the road there was dusty and uneven. but despite all those untarred roads, we had a fun time going there coz we were singing our songs for the churches and children ministry all the way there. not only that, aaron and kevin were trying to make it sound upbeat by adding disco sound to it. so what do we do? try to make it sound rappy and all R&B but we ended up laughing beczuse it sounded so funny. even the youths that followed us smiled at us like they were laughing. oh well, we needed the fun we passed by alot of rubber trees and a whole lot of reeds until we came by some houses. the driver got out halfway and started doing something at the tires. i was like, what happen? tire pumchet ah? then kevin said that he was changing the truck into a 4 wheel mode. its necsisary to drive up steep hills and it has to be done manually coz its an old truck. the new ones gets it done automatically. oh… so thats a bit of knowledge for us who don’t have a single clue about interior transport. like, me. haha.
and so we reached the village and the truck stopped at a church. yeah i said a church. its because its the seventh day adventist church of that village. turns out the SDA are also quite prominant in their missions as well. but enough about that. after climbing out of the truck, we saw the first thing that will catch anyone’s and the sound that caught all our ears. the river.
it was so long and wide and fast that we could hear the rapids and see them as well. it was like white clouds on the river. and on both sides of the banks are rocks. big ones that u have to step on to walk around. i’ll tell u why later.
after marvelling at the river, we went to the house for us to stay. it was a typical house, with stilts and all. we went up and put our stuff in the living room neatly (ps tom’s orders) and we grabbed our stuff that we needed for the raptai and headed straight for the church which was right down the slope. the SIB one, not the SDA one.
it was a not so big church compared to tagaroh but it was ok. there was a main door in the middle and a side door at the side of the stage. the windows were big squares with wire on it. the benches were made of wood and it had around 7 rows (i think) on each side.
practice was alright and we had to do the heart drama. problem? freda’s not here with us right now! so pr tom told me that i had to improvise and play both her and my role. it was very hard because she and i although we come out together, what she does is very different from my role. i had to keep up with the timing and i was pretty lost for a while. but in the end it was all good. after practice we thanked the youths who accompanied us here and went back to the house to get ready to bathe and wash our clothes.
we went down the slope of a hill to reach the river. we walked on the rocks and some kids came along to join us. we walked for some distance and the girls settled on some bigger rocks to put our stuff. the boys went a bit more futher and settled there. the water wasn’t as clean as the one in the second village but at least u could see the rocks at the bottom. after putting on our sarong, we went into the river.
wow. the rapids are fast man. the moment u get in there, it starts pulling u so fast u start grabbing on anything to keep steady. since there wasn’t any reeds or trees around, i grabbed the rocks at the bottom that were steady. the whole bottom was filled with rocks. not just small ones, big and huge ones as well. i was going, i’m gonna die! i’m gonna die! but the kids gave me strength in a way. you know how?
they just stood on the rocks by the side of the river and jumped straight into the water. i was like, kid! r u ok? he just poped out of the water smiling. i went, duh… all of them, it was routine of them to do that. i was so shocked. i mean, here i am trying to hold on for dear life but these kids were so used to it. and then i saw what they did for fun during bath time. they would climb to the high part of the rapids and just relax. the water would just carry them down so fast its like something you pay for at a water themepark. only differnce is, they get to do it for free, 24/7! soon the boys of our group decided to try it too. the only problem was, their body was bigger compared to the little boys so they wernt floating on the water, they were going down while saying “ow! ow! ow!” the whole time. pr tom was the funniest. he was going “ah! oh ouch!” the whole time. nat was being a kampung boy all over again. he looked so natural at it the whole time. i was a bit skeptical of the whole thing but bernice was all “i wanna try! i wanna try!” and so she went. she came down yes, but with a price. 2 bruises on her back. yi lin and i were playing with the little girls while washing our clothes.
soon, it was time to go back. the girls went up first because there’s only one room to change in. then the boys came and the girls took this time to do their makeup and stuff. well i couldnt. thank God yi lin and bernice was there. haha. then the wonderful ibu-ibu served us dinner and we had a fun time eating with the pastor. and when we finished, we all went down to do ministry.
everything went well, including the drama. then bernice’s group was in charge of children minstry so that means i had to go too. i tell u, the kids were so obiedient. they listened to every word you tell them and they did everything you tell them to do. hands down, best children ministry for our group. then we all released them back to the church and we all closed up for the night and went back to the house for debrief. turns out that the pastor of the church is a rubber tapper so yi lin asked to follow him to work to see how the work of a rubber tapper is. i wanted to follow and so pr tom told us to be ready by 5am. but the funny thing is that the pastor told us that he’ll get us at 9am. plus we had to perform the acceptance drama. since freda wasnt with us, yi lin had to take over her role while i had to take over yi lin’s role. since i wasnt really that type to do her kind of stuff, kevin playfully joked that i might as well just give them money. pr tom liked that idea so he told me to do that. i was like, God help me. and yi lin’s group had to do a major children ministry tomolo at the church in the afternoon. but i still dunno lor… so we had our maggie and chipsmore for supper and we all slept. girls in the small room, guys in the living room with all the boys bags in the space cut out from the living room.
i woke up at 4.30am to wake yi lin up. prob is, we were both still so sleepy that we went back to sleep and by the time we woke up to get ready, it was already 5.20. oh crap! i quickly woke yi lin up and we both waited outside for the pastor. he didnt show up so i thought he probably left when he din’t see anybody waiting for him. so both of us fell asleep outside, waiting for him. it wasent so bad. we saw lots of different big and colourful bugs. the sunrise was beautiful too.
we went back into the house to sleep at 7am. but i woke up again when i heard knocking on our front door. i opened it abit to find the ibu-ibu outside waiting to cook our breakfast. i was like, ok, boleh tunggu sekejap? then i went to wake aaron up coz he was sleeping really near the kitchen door and i din want him to kena steped by the ppl. after asking aaron to wake up, he began to wake most of everybody. soon everyone was awake and we all got ready to bathe in the river.
we all went down to the river to bathe, brush teeth, wash clothes and play at the same time. this time, i decided to try the rapids with yi lin after been convinced by bernice that it was fun. well, we tried it out. my legs got caught in my sarong halfway so i was struggling for my life in case i drowned. well i din. thats where i realised. the rocks by the side were probably left after the river slowly dried up last time. so im guessing that the river was much bigger than it was now. after that, we the girls, left for the house to change. after all of us had changed, we all had breakfast. then pr tom got a call from freda. she said that she’ll be with us around 5 in the evening, most likely. there was a chance that she could be later than expected.
uh oh. and we had to perform the acceptance drama. and freda is the main star. we were doomed. oh well, improvise. so after breakfast, we headed over to the church to practice the impromptu drama.
*this post shall be continued in the next port when i am fresh and awake :)*

yes it's me
12:44 AM