Cyber Rendezvous under Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown

It's the 54th day of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown since 18 March. Many people have been looking forward to the lifting of the MCO last scheduled to be 13 May. That hope was again dashed and the lockdown has been further extended to 9 June albeit under CMCO, a conditional movement control order. Most suspect that it's a last minute decision of the government which was clouded with sinister political consideration arising from a "No Confidence Motion" to be tabled in Parliament on 18 May by the opposition against the sitting government.

If one is asked to name a positive thing that comes out of this pandemic lockdown, I would say it would be the speedy response of the worldwide community to a new mode of communication: video conferencing. For us who are used to face-to-face communication in an office setting, this new mode did take a bit of effort to get used to. What's most incredible is that this new widely adopted tool, Zoom has turned out to be a channel for me to chat live with an ex-teacher whom I have not seen for over 52 years!

In the past, I used to communicate with this ex-teacher now based in USA via emails. Under lockdown, she too could no longer commute to visit her children's families in other parts of USA. She has no choice but to pick up Zoom in order to do live chats with them. Naturally, this app which is the only video conferencing tool she is conversant with opens an avenue for a face-to-face live chat.

A snippet of the chat in May.

Clearly, after half a century, there is very little semblance to her old self whom I was accustomed to. She would have passed as a total stranger had we met in a street without prior notice.

Ruth Moody was my Form 3 class teacher as well as maths teacher in 1967. In this photo, she was standing at front row at left while I, the youngest in the class is partially hidden behind at her left.

In the 60's. many schools in Sabah (then North Borneo) had two groups of foreign teachers: the American Peace Corps Volunteers and the British Volunteers. The Peace Corps Volunteers emerged as a response to the historic challenge of President John F Kennedy when he declared in his inaugural speech on 20 January 1960: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country". Many young Americans took up the challenge and traveled overseas to render public service in many Southeast Asian countries and the African continent. My school, Lok Yuk English Secondary School being a missionary school with tie to the Lutheran Church of America had the privilege of having another batch of teachers - young Americans sent by LCA. Ruth Moody is one of such teachers.

Teachers come in many forms and sizes. Some are good at imparting information and knowledge but lack the fun and "approachability" or friendliness that students yearn to see in their teachers. Some are just bad apples who cling onto the teaching profession for reasons best known to them. I remember a teacher, a keen mahjong player who came to class often time unprepared. His typical teaching style was turning to the page with a worked example and copying it word by word on the blackboard. Sometimes, the mere copying could also be incorrect! Naturally, nobody really remember him as one of the good teachers in the end.

Ruth is one of those teachers who taught well and mingled well with her students. It was she and another LCA teacher, Edward Greenawald who helped to develop my love and interest for mathematics.

A photo of some of the teaching staff taken
in the staffroom of Lok Yuk Secondary
School, Likas (Circa 1967). Ruth is
dressed in pink.

Teaching staff and Principal of Lok Yuk
Secondary School, Likas (Circa 1967).
School Principal: Mr. Anderson. 
Ruth is seated second from right.

Teaching staff and Principal of Lok Yuk  

Secondary School, Likas (Circa 1968).  

School Principal:  Pastor Donald E. Nelson. 

Ruth is seated 4th from left.

I did not know much about Ruth's family after she left Sabah until I got hold of this photo. Ruth met her husband in Sabah. He was the Dean of the All Saints Cathedral in KK. She has since been known as Ruth Tsu, a name which I took some time to get used to.

I gathered from her earlier email that upon their return to the State in late May 1970, they first settled down in California. Her husband served as a priest in a local Episcopal church while she taught mathematics in a secondary school. Upon her husband retirement, they moved to Washington state where she continued teaching maths in an education program of the University of Washington and worked with both new and experienced maths teachers in a supporting role in Tacoma. In late 2002, they moved to Portland in Oregon. After her husband passed away in October 2004, she moved to her present home in Hood River which is very near to her eldest daughter's home.

I was particularly impressed by her tenacity and adventurism when she told me that she once drove all the way by herself from Hood River, Oregon to her younger daughter's home in Atlanta, Geogia. She stopped along the way for six nights to cover a distance of 4,000 Km. Then, after spending time with the family, she drove back and covered the same distance one more time. As a senior citizen, this is indeed incredible!

The Basel Christian Church of Malaysia, KK only started to have an English congregation in 1962 (Read here). Ruth is one of the pioneers of this group. She is seen in the second row at the centre.