SELAMAT HARI GAWAI

TYPICAL STREET SCENE IN OLD BINTULU

FISHING VILLAGE

EVERYONE HAS SATELLITE

ONE OF THE LONGEST LONGHOUSES WE HAVE SEEN

WHAT?

A LONGHOUSE BATHROOM, YES WE USED IT!!

BEHIND THE LONGHOUSES

BATHROOM IS THE FIRST DOOR ON THE RIGHT, 

CHICKENS AND PIGS ON LEFT

A HORNBILL

PARK IN BINTULU

FLAMINGO AT THE PARK

It is finally here---the long awaited Iban harvest festival or Hari Gawai. Many people have left town to return to their long house where they were born and where their elderly relatives still live. They have parties, sing and dance. Our branch had their Gawai party on the 23rd because they are all gone now. Today at church there were only about 27 members and one or two 'friends of the church' (investigators) and that is counting 4 missionaries. We expected fewer than that and so only planned to have Sacrament meeting. Most shops are closed and there are few cars on the road. Everyone is gone. Next week will be kind of quiet for us so we have saved up some office work to do.

After church we were given the opportunity to accompany another missionary couple to visit a member of their branch so we did. Since two sets of elders also wanted to go we drove our car with two elders and Elder and Sister Budge drove their car with the other set of missionaries. The long house turned out to be about 120 km from here and the last 20 km were over a very rough road. We bottomed out the car several times in the ruts and pot holes. The road was paved at one time but much of it has been washed out and repaired with gravel which is about as good as nothing. It took us about 2 and a half hours to drive the distance. It was along that rough stretch that we saw the '!' road sign.

It was a big long house---72 'doors' or apartments---and each 'apartment' was huge. Many of the people who live there are related to each other. We took a lot of photos and Bill will put them on for me. They fed us---rice (of course), chicken curry, salted pork, a local vegetable like celery root, pickled cabbage/carrot/chili/cucumber salad, and fresh fruit from their orchard---3 inch long bananas, salak (pronounced sala---swallow the 'k'), and oranges. For gawai they make special foods (like we do at Christmas) and many of them are made from some form of rice. There is a fine rice noodle that is fried and then sweetened with syrup---it is crispy and sweet. They also use rosette irons to make rosettes (thought that was a Norwegian thing) but they make them using rice flour and I don't think there were any eggs in them. Not the same as we are used to. Then they make a gawai cake that is very dense and has different flavors like yam. Ya gotta be sort of adventurous here in Malaysia. I'll try just about anything once. I did draw the line with the smoked catfish. I've seen the rivers where they catch those bottom-feeders and I know what goes in those rivers and it is not nice. I gave Bill the signal to not eat it so about 2 minutes later our hostess brings me a choice piece. I thanked her, smiled and tasted it and hid the rest under my banana peel and a pork bone. Sure glad I've had my hepatitis immunizations.

We admired their sarongs and several women brought out sarongs and put them on Sister Budge and me, over our skirts. They are beautiful. We protested but they insisted we keep them. We then went to visit relatives where each hostess treated us to another glass of soda or juice and snacks. Everywhere we go all the kids come to see the white people. They like to try their English on us.

Before our trip home---another 2 1/2 hours over that bumpy road---I needed to visit the little girl's room. Keep in mind that the men had all gone behind the bushes back down the road before we arrived at the longhouse. So I told Sister Diri my dilemma and she took me out back past the caged chickens, past the pig pens, through all the lines of drying laundry to a hodo (that's an outhouse). Another interesting experience of which I will spare you the details.

As we left, a little grandma came out carrying a sack in each hand, one for Sister Budge and one for me. It was a bag of Iban rice which they grow themselves. It has a flavor different from any other rice I've eaten---very good. We felt very honored. The elders tell us that it gives that family status among the others in the long house to have had white people visit their home.

