A weekend in the Longhouse (Day 1)

Date : 6th & 7th October, 2007
Destination : Rumah Ampik

I never thought I could actually go to a longhouse anytime soon. I've always wanted to go, especially during the Gawai celebration, where we drink and drink and drink till we drop. Sad to say, I'm a Sarawakian but never been to a longhouse before.

But...
I finally made it there! YEA!!! *cheer* *wave*


I woke up late that morning - 5.10am when I was supposed to wake up at 4.45am... Lucky for me, my roommate, Thien was also going for the trip. And lucky for both of us, her friend, Debbie knocked the door and called for her. I practically jumped out of my bed and rushed to take a cold, early morning shower and got my bags ready and left to campus with Joel, Calvin, Debbie and Thien. We stepped foot at the drop-off area at 5.45am and we were early... Both the Curtin buses were waiting for us, we boarded different bus and departed from Curtin to Villa and Village to pick up the rest of the volunteers.

the volunteers for John Curtin Weekend

After the picture was taken, the bus drove off from Village to our next destination, Rumah Ampik. Two cars were tailing behind the bus as well. We had a tuna sandwich, a kaya and red bean bun with two bananas and a packed of soya bean for breakfast in the bus. It only took us about 30 to 45 minutes to reach our destination.

the road into the longhouse

That's the one-way road into the longhouse. It was very bumpy and the bus was galloping up and down throughout the journey into the longhouse. The proton in front was our Tuai Rumah Ampik. He waited for us by the roadside and drove us in.

And.... *drums roll*

presenting...Rumah Ampik...

We arrived in our destination and that's our home for the weekend. The chair that we are sitting on is the longest chair ever made in Malaysia, sponsored by Courts Mammoth to this longhouse. Presenting also our team...

that's us; 5 girls and 8 boys

As soon as we came down from the bus, there were music playing and it seemed like a welcoming for us and as we stepped into the longhouse, we saw noone other than the kids playing the traditional instruments. I was surprised to see how good the kids were at playing the instruments. We were greeted by the Tuai Rumah with some other people there. Lucky for us, there was a man who knows English and he somehow or rather became our translator. He told us what the Tuai Rumah told him to tell...and soon after our breakfast, it's off to work!

We were told to plant 100 trees along the road, along the longhouse. We organized ourselves and started our community work at once.

busy 'mengcangkul tanah' to plant the trees

that's me, trying to plant my tree

and...after an hour or so, we were DONE!!! that was fast though. we took a break, cool ourselves with drinks and also another group picture.

after phase 1 of community work

soon, they asked the girls to help out in the kitchen to prepare for the lunch. We went in the kitchen, and there was nothing we could help. The 'makciks' there were doing all the work and when we ask to help, they would say, 'tunggu ya.' and it never worked coz we never got anything to do...sigh... So we stood and watched the 'makciks' cutting chickens, marinating chickens, preparing sambals and cutting the palm oil's heart for soup. Daniel came in and wanted to try cutting.

Angeline and Daniel getting their hands on the knives

And again, there were only Angeline and I in the kitchen after the girls and Daniel left for the plantation to pick sweet-potato leaves. It was a hot and long walk there...

the plantations where they picked sweet potato leaves

The others were decorating the balcony area with ribbons, some sparkling stuffs. The funny thing was our communication barrier which had us into so many miscommunication.... But, at least, we managed to get things done before lunch. We had great food; lunch was great, BBQ chicken wings, curry chicken, pansoh chicken, sweet-potato leaves, soup..............and the best of all....... *drums roll* BEER & TUAK!!!

Well, BEER and TUAK for lunch, how often do you do that........
Anyway, back to the story....

So, after lunch, we went off, getting ready to 'menyambut tetamu' which was at 2pm. We were told that a YB will be coming, so we had to dress up in our CV T-shirt and get ready to greet him when he comes. And here's the best part.... Angeline and I were brought to another house to get ready and the 'getting ready' means....................

aahhhh.......my first time wearing this!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't believe it myself that I actually wore this traditional dress......... I was such a great experience to wear it. No doubt it's heavy, by the look of it, it's pure silver from head to toe. It was hot and heavy and the worst part was we had to wear this outfit throughout the YB's arrival until the end of the ceremony.

Presenting........ *Drums roll*........... the YB!

it was the longest walk I had with heavy dress...and a tray with a tuak glass in it...

We walked the whole longhouse, from one end to the other with that outfit and it was so hard to walk especially with two dangling, heavy silver on the leg. But, we made it through, with a couple of of tuak shots along the way and thank God that the Iban guy signal me what to do....we were point blank on everything coz we wasn't told to do anything at all....sigh sigh... But it was a good experience after all.

The celebration was quite a long one...there were speeches from a lot of people including Catherine! There were also people taking photos here and there, flash were blinking everywhere...feel like someone famous for a minute there...

Catherine with her impromptu speech

Soon after the YB left, we had our own fun; taking pictures everywhere and as the Tuai Rumah came back, he started the dance ceremony. And one-by-one we went up to the tree and dance our way there. Daniel was doing a great job entertaining the people there.

Tuai Rumah's gift for CV

...ahem...the three gorgeous girls...

..all for one and one for all...beware...

Just before we took our break, Tuai Rumah allocated all of us into our foster family. Catherine, Angeline and I were staying with Tuai Rumah and his family and the others were with the other families in the longhouse. Everyone took their bags and went home with their foster family; getting to know each other...

*chime, chime, chime*
Time for TUAK!!! This time, we walk from one house to another, drink one glass to another, eat here and there. Some were already high on TUAKs but we carried on with our visits from house to house. The drinking never stops and it just gets better and better from house to house. What a great time!

a glass in a house

the 5 girls syok sendiri photo

taken somewhere in someone's house but can't remember which where we drank and ate nice food

And it was dinner...Food, food and food again. Their food were great and tasty and delicious and...just great!

After dinner was another hell of fun time there. There were programs lined up for us; karaoke, singing, dancing....and families from all over came to celebrate with us. We just dance and dance and sing and sing till we drop.

Angeline and Daniel's duet performance 'Can't Help Falling In Love With You'

just bored I guess...playing 'Under the Rainbow'

one auntie taught the dance to everyone

i got cheated!
it wasn't Tuak at all..it was Scotch Whisky!
my throat and tongue was burning

???guess who's drunk???

It was 11pm where we had to get rests. After asking permission, everyone went into their house and slept........till the next morning...........

*lullaby*

*whispering* "Coming up next....A weekend in the Longhouse (Day 2)

Cheers,
Kay.