Priceless
for 55 boys. The local Thai staff couldn’t speak any English, and the Vietnam missionary staff could speak no Thai—so we Thai kids were in great demand! It soon became evident that Bangkok would serve only as a temporary location: the C&MA began looking for a new site. In January 1966 Dalat moved again, this time to the cool mountains of Malaysia to the little town of Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. The mission had found a hotel right across the street from a beautiful playground and a large field for sport activities. We were relieved to have only six guys in a room—and the rooms all had attached baths!
In April 1971, the school signed a lease with the Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands 1966 – 1971 owners of the current campus, which had been a British R&R Center. In May that year, several work teams made the trip to Penang to ready the campus for a school. Present-day Jaffray Dorm had been s stables; the lower campus classrooms had been a bar and restaurant. In June, 37 lorries full of books, furniture, etc. made the eight-hour trip from the highlands to the “Pearl of the Orient.” Staff had to find new housing. It was ,indeed, a time of transition. By by 31 August, 214 students began their studies in Penang.
Penang, Malaysia
In the 1970s, the sea current in front of lower campus threatened to “eat away” at our buildings. I remember (yes, by 1978 I was back teaching English and Journalism) getting up at 5:30—at low tide—to work on the sea wall: hauling stones and mixing cement. Our efforts would hold for a month, and then we’d be “at it” again.
Tanjung Bunga, Penang 1971 – 2004
In the early 1980s, the C&MA built a new student center and a new gym. A few years later, the PTO raised funds to put in a “thermometer-shaped” swimming pool.
lebrati ng e C
75 Years
Dalat 2004
Priceless
Volume 42
Although the world around Dalat has changed, the school remains much the same. In 2001, after 72 years of running the school, the C&MA turned it over to a multi-denominational school board. To most students, Dalat is the “same ol’ place” it used to be. Students find the relationships and friendships they make at Dalat to be the long-lasting kind. The Dalat Alumni Association Directory (www.dalat.org) gets over 100 “hits” a month as alumni and former students and teachers try to connect with each other. Summer reunions all over North America have classes traveling from all over the world to get together for a weekend of reminiscing.
Classes began for her one pupil, George Irwin, in his parents’ bedroom. The school’s founding mission, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, had purchased property in the cool central highland city of Dalat, and a month or so later the “school” moved. As new missionaries came to Indo-China and Siam, they sent their children to board at Dalat, where the dorm parents tried to make a “home away from home.” During World War II missionaries, teachers, and students were placed in a internment camp; classes never stopped.
∞ Reflector 2004
I, John “Tommy” Tompkins, arrived as a first grader in 1956, Miss Heikkinen’s last year in Vietnam. I don’t remember very much from Miss Heikkinen’s first grade, but she taught me the important basics. I do remember Friday night activities that usually included games— Villa Alliance, Dalat, Vietnam Capture the Flag, Prisoner’s Base—or taffy 1929 – 1965 “pulls” around the big building. Aunt Betty and Uncle Archie Mitchell, my first dorm parents, had a big job keeping us 50 or so kids healthy and happy.
priceless
Dalat International School
But life wasn’t easy in the highlands. There were few medical resources; every time someone needed to see a doctor or dentist, he or she had to travel down the mountain to Ipoh. And it rained so much that it was difficult to get dry clothes. The rain caused frequent landslips, which would isolate Tanah Rata from the rest of Malaysia for days on end. The C&MA began looking for a new site, and God led them to the present location here in Penang.
So now in our 75th year, we’re celebrating God’s goodness. And, of course that’s where books like this one you’re holding in your hand become—quite literally—priceless. Enjoy seeing what God has accomplished during this special anniversary year.
1929. As the world was reeling in panic over the New York Stock Exchange’s collapse, a freighter calmly chugged up the Saigon River. Once the ship had docked, Miss Armia Heikkinen, a small woman from Minnesota, disembarked into the tropical heat. She soon began her ministry in French Indo-China, and with it Dalat International School came into existence.
Reflector 2004
Life in the Camerons kept MKs busy. With no TV—and certainly no Internet or PlayStations—we had to entertain ourselves. An active sport program had us playing all over the highlands and even down in Tapah or Ipoh. Every weekend a group of students would go butterfly hunting in nearby streams; Sunday nights after young peoples group, we’d hike down the road toward the lake in Ringlet. I graduated in 1968 and headed to the States for college.
of God’s Goodness!
Life moved from vacation to vacation. As a “Thai kid,” I flew back to see my parents twice a year. The other nine months at Dalat overflowed with activities: hikes around the lake, overnights in the pine-needle “forts” we would build on the school property, meteorites collecting, and special banquets. Washing dishes with Gee Hip and Gee Duh, enjoying Trang’s cinnamon rolls, and playing with our pets: Thor, a dog; Bobo, a monkey; and Cindy, a sun-bear—all helped us learn to have fun and take responsibility. In the early 1960s, civil strife broke out—but we felt safe in our little oasis. Some military children joined us, the first “day students.” In February 1965, the Viet Cong bombed the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. All military dependents were immediately evacuated. On 16 April the embassy notified us that they could no longer guarantee our safety; they gave us 48 hours to pack up and move. I remember helping Miss Ruth Wehr select the 100 books we were permitted to take from the school library. Each student had to take all his or her books, clothes, pillow, and linen. Easter Sunday dawned with a sunrise service. The choir sang “The Cross Victorious,” a cantata. The Bep served a special Easter dinner. The next morning on 19 April, U.S. Army trucks arrived to take us to the Dalat airport where four C-123 cargo planes transported us to Bangkok.
63-65 Wireless Rd., Bangkok 1965 – 1966
Settling in at 63-65 Wireless Road, the site of the old American Club, made us yearn for the space and coolness of Dalat. Conditions were cramped: nine boys to a room; three bathrooms