4,067 Peace Corps Volunteers made to Malaysia from 1962-1983 and their home state has made to the Peace Corps. For example, the late former Vice President and Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey was an early advocate of the Peace Corps, Minnesota has long been one of the top Volunteer-providing states, and the

Looking for Lost Malaysian Peace Corps Volunteer By Thaine H. Allison, Jr.
From time to time, as web master, I receive an email like the following: Hello, I am looking for Mr Ernest from New York who served as a peace corp in Perak, Malaysia in 1976. We met in Penang the same year and lost touch after that. Could you please help by forwarding me his email address or my email address to him? Thank You, Farah (Cont. p. 5)

Continued from page 1, Searching: After a few questions I usually get a response like: Hello, I have been informed that the lost peace friend Mr Ernest I am looking for currently resides in New York. He served in Malaysia in 1976. I would most appreciate if you could provide his full name (last name) and his current contact info in New York. I am looking forward to locating him to establish contact again. Thank You, Farah After a few more questions I get clarifications like this: Hello, peacecorpsconnect indicates that Mr Ernest I am looking for is actually Mr Ernest D' Ambrosio who matches the info given. They have provided his Linkedin profile and upon checking with Google, he is now the managing director of The Innovation Group based in the Greater Philadelphia Area. If you know him, could you please furnish his email address as I have tried emailing a couple of times to his company's info department but there is no response. Thank You, Farah Unfortunately there is no complete record of all volunteers that served in Malaysia, or the Peace Corps. The National Association of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers is trying to locate the 250,000 RPCVs: http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/findthe250k/ In the mean time one can see that the name has changed from Mr Ernst to Earnest D'Ambrosio. Sometimes I am able to locate the RPCV, I never send the info to the person inquiring , I send the info to the RPCV and ask if they want to reconnect. If so then I provide the email of the searcher. If you know Mr. Earnest Please send me a note: thaineallison@gmail.com and I'll make the connection.

connections including a Facebook group page https://www.facebook.com/groups/2013093565526 02/ and the New Straights Times web site at http://www.nst.com.my/streets/northern/peacecorps-pass-50-years-in-a-flash-1.106636 search for others on Google. There is also a Peace Corps Malaysia blog featuring various volunteers thoughts at http://peacecorpsmalaysia.wordpress.com/ The first volunteers to arrive in the British colonies were also the first group to train in Hilo Hawaii during the summer of 1962. North Borneo/Sarawak I in September of 1962. Dee Bear at Oregon State University has written a detailed history of the Peace Corps in Sarawak and you can read it and other issues of Apa khabar at http://issuu.com/friends-ofmalaysia/docs/people_to_people__the_peace_ corps_in_sarawak

Malaysia Celebrates Fifty Years of Peace Corps 1962-2012

Starting with the grand celebration at the Malaysian Embassy in Washington DC, the Malaysian government, the American Embassy and the New Straights Times have coordinated a variety of events in Malaysia. The American Embassy facilitated a Peace Corps 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 Corps 3

Group I Sarawak Arrives Kuching September 1962

Our Image: Friends of Malaysia and CatchaFire Team Up to Update FoM

About five years ago our original web master passed away and we were left with an aging site, little expertise and calls for a new and updated site. After trying in vein to find a volunteer amongst (cont. p. 4)

and design to help with facilitating the web page redesign.

Volunteer Stories
As they say we're not getting any younger, it's time to write your memories, either in short form and send them to FoM or Peace Corps Experience: Write and Publish Your Memoir by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras, 1975-1977) explains how to write, publish and promote a memoir. Available on http://Amazon.com. Mean while we 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 question they get asked is What's it like to have a brother that looks just like you around all the time? They always seem a little confused by the question and generally respond that they have no other experience than a brother since early in the pregnancy. Most Peace Corps Volunteers are single and stay single through their Peace Corps experience. Of course American values and mores about marriage have changed a great deal in the fifty years since I got married, and twenty four since I got divorced for that matter. But I was half of one of six married couples that went to north Borneo and Sarawak in September of 1962. I can't speak for the other half, (maybe that is a lesson I should have learned long ago and I might still be married!) but thought it might be fun exploring some of my married guy experiences or observations. All of the couples that entered training that June in Hilo, Hawaii were married one to three years, generally fresh out of college and each person was eager to be a PCV. Just for the record all but one of the couples are divorced and most are remarried. (Cont. p. 6)

Hilo, Hawaii Summer 1962 Language Instructors Lucas Chan and Eldred Chin, a day at the beach Continued from page 3, Image: our membership, local college students and begging and pleading we discovered CatchAfire.org in the Wall Street journal. They link skilled technicians with non-profit organizations to help them develop their organizations. Technically at the time they were only serving local New York organizations but we pointed out we had a couple of volunteers in the NYC/NJ area and it happened that the founder of the organization was the daughter of a Malaysian immigrant to Australia. With some creative negotiating we established a four phase 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 we stand for (nearing completion); Third and Fourth Logo and Web Site Design. We have a great technician to help us with these two final phases of the project and hope to have a new web site up by fall. We have some promised donations to help with the actual programing and are looking for a volunteer to help with the design phase. This is the look, feel, content not the actual programming. We need some one with an eye for color 4

Malaysia's Ambition to Become An Asian Hub for Western Education

May 5th 2011 | NUSAJAYA, JOHOR STATE, The Economist May 7th 2011 ONE corner of a foreign field is becoming for ever England. It is in Johor on the southern (cont. p. 5)

Continued from p. 4, Educity, most tip of peninsular

Malaysia, opposite Singapore. At a site called Nusajaya, workmen are finishing a new campus of Newcastle University. Nearby foundations are being dug for Southampton University. And down the road Marlborough College, one of Englands most famous public (that is, private) schools, is building a Malaysian campus from scratch. If all goes well, the 900-odd pupils will hardly notice that they are looking out over palm-oil plantations rather than the Wiltshire Downs. Within a few years thousands of students will be enjoying an English education in this steamy bit of Asia.

For these Western institutions, the prize is a toehold in the worlds biggest education market. Many have already gone into partnership with or lent their names to schools and universities in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. But this is the first time so many have been persuaded to build replicas of themselves in another country, a more permanent and riskier proposition. They are doing so largely because the Malaysian government is bearing the start-up costs. Educity is spending about $100m on the infrastructure and buildings. Yet other factors count as well. Malaysia is a former British colony and English is widely spoken. The country has a superficially Western feel to itideal for Westerners studying or teaching in Asia, and for Asians who want to acclimatise to Western culture. Meanwhile, Malaysia cleverly markets itself to the Middle East as a relatively relaxed Islamic country where young Muslims can mix together freely and, for a few years, slip the surly watch of the morality police back home. In return for putting up a lot of money, the Malaysian government wants universities to set up faculties in subjects that will be most useful to Malaysia. The University of Southampton, for instance, will only offer degrees in engineering. But the influx of foreign colleges might have more interesting consequences, too. In order to attract foreign universities, the government has had to waive the restrictive and sometimes racist regulations that govern Malaysias own universities. In these places, informal quota systems give preference to ethnic Malays in the faculties of sought-after subjects such as law, medicine and engineering. Students are not allowed to join political parties or protest. Now, local students are demanding to know why they should be subject to these archaic rules when the new students are not. Good question. Continued from page 1, newest board member Bob Cricenti: My posting was Pulau Ketam in the state of Selangor off Port Swettenham, now Port Kelang. After a year of gathering data my job shifted to the computer lab at the U of Malaya, trying to figure out which inputs carried the most weight for revenue. We were also trying to come up with a blueprint for persatuan nelayan. Meanwhile I met the person who would become my

Educity, as the Johor complex is called, reflects Malaysias grand strategy to become a centre for Western education. The country wants to meet strong demand among Asias new middle classes for Englishlanguage schooling. It also worries about its brain drain (over 300,000 university-educated Malays work abroad). Having watched Asian children flock west to spend a lot of money on British and American schools, the government decided a few years ago to try to reverse the trend. It has campaigned to persuade Western schools and colleges to come and set up branch campuses. The Malaysian proposition to Asian parents is simple and beguiling: come to these famous schools and universities in our country and get the same degrees and qualifications as in Britain or America for half the price. Australias Monash University was the first to set up shop, followed by Britains Nottingham University, in 2005. Other Australian universities followed Monash, and in March the Massachusetts Institute of Technology teamed up with a Malaysian body to create Asias first Institute for Supply-Chain Innovation. Johns Hopkins University is expected to set up a medical school. The Netherlands Maritime Institute of Technology is already in Educity. 5

