I have been postponing in coming up with a post on the MISSION TRIP..It has been a week since I came home..hahaa..I know it has been quite long since I came home and now only i'm posting about the mission trip..
yup.Almost 2 weeks (14th -24th Jan) away from home into the orang asli area..staying with them will be something I will never ever forget for the rest of my life!
Trust me..after staying there for a week and having to use the toilet in the open air as in the jungle and also falling sick in the village and eating monkeys as well as touching them will be something I will never ever forget.
This is the TOILET!!among the ROCKS and TREES!!!seriously..Argghh..It felt weird at first but after sometime,you get use to it..
This is the 'holy bathroom' where they also cut meat, bathe, wash clothes, pee(urinate), get their water....
Washing clothes with the forever running water..It was a good thing cause we need not worry whether there would be enough clean water or not..At least we didn't have to use river water..haha
It was indeed a very memorable experience and I enjoyed myself although there were times when I felt really HOMESICK!I missed my mums food..The meals that we (Christina and I) ate there were something like this:
Rice and Ikan masin (One of the most popular combinations of food when we were there..haha)
Rice and Tapioca shoots cooked with ikan bilis
Rice and MOnkey and some vegetable stuff
Rice and ikan masin and egg
Rice and Kijang and vegetables
Rice and Tortoise and some vegetables Rice and squirrel and vegetables
They were slaughtering this kijang..We ate it the next day but it smelt quite bad cause there,the uncooked meat is kept in the open without the fridge as there isn't electric supply and then the meat would smell quite bad..
It was a great wonder and it still is.Christina and I would eat so much rice and yet not feel full...We ate like so so much rice...and kept on eating but couldn't seem to feel full.Weird huh?? Basically we were at the orang asli's to teach them (especially the children).
This is one of the things they do for a living..We were helping them to cut bamboo shoots that would be sold to ppl and then sold in the market...The other day,we also helped them fold the banana leaves..
Basically we were there to teach them (especially the children)..It was tough at certain points as these children are not frequently exposed with all these alphabets and numbers..So teaching them is something like my chinese teacher trying to teach me(whose Chinese isn't that good) a quite high level of Chinese!!
Many of them do not go to school or are drop outs.Many after reaching the age of about 8 quit school..It is either because they are not interested or they find it too difficult to cope in school.The orang asli children PLAY a lot..They have all kinds of games... we played with them kejar-kejar, hide and seek, mother hen, dalam kotak(quite a complicated game), polis-perompak and some other games here and there..
Playing ibu ayam(mother hen) with them...They made Christina and I be the mother hen all the time whenever we played with them..
Going into the orang asli has certainly taught me A LOT!!It has changed my perspective on the way I view things.One thing is,I definitely APPRECIATE my home better now!!
And now I understand how some of my friends in school struggle through school..Because they can't even grasp the basics and because of that,they have difficulties in moving on further when teacher teaches..
In the picture above,the girl on the extreme left is a Standard 6 girl and she still goes to school but she takes such a LONg time to calculate 12 minus4...and she can't even create proper sentences in malay..I had to pronounce or say a word syllable by syllable so that she can spell the word (like..BA-CA)then only she would know how to spell..Even then she sometimes takes quite a long time to spell a word..
We stayed at Pastor Philip's home for 4 nights after coming out of the orang asli village.And this is a picture with all of them!!
I love these pictures!!hahaa..We followed Pastor Philip's children for football and while they were practicing and playing we took these pictures for awhile..hehe..Click on the picture for a better view =)
Taking a picture with them at at our room..They emptied a room for both Christina and I..
I like this girl a lot!!!The girl in GREEN!!That is Kuni...She is so ADORABLE!!!!I MISS her lar!!
We were visiting this house..And they were eating in the DARK.. As you can guess,Christina took this picture and her camera's flash was So BRIGHT(painful to the eyes..ouchh!haha)!!
We touched MONKEYS!!ohh...Christina loves them and fell in love with this one...She has so many pictures with them!!!hahaa
Our last picture with some of the Ongkel villagers before we left for Kluang..When I first came home the other day,my house suddenly looked and felt so CLEAN!!haha..seriously...It felt so good to be HOME!!
And last but not least,a picture with the YMI-ers at our last dinner together!!I kinda miss them...Learning, Laughing, fooling around, going for meals, practicing together and many other fun things!!!
For more reading on the mission trip,you can go to Christina's blog: http://christinasan.blogspot.com/
