Mission Trip to the OA in Pahang

Note: Most of the photos of the Sunday Schools are with Uncle Charles, Uncle Rodney, and Shu Lynn. Most of what happened is put up in the MGC blog, so I won't go through them again.

Practice on Friday was cancelled because sis wasn't back from Batu Pahat and Sharma was still at work in Alor Gajah. Sis had to work till 1am, and then wake up at 3am to finish her work so she could send it to her senior via email. She only finished about 3 hours later. *terharu* I'm sure Sharma was tired also, but he still went for the OA.
Resolution: As long as my hands can work and my feet can walk, I will continue to serve no matter how busy I am when I go to uni and when I work!

We went to 2 Orang Asli villages (I promise I'll get the names!) in Pahang last Saturday & Sunday (19 & 20 April), with Uncle Charles as our guide. Participants:

• Uncle Rodney
  
• Aaron
• Adrian
• Me
• Sharma
• Shaun
• Shu Lynn
  
• Shuen

Saturday, 19/04

There were lots of things to bring cuz MGC-ians donated a lot of old clothes and toys, so all of us had to carry our own bags (one only for each) and the guys in front had to carry the guitar on their laps. Our butts were seriously crying out for space.

some of us were even suicidal

Somewhere in Negeri Sembilan... we realized we'd left the all-important props behind in Uncle Rod's house. =.=" So we went to Econsave to buy new improvised props and packet drinks & food for the Orang Asli.

Hammer = Goliat's sword, Green&Purple balloons = his muscles, pingpong balls = Daud's pebbles, Basketball = the pebble Daud used to kill Goliat.

balloon is Goliat's head after being chopped off
- Unc Rod's idea

Had lunch somewhere (looked for a makan place with a lot of people wan) and Sharma finished the leftovers of the 6 plates of wa tan ho, mee, and bee hoon.

"you know the bottomless pit the guy in 300 fell into?"
"that was my stomach."

Met up with Uncle Charles and sat through a bumpy ride (Uncle Charles: "macam naik kuda") in his church's van. Was fun, though. There was once we went up a really steep slope and then zoomed down like we were on a roller coaster ride. And we decided Unc Charles can really drive like Kimi Raikkonen. He drove at 80km/h along the hilly road. Fuh.

Shu Lynn was trying to think of ways to introduce us to the kids that would make our names easier to pronounce.

Try #1: Shu Lynn = Shulini, Shaun = Shawni, Shuen = Shueni, Aaron = Aaroni, Sharma = Sharmini, Mau = Mawi.

Er. Not so good.

Try #2: Shu Lynn = Kak Lynn, Shaun = Abang Saun (the kids really auto called him Saun tho he intro-ed himself as Shaun), Shuen = Kak Susu (dunno why), Aaron = Abang Aaron, Sharma = Kak Sharmini (the name stuck), Mau = Abang Mawi (just too good to let go), Tse Hwei = Kak Malang. Cuz if you pronounce my name fast enough, it ends up as "suey" -_-;

The 1st village wasn't as bad as the one we went to the first time *brr* Got proper church building with a cement floor. Shu Lynn (led the singing) paused for quite some time before introducing me, as if deciding if she should really call me Kak Malang ^_^" Then we handed watches and dolls to the children. They were all so huggable! *hugs mentally* (the kids, not the watches and dolls)

Shaun elaborated on it here.

Uncle Charles brought us to Tasik Bera, where we had a boat ride. There were 9 of us, so I went into Boat #1 with 4 of the youth.

maybe one of the reasons i love swimming is cuz
it doesn't matter what my hair looks like anymore when it's wet.

The motorboater kept telling us: "mereka ada 4 orang takper. kita de 5 orang. bahaya." and "hah jangan bergerak-gerak. sini tak cetek. tengok tu. dalam. takde yang cetek." Ish.

so this is what we did on the boat: sit. still. real still.

how come they get to do that?!

atmosphere was silent and grim.
felt like soldiers on a mission all the way.

I didn't dare move even when I saw Sharma elak a branch. And so I got smacked in the face by a branch.

and there were many branches to elak. good thing i'm short.

Never mind. Better then looking up from the brown water (and spurting the brown water) and having the 24-year-old motorboater smile down at me and say: "tengok. kan dah cakap jangan gerak-gerak?"

k la. once in awhile looked at the sky.



sometimes the water aso got other colours la.

and some other stuff in it. like... reflections.

At one point, we got to literally jump into the lake with our life-jackets and swim around =D

...and so we loosened up a bit after that (mana adrian?)

ah~ there he is.

After splashing about forming human chains and having swimming competitions, we bersusah-payah (that's when I got my scratches and bruises) climbed back up onto the boats and headed to the motorboat chalet to bathe. The motorboater just looked at me while I susah-payah-ed up the boat and said: "Boleh tak? Boleh tak?" I was like, "Wow, dude. Thanks for the concern. Would you like to help?" Didn't say that. Cis. To give him credit, he did help Sharma, Adrian and Aaron up the boat la (biased!)

National Swimming Team

Uncle Charles

I enjoyed the swimming a lot. Probably because it's the only sport I can do. I'm like... useless on land. Cis.

The 2nd village had a big church complete with a proper gate, toilet, TV (what kinda OA village izzat!), and mattresses! We did some improving on the props (the previous village's kids said Daud killed Goliat with a tukul & bom) before dinner. Sharma made a new sword out of newspaper - I thought that was really creative *syabas* We had 2 chickens (I think) and 2 veggies for dinner. After that, we started the Saturday Sunday School. This time we had a game, led by Sharma (the previous village's church was much smaller, so takut the windows go ping pong piang) in place of the handicraft. Then we handed out the toys and clothes that some MGC-ians had donated. Toys were cool.

check this out. almost couldn't bear to part with it.

