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| Above: The Houses |
On Thurs, 19/ 7/ 2012 – Project MADE assisted by 2
young seasoned Hikers & Explorers
entered the Juncle of Karak on a Jungle Mission.
We left KL at 8am and arrived at our destination in a
Jungle off Karak at about 11am. To my untrained eyes, I would never have found
the entrance to the Kampung. It was hidden amongst the jungle foliage. There
was a narrow bumpy road into the Kampung (Village) and yet passable to The
Monster – Project MADE’s trusted transporter.
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| Above: Surrounded by Nature - So Majestic! |
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| Above: Flora around The Kampung |
When we arrived at the Kampung, the Tok Batin was not
around – apparently he had gone deep into the jungle attending to his Kebun
(Orchard). As the gradient was a bit steep & slippery – both Bernard &
Ricky: our 2 young Hikers volunteered to go in . They took with them a load of
more than 100kg of food items. Whilst I stayed behind in the Kampung chatting
to a group of gauks (sisters) & inaks (aunties).
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| Above: They say Angels came in different forms but to me these 2 Boys are the Greatest! Bernard (in green) & Ricky (in blue). The world will be a better place with the likes of these Boys..... |
I waited more than 4 hours for the Boys to come back and it was a long 4 hours. I had a rambling tour of the Kampung on my own. Life is definitely slow & quiet here. There was absolutely nothing to do. There was no electricity during the daytime. Only at night they would crank up the generator as diesel is needed to run the generator and it’s expansive. There was NO radio, tv, reading materials and absolutely no chair to sit on. So we all sat on the mat and to pass time we chatted about Kampung life and traded stories from our vast different lifestyles. The women must have thought very lowly of me as I was ignorant to their ways of life.
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| Above: Scenes of The Kampung Folks. The children do not have toys. When I took out some toys for them - they just beamed the sunniest smile for me. It made my day! |
When we arrived at the Kampung, the Tok Batin was not
around – apparently he had gone deep into the jungle attending to his Kebun
(Orchard). As the gradient was a bit steep & slippery – both Bernard &
Ricky: our 2 young Hikers volunteered to go in . They took with them a load of
more than 100kg of food items. Whilst I stayed behind in the Kampung chatting
to a group of gauks (sisters) & inaks (aunties).
 |
| Above: The Generator : The Pulse of a Family |
The ladies would usually sit around wait for their
menfolks to come home in the evenings with food that they have managed to hunt
and gather from the deep jungle. The are still hunter & gatherer by nature
and they live off nature. A simple and easy life but not necessarily sufficient…
Life is quite tough in the Kampung as they only manage
to eat only twice a day – once in the morning & another at night. They
usually have rice and fronds which they collect from the jungle – for dinner.
For some reason or other – most of children do not go to school……
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| Above: Mak Isa - once you are someone's mom, you lose your identity. You are only known as the mother of your child. As with this Gauk (sister). She does not allow me to call her by her name but I must call her by her son's name ie. Isa - Mother of Isa.... |
I was offered sirih & pinang muda (betel leaves
& areca nuts) as well as rokok daun ( home made & hand rolled cigarettes).
The sirih I declined politely as I have no wish to stain my teeth but I did try
the pinang muda & rokok daun. It’s an acquired taste – Thank God : I could
hold both with “elegance”. But if I could help it I would prefer not to take
both for a long time…..
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| Above: Me trying to look "cool" with a rokok daun hanging from the corner of my mouth just like the rest of the women. Below: Pinang Muda - bitter and has a powdery after taste. |
To me it was an eye opener. I would really like to go
back into the Kampung and bring some clothes and Kain Batik for the women and
children.
On behalf of Project MADE – I’d like to thank both
Bernard & Ricky for opening my eyes and trekking deep into the jungle
completing our Jungle Mission. You Boyz are one in million! Love you Guys!!
Thank you for Making a Difference!
