Wayne Thomas
1986-1988
My name is Wayne Thomas and I was a teacher at Butterworth from 1986 to 1988.
In fact I still clearly remember shutting the Office door for the last time as
we all left the site on the airbase around July 7 1988 and travelling over to
Georgetown to spend a few days in the large hotel next to Komtar shopping centre.
The new RAAF Centre had just opened along Gurney Road (it was a renovated house)
and we spent some time celebrating our last few days of the wonderful experience
we had lived over the previous 2 1/2 years.
The Yacht Club at Butterworth commonly known as the BOATIE, was undergoing renovations with new rooms and a swimming pool. One of the new rooms was to be used as a classroom for the few students left with personnel at the base. I remember we spent quite a large amount of effort to put together individual learning packages for the remaining dozen or so kids. At that time I think students from Penang were to attend expatriate local schools - particularly any high school aged students.
The personnel at the RAAF base seemed to be reasonable drinkers and most would carry around a small bottle opener attached to their car keys etc... for those many occasions when a cold drink presented itself!!! We called it a TGB - Thank God for Butterworth!
I guess I could say both my own experiences and those of my colleagues could fill a book, as we had such a fun time at Butterwoth, with not only the kids and fellow teachers, but also the many RAAF friends we made.
I still keep in contact with some of my teaching friends
although not as often as we would like to as
we are all over the country.