ODDS & ENDS FROM BORNEO

MALAYSIAN DRESSES

We had so many notes about how everyone liked the picutres of this last trip to Ba'kelalan that we thouht we might include a few more. We are on our visa run starting Monday until Thursday. We will be in Singapore that whole time. We of course will not be in the areas like Ba'kelalan. We will be in the extreme opposite. Singapore is one of the largest cities in the world and I would have to say it is the cleanest I have ever seen. We will try to post a few of the sites we see there next time. We are required to stay at least two days and preferably longer so we don't cause problems with the use of the tourist visas we are on. It is a nice break and allows us to be ready to hit the dusty road  again like Danica always use to say to me.

THE ENTRANCE?? YES CONSTRUCTION HERE IS JUST PART OF LIFE

WE DID FIND OUR WAY IN

We did spend most this week at home. We flew to Miri for the afternoon on Friday to meet with Patrcik Panai and his wife who were supppose to go with us to Ba'kelalan but couldn't at the last moment because of a death in the family. So we went down to discuss the project with him. Otherwise we were at home all week.

We did visit a past Branch President this week. He is only partially active now. And he hadn't been at church for several weeks. So we fouond him at home and he had been sick. We encouraged him to stay for the entire block when he does come. We will see how he does. His wife is RC (Catholic) and is not supportive at all. SO it is hard for him. He told us his life's story. At one time the head of Sabah was his best childhood friend. He now is higher up than that. He shared with us his favorite scripture. It was the one that he just "happend " to be directed to just before his baptism. He was getting a lot of negative and was about to not go through with it. He then sat down to read the Book Of Mormon and the scriptures "fell open" to 

 3 Nephi 18, vs 20. He then knew what he should do and it has blessed his life ever since.

ANTHONY, PAST BRANCH PRESIDENT

We also attnded Branch Missionary Correlation meeting attended by the Releif Society and EQ and all the missioanries and ward clerk!! I think there are a lot of places where the church is very strong but this meeting isn't held. Here we had a full complement and they are all under 25. And most have to ride 1 to 2 busses to get to this extra meeting during the week.

Oh, yes, also they are going to have a Priesthood and Relief Society workshop meeting on Home and Visiting teaching on next Friday which is a public holiday in the afternoon! How whould that go over back home I wonder?  We'll see how it goes here.

WATER  BUFFALO IN THE PADI

OUR FRIENDLY BASKET WEAVER

DINNER IN BUDUK BUI

MEN AND GUESTS EAT TOGETHER AND THE WOMEN

EAT TOGETHER ON THE FLOOR

THE BASKET WEAVER STRIPPING THE ROTAN

LIVE FROGS READY FOR CONSUMPTION AT THE LOCAL RESTURANT

ALWAYS MONKEYS

REMEMBER THESE GUYS?

THIS WAS ALL JUNGLE JUST BELOW OUR CONDO

NOW IT WILL BE PALM OIL TREES

THE ILLEGALS...PHILIPPINO OR INDONESIAN, HAD TO MOVE

THIS IS THEIR KAMPONG NOW

"IN THE JUNGLE, THE MIGHTY JUNGLE.......THE LION SLEEPS"

ON OUR WAY INTO THE JUNGLE, 

THIS PLANE IS ABOUT 30 FEET LONG INSIDE

Last Sunday we flew to Miri and then on Monday morning flew into the interior of Sarawak to make a visit to the Lun Bawang people who live near the small village of Ba'kelalan.  The Lun Bawang are a very small ethnic group of perhaps 2 or 3 thousand people.  A hundred years ago they lived in Indonesia but moved to the west side of the mountains and it later became Malaysia.  They are almost all Christian of the SIB faith (SIB means Bible Group of Borneo) and live up in the mountains at least 8 hours by dirt road from the nearest town of any size.  In Buduk Bui, where we visited, there were no cell phones (no phones of any kind), no internet, no TV, and minimal electricity which provided only enough for 12 volt lights.   This trip took us the deepest into the jungle we have been or ever will be. We flew over one hour over nothing but jungle to this village called Ba'kelalan. We were there investigating a potential water project for about 500 people.

ELLEN ON THE WALK BACK TO BA'KELALAN

ARRIVING IN BA'KELALAN

THE TOWN COME OUT TO MEET AND GREET THE

FOUR FLIGHTS INTO TOWN EACH WEEK

We arrived at a small airstrip in the jungle valley just in front of the village of Ba'kelalan. Our luggage was off loaded onto the runway where two fellows picked it up and lugged it over to the 4x4 truck for a 45 minute trip over a deeply rutted track to Buduk Bui or 'village of the wind'.

                                                           The air terminal building

WE WERE GUESTS IN THIS HOME ANDTHESE LADIES COOKED FOR US

We stayed in one of the homes.  Busat is second from the right, our hostess.  The fire behind them is where they cook. The woman always eat separately from the men and guest.

