Question One...

In my previous post I threw a challenge out there. My lovely friend Christy was the first to respond. Her question...

I am so curious if there is a language barrier? Or is there enough ex-pats around that life is pretty much normal without having to speak the language?

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In Brunei the local language is Malay. There is also a huge population from the Phillipines. However, most everyone speaks English to some degree. You need to keep your words simple. From time to time you do come across someone who doesn't speak English, but it is seldom. I do not know a word of Malay. Well that is not true... Selamat Datang means welcome or peace be with you! It amazes me that they adapt to my language so readily that I don't even attempt to learn theirs.

As for us ex-pats, I think I was told there are about 4000 of us living in this city. The only oil supplier is Shell. So if you are a Shell employee you live on what they call camp. But a camp it is not. It is a huge suburb that is nestled around the international school and the country club that we belong to. So the whole area where we spend most of our time is full of ex-pats. Life does feel somewhat normal here. It is filled with the same routines that we have at home. At the moment the boys have a 2 week break. So most ex-pats leave Brunei for travel somewhere. It is almost like a ghost town here. We mostly have the pool to ourselves. There are many things I do like about here. But like life anywhere one day flows into the next!