wife, Rabitah Hanoem bte. Zainudin. We got married in KL after my Peace Corps service had ended and came back to New Hampshire where we worked in our family business, the grocery store. Over the years we traveled back to KL to visit family. As our two girls graduated from high school and college Ritas parents and at times some of the sisters would come to the US. As we aged and were more able we made the trip to KL more and more often. Were going there each year now. On one of our visits where we have a fair bit of time on our hands we started attending Rotary Club meetings in different places. When we decided to visit Klang, my old stomping ground we met a group of folks who had started a dialysis clinic. Both Rita and I were so impressed with this endeavor that we tried to help in many ways. We would donate while we were in Malaysia and tried to fund raise through various community groups here in the US. Were happy to have our family (children and grandchildren alike) be able to have an interest in two countries. Malaysia has some issues and somehow manages to deal with them pretty much non-violently. Some things get out of hand but technology has brought transparency and all throughout the country the people have a great knowledge of events. Since our family will always have a presence in Malaysia, there are so many siblings and now nephews and grandnephews that I will always have an interest in Malaysia. Bob can be reached at http://FriendsofMalaysia.org our web site or email to webmaster@FriendsofMalaysia.org .

a life-shaping experience. It got him interested both in Asia and in a career in international affairs. Fresh out of the University of Minnesota with a BA in journalism, he joined the Peace Corps in 1968 and joined Group XX for training in both Hilo, Hawaii, and in Kuala Trengganu. For two years, Mike taught English at a predominantly-Malay primary school, Sekolah Kebangsaan Pusat, in Sungei Patani, Kedah, a small West Malaysian town between Penang and Alor Star. He then extended a third year and transferred to Kuala Lumpur, where he was attached to the Southeast Asia Press Center, which was established in 1968 by local and regional media organizations, foundations and the Ministry of Information to provide in-service training to journalists. While at the Center, which later became the Malaysian Press Institute (Instituit Akhbar Malaysia), Mike used his journalism skills to help foster greater media professionalism and also was part of a team which helped the new University Science Malaysia in Penang introduce the first university-level mass communication courses into Malaysia. Mike went on to earn a University of Hawaii PhD in Political Science while on a scholarship from the East-West Center in Honolulu. His field research was conducted in 1977 in Indonesia and Singapore, as well as in Malaysia. In 1981, he joined the Foreign Service, and spent nearly all of his career abroad managing media relations and culture and educational exchange work through US embassies in South and Southeast Asia. Mike says whether serving as a PCV or a diplomat he has felt privileged to be able to help promote mutual understanding, work with host-country institutions and explain US society and policy. His only regret was that he was never assigned as a diplomat in Malaysia. Working in nearby AsiaPacific nations, however, gave him opportunities to holiday in or transit Malaysia so he has been able to observe the countrys many remarkable developments over four decades. Continued from Page 2, Minneapolis gathering: As with any gathering of enthusiastic former PCVs, conference participants instantly clicked and demonstrated that they generally shared some
personality traits and still had a sense of adventure and want to help other people and support (cont. p. 7)

Another New Board Member Dr. Michael H.

Anderson recently retired from the US Foreign Service with nearly 30 years of diplomatic experience as a public diplomacy and Asian affairs specialist working for the Department of State and the US Information Agency (USIA). His embassy postings included the Philippines (twice), Papua New Guinea, India (twice), Pakistan, Singapore and Indonesia. He also has been a journalist, a teacher and an information officer with UNICEF. Mike, who now lives in Arlington, VA, is originally from Minnesota, and credits the Peace Corps with being 6

