A little about the White Family's life in Malaysia

We are currently living in the beautiful Malaysian town of Melaka in Malaysia. Melaka is a very old town, first founded about 600 years ago by an exiled sultan. Being situated at a crucial narrows on the main shipping lane between China and India -- it soon became a prosperous fortified city.
 

On the one hand, ships carrying goods from China west would discard their cargo, load up on Indian goods and return east after the monsoons. On the other hand, ships carrying spices from India east would also discard their cargo here, wait out the monsoons and return home with a full load of Chinese goods. Many a ship found sanctuary from the storms (and pirates) at the mouth of this river!

Holding such a key advantage point, it was fore-ordained that many would be the conquering armies -- each leaving architectural evidences, as well as nationals as evidence of their reign. First came the Chinese, then the Portugese, then the Dutch, then the English, and finally in the 1950's Malaysian Independence was declared from the centre of the town. Needless to say this has made for quite an interesting mix of ethnic groups, foods and religious beliefs.
 

Although our family has only been here for a few months, we are starting to settle in, enjoying the many local fruits and the cuisine of the area. I (Jonathon) am currently serving as a lecturer at   Multimedia University -- which currently seems more like a construction site than a university -- that has been recently founded by the national telephone monopoly. It is the first of three private universities to be licenced in Malaysia. The course that I am responsible for is a compulsory course for engineering students: Field theory.

My wife and daughter arrived in Malaysia about 1 month later than I. Xiuman is currently studying Malay, as well as looking after our daughter Aien. At 3 months, Aien is quite a good baby -- crying only when hungry and squawking when her diaper is dirty. We are blessed that she usually sleeps 8 hours at night, waking only once for Xiuman to breastfeed her.