Last week we were asked by the elders to accompany them to the home of Kuinn and his wife, Florida. Kuinn has been having a health problem and been to a doctor (about 10 times, he told us) and they tell him there is nothing wrong and give him some pain pills. His feet swell up and are painful preventing him from working to support his family. He is an otherwise healthy looking young man. Quite difficult to assess but I think we convinced him to go to a different doctor and find out what the problem is. I suspect an auto-immune disease or allergy. This family live in a kampong which is a village of shacks. They have no utilities, no furniture, 5 children under 6 years old (2 babies) who he was taking care of because his wife had to go do his job or he would loose the job. I hope he follows through with that plan but I don't think he will because he is very shy.

We finally went to visit Tamas Tumbina which is a botanical garden/zoo. It is less than 2 miles from where we live and we have wanted to go there since we found it. It was early afternoon Saturday so quite warm and we took time to see about half of the park. We walked up a long trail to see a tiger but it was sleeping inside it's den and not to be seen. We did see a honey bear. I think all our grandkids know what a honey bear is because I have read them that book by Jan Brett about the honey bear. We also saw lots of birds---hornbills, parrots, flamingos and others. We will go back to see the reptiles, butterflys and the fern garden.

We continue to see that the gospel blesses the lives of these wonderful but primitive people. The gospel culture is so new to them and they have a hard time not reverting to their primitive ways of superstition and animism but they try and they gradually become stronger.

Bill talking now:

This is our week for longhouses. We go again today and then an overnighter this weekend. Where will we shower?

SELAMAT GAWAII!!

BILL AND ELLEN AT THE BRANCH CELEBRATION
OF HARI GAWAI

Gawai is the biggest festival of the year here in Bintulu and probably all of East Malaysia. It lasts from the first of June for about 10 days. Our branch has been planning a party to start Gawai for several weeks. Friday the Branch presidency went shopping for the food and Saturday the Sisters got together in the morning and started preparing it. When I got there at about 10 AM they had big tubs of chicken wings, cubed pork, one tub of whole fish, another of chicken gizzards and another of their favorite 'chopped chicken' all sitting on the floor. I peeled potatoes and cut up broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and cabbage. They also had watermelon and honey dew melons. They continued with cooking the rice, rice noodles, and making curries and soups. I left before they cooked the meat but I know they stuffed the pork into lengths of bamboo to cooked it. The fish was smoked. It all tasted pretty good.

SISTERS PREPARING FOOD FOR THE PARTY

Then the party was in the evening. First the speech making. That is an important thing with any event and they LOVE the microphone. They like it cranked up all the way and they get real loud with it.

BROTHER JOSEPH DANCING

We had some DVD's of traditional dancing going on. Their Iban music is played on drums and an instrument that looks like a zyxlophone but has about 5 tones . Very interesting. I would like to find a CD of the music to have. Their dancing is patterned after animals---especially the hornbill so they had a feathered headdress they would wear. One person at a time would dance around the banana tree which had been decorated with crepe paper streamers, and wrapped biscuits, balloons, and other trinkets. This was in the middle of our chapel. As they danced they would reach up and cut off the biscuits and toss them to the children, pretty soon they were cutting off the limbs and then it was all gone. End of dancing.
The meal was served buffet style by the sisters who prepared the food, children first. I held someones baby so was one of the last to eat. Then they play games. They love to laugh and have fun. Bill and I left before it was all over and we heard this morning that some stayed until after midnight to clean up. It all looked like a chapel this morning---no sign of a party.

One night last week we heard a dog barking and howling. Bill went to investigate and found that a dog had fallen in the gutter. Gutters here are open, about 3 feet deep, 18 inches wide and cement. The dog couldn't get out because the sides are straight. He tried to help it out but it growled at him so he left it alone thinking the pet owner would miss the dog or hear the dog and come and get it. The poor thing was out there all night crying and howling. I finally found my ear plugs and got some sleep. By morning someone had either pulled the dog out of the gutter or shot it. Pets are not pampered here. Dogs all look like the same breed just different colors.

We just acquired a larger car. This one has shocks. Yeah! And the odometer works Yeah! The first day we had it Bill took me up to the chapel to teach piano lessons and then he had to go to the airport to pick up one of our elders who had been to Singapore for a few days. On the way to our chapel, at a major intersection, was a tanker truck wreck with an oil spill. They had brought in a dump truck of dirt and there were about 20 guys with shovels throwing dirt on the oil. Traffic had not stopped so the oil was getting spread further and further. So we went through the intersection and on up the road which continues up a hill. With the oil all over the road vehicles were having a difficult time staying on the road. Big trucks were fishtailing all the way up the hill. We somehow, got through. Oil all over the car. Bill was late picking up the elder but that was OK because the plane was late, too.

Now another interesting thing we have found in Malaysia among the Iban and that is the naming of children. One has a given name and the name of his/her father---the given name of his father. So Jambang names his son Sammy---Sammy child of Jambang, only their word for child is anak abreviated ak which comes out Sammy ak Jambang. Sammy's children are named Contessa ak Sammy, Pilin ak Sammy, and Carl ak Sammy. Now the interesting part. When a woman marries they do not take their husband's name, rather they keep their father's name. So Sammy's wife is Pauline ak Kudi. Contessa, Pilin and Carl are Pauline and Sammy's children.
This works out great in a culture without a written language but not so well with others. Our branch directory has everyone listed at least twice---once with the father's name and once referring to the mother's name. Rather confusing to look up someone in the branch directory unless you already know who goes with who.

We will be slowing down to almost no movement for the next two weeks while the entire country does Gawaii. It is sorta like having two Christmases. They are both major holidays here. We are expecting less than 15 at church next Sunday. Probably all of our Humanitarian projects will slow down as well. It is tough enough with the regular Malaya way getting things done but this will be a good lesson for us to slow down too.

During June we will be on the road or in the air for some travel. We have three handing over ceremonies in three different cities spread out about 8 hours of road travel each way, so we will fly to those. Then 3 different villages in the jungle to see about water projects. The first of July back to Singapore for a few days.

So that's life at Malay speed for us.

A CAFE'S FOOD PREP AREA NEAR OUR CHAPEL IN BINTULU

THE MALAYA WAY

RURAL HOME

Going to the Doctor here is a very different experience. Try this in America. Call your doctor on his cell,(what? you don't have your doctor's cell phone number?)tell him you need to see him and what will he do??? Here he will schedule you in in the next few hours himself. You wait maybe 10 minutes in the waiting room then go right in. You spend as long as you want with him and then actually be the one to say you better go and let him get to work after about 30 minutes of chatting about your medical thing or whatever. You wait another 2 to 5 minutes then they have your meds ready which you get right there in the office. Total cost about $8.00 (eight),American dollars...meds and office visit. The Doc has the same amount of training as an American doc. Need a 9:00 o'clock pm appointment like I did, no problem the doc works 12 hour days right in his clinic. Now I wouldn't necessarily have surgery here I would go to Singapore for that bu for general medical care? What a deal? We'll see if I die from the treatment. :)

Can't find the following; gallon of milk, original dvds, cheerios or most other cold cereals, fast food, lunch meats, cheese other than processed, micro-wave popcorn, big box stores, department stores, green rivers and on and on.

Never see full size pickups or other large cars, do see alot of very small cars and very small scooters-motorbikes. We do see Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Kia, and locally made cars.

Usually takes 4 or 5 trips to get things done in town. You have to go to several places to buy things.

This is an emerging society. It is the "old west" of the world. One only has to travel a few hours into the jungle to be where people have never left the jungle and it is not always the safest place to be. Head-hunting was carried out as late as the 60's. The Ibans and other Dayaks (native tribes) have only come out into society here in the last 20 years or so. Most all adults were born in the longhouses in the jungle and most all go back to their native longhouses for all holidays and most still have their own rooms there.