Continued from Page 7, Married Volunteer: the Peace Corps to get applications and start finding out how we might fit in to something that no one really knew what it would turn out to be. By late spring we had an invitation to training. My degree was in agriculture with 15 years of experience growing up and working on a farm, technical skills in farm equipment repair and operation, welding, carpentry and electricity as well as animal husbandry and crop raising experience. My wife was an elementary education major with class room training. In our minds we thought we had a lot to offer and would make a good bet for the PC. After hours of testing, essays and interviews we were invited first to the Congo (there was a coup), then Thailand (Peace Corps decided they would not send women to Thailand) and finally North Borneo. I must say the only thing I knew about Borneo was my dad's yelling at my brother and me you guys are running around the house like wild men from Borneo which I think came from a Barnum and Bailey Circus advertisement regarding an Orang Utan. The first extra ordinary experience as a PCV Trainee was our housing arrangement. Two of the couples were placed in the girls dorm as kind of House Parents for the 40 or so single women in the group. The remaining four couples were assigned to a four bedroom, one bath house half way between the classroom area at Hilo College and the Vocational school where we had most of our meals. Bedrooms were assigned numbers, each couple drew a number and then assigned a bedroom. My wife and I got the nursery complete with two cribs and a dipper changing table. It took the training staff a few days to get us a bed and full sized sheets. Bathroom arrangements were a bit more of a test. The down side was when we headed back to the house the rest of the group, about a eighty, would begin the nightly rounds of the three or four bars in Hilo. Somehow we were not really invited to these more spontaneous happenings. I think we were seen by other volunteer trainees as old married foggies or something. As you might have guessed most of us were split from our spouses about half way through training as we began to focus on our specialty training. The teachers went off to Kona to work in the schools and the agriculture volunteers stayed in Hilo but traveled 8

around the island by day. This was the first time we had lived a part since we were married. Learning to be flexible was another aspect of our training. All of the married guys complained about the arrangements , the wives seemed to take it in stride. As we lost more and more trainees via the deselection process the anxiety levels increased among all of us and between husbands and wives. If one of us failed the language, me, exams then we would drag the other out too. This added to the tension between us. Our confidant, intimate partner and built in tutor was missing for most of the second half of training. As trainees who didn't cut the mustard were led away in the night never to be seen or heard from again some one 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 with the single guys, but not quite, since we had a spouse on the other side of the island. Somehow we survived training, were selected and sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers and off we went to North Borneo and Sarawak. We of course had to face more in country training, agriculture volunteers were once again sent off to the countryside while our wives stayed behind to learn about the local teaching program. Finally after another six weeks we were posted to our sites to start our assignments. The locals were quick to note 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 first six months I explained that American's were like elephants, their gestation period is three years. Next I tried to explain that she was very shy and in time it would happen. Each passing month brought more questions and no really satisfying answers. Muslims in my little town reminded me that it was good to have up to three wives and I could obviously afford them with my big American pay check and a wife that also got a check. Might they arrange something so I could have children? I think this put a bigger stress on my wife than me because there seemed to be an assumption that it was the woman's fault that she did not produce children. It led to some interesting discussions at our little (Cont. p. 9)

Continued from Page 8, Married Volunteer: dining table. We set up house keeping in a standard level four government house made of asbestos and local timber. There was a water tank that captured the rain water off of the roof, an out house down a concrete path and kerosene lamps to be lit each night. We did have many advantages living in a small town (Bandau, Kudat District now called Kota Marudu) without a lot of distractions. Every Sunday was tamu day and we could get fruits, vegetables, fish and other goods came from the Chinese tauky who had a range of items for sale.

We had hired a local young woman to help with the laundry and basic chores around the house. She decided that on those nights that I was away she should come and stay in the spare bedroom. It turns out this was her way to have her boy friend sneak in and stay the night. At some point she was found out and it was decided that she would not stay overnight any longer. A few weeks later I spent about a week on one of the distant islands (Bangi) working with local tribesmen planting coconut trees. See photo 2. I returned to Kudat and was scheduled to meet the next day with my boss to discuss progress. That evening I met my boss at the wharf in Kudat and he had just returned from my town, Bandau. He was too embarrassed and upset to speak, other than to say something terrible had happened and I should get home as quickly as possible something unthinkable had happened. I was due back home the next day. No boats were scheduled until the next day, to arrive at high tide, and there was no road to Bandau. I called home on the police telephone, a cloths line wire that ran the 60 miles or so through the jungle and was able to speak briefly to my wife, I was in near panic since my boss would not tell me what had happened. She reassured me that all was well and she would tell me when I got home. After a rather sleepless night conjuring up all sorts of worries I skipped my meeting with the boss. I had to wait until ten AM for the tides to be right for our navigation up river. I caught the boat and was pretty fidgety during the some what pleasant trip. After an uneventful passage I arrived home four hours later on the high tide. I found her teaching in her lean-to class room, photo 3. (Cont. p. 10)

Photo 1: Our Standard Government House Bandau Kudat But there was this traveling thing again. As I established my language ability and began to venture further away from home to reach out to the various farming villages in my area it became necessary to be gone over night. I averaged about ten nights a month gone from home.