After that we hung around with the kids and did some silly stuff with them. Some of the photos are with Shu Lynn, so we'll check out her blog later (when she's free).

sharma doing some original super basketball skill

I was actually pretty nervous about playing with the kids, because before the Sunday School started, we were trying to mix with them first. And there was this little girl with curls and yellow baju (I remember her so well) who suddenly started crying. Then when I reached out to sayang-sayang her and tell her not to cry, she whacked my hand pula. I was like, "Yowch! When did Sarah (Michelle's sis) come along with us?!" And the little ones came first, so we thought we really had to change the memory verse and songs d. Good thing there were some older ones also after that. Phew.

Then the kids went home (a few walks away) and we practiced our song item for Sunday (since we really didn't feel like performing the skit for the adults for certain reasons ^_^") - You Are My All In All - and the testimony-ers ran through their testimonies again.

gaya seribu tahun

11.30 pm - Tidur. The girls, anyway. This was seriously the first time I slept through the night on an OA trip. The fact that there were no bamboos on the floor to hurt my spine probably helped a little.

Sunday

7.00 am - Woke up, did our Quiet Time, and began practicing song item and running through testimonies again. Oh ya. Shu Lynn taught us a really cool Hindustani dance. And sis taught us the equally cool Chicken Dance.

Breakfast: Bee hoon (we all agreed it was way better than the one we had for lunch on Saturday), fried eggs, milo.

9.00 am - Villagers were not ready for service. Uncle Charles said they looked to the sun to determine the time and it just so happened Sunday's sun was a little late. Couldn't tell if he was bluffing. But the villagers really had neither clocks nor watches so... Anyway, we went to the river to look-see. Met a guy along the way who showed us his catch of fish (a lot). First time seeing a guy who actually comes back with fish after fishing. So I was thrilled. (Public: -_-) And we did some other stuff.

free kick. guess what happened after that?

hint: hwei's the goalkeeper

I learned some new words in Semelai, but only one which I really remember: Boreo. Which I assume to be "senyap", since Unc Charles only said that when people were making noise. We sang a few songs in BM, and a few in Semelai. Quite interesting. Should try that in Melaka one day. I passed a songbook to the uncle next to me, and he said, "Takper. Tak faham." And so most of the time, he didn't sing. A few of the adults were illiterate also. Hmm. The song requests were mostly by the ladies. The men sat and listened. Sometimes sang.

Then Uncle Charles read from Psalm 92, about how some people would prefer to tanam padi, pancing ikan, and toreh getah on Sunday, and sneer at the OA who came to church and call them fools, because "tak tanam padi, macam maner dapat duit?". Admired how he made the psalm applicable to everyone there, regardless of occupation or culture.

We mingled somemore with the children and finally took some photos with them.

no OA trip is complete without teaching them the 'peace' sign
and having them use more fingers for it than two.

hyperactive brothers with a cute big-eyed baby bro

I don't know whether it was the OA there who were more friendly than the other orang asli I've met, or whether I've finally grown a little bit after resolving to have a breakthrough in socializing in the past year. Or maybe it was because the youth who went this time were sociable enough to have a little of it rub off on me. Whichever, I sincerely thank God. The socializing part was my main concern (and worry), since I'm a confirmed and established introvert.

Oh ya, did you guys know that I can't hear very well? Not as in I'm deaf or what. But I need to read lips when people are talking. Don't need to do that for preachers because they'll talk slower when they preach so people can jot down notes. For conversations, I can't understand what you're saying if I don't look at you. It's not so bad for English, but sometimes I still need to ask for a repeat. Mandarin and Malay are the worst. Since I don't hear people speak them very much, my ears aren't that accustomed to the languages and my eyes don't read the language lips very well. (trying to excuse herself for not catching the names of the villages) So when people talk to me, I mainly catch the isi penting of what they're saying and try to put two and two together to form the core of what they're saying. Therefore I might miss some jokes or only laugh a few seconds later. ^_^" And it's also probably why I have selective memory too. Because I can't afford to let my mind linger on one point of the conversation. My mind has to do the filtering information thing also. So some things which are deemed "not so crucial" to the conversation, my mind will choose to forget. So err... forgive me if I don't remember some things you say. =D

Anyway. That's one of the reasons why I don't socialize very well in person (some of you might realize I'm friendlier online). All the more needful of His grace.

I feel weird about enjoying this OA trip.

Before we left, I told the youth: "We're not there to have fun. We're on a mission. Remember that." I think we went there with the right attitude. We were serious about what we needed to do, we prayed about it, and we did improvisations and improvements where needed. But the fun came to us. None of us expected a swim in the lake and cozy toilets and mattresses. In fact, I daresay the youth were scared to death by the stories I told them of the OA (based on the 1st OA trip =P) way of life. It was a pleasant surprise, and many thanks to Uncle Rod for initiating the mission trip, to Uncle Charles for taking us there, to the Orang Asli for housing and feeding us, and to the Lord for making use of us and helping us all the way.

Finally left them and started the journey back to Melaka. Sis was feeling very sick the whole of Sunday. Had stomach cramps and vomited. =( I said in the MGC blog that I'd mention what we did in the car, right? Now I kinda feel like it's not so tellable. ^_^" Maybe will get Shu Lynn to write about it instead. Gah.

To Shu Lynn and Shaun: You guys are crazy! *dismisses the fact that she herself was involved*

this is all i'll let out here. again.

Oh ya. For those who know someone...

won't you agree that I have nicer feet? =P