[yellow_fever_01]

I may have previously posted this story. If so, my apologies.

When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the late 1970s in Malaysia, I was assigned to the interior of Terengganu, a rural East Coast province on the South China Sea. There was a simple beach house in the capital of Kuala Terengganu that had been occupied by PCVs for years. It was the local gathering spot and the occupants had to put up with a dozen or more fellow PCVs who would come each weekend to hang out with each other. Sleeping accommodations was simple, a foam mattress and a cotton sheet. The visitors would all sleep together in the living room.

One night, as I was dozing in my spot under one of the open windows, I came awake when one of my fellow volunteers got up from her spot in the center of the room and leaned over me to close the window. There was enough moonlight that I could see up her baby doll pajamas. She was not wearing a bra, and I could clearly see her nipples which were hard from the cool night air and looked like a couple of cigarette butts.

It was very common for PCVs to share hotel rooms. If one was traveling on official business and had a hotel room, you were expected to share it with one or two other volunteers who could be of either sex. I shared rooms with women several times, but they always wore modest pajamas. As for me, I always l wore a traditional Malay thin cotton sarong, without underwear.