breakfast was prata from a little shop across the road from the inn. twas really good prata! plus a good deal, considering budget for breakfast is RM2.
after breakfast, we all piled into the bus and headed down to the village. the 45min drive was a welcomed rest (with aircon O:) and the entire bus was thankfully, quiet enough for me to sleep all the way to the village.
once we reached we unloaded all our logs to the nursery and headed down to meet up with the village head and the rotary club representation (rotary club is a ngo that adopted the village, and interact club is a subsidiary of it). after introductions, we were lead around the village for a short tour. conditions were definitely better than we had predicted; most houses were concrete and looked quite steady. as part of the nursery team, i then went over to the nursery to interview the teacher and help set up the bookshelves we had brought and fill it with books. the nursery was definitely in better conditions then we had expected, and it was very well equipped. they had lots of nice new pencils and pens and whiteboard markers and paints and books and even a computer, a colour laser printer and a stereo set. it was kind of demoralising at first because it was kinda obvious they didnt need any of the things we brought with us, or any addition help from us at all, and this was reemphasised when we interviewed the teacher to find out more about their curriculum and general attitude towards education. plus, it was the school holidays so the nursery wasnt in session, so we couldnt do any of our education plans either.
nonetheless, i kept my spirits up and we joined another team that was going around visiting households to ask them about their quality of life and stuff. it was kinda interesting because they were so accommodating and we got to learn a lot about their life and everything. and even though everything was in malay i still managed to come up with a few good questions so im quite proud of myself! plus i picked up a few words and were able to roughly understand when they were put into sentences.
excitement of the day? i saw a blowpipe! (VERA. ALERT VERA) the guy who showed it to us told us lots of interesting things, like how they eat porcupines in msia and put their spines on their windows to ward off ghosts. (because apparently, the boss ghost wears a cape of porcupine spines and small ghosts are afraid when they see the spines. although he did not say what would happen if the boss ghost came, but nvm) apparently every household has a blowpipe each and all 15 year old males have to learn how to use it (sorta like ns!) the best blowpiper can aim at something 42m away. i postulated that perhaps that achievement would be required as a coming-of-age ritual, or even for them to get married :D the poison darts can kill a man in 5 minutes, and the only way to stop the poison is to amputate the limb immediately, which was pretty scary and we all kept far away when he pulled that one out and waved it around.the blowpipe itself takes a month plus to make, and each dart takes 3 days for a good worksman, although the poisonous tip takes 1 day and is made up for 4 ingredients from the forest. the poison tips are used to kill monkeys and birds, but he didnt really explain properly if you can still eat them after they're shot. each blowpipe can hold 6 darts inside, and they have these cute holders that hold up to 32 darts at a time.
it was really quite interesting to learn about such practices, and the man was very eager to share. wayne and anh were very enthusiastic about blowing the pipe, so they gave it a shot and managed to hit the target (which was albeit, big and very near, but still cool)
DEATH ON A STICK.
yus, me and blowpipe!
after the visits, we headed back to town, where we returned to the chicken rice stall again for dinner (but no more balls this time!). dinner was followed by reflections, which i think is quite an impt part of the day and it really helps me think back and appreciate the day.
and then, MUG. (im beginning to miss mugging at that place its kind of cozy and its fun ): )