She is doing a beautifully graceful rice harvest dance with 15 other women.

Bill hiked to the water source to investigate.

  

BUDUK BUI

     We were the guests of the retired pastor and his wife, Liau and Busat (Busat means 'flower' in the dialect of the Lun Bwang people) in the village of Buduk Bui.  They are farmers who grow their own food and market a small portion of their highly prized bario or highland rice.  In recent years they have started growing apples because they are at a high enough altitude that the weather is cooler.  We really enjoyed that cooler weather.  I even put a jacket on one evening.  I think the temperature ranged from 65 to 75 during the few days we were visiting.
     They have a wonderful clean source of spring water about 2 or 3 km from the village but their pvc pipe has disintegrated and they need new pipe.  That was the purpose of our visit---to assess what they need and determine if it fits the parameters of what we do to help people with clean water.

HIKING TO THE WATER SOURCE

  Bill did the hiking without me this time.  He went with others to see their one-turbine hydroelectric 'plant' and the river where they get their water.
     On the first evening we were there, they had a community meeting so that we could let them know why we were there.  At the beginning of the meeting we were welcomed by 16 women dancing a 'welcome' dance and then a rice harvest dance.  It was very beautiful and graceful.
They are very friendly and kind.  Their dialect is different form the Malay we are beginning to understand a little so we had to always have someone translate.

THE LUN BWANG LADIES DANCING FOR US

     Bill had the experience of leeches after his hike in the jungle but learned to tuck his pant legs into his socks.  He is quite a trouper at hiking in the jungle.  At least it was cooler for his hiking this trip.
On our last day at Buduk Bui it rained for about 4 hours so the road out was nearly impassable but we made it slipping and sliding all the way.  It reminded me of driving on ice and at one point we nearly slid into the bank on one side of the mountain road.

WATER BUFFALO

As we got closer to the little village of Ba'kelalan the road WAS impassable so we had to walk the last mile through the rice paddies among the mud-wallowing water buffalo who would stop to look at us.  Such an adventure!

Our luggage was taken by this fellow on his motorbike while we walked the last mile because the road was so bad the 4x4 could not make it any further.

THE BORNEO HIGHLANDS

THIS IS WHERE WE WERE.

     We returned to Kota Kinabalu on Thursday afternoon just in time for our interview with President Clark and zone conference.  Then Saturday was District conference.  Our district is all of Sabah so members of the branches from Tawau and Sandakan came.  Because they travel so far---overnight road trip---there were meals provided between the Saturday meetings and after the Sunday meeting.  Kinda nice and that gave us a chance to get to know them a little bit. We both were involved in the leadership training.

RICE PADDIES IN THE BORNEO HIGHLANDS

Kota Kinabalu is suffering a drought. We have not had rain for over 3 months. The iar is really bad. It has alot of smoke in it from all the open burning that is not allowed. However there are several fires all around us every day. This plus the buring on the farms they do every year. The air so bad it is hard on our breathing and throats and gives us headaches. The people are suffering on the farms as their rice will not be as good. Please keep us in mind in your prayers. They are not expecting rain until May.

We have new wheel chair, vision project and water projects to get going on this next week and the current projects to keep going. It will be a busy week.

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Marching through March

BEGU LONGHOUSE

A mixed week of work with the branch and work with our projects.  We sure do love the people here and especially the humble members of the Kota Kinabalu branch. They are so eager to learn and want to do things right.  They have had some challenges in the past and I'm sure they will continue to have challenges but they try so hard.  One thing we have just discovered is that in the past 5 years there have been 9 different branch presidents---one was president for only 21 days.  We will only be here for six months more so I'm not sure we will be able to make any change there but hopefully there can be better continuity and more stability in that area.

We go to the presidency meetings; Bill to the priesthood and I meet with the Relief Society presidency.  They are now meeting every week---all the presidency or whoever can be there.  This week we are preparing for the Relief Society Birthday Dinner which is this evening.  We have to start at 6 PM sharp so we can end at 8 PM so those who ride the buses can catch the last one.  I have also been working with the Primary president and specifically the Primary music leader who is Cecie.  Cecie has been a member for almost a year.  She is 19 years old and the only member in her family.  She was called as music leader in Primary about 6 months ago but has never had a "Children's Songbook" (there isn't a copy for her in the branch) and does not know the songs.  (How could she?)  She is very motivated to learn and to teach the children.  So I meet with her.  She now has a CD of about 20 of the songs and I have downloaded copies of the music and words for her.  She is learning to direct music in a very simple way.  (Did you know that a figure 8 works for just about anything?)  And she is learning what her responsibilities are.  The Primary president is also learning how to let Cecie do her calling.   What would I do without the internet?  I use it so much for information, pictures, music . . . .

