I woke up this morning and saw the biggest bugs I've ever seen in my life. There was a huge spider just chilling on the wall and it didn't move for the rest of the day. The same thing happened with the praying mantis that was there too. I thought that was relatively normal, to have bugs in the house. It wasn't until we were eating breakfast that it hit me that we were in a completely different environment. During breakfast we all had to sit on the floor and I saw at least two lizards crawling around and everybody was just okay with it. I thought it was cool because the Ibans are more tolerant of bugs and lizards because they get rid of the other bugs. Where I come from if we see a spider, we immediately scream and kill it, but not here. After breakfast we were supposed to help them work in the fields either picking pepper or pulling weeds. They separated us into two groups and we set off into the jungle. luckily my group ended up not doing any work, praise the Lord. Instead one of the locals gave us a tour of the fields. He explained almost everything that they grew there and even let us try some of the produce. Probably my favorite fruit that I've had so far was something called Kecala. It was weird, you had to bite it in half and then you eat he seeds out of it, almost like a pomegranate. Although most of their produce and their main source of income is pepper. They have black pepper and white pepper. Black pepper doesn't last as long as white pepper, so the white pepper is usually more expensive. He showed us the process of making the pepper too. When you pick them they're green, so they have to let them sit out in the sun for a couple of days until they turn black. He let us try both the green and black pepper and the black pepper was loads more spicy than the green pepper.
After the fields we walked down to a nearby schoolhouse to play with the kids for a little bit. It wasn't too long though because we had to go see another school. In order to get to the school we had to cross a bridge and it was the first time that I crossed something that seemed stable, but super wobbly at the same time. Crossing this bridge definitely got my adrenaline pumping. This school was bigger and had a lot more kids than the other school. We brought them a lot of balls and toys for them to play with because they don't have much there.
We got to play with them for a little bit too. After the school we crossed the bridge again and we headed to another longhouse. On the way there it was the first time that I got to ride in the back of the truck and it was so fun! I ended up riding back there every time we drove in a car after that. The longhouse we went to was beautiful. They had a lot of paintings that were really cool. It turns out that it was actually the oldest longhouse in the district. I never would have guessed because it was renovated in 1983.
We didn't stay there for too long because we had to make it back to our longhouse in time for lunch. Before lunch we got to see one of the locals climb up a gigantic coconut tree and he chopped down a bunch of fresh coconuts for us. Then they cut it open with machetes and let us drink the coconut water and eat the coconut meat. I'm not a big coconut person, but I really enjoyed the fresh coconut.
After lunch we headed to another longhouse. This was my favorite longhouse out of all the ones that we saw. Not because of the way it looked, but because of the people there. Even though we were only there for about an hour, they greeted us the way that we were greeted when we first arrived at the longhouse. They had music, dancing and little treats for us to munch on. But what really made this place stand out is the kids. For some reason they all really liked me so a group of about 6 boys were following me around the whole time. Playing with them was probably the most fun I've had throughout the whole trip. After that we went to a waterfall to bathe. To my disappointment the waterfall was just a couple of ponds that were connected, plus there were a lot of other people there.
So once we got back to our longhouse from the waterfall we all went back to the river to actually bathe. The river raised a lot since yesterday because it rained last night. The shore that was there yesterday was completely covered with water. After we bathed we had a big potluck with all of the people in the longhouse. The food was so good, I don't know how anything else is going to compete with it. Immediately following the potluck we had a social night with everybody. There was dancing and they showed us a slideshow. It was a lot of fun being with a community like that. After that was over everybody parted ways and we went to our homes to sleep. It has been a really long day and I'm exhausted. But I'm happy with everything that I have experienced while I'm here and I feel like it really helped me grow as a person. It's a bittersweet moment knowing that we're leaving early tomorrow morning, but one thing I'm looking forward to is a nice hot shower. Goodnight!
After the fields we walked down to a nearby schoolhouse to play with the kids for a little bit. It wasn't too long though because we had to go see another school. In order to get to the school we had to cross a bridge and it was the first time that I crossed something that seemed stable, but super wobbly at the same time. Crossing this bridge definitely got my adrenaline pumping. This school was bigger and had a lot more kids than the other school. We brought them a lot of balls and toys for them to play with because they don't have much there.
We got to play with them for a little bit too. After the school we crossed the bridge again and we headed to another longhouse. On the way there it was the first time that I got to ride in the back of the truck and it was so fun! I ended up riding back there every time we drove in a car after that. The longhouse we went to was beautiful. They had a lot of paintings that were really cool. It turns out that it was actually the oldest longhouse in the district. I never would have guessed because it was renovated in 1983.
We didn't stay there for too long because we had to make it back to our longhouse in time for lunch. Before lunch we got to see one of the locals climb up a gigantic coconut tree and he chopped down a bunch of fresh coconuts for us. Then they cut it open with machetes and let us drink the coconut water and eat the coconut meat. I'm not a big coconut person, but I really enjoyed the fresh coconut.
After lunch we headed to another longhouse. This was my favorite longhouse out of all the ones that we saw. Not because of the way it looked, but because of the people there. Even though we were only there for about an hour, they greeted us the way that we were greeted when we first arrived at the longhouse. They had music, dancing and little treats for us to munch on. But what really made this place stand out is the kids. For some reason they all really liked me so a group of about 6 boys were following me around the whole time. Playing with them was probably the most fun I've had throughout the whole trip. After that we went to a waterfall to bathe. To my disappointment the waterfall was just a couple of ponds that were connected, plus there were a lot of other people there.
So once we got back to our longhouse from the waterfall we all went back to the river to actually bathe. The river raised a lot since yesterday because it rained last night. The shore that was there yesterday was completely covered with water. After we bathed we had a big potluck with all of the people in the longhouse. The food was so good, I don't know how anything else is going to compete with it. Immediately following the potluck we had a social night with everybody. There was dancing and they showed us a slideshow. It was a lot of fun being with a community like that. After that was over everybody parted ways and we went to our homes to sleep. It has been a really long day and I'm exhausted. But I'm happy with everything that I have experienced while I'm here and I feel like it really helped me grow as a person. It's a bittersweet moment knowing that we're leaving early tomorrow morning, but one thing I'm looking forward to is a nice hot shower. Goodnight!
Sal Puma
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