Actually, Norma is a local Malay lady that works for us part time
here in Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia (E. Malaysia -- the island,
Borneo). We are here because of my husband's job. We were in this
same town back in 1981-1984. We left back then just after our son's
4th birthday.
Our son, who is almost 21, came with me back from the States for his
school break vacation over Christmas. We wanted to try to find the
lady, Noriah, who had worked for us all those years ago as an amah
(That is translated literally as "little mother" and is the term used
for housekeeper. I'm not at all sure that I'm spelling that right.).
She was also our son's baby sitter when we had to go to company
functions.
Our current amah, Norma, knows Noriah. So, it was arranged that
Norma would take us all (me, my husband, & my son) to visit Noriah
during the 2nd day of Hari Raya which was a few days after Christmas
this year. So we go to visit Noriah in the kampong (houses there are
on stilts), but first we stop by Norma's house. Without our knowing
it, she had got up at 4:00 a.m. to cook for us, then worked for us a
1/2 day, & then taken us out to the kampong for our visit. She had
cooked a beautiful meal for us, including the wonderful vegetable
dish above.
After visiting Norma's house, meeting her family, and having the
delicious meal, we went to see Noriah, our old amah. The Malaysians
seem to be normally very reserved, especially with foreigners. But
there were hugs all around. After being served more Hari Raya snacks
and cake, Noriah pulled out her photo album with pictures of Brian as
a baby. Noriah, who is unmarried and now in her 60's I think,
declared that Brian was her boyfriend.
Then, we go off to visit Noriah's sister's family, who we had also
visited way back then. Her brother-in-law is quite the amateur
photographer, and they pulled out their many photo albums and found
the one with pictures of us when we had visited back then. So, it
was quite an interesting holiday celebration, if somewhat unusual for
a Missouri girl.
Before all this happened, I had been quite ill with flu and a sinus
infection after being terribly jet-lagged. During that time, I did
not get to take Brian around and show him the sites as much as I
wanted. Dad took over as tour guide when he could. One evening he
took him to the nightclub in the new hotel in town. The band
consisted of 4 girls in outfits that included hot-pants. Brian took one
look at the band, then looked at his Dad and declared, "I'm home!"
-- JudyM
