In the December holdiays, my friends, sunday school teachers, and I departed on a long journey to the lush rainforests of West Kalimantan to an orphanage called Mt. Hope. Mt. Hope is a centre for the children in Kalimantan which offers education, sports, church, accomadation to the children of Kalimantan. It was established in 1998 The children there come from mainly the small city of Balai Karangan whilst some children have been adopted by the owners of Mt. Hope. The main purpose of my job was to introduce "Family Games" in that community which basically is a programme that helps families learn how to participate with each other in games, and learn how to communicated and uerstndand each other better.
Our route began with a short trip to miri and staying there for a night. The following day we took a plane to Kuching and then a bus down to Balai Karagan. Over the week I picked up quite a lot of exciting new experiences and enjoyable memories. One particular problem was communication as Indon malay partially differs from standard malay, but gradually we became effective communicators with the help of one of our sunday school teachers who was also a native Indonesian.
One event that proved to be highly risky was to join the kids for a game of Captain Ball in the mud field. At first it was very unsightly and it actually put me off, especially with the thought of contracting some worm disease. However overtime I had grew fond of people and the place that it didn't really seem to matter anymore on the last day. On the whole it seemed I had bloomed an undeniable carring attitude towards these people who welcomed us so warmly.
Overall the trip was indeed very exciting. It allowed me to be more knowledgable, as I came to know many of the traditional Indonesian culture of the Indigenous Dayak people. Before we left we were taken on a tour on their farm which was very breath-taking. They grew most of their food as crops, had fish farms, kept pigs. It was very encouraging to hear how everyone worked together on the farm, helping and contributing to their livelihood.
After the trip I realized that I had grew more reflective. The simple, sustaiable life I experienced was yet thoroughly one heck of a lifetime. I do hope to return and visit this fabulous place.
Our route began with a short trip to miri and staying there for a night. The following day we took a plane to Kuching and then a bus down to Balai Karagan. Over the week I picked up quite a lot of exciting new experiences and enjoyable memories. One particular problem was communication as Indon malay partially differs from standard malay, but gradually we became effective communicators with the help of one of our sunday school teachers who was also a native Indonesian.
One event that proved to be highly risky was to join the kids for a game of Captain Ball in the mud field. At first it was very unsightly and it actually put me off, especially with the thought of contracting some worm disease. However overtime I had grew fond of people and the place that it didn't really seem to matter anymore on the last day. On the whole it seemed I had bloomed an undeniable carring attitude towards these people who welcomed us so warmly.
Overall the trip was indeed very exciting. It allowed me to be more knowledgable, as I came to know many of the traditional Indonesian culture of the Indigenous Dayak people. Before we left we were taken on a tour on their farm which was very breath-taking. They grew most of their food as crops, had fish farms, kept pigs. It was very encouraging to hear how everyone worked together on the farm, helping and contributing to their livelihood.
After the trip I realized that I had grew more reflective. The simple, sustaiable life I experienced was yet thoroughly one heck of a lifetime. I do hope to return and visit this fabulous place.
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