BATU 18 SCHOOL CHILDREN

The schools are still wrestling with how much to emerge their children in English. Schools started out 30 or so years ago with the entire curriculum in English and the changed to 1/2 and now may go back. English is their key to a better life as all higher learning is in English. We are working with a rural school that is about 45 minutes out of town. We will try to get them more library books in English. The teachers and students have nice schools or the best they can afford but very little in the way of books.

The closest towns are 3 hours away. There are no suburbs. Well I guess really there are...they are the longhouses. We will be visiting soon and will send a few pics. The people are very loving and kind and happy. They have so little but have very little to worry about too.

At our district meeting today we treated the elders to an American meal of potatoes and gravy and fried chicken. Boy you should have seen them go down on that meal. I have never seen anybody eat as many spuds as they did. Well, maybe Jason, Matt, and Lynn did.

I have been a little under the weather so work as slowed a little but I am up and at it again so watch out. We have the big Gawai celebration with native dancing this weekend and a baptism before that and a few other NGO's to meet with. So the work goes on.

Ellen talking now---We have done a little exploring this last week. We trusted our car to make a trip south to Tatau. It is actually smaller that Bintulu. Next time we will head north toward Miri. We will be traveling to Miri in June for our district conference. I still use GoogleEarth as my map. I have discovered that there are some pretty good photos of this area on that web site. Click on the little blue squares to see the photos. Check out Sungai Plan which is just north up Hwy 1 from here. That is where most of our branch members live; where we visit them. That is where our church building is located. We will have to take some photos of our building and post them.

One thing Bill neglected to mention that they do differently here is eat on the floor. They 'set the table' by placing the tray of mugs, the stack of plates or bowls, a pan with spoons on the floor (which is spotless, by the way). Then they bring in the dishes of food. Everyone is sitting on the floor or on chairs. One person (the hostess) dishes up the food for each person and hands the plates out, then the spoons, then the beverage (usually what they call 'kordial' which is a fruit drink made from a concentrate mixed with water, warm water, or at least tepid) never chilled because there is no room in their refrigerators and tap water is tepid to warm in temperature. Often we are served what we call 'chopped' chicken which is chicken that has been chopped up with a meat cleaver. They take the chicken, plucked, cleaned out, and start chopping to get bite-size pieces and they cook the pieces. So 'chopped' chicken always has bones, skin, fat, and don't look too closely. It tastes really good. As people eat they spit out the bones and put them on the floor. After the meal they wipe up the floor.

We've also eaten some green vegetables that look like fern heads cooked with garlic---yum, so good. We've eaten other green veggies that we don't recognize at all. All meals have rice in some form; either noodles or just plain rice. Last night we had Iban rice which was slightly purple in color.

One home we visited in had little children, one and about four years old. The mother fed them from her plate using her own spoon for the children. Saves dishes. Made me wonder if the 4year old could feed herself.

PRES AND SISTER SKELTON, OUR FIRST MISSION PRESIDENT AND WIFE

A FAMILY WE WORKED WITH TO HELP THEM 

COME BACK TO CHURCH

Similajau National Park

We have three tentative water projects at present. One is about 3 hours from here in a village of 3000 without clean water. All long houses and live in the jungle. The other is 5 hours from here and has a population of about 5000 and they are in the jungle and always have been. The are mostly naked and sleep in the trees or in the rafters so the animals don't get them. We are told that when we visit we will be offered the headman's quarters to sleep in. Not sure how we will do sleeping in the rafters. We will take any who come over to see us to that one, I am sure you will be right over, especially Lauralee. The other is about 1 hour by air and 2 hours by car and we don't know much more than that. We will be traveling to these sites in the next 30 days we hope.

This week we have branch visits, district meetings, lunch with the young elders, zone conference with the mission president for 1 1/2 days and CES meetings with the CES couple out of Kuching and our new seminary teacher. They have seminary one night a week here.


