Today we woke up early, around 6:30, and hurriedly got ready before breakfast. We had fried rice, pineapple, hot Milo chocolate, and banana with peanut butter and chocolate peanut butter.
We were told to separate into groups of two and go to work with a woman today. Jenna and I went with a tiny woman who led us to the highway in a single file line with the rest of the working group. We split off from them to follow her up a hill and through the jungle. We wound our way through the foliage on a narrow walking trail, and eventually emerged in an open field. I realized that I had forgotten to put on sunscreen and bug repellent. I couldn't do anything about the sun, but as long as I kept moving, the bugs stayed away. Unfortunately, they seem to love Jenna, and she got lots of bug bites.
The woman who led us brought out a machete and cleared the dry brush from a patch of land. We worked planting the pepper plant stalks in rows. We grabbed a group of three stalks that had been stripped of leaves, and pushed them into the ground. We did our best to arrange them in rows on the uneven slope.
The three of us finished this work quickly, and Jenna and compared notes on our favorite Disney movies to pass the time. We were separated from the rest of the group by a steep ravine, but we could see them working hard on their hillside as well.
It started to get really hot just about the time we finished. The Iban woman was so nice and led us on a little tour of the area. Using a bamboo pole, she picked yellow rambutans from a tree. They were refreshingly sweet. We followed her through a different path in the forest passing a hut on stilts that was a real life example of what we had seen in the Sarawak Cultural Center, complete with the log staircase. We walked further to find another longhouse. There were lots of dogs barking at us, but it gave us a great view of the river.
We walked back and ended up coming out of the jungle on the other hillside where the rest of our group was working. I was so turned around in the jungle that I was really surprised to see them. They left with us and we followed the woman back into the forest again. She began picking leaves, but only certain ones. We had no way to ask her which ones she wanted, so we mainly followed her around as she did this. Dr. Perumal was joking at breakfast this morning, saying that it was really important to have someone who can speak the local language in each group of workers. "That," he said, "is why I am sending Ashlee with one group, and Zoe with another." It's funny that I often find myself grasping for a language to use with them. I have used signs, way back from my sign language classes in high school. When in the midst of confusion, even French and Spanish words come to mind! "Macan!" they will say, which means "eat." All I can think to respond is, "Merci!" or sometimes, "No, por favor." It's a mess.
We came back to the house and the pastor's wife greeted us, and asked us how our day of work had been. It was only 9:45 AM. Even so, we were exhausted. She said, "Now you will want to take a shower now, won't you?" We took the hint, and got our sarongs to go bathe in the river. I was hesitant to go because it is a whole ordeal to go down to the river with our soap and bathe in a long dress. But once I got in the water I was glad that I had gone. It was so refreshing. We had floated there in the water for a while when all of a sudden, a fish swam by and slapped my leg with his fin. That was enough river time for me! I screamed and jumped onto the shore. This whole time people have been teasing about crocodiles living in the river, and I didn't want to take any chances. I was pretty sure it had been a fish, but you can never really tell when you are bathing in a river that looks like chocolate milk. All the local women were laughing at me, but I didn't mind a bit! I'm not taking any chances with the river wildlife.
We came back to the room and were able to rest and get away from the heat for a while. Our room is a walkway area for lots of people, and soon Jordan came by and told us that they were cutting down coconuts at the back of the longhouse.
I went outside to find at least a dozen green coconuts on the floor of an open-air hut. They cut open the top of the coconuts so we could drink the water, and then when we were done, they cracked them in half with a machete so that we could eat the flesh. I felt very hydrated after drinking the water. The flesh had a very mild flavor. It was fun to try!
Afterwards, we followed a man down to where they have langsat trees. He was the same man who had climbed the coconut palm after Jon Rojas and Daniel Larios both tried and got badly scraped. We watched as he scaled the langsat tree like it was nothing. He got lots of fruit for us to eat at lunch.
Tori and I went the rest of the way to the river. Even though I had just bathed and had the fish incident, I went in up to the hem of my shorts. It is so hot here, and the river is one of the best ways to cool down.
Soon after we came back, it was time for lunch. They have a pattern of making tons of food in the morning, then saving it and reheating it for meals later on. This is fine by me, because it means that we get to have some of the same delicious food twice. We had more fried rice for lunch, along with normal rice, cooked cabbage, a fruit and potato salad, and cooked leaves that we harvested from the jungle. We washed the dishes after the meal, and then went back to the room for free time until 4 PM, when we would meet to discuss our reflections and thoughts about the trip so far.
We had a great chat/reflection time. It is a part of our class grade, actually, but it was fun to hear everyone's responses to the trip so far.
After that we ate dinner. It was a potluck style meal in the common area. The whole community came out. They prepared special vegetarian food for us, and insisted that we should go first. Before dinner, I had seen them preparing some of the non-vegetarian food. They had about six large bamboo stalks in a five gallon bucket. The stalks had been hollowed out, and looked charred on the outside. The pastor told me that they had cooked fish over a fire in the bamboo stalks. All the women wanted me to try it, but I don't eat fish (and I had seen the catfish that they caught out of the river). When I refused, as politely as I could, they offered me the vegetable side that is supposed to go with the fish. It a was deep green leafy vegetable that had been ground into a pulp. It was fine. The pastor told me it would have been much better with the fish.
At dinner we sat with a woman who taught kindergarten at the local school. She spoke English very well, and it was nice to meet a new person. Throughout dinner, people kept coming by and scooping more rice onto my plate. I had a plate FULL of rice to begin with, because I thought I would just leave what I didn't want to eat, and that would help me avoid more scoops of rice. But no, it just kept coming. They wanted to make sure we were stuffed, and we definitely were.
After dinner, we all sat around the edges of the room to watch their tribal dance. They brought out two gongs, a drum, and a sort of xylophone instrument. The music was really good. Whoever was wearing a feathered headdress had to do a dance imitating a bird. A man started out the dance. He was so good! They passed the headdress around to different locals for a while, each dancer as graceful as the one before. These were the people we had worked with in the field, the people we had interacted with on a daily basis. Who knew they were such good dancers?
Pam was the first one from our group to wear the headdress and have to do the dance. Luckily, the woman who had passed her the headdress danced along with her. The guys in our group all went together, and so did the girls. Actually, I think Daniel Peverini and Tori had to dance by themselves, but it was much easier to go with the group! After we danced, they let us play the instruments for a while. I really started to get the hang of it! I tried the gong, the other gong, and the giant xylophone. The giant xylophone was the best because it carries the melody, so I got to do some improvising. It was so fun!
Soon, the chief's daughter brought out her laptop and speakers. She started blasting an upbeat song in another language, and she led out the whole group of her friends and all of the visiting students in the electric slide. That was hilarious, and one of my favorite experiences of the trip so far.
When the party started to wrap up, we went back to our room. It is part of the chief's daughter's house, so she and her cousin came along too. We started blasting our American music, which they knew as well as we did, and we had a dance party. It was so nice to get to hang out with some girls our age, and get to see a glimpse of their lives. We had a lot of fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment