I really started this blog backwards because I keep forgetting to put the last pictures first and the first pictures last. Soooo start at the last picture and work your way to this one. This is a picture of Dad, myself,and Magdalena for Raleigh, NC!!!! I kid you not!! We are half way around the world in the jungles of Borneo and meet a young lady who lives about two and half hours down I-85 from us!!! She is working on her PhD. at NC State University. Her major is the study of ants. That's what she is doing in Borneo. She was born in Vienna, Austria but came to the US to study. This is the only airport in all of these jungles in this part of the island. A plane only flies in twice a week. Our tickets are hand written!!!
It's time to say goodbye to Beslic and Liaw who were our hostess and host. The other gal in the yellow shirt is one of Patrick Pannai's cousins who brought us some rice to take back with us. I'm bringing it home to the US. It's the best rice I've ever eaten. I have come to love Beslic and Liaw who are so kind, good, and generous. Liaw gave Elder Larson a parang(machette) that was his own. Beslic gave me one of her beautiful hand woven baskets. I will remember them forever.
Before you purchase you ticket they weigh you and your luggage at the same time!!! Elder Larson wanted me to step back so you could see the scales. No Way!!! It's in the metric system and does look better.
This is at the closing ceremonies for the fresh water project. The village people presented Elder Larson and me with hats. His is a Borneo cowboy hat made of tree bark. It's pretty "cool". My hat is a ceremonial native hat. I now own three of them. The balloons are around a spigot that released the new fresh water to the village.
The man standing beside the balloons is one of the four village chiefs in Budok Bui. The man in the blue shirt reading to us in perfect English is a village chief in a neighboring village. We actually had three villages in the project near Bakelalan(larger area where the airport is located)
About 16 or 18 of the village ladies put on their ceremonial outfits and performed a "harvest dance" for us. it was so graceful and beautiful. It brought tears to my eyes.
Before the ceremonies, all of the ladies in the village started coming to the preacher's house with their beautiful baskets full of food for the meal. After all of the meal is served, each person goes around to every person there and distributes all of the food in her basket for every person to take some home with them!!! Most of their foods are rice cooked different ways, usually in a leaf of some kind.
This is picture of the men in the village cooking a pig that they killed that morning.
This is the church gong. It's a huge hallowed log that says "haleluyah". They ring the gong every morning at six o'clock for village prayers. The villagers all go to prayer. They belong to the SIB Church. It's an evangelical Christian church that was brought to them back in the 1920's by Australian missionaries. Until then, they were pagan. This same day, I heard the gong sound twice in the morning. I asked Liaw why it rang twice. He replied that the second gong told everyone that they had just cut the pig's throat!!! I suppose that means that the men were to go and prepare the pig for the feast.
This is our bedroom at Liaw's home. The mosquitoes are terrible at night and I so appreciated the netting. It was so cool at night--we needed blankets. Not many places in Malaysia require blankets!!! This is a very thin mat that we slept on.
We wanted to show you pictures of the bathroom we used upstairs where our bedroom was located. This is what you use to dip water over you to bathe. Notice the dipper in the tub. There is slow drip water coming out of the faucet. It's cold.....
This is the "squatter toilet" There is no sink to wash or run water into. Beslic gave me the pink pitcher of boiled water to brush our teeth with. While brushing, you spit in the drain by the blue bucket and use water from it to wash that down the drain!! At the top of the wall that the pink pitcher is sitting on, there is about a two-foot opening to the ceiling. That's ventilation!!!In the bathroom downstairs, Beslic has an electric washing machine!!! The village just got electricity in 2011!! Beslic and Liaw now own a refrigerator!! It's in their new bedroom downstairs because that's the only room with an outlet to plug it into!!! They can run it only in the day time because during the evening when people have their lights on, the voltage is too low. The source of their electricity is a hydro generator installed by Patrick's rotary club.
Malaysia is wet and very green. There are plants everywhere, especially in the jungles. There are ferns all over the place. I have learned to love cooked ferns!!! The blue bowl has the green from tapioca plants, the other two bowls have two different kinds of ferns. This was our lunch one day while there. The villagers eat green leaves and vines from cucumbers and pumpkins.
Picture of Liaw and two of the village chiefs at the dam that LDS Charities provided.
This was lunch one day. On the end are banana leaves that have rice cooked in them. There is also soup, chicken and vegetables. I don't know what all of it is, but it's good. The basket in front of me is full of fruits from the jungle that grow wild--bananas, rambutan, pineapples, a citrus like a tangerine, etc. Elder Larson even ate durian on this trip. I refused because it stinks so bad that you almost lose it!!!! This is Patrick and Ann Pannai--our good friends.
This is Beslic in her kitchen getting ready for a meal. Beslic has village feet just like most of the women here.
After we arrived at the airport, this guy is bringing the luggage from the plane. I was so excited to see that they had fixed the flat tire on the wheelbarrow!!!!
This is our good friend, Ann Pannai. She is married to Patrick who was born and reared in Budok Bui. Ann is Chinese and has been married to Patrick for 42 years. It's was difficult for her to marry a native. Her family disapproved. Same for Patrick. It was difficult for him to marry a Chinese and not a native girl. His Grandfather was the village chief of the Lun Bawang tribe and Patrick was suppose to be his heir. His grandfather disinherited him when he left the village to go away to school. Patrick and Ann are retired schoolteachers and Elder Larson and I are so thankful that they call us "friend".
The jungles of Borneo--going to Budok Bui!!!!
Malaysia is wet and very green. There are plants everywhere, especially in the jungles. There are ferns all over the place. I have learned to love cooked ferns!!! The blue bowl has the green from tapioca plants, the other two bowls have two different kinds of ferns. This was our lunch one day while there. The villagers eat green leaves and vines from cucumbers and pumpkins.
Picture of Liaw and two of the village chiefs at the dam that LDS Charities provided.
This was lunch one day. On the end are banana leaves that have rice cooked in them. There is also soup, chicken and vegetables. I don't know what all of it is, but it's good. The basket in front of me is full of fruits from the jungle that grow wild--bananas, rambutan, pineapples, a citrus like a tangerine, etc. Elder Larson even ate durian on this trip. I refused because it stinks so bad that you almost lose it!!!! This is Patrick and Ann Pannai--our good friends.
This is Beslic in her kitchen getting ready for a meal. Beslic has village feet just like most of the women here.
After we arrived at the airport, this guy is bringing the luggage from the plane. I was so excited to see that they had fixed the flat tire on the wheelbarrow!!!!
This is our good friend, Ann Pannai. She is married to Patrick who was born and reared in Budok Bui. Ann is Chinese and has been married to Patrick for 42 years. It's was difficult for her to marry a native. Her family disapproved. Same for Patrick. It was difficult for him to marry a Chinese and not a native girl. His Grandfather was the village chief of the Lun Bawang tribe and Patrick was suppose to be his heir. His grandfather disinherited him when he left the village to go away to school. Patrick and Ann are retired schoolteachers and Elder Larson and I are so thankful that they call us "friend".
The jungles of Borneo--going to Budok Bui!!!!
OUR NEXT BIG ADVENTURE----HOME AND THE USA!!!!
Love you
DAD & MOM
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