The branch is doing better each week. We started with 63 at meetings, last week 73 and this week 85. So we keep seeing the members and loving them and they seem willing to respond so far.

We have had some showers during the past week. They don't last long but they wet down everything really well.
We really enjoy reading your emails and knowing that you are thinking of us and supporting us in your prayers. Thank you.

ANOTHER WEEK IN PARADISE

Where Ellen cooks.

THIS IS THE KITCHEN OF A SMALL EATING PLACE IN BINTULU

Typical downtown scene.

Joseph's family, one of our first visits.

The "blocks" where most of our members live. There 25 blocks housing 80 families each.

Our first visit to a long house. No lights, no furniture,

 but sweet spirit and fun all by candle light.

It is Tuesday afternoon and we just got home from our district meeting. They are pretty good---we've been to 2 of 'em now---and after the meeting the other couple and we take the elders out to lunch together in the 'shop lot' where they have little cafes. All the cafes are open on at least one side so there is a little breeze. They are rated A, B, or C for cleanliness; A being the cleanest. To show how clean the eating utensils are they are all brought to the table in a glass of hot water. If you need a knife you have to ask for it---standard is a fork and a soup-spoon-size spoon. We had lemon chicken and pineapple rice. Not bad. We also had a drink called 'a pink panther' which is grape syrup in the bottom of a tall glass which is then filled with Sprite. We usually don't use our straws because sometimes they have been used more than once. I do not care for carbonated drinks and prefer water to anything else but I am learning to drink sodas because I know they are clean especially if I open the can.
After lunch Bill and I walked through their local market and bought a bunch of bananas and a pineapple. They are so good. However, I take all fresh fruit or vegetables home and run them through the chlorine water and rinse with purified water. We also like the large globe grapes, watermelon, and we get a few citrus fruits, too.
Keith, you asked what interesting kinds of food we have had here. They like to fry their food---rice, vegetables, meat, fruit---so if we eat in a cafe that is what we get. We tried a new fruit a few days ago and I think it is called salad (sal-odd" with accent on the first syllable). It is about the size of a large kiwi with brown scaly skin I peeled off with my fingers. Inside are 2 or 3 sections of white fruit that is smooth and looks sort of like almond-shaped pieces of potato and tastes something like apple or pear. Yum! It has a smooth shiny dark brown almond size seed in each section. I have seen them in the market in a bunch like grapes but didn't know what they were. Next time I see them I will get some. We have also eaten some lamb, lots of chicken and fish. They have cucumbers and grow corn but the ears are small and look similar to the ears of corn you can buy for salad---baby corn.
The markets have lots of greens for sale. None of them look familiar to me so I don't know what to do with them. I have eaten some kind of green that looked like fiddle-head ferns that was cooked with garlic and was really good.
Sunday evening we went with the elders from our branch to visit some members who have not been out for a while. Basically, they have had their feelings hurt in the past. Bill talked to them about repentance and told them to 'get over it'. He told them that when they stand before the Savior, having their feelings hurt will not be a good excuse for not attending church. They all agreed with him and said they would be back.
These people live in what they call the 'block'. The block is a cement building, 5 stories tall, stairways going up in the middle courtyard to each level. Each block has 80 apartments and there are about 25 blocks in a very small area. That is 2000 families. Each apartment is a main room and 2 bedrooms with a little bathroom (about 5 x 5 feet). They have electricity, running water, and some have a ceiling fan. They have cement floors which the residents cover with a heavy contact paper so they can keep it clean. Some have tiled the floors in their homes. Most don't have furniture or if they do it is just a couple of those plastic chairs we use outside. Some have a little clothes washer and all hang their laundry out the window.
In the homes we visited many had a little plastic container with live fish swimming around. These are their pets. Some of the fish are like our aquarium-size tropical fish but others were up to 8 inches swimming around and around (3 of 'em) in a gallon-size jug of murky green water. I suppose that is better than a furry pet. There are lots of dogs here and out where we visited they are small, mangy, and on the prowl. The cats here aren't much better. They are all skinny and not what you would want to pet. The cats all have either kinked tails or short stubby tails. The elders say that is because the kids try to pull the tails off the kittens (sorry, Aunt Evelyn).
