A weekend in the Longhouse (Day 2)

*alarm rang*

Time was 7.30am the next day. I woke up with a soar left arm. I didn't sleep well the night before because my arm was aching and I couldn't move it at all. So, I woke up and took a cold, morning shower and get myself freshen up for the activities in store for us.

Breakfast was in my foster home where we had curry puffs, donuts and fried bee hoon, all for us and there were so much food there! We ate up and got ready...

...the 'just woke up' face...

Off we go!
Tuai Rumah brought us into his 'kebun' which was a very, very, very long walk under the sun. The walk was rough coz we had to walk on rocky grounds and my leg was aching but it was fun after all. The fun part of walking to the 'kebun' is that we can eat the things there, fresh from the ground. We had 'tebu'; lots of them, ubi kayu; huge ones, bananas; huge ones as well, berries from the bushes, wild mango from the trees........ it's just food, food and food all the way.

the 'kebun' and first stop...the TEBU

Angeline with her tebu...refreshing

Catherine's first 'tebu'

Tuai Rumah showed us how to tap rubber from the rubber tree and Catherine tried her skills on one of the trees there...

We went over to a fish pond where there were small, small fish in there. We watched as Tuai Rumah fed the fish...hmm...yah, I'm right. We actually stood at the edge of the pond and watched.

the fishing pond... I thought there were big fish but its just baby fishes inside it

We managed to bring some wild mangoes along our way back too...

its the fire where we burn our ubi kayu in it...yummy....

waiting for our ubi kayu....we want one...

hahaha...look at the ubi kayu...yum yum

our huge ubi kayu

It was a tiring, hot and tiring again... walk both in and out of the 'kebun'. But, a kid who followed us there didn't even wear slippers! How could he walk on the rocks without slippers???!!! I seriously respect this kid. Even for us who have shoes were already hard to walk, what more to say about this little boy....sigh sigh...

*chop, chop, chop* and again... we are back to landscaping!
This time, there were 2 grass cutters and a few parangs for us to chop chop the grasses along the road. We went and chop chop for about half an hour before they called us in to get refresh for lunch. It's food again! How nice was that....

Iqbal with the grass chopper, mowing the grass along the road

Well, we decided to do a performance to the people there before we leave, so, we went for our practice and later had our lunch and our practice again...

Catherine's move...traditional or modern dance???

the guys practicing their 'Dikir Barat' performance

*vroom*
OH NO!!! The bus arrived earlier than we expected and we haven't even chop the trees yet... We quickly finalized our performance and got around the center of the longhouse for the 'chopping tree' ceremony. Tuai Rumah started the ceremony first with a dance around the tree and later took out the parang and chopped the food hanging on the tree and also the tree....hmm....is that how I am supposed to explain.....hmm....

Irwin's moves

Angeline's moves

my moves

Catherine's moves

Soon after he was done performing, one by one of us went up and did our dance and chopped something from the tree.

It was fun looking at everyone of us dance with our own moves... sometimes, the communities there were laughing at us, it was funny.... we were laughing at ourselves too. Finally, the tree was all chopped off. I think everyone had fun chopping the trees.... GOOD JOB GUYS!!!

So, as I mentioned just now, we had our performance before we left. The girls performed a 30 seconds of 'Puteri Santubong' dance while the guys did 'Dikir Barat'. After our performance, we packed our bags and said goodbye to our foster families and the people there.

the guys' 'Dikir Barat' performance

our small gift to Tuai Rumah

The people of Rumah Ampik were very warm to have us there with them for the weekends and as for me, I learn a lot throughout these two days; planting, drinking, dancing, eating, dressing up in traditional costumes.....

*bus engine rumbles*
We boarded the bus and bid farewell to the people there. It was an experience and I would love to go back there again...


Cheers,
Kay.