BEGU

On Wednesday morning we flew to Kuching.  It was nice to have a direct flight for a change.  We are learning when they are and how the flight number indicates the size of the plane.  We had a little down time in the afternoon and then we met with Elder and Sister Erickson for dinner at a delightful restaurant just a short distance from their apartment.

DRYING THE RICE

WINNOWING RICE

On Thursday we were met by President Sulai and Brother Bago who were our driver and navigator, respectively.  Both translated for us as we visited the kampungs where we are helping to improve the water situations.  Elder and Sister Erickson went with us so they could see what we are doing.  At Begu were able to meet with two members of their water committee, Francis anak Sanyet and Anang anak Rakub, who told us where they are with their project.  We took into consideration that they are in their padi (rice)harvest.  In fact, we got some great photos of the harvest process.
This is a very important harvest for them as padi/nasi/rice is their staple.  They grow their rice on hillsides because they live in the mountains.  It has to be harvested by hand unlike the padi that is grown in the flatlands and is harvested by big machinery like what we see harvesting wheat in America.  After it is gathered, they must dry it and that is done by spreading it on rattan mats in the sun, raking and turning it and hoping it doesn't rain.  We have seen elderly women with 20 foot long sticks guarding the rice that is drying---keeping the chickens away.  After the rice is dry they winnow it by hand, scooping it up on a flat woven 'basket' especially designed for such and tossing it to remove the chafe.  From there they 'thrash' it to remove the husks.  Some have electric 'thrashers' but if the community can't afford one, it is done by hand as it has been done for hundreds of years.  They have traditionally stored their padi in 3 to 4 foot tall pottery 'jugs' which have a small opening in the top to dip out what they need each time.  We have seen some of these old jugs and they are quite beautiful (to the eye of an antique collector) but not many people have them so they use woven plastic bags much like we use to store whole grain in America.  They have to protect it from vermin and moisture and they are able to do that.

I WILL USE THIS BASKET 

WHEN I FLY FISH FOR TROUT

Kpg. Begu has their pipe laid from the source of water up on the mountain.  They need about 2 km more of pipe to complete that part and they need to build the dam to provide for the intake area.  Kpg. Sadir also has laid their pipe to the water source.  They are also harvesting and have had several funerals which have slowed their progress.  Not to worry.  Both communities are very committed to finishing their project to improve their water.

BASKET LADY WITH HER BASKETS

In Kampung Sadir we visited the basket maker as we always do---we pass her home on our walk through the village to the community center where we meet with the leaders.  She was splitting rotan (rattan) to use in her craft.  She is quite elderly and this visit we saw her walking which she does bent from the waist.  She can not stand up straight.  We purchased a fishing kreel from her.  Elder and Sister Erickson bought one of her rotan floor mats which took her about a month to make and will last for decades.  It cost 30 ringgets which is less than 10 USD.  We do not haggle prices with her.  It is her way of supporting herself.

We are back home now for 2 days so I did up the laundry and ironing and we will pack to leave right after church tomorrow for Ba 'kelalan where we are going with Patrick and Anna Panai to assess the need for help.  We have been told that there is a great need for water in that area.  This is the community where Patrick grew up.  I think I wrote about Patrick in an earlier blog.  He was destined to be the headman for his kampung but wanted to go to school.  He finally was able to go---walking several days to get to a school where he boarded---and has become quite an educated man.  His family had a wife all picked out for him when he was about 14 but he wanted to continue with school and did.  He met and married a Chinese woman in Singapore and did not return to be headman but he and his wife teach.  What an interesting couple they are.

YOUNG MOTHER IN BEGU

BURNING THE JUNGLE HILL FOR ??? "IT IS JUST

WHAT WE DO HERE"

A DELICACY FOR SURE!!

We have been watching the transformation of the jungle-covered hill next to our condo over the past few weeks.  First we saw some clearing done at the bottom of the hill and a small community of about 8 houses moved to  another area.  We had not been able to see them before the clearing started but now they are out in the open.  Then, every night we saw fires being set---big fires with flames leaping to the tree tops---which would burn all night and sometimes for a couple of days.  Then the big machinery moved on up the hill, scraping down the hillsides and building dirt roads.  We are interested to see what is happening.  Are they going to build another condo or making access roads for squatters?  They sure are tearing down the lovely trees and vines.  That is sad to see.  We haven't had fires for the last week but they could continue.  I know that there are a lot of birds that live in there and also a large group of macaques.  Wonder what will happen.

Bill here, One thing that I have discovered is how personal this experience is for us. We try to describe as much as we can what we are doing and seeing. However the actual interaction we have with the people and places is hard to put into words. I now understand how our 6 children have felt about their mission experiences.  We feel so blessed to be able to be here and help and interact with a new culture and country. As we come up on our year mark we have thought a little about our return to normal life. Our kids have told us that will not be any easier than leaving in the first place. We have yet to go through those emotions. It will be so hard to leave these people and this work.

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