Last night we had an appointment to have FHE with the RS president and her family who live in a longhouse. A counselor to the branch presidency took us. A long house is the traditional (jungle) home of the Iban. It is 2 levels with the top level for living and the ground level for storage---think chickens, piles of coconuts, sacks of rice, the family scooter. We had to park out on the road and walk in over a rough trail which was washed out in places so had some narrow boards criss crossing and balanced between the 'banks' to walk on.
It was about 7:30 pm so not quite dark and we managed the trail OK. So to get to the upper, living level we climb a steep, well...., I guess you could call it a stairway. It is just boards like a 2 x 4 for steps, shaking from side to side as we climbed. At the top we entered into a lo-o-o-ong covered porch. This extended the length of the longhouse which Bill says is about 150 yards long. This one we visited housed 48 families living in a string of apartments side by side. When the kids get married they add a house to the end. Nice plan??
So we found the family's door and were welcomed inside. No electricity, no furniture. We take our shoes off at the door and sit on the wooden floor covered with the contact paper. They used 3 candles for light. Sena has four sons age 3 through 15 and her husband got home just after we arrived. Just after the opening song it started to rain---and it poured---on their metal roof. We couldn't hear anything but it stopped after a while. We had the lesson and played a game and she served us Milo, which is their hot chocolate, because it was raining so we needed something warm to drink. We were dripping with sweat but we drank it.
So after visiting we said our selamat malam's and left. Now it is really dark and no light but the rain had stopped falling from the sky. Now it was just falling from the trees we walked under. After a bit our eyes grew accustomed to the dark and we could see a little but not before I stepped in a puddle of water well over my ankles. Just keep on going. Those boards were a little more difficult to manage wet and in the increased darkness but we somehow got down the trail without falling on our butts or spraining an ankle. So on my shopping list is a flashlight and an umbrella (not sure an umbrella would do any good in that downpour).
We love it here!! We are having great experiences. And the Church is so true. It blesses the lives of the Iban so much. It gives them hope. It helps them learn to love and serve one another. I am so glad to be here doing what we are doing.
Love to you all. We try to NOT think about you too much. (I'm smiling)
I am (Bill).Actually I love seeing pictures of home and the grass. Christine is cutting my grass. I consider that a privileged job Christine. We have a full schedule each week. We are working on some welfare projects that are fascinating to even think about. A possible water project on the Island of Bum Bum off the coast of northern Sabah. A humanitarian organization has built a school to serve the natives which consists of Indians that live off the ocean and the land. about 20,000 that have no clean water. We will see where that goes. We will need to go visit first.
The Branch is going to have a typical Iban celebration the end of this month. It will include traditional dancing as they did around a pile of heads they removed from their captured enemies. It will be colorful but no heads. They are pretty excited about it and want me to dance with them in all the get-up including a loin cloth!! and Head dress. That will be a picture you don't see.
I wish I could include more pictures but the internet is very slow in uploading. You will just need to visit with us when we get back. Wow that is a long ways away.

So what do we do all the day long. Well we visit the members in their homes,(that's the most fun), we visit governmental and non governmental (NGO's) organizations seeing how we can be of help in their country, shop for groceries and stuff; this takes a long time cuz we have to go to a bunch of diffenent places to get what we could in one place in the US. We venture further out trying not to get lost but getting acquanited with the country. We attend church and district meetings. We visit with the other couple once a week. We do a whole lot of communicating with our leaders in Hong Kong and Singapore. Conituing to get set up with the different utilities and needed equipment. Study the lessons and the scriptures and how we can strengthen the branch. Oh also we are still figuring out how to call out of the country. Just a few details like that left to do.
We really love those few emails we do get from those dedicated followers.
Keep them coming.

Love Bill & Ellen