This was my first time to stay in a traditional Iban longhouse. The village was named after the river, Sungai Nat. The days I spent in this village mingling with the villagers and understanding the Iban culture still remain one of the fondest memories in my life.
During our stay in Kg. Sungai Nat, my colleague, Chee Ling had designed several activities which required both the children and their parents' participation. It was an insightful experience as we saw children and parents learning from each other, and showed us that there's so much more to be learnt in life.
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| Rumah panjang (longhouse) |
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Photo credit to our edu camp volunteer, Ah Mun. =)
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| It was the rice harvesting season! |
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| Manual harvesting, the most labor-intensive activity of the growing season. |
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| "Can I take some photos of you?" I asked. "Yes you can." answered this friendly auntie. |
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| Drying the harvested crops under the hot sun. |
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The villagers depend on rainwater stored in these massive blue storage tanks for daily usage. During the drought season, water shortage is unavoidable and the only solution is to fetch or pump water from the contaminated river nearby. The river (Sungai Nat) was clean and crystal clear many years ago until the oil palm industry was introduced into this village. A vast area of forests was logged off and replaced by palm plantations. The oil palm industry has undeniably created more job opportunities for the locals, but at the same time brought destructive impacts and environmental pollution to the village.
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| The river where villagers used to bath and do their laundry. |
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| Apai (father), indai (mother) & little Arren. |
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Chee Ling helping Kak Gawal with dinner preparation.
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The mothers said the rice tastes better if you cook it with firewood.
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Photo credit: Ah Mun
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| When there are visitors/guests in the longhouse, the ladies will prepare a feast and everyone will dine together at the "ruai"(the wide corridor/ public space in the longhouse). As most of them are pious Christians, someone will lead the prayer before everyone starts digging in. |
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(From the left) A photo of Ming Choo, Chee Ling & me with our dearest host family. (Apai, Indai, little Arren, Dominica & Dorrisya) Apai said: "This long house will be quiet again once all of you leave."
爸爸属于比较慢热型的，相处的时候都不会跟我们多说几句话。在我们临走前他一直喃喃自语道：“你们离开了，长屋又会变得安静了。”
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The gracious inek. She doesn't speak Bahasa Melayu and I don't speak Iban. So this was our daily conversation when we're in the longhouse: Me: "Inek!" (grandma) Inek: "Ucu!" (grandchild) - end of conversation -
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The hardworking inek. There was once when I nearly got drowned when we're bathing in the river, she saved my life by grabbing my hand and pulled me to the riverside.
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| A boy from the long house snapped a photo of Alfred and I using my DSLR camera. |
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Auntie kissed the children on their foreheads, spreading her blessings to all of them.
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This was part of the program: the adults were blindfolded, and the children were responsible to lead their parents back to the longhouse.
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| "Pok pok pok, bujang lapok~" the 3 musketeers followed us to wherever we went while singing the Bujang Lapok song. |
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