Come What May

i'm wonderinG...

2008-12-12T08:33:00.001-08:00

That's my dog staring at me because I refused to give her food. The 'begging' look.

It's been awhile. There were some of my friends that I didn't get in touch with anymore. I'm sure you have such friends too. All because of many reasons: maybe I was busy; maybe my friends are busy; maybe I was lazy; maybe we had misunderstandings and we chose not to see each other;or simply because we had moved on with our lives and we had forgotten about these friends who used to be so close to us.

Although due to many reasons, friends should never be forgotten, for whatever reasons. When I was in Belaga, I wondered. I wondered how my friends were doing. Are they fine? I regretted some of my actions in the past of not appreciating friends the way that I should be. I took them for granted. I never said thanks to them for being there for me at that point of my life when I did need friends the most.

Thank you. Sincerely.
Take care, no matter where you are.
We should have a drink when you've time.
Call me.

The things I do in School

2008-12-11T08:04:00.000-08:00

Many of my friends wonder what I would spend my time in SK Airport. Apparently, they expect that I would have a lot of time to spare as I teach in school only in the morning.

To tell the truth, time passes really fast here as I have many activities to do. Usually the school would have meetings, school activities, competitions and many more in the afternoons. I don't usually get my hands dirty in doing the school activities because I have many students that I could call for so that things could get done, such as clearing the weeds behind my backyard.

Well, occasionally I would pretend that I'm working, to avoid complaints. Smart.

And then off I go to play the slides. Never have I enjoyed so much fun! WeeeeEEee...Regarding food, sometimes I need to help out to prepare. This is one of the sacrifices that I would do for good food. Such as these lamb satays... Marinated by Cikgu Nazri from Kelantan who should open a satay stall if gets tired of teaching.

Here's a proof that I'm working.

At night. Of course people here sleep early. That's why the villagers have many kids. If you know what I mean. For me, I would usually chat with the other teachers at the little hut in front of my house, teach tuition classes and then watch Canton dramas before I go to bed. Life's simple, no confusing and irritating traffic jams, no project due dates and no sales target to hit. Easy.
So occasionally there would be parties organized by the party-loving staff of SK Airport.
It's my roommate's birthday! And the cake was special order from Bintulu. It sustained the 4 hour 4by4 ride all the way. Wow...
And the famous SK Airport BBQ! Satays + Chicken Wings + Wild boar (when no muslims are joining).
We serve our beer with anything. From chicken wings to Keropok Lekor from Kelantan. Simply scrumptious.
The venue of the BBQ parties would always be the little hut. It can get pretty windy at night. Look at my hair.
I know this is getting a bit like I'm doing an advertorial for Tiger Beer. It's not! Just that we had a whole pack of Tiger to finish.

Our panggang boy.
This guy got so bubbly after having few tins of Tiger.
He told me his almost all of his family history.
Which I did not want to know.

scribbLings...that didn't get poSted

2008-12-11T07:24:00.000-08:00

On 5.13pm Thursday, 23^rd October 2008

AMAZING! Saw a white-beaked hornbill! It's sitting on a tree as I rode down the river on a long boat on the way back to school.

A replica of what I saw.

Sorry no pictures as evidence but I have several witnesses such as Reynold the headmistress’s son who was on the boat with me. And makcik. And teacher Tony! BREATH TAKING.

I love this place.

I told Steven from Switzerland about what I saw.

"I saw a hornbill! Sitting high above the branches as my boat passes by. What a sight!"

"You lucky bum. I hate you!"

"Hahahha"

On 10.21pm Sunday, 26^th October 2008

Met another foreign traveler, Mike from Colorado, US tonight (apart from travelers like Steven from SwitzerlandCzech, UK, and even South Africa in the past few weeks).We talked almost everything including the pressure mounting in US regarding Obama VS McCain. and others from

I felt surprised of the amount of travelers that would come all the way to this small town, Belaga. Many of these people from other parts of the world know about Belaga, Sarawak. 3-months ago, I have never heard of this place. I thought I know a lot about Sarawak but apparrently what I know about my state was very limited. I know Kuching. But other than that I know nothing. I don't bother to know.

If I haven’t got posted to SK Airport I would know less about the places in Sarawak compared to Steven, Mike and Jacob from Czech. Many of these travelers would wish that it is them who are the new Belaga teacher. To have the once in a lifetime experience to be close to nature, to teach native children and to enjoy the serenity here in SK Airport, it is priceless, they say.

I know how horrible it is to learn to appreciate my own home land through foreign travelers. I am trying to cherish what I have got.

I don’t know how long I would be here teaching and meeting new faces of people who come from far away to witness the beauty of this place. One thing that I’m sure of is that I’m now a happier person.

my leGs and I

2008-12-10T07:17:00.000-08:00

Today...I'm going to blog about, for all the things, my LEGS.

They used to look like these...

Those are definitely not my legs.

Nope. Not mine.

Something like that. I'd look exactly the same after you replace Cameron Diaz's head with mine.
That's before I went to my first teaching posting, Belaga.

Now, my sexy legs, feet look like this:

Ok..there are far more repulsive pictures of me legs but for the sake of your breakfast lunch and dinner I won't show them here.

That's the downside of being posted to a P3 rural area. These are scars made by a type of sand flies or wasps, really small in size, which I think could be found exclusively along the upper Rejang river. And there are a lot of them! They are blood sucking creatures and they feed on human blood too. After bitten, the itch is unbearable and the wound would get swollen. Scratching may seem to be the only way to relieve the itch but also would leave scars like mine. So far I have used 3 tubes of insect repellent, 3 E.Excel Gwei-Hua balm to kill the itch and 1 CNI cream to lighten my scars.

To protect myself further, I even used these:

The cute little strawberries print on my tiny toes are just so eye-catching and the peculiar stockings have helped me popular in school. Everyone knows Miss 'stockings' now.

Not your average ROUTE to work...

2008-12-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

I had always wanted to blog about my work place, a small town named Belaga, in the heart of Sarawak since many of friends are so curious about the place. Yes, even as Sarawakians, most, well, almost all of them have never heard of the place before.

This is Sarawak, located on the Borneo island. Can you locate Kuching? Yes, that's where my home is. Where's Belaga?

You've found it. Good! I'm going to explain to you how to get from Kuching to where I work.

Mind you, although the map indicated an 'Airport' sign in Belaga, there ain't any. One airport that I know is the school that I'm teaching in, SK Airport. The airport nearby the school was being shut down due to no local demand. The locals preferred to use the express boat to Sibu or the 4by4 ride to Bintulu. Hence, in remembrance of the nearly-forgotten airport, the school was named SK Airport (not the true story, though. leave a comment if you really want to know).

From my home in Kuching, I need to take a flight to Bintulu, one of the nearest bigger town from Belaga.

And then, it's on the 4by4 Hilux or Landcruiser or DMX ride which is only available everyday at 2 pm. The ride is 4 hours. On these kinds of roads:

WeeeeeeEEEeee...It's a roller coaster ride which goes on...

And on...
And on... Definitely not for those who have a week heart and poor digestion. I depend on my travel sickness pills all these while. Not easy.

So after a maximum of 4 hours ride, hopefully there's no landslides that may block your way, you'll reach a peaceful really small town of Belaga. No pictures of the town yet. I find similarities of the Belaga town with Batu Kawa in Kuching. Both situated next to the river and have few rows of shophouses mostly owned by the Chinese.

To go to my school, the journey does not stop here.
We have to take either the express boat at 7 am or call for the villagers who are staying at the kampung nearby the school to give us a lift on the longboat.

My Levi's recycle bag really seemed out of place here. So, of course, the boat isn't only transporting a passenger or two on each ride, it will also carry daily necessities from Belaga, such as in this picture, a gas tank.

Nevertheless, the first time on the longboat maybe pretty scary. You're entitled to hold on the wooden boat tightly.

But the more frequent you go on the boat ride, the more you'll enjoy it. You'll start appreciating the scenery and the breeze on the great Rejang river with the roar of the boat's engine as the background. Who knows you'll see a hornbill on top of one of the trees as you passes...just like I did.

Graduation Day, 06.08.08

2008-08-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

Today was my graduation day and also for the rest of the Cohort 1 B.Ed (TESL) Primary Education students.

Finally! After 6 years of degree programme. I’m a professional teacher.
It was so crowded! So hot! But happy!

We threw our hats with joy, another hand holding the heavy flowers.

Got my scroll!

Loved my flowers and presents! Especially the lovely lilies.
Congrats everybody…hoped we are prepared for the world now.

Bintulu

2008-08-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

I’m not always in my school. It’s the school holiday now and I’m in Bintulu, not for holidays, but to settle my KWSP account and searching for materials for my teaching.

My dad is working in Bintulu and therefore I could still make myself feel at home at my dad’s house.

There’s this shop which probably sells the best porridge Teo Chew style in Bintulu. It’s situated behind Plaza Hotel Bintulu.Ikan Bilis with Porridge...heaven!

Midin Vegetable

They serve chicken feet too. This is my first experience eating these with porridge.　

Scrumptious! Just that because of the crowd that comes here at night, it's normal if you wait up to half an hour for your food.

SK Airport, Belaga, Kapit

2008-08-19T06:49:00.001-07:00

This is my school.

Yes. There’s Astro here, in the middle of no where beside the beautiful Rajang river.

Well, it’s not so bad after all.

Here’s my pupils. Mostly Orang Ulu of Kenyah, Kayan and Sekapan tribes.

My house is just next to the school. There are classrooms just right opposite my quarters. My room is nicely decorated, thanks to the help from my parents who accompanied me to this far away land.

Food is usually prepared by the lovely Aunty Long. And I ate free food most of the time!

Well, one might ask that my life here is sure gonna be boring. Not, un

less you occupied your time. I did my work in my house after school, socialized with the teachers in the afternoon e.g. playing Ping-pong, ‘watching’ others swimming in the river (Scary!) and at night I would try finish watching the drama series DVDs that I brought from Kuching. Usually I would fall asleep before the show ends!

There is even a new computer lab in the making!

The downside of living here would be the distance. The nearest big town would be Bintulu which is 3 hours of 4WD drive. From the small Belaga town to my school is 20 minutes of express boat ride. Belaga consists of nearly 50% of Chinese who are mostly shop owners. They are very friendly too.

There are sand flies that would attack every inch of your skin. My legs and ankles are now red and look something like chicken pox now. Heck, no more short pants! Here’s a view from my room and as I was taking this picture, little sand flies bit my neck and feet! So itchy! Argggh…