Photo 2 Planting Coconut Trees Bangi Island 9

Photo 3 Primary School English Classroom Bandau, Kudat

Continued from Page 9, Married Volunteer: It seems that our trusted helper had had a self induced miscarriage in our kitchen from taking herbs to abort her pregnancy. The local dresser nurse, had done a D-n-C on our kitchen floor. I guess we both learned to take these things in stride. One time I had the opportunity to travel during a school holiday period so off we went together. We visited a long house village about 12 to 15 miles off the road.

about a half a mile away and explore how to make water flow to the fields. I looked at the Native Chief's wife and asked her to take care of my wife(bini sya). This was the first time that a white woman, and man, had ever come to their village and for most of the inhabitants the first time they had a seen a white woman (orong puthe). We hiked the hot dusty trail looking for ways to align an irrigation canal and determine a way to improve crops.

Photo 6 Some of the young Runguse girls and children Photo 4 Elementary students at Bandau Government School We rode my motorcycle as close as possible, parked it and walked the trail in to the longhouse. The farmers who lived in the local long house (Photo 5) were having trouble growing crops because they had no irrigation water during the dry season. They wanted me to help them design and build a way to get water to their plots. This was a fairly arid region of the peninsula and the streams were short and often ran dry in the dry season. We, the men, went off on our little expedition. We came back a couple of hours later and there was my wife in the middle of a circle of women and children about 20 deep, close to 150 women and children surrounding her and taking care of her as I had asked. They were asking questions, touching her hairy arms, questioning about children and woman things. Fascinated by a woman who came from a place, jauuuuu, far away. I returned several times to the village to finish the irrigation project, always by myself but never without questions. We were able to establish an irrigation system that also brought water to the village for drinking and bathing. This reduced the work load of the women, increased crop yields and established some cash crops to supplement family incomes. Being married we had advantages of being seen as a regular couple. We shopped at the tamu, the farmers market, on Sunday morning. Many of the farmers were my clients. People would bring their children to our house to show them off and we were invited to celebrations of life, weddings and christenings, and death funerals and designated holidays. We had our choice, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and animist. (Cont. p. 11)

Photo 5 Runguse Dusin Longhouse, Kudat District After introductions and some listening time it was decided that the farmers and I would walk to a stream 10

Continued from Page 10, Married Volunteer: At our second Christmas in country it was time to go on vacation, eighteen months since our arrival. On the morning that we were to depart there were about a dozen women at our front door. I was kind of used to this because they come for rat poison, seeds and other
supplies that I occasionally had available for them. This morning was different, they wanted to see Mem Allison.

I busied my self with packing while the women gathered around, each had a handful of cash. They explained that they knew the reason that we did not have any children was that my wife must have some kind of obat, medicine, that prevented her from getting pregnant. What ever it was, what ever it cost they were tired of having babies. They wanted some of the obat. Could she bring them some from the city? This is one of those moments when you realize there are some things you can not do, no matter how much you would like to. Being married had its advantages, and sometimes its drawbacks I suppose, but as the twins say I was never single while I was a Peace Corps Volunteer so I don't know how else it would be. Maybe if I re-enlist as a volunteer I'll learn what it's like to be a single guy in the developing world. I'm sure that there are many stories like this. Please send them along and we will include them in our newsletters. thaineallison@gmail.com

Malaysian RPCVs gather at the Malaysian Embassy in Washington DC September 2011

Peace Corps Volunteers Educating Congress September 2011

Peace Corps Memorial walk September 2011

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

11

Want to be part of the Friends of Malaysia? -heres how to join

Name _____________________ Maiden Name (if applicable _______________) Address____________________ Address____________________

FRIENDS OF MALAYSIA BOARD OF 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 web site: http://FriendsofMalaysia.org Want to contribute to Apa Khabar or join FoM? Contact us at webmastser@FriendsofMalaysia.org or thaineallison@gmail.co

City_______________________ State & Zip _________________ email address _______________ Dates of PC Service _____________________ Home Phone ___________________________ Membership Category: _____ $50.00 Individual (Includes Friends of Malaysia and National Peace Corps Association) _____ Friends of Malaysia only $15.00 Print this application, fill in the blanks and Mail the application, with a check payable to Friends of Malaysia, to: Paul Murphy, Treasurer, FoM, 510 Little John Hill, Sherwood Forest, MD 21405"

12