Welcome to the true beginning of my blog posts from Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia!
This blog marks 5 weeks of living here in KL- an amount of time that simultaneously has gone by in a flash, while also seeming like not nearly enough time to cover the amount of things that have happened since our arrival. It’s funny knowing that I’ll read this blog back at the end and think “wow, that really just was the beginning”. Anyways, here’s where I’m at so far.
I adapted to the ways of life in KL faster than I expected I would. Quickly, fresh mangoes from the fruit stand have become my breakfast, I walk on the left side of the sidewalk to pass people (still glad I’m not having to drive on the left side), and I carry an umbrella with me everywhere in preparation for the nearly daily downpours of rain. Family dinners together after work have provided comfort and stability to our time of newness as interns in a new position/city/culture. The three of us are officially obsessed with “Teh Tarik Ais”, black tea with sweetened condensed milk over ice. We are determined to find our favourite teh tariks nearby work (so far, it’s the spot on the corner). Going into this experience, living in such a big city was one of the most unfamiliar and scary aspects for me. While I am still adjusting, it is all less intimidating than I worried it would be. KL is also greener than I anticipated. The district we live borders the jungle, so there is no lack of big, leafy, green trees. A real jungle!! Oh, and there are monkeys!!
Our weekdays are spent working at MSRI. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Malaysian Social Research Institute (MSRI) is an organization based here in KL that supports refugee youth and their families (from about 13 different countries!) in accessing critical services. Their current main program, the Sahabat School, provides students (pre-k to gr.12) with schooling they would otherwise not have access to in Malaysia. The school also runs extra curricular activities and food aid programs. I also just learned that Sahabat translates to friend 🙂
As interns, Maddy, Jaiya, and I work both in the MSRI office and in the Sahabat school. The school functions in a similar fashion to most schools in Malaysia, providing an education on the subjects of english, math, social studies and science — all taught in english. The school also offers transitional classes for students with lower english proficiency. Most of the teachers at the school are refugees as well, and have be extraordinarily welcoming to us, sharing their cultures, tips for surviving the Malaysian heat, and meals with us. The energy of this school is infectious!
Arriving at MSRI in the last week of their school term, we jumped into helping with assessments of the younger students and exam invigilation. Each day at work is different- so far our tasks have included tasks like substitute teaching, regular office work and reorganizing school rooms like the library.
One thing I did not expect when beginning work at MSRI, was the global impact of the United States’ recent executive orders from January 2025 that reevaluated the country’s foreign aid contributions (order 14169) and its admission of refugees to the country (order 13769). Beforehand, I had a grasp of the impacts of some of the US president’s executive orders declared during his second term, but did not understand the full extent of the orders and their global reach.
Cuts to organizations like the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), have led to decreased funding to refugee support organizations globally. This includes MSRI. This funding loss is monumental for many NGOs and has redirected some of our work tasks lately to be searching for new funding sources. The second executive order in particular, has created additional delays and halts to movement of refugees globally, from temporary settlement countries to permanent settlement countries. Through conversations with teachers and MSRI staff, we are beginning to grasp the incredible impact that this has had on individuals and families seeking to resettle somewhere beyond Malaysia.
On our weekends, we have begun to explore the sprawling city of KL– as well as venture beyond. Taking advantage of public holidays and school holidays, we travelled to the city of Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo. Here, we spent time with PACOS and DAP interns Sarah and Santiago. We swam, we ate, we laughed. I made daily trips to the local market to buy fresh fruit. What more could you ask for? Being there during the local Harvest celebration of Kaamatan, the city of KK was very lively alive and gave us the opportunity to learn about Indigenous Malay culture.
I also took a solo weekend trip to the historical port city of Melaka, 2 hours south of KL. Here, I wandered the colourful streets filled with art and greenery, learning about the local history. I loved this travel for learning about Malaysian culture in addition to our work at MSRI which exposes us to knowledge from many countries across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Over the last month, I have had many “pinch me” moments. Honestly, I have one every night while laying in my bed, staring out at the incredible lit-up Kuala Lumpur skyline from our 26th floor apartment. (Sidenote- one of the buildings in the skyline is a giant screen that plays advertisements on loop from dawn to dusk- absolutely wild). Hearing excited “Hi Teacher!”s from students everywhere we go fills me with joy. Those first few moments of enjoying a banana leaf curry, cheese naan or roti canai also often feel pinch worthy (but maybe that’s just because I’m hungry).
In the coming months I hope to continue to build on the budding relationships I have with co-workers and KL locals to deepen my sense of community. Anyone who knows me well knows that community is super important to me- wherever I go!
I know that there is still a while to go and a world of things could happen in that time. Keeping an open mind and taking each day one at a time.
Excited to update you again soon (and thanks for coming along on the journey),
Gwen
