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