Going with the Flow

November 16, 2021 Blog

March 1, 2020 COVID: The USA confirmed the second death (CNN). Malaysia nfow had 29 confirmed cases (Malaysian National News Agency).

I was thinking about things. We weren’t comfortable going back to China on March 6. We trusted Jill’s school’s recommendation more than my school’s. Therefore, it might be a while before we could return. Our tourist visa’s for Malaysia were good for 90 days so we had a good cushion of time to wait and see what would happen. Penang felt safe to us, we were near a big airport, we were on an island that had zero cases of COVID so far. So we decided to wait and see. Jill was still taking her Master’s classes online and she was going to start teaching her classes to her students online in Shenzhen. My school was still on hold and all the teachers were looking for any information about a schedule but the administration had no information to give. 

On Sunday, We took the opportunity of an open house at the Cat sanctuary known as Cat Beach. We took a bus up the coast road past the condos, then came the resorts, and finally we got to a small suburb/fishing village at the end of the road. It was a completely different place than the little city we were familiar with on the northeast corner of the island. Rundown tin houses and deserted ramshackle diners. We walked down the street until we heard some meowing. The path to the sanctuary was lined with stray cats. Down to the beach we went and there in a shack overlooking it was the sanctuary. We walked in to find some couches and a couple of volunteers taking care of cats in cages while other cats wandered and lounged on couches. Everything smelled but the cats were sweet and the sick ones were scared. We sat down and enjoyed ourselves amongst the little darlings. I bought a calendar as we left and thanked the leader for helping the kitties. Maybe we would be back to help out one day too. 

We needed to figure out a housing situation that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. As I mentioned, Penang is filled with more condos than people. I could feel opportunity knocking and the door was a coffee meet up. I wanted to meet some local people and maybe find a connection could lead to a monthly price for a comfortable apartment. The Monday coffee club was held in a mall nearby. Jill and I went with our socializing hats on. When we found the place it was a table full of about 20 retirees. We sat down and started telling our story. Soon enough it came out that we were looking for a place to stay and the woman next to us said the magic words “you need to talk to Anita.” Jill took a seat down the table next to Anita and they were soon deep in conversation. When Jill returned we had an appointment to look at Anita’s friend Yen’s sister’s vacant apartment a block away. I have an aunt named Anita who is capable of miracles so I can only assume that miracles go with the name.