Living in the Ulu: Letters from a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malaysia, 1967-68

In 1967, just four years after the birth of the Federation of Malaysia, a young man travels from his home in Michigan to a small, remote, rainforest village on the island of Borneo. Here he finds no telephones, electricity, radios, or running water, but plenty of cat-sized fruit bats, fire ants, monsoons, mangy dogs, and home-dwelling lizards that occasionally fall from the ceiling. He also discovers a rich culture and villagers who gradually welcome him into their circle. This travel memoir, written by former Peace Corps volunteer Ed Demerly, is based on letters the author wrote home during his two years in the ulu of Malaysia. Living in the Ulu captures Demerly's sense of adventure, his determination to teach well, the challenges and joys of adjusting to a lifestyle simpler than what he’d known in Michigan, and the love that developed between him and his students and their families.______________This is an intriguing and absorbing narrative about the excitement, trials and personal sacrifices of an early Peace Corps volunteer in a far-off land. Ed Demerly brings the reader along with him on his daily challenges and ordeals in primitive circumstances in Malaysia, with his reward being only the personal satisfaction of improving the lives of strangers. The circumstances faced by this Peace Corps volunteer are illustrative and eye-opening about the sacrifices of time and comfort by these dedicated representatives of our nation. Demerly is a true patriot. —Richard Davis, author of An American from ParisReading Ed Demerly’s account of his Peace Corps experience in the river headwaters of Borneo brought back so many memories of my own Peace Corps experience teaching in Malaysia. Demerly’s writing puts the reader right in the little ulu village of Sapi and provides vivid images of the daily challenges and of the joyful and meaningful encounters with his primary students, their families, and his neighbors. It is a must read for anyone wondering what it was like to live the demanding and, in Demerly’s case, idyllic life of a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s. —Michael Cox, RPCV Malaysia XIV (1966-1968)___________________Ed Demerly, a native of Michigan, is a retired educator with forty-six years experience teaching students from fourth grade through college. He was an instructor for thirty-six years at Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan, where he was the cofounder of the English Language Institute. He is past president of the National College English Association and recipient of the Faculty Lectureship Award, given in recognition for his 1992 lecture on the parallels between Gangsta Rap and Walt Whitman’s poetry. In addition to teaching two years in Malaysia with the Peace Corps and one year in Australia, he served as an airborne ranger in the Army Medical Service Corps. Today he lives with his wife, Martha, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he organizes public forums focused on justice and peace, tends his garden, and continues to run 5K and 10K races (at eighty-one, he finds it much easier than in the past to place first in his age group). An audiotape interview focused on his Peace Corps experience is stored at the John F Kennedy Library in Boston. Read more