So it's really hard catching up with this....honestly, I am trying to remember what I did, and some of it is just a blur.
I woke up around 5am, got ready for breakfast(6:30 am). I got to meet up with the group and chatted on how the wifi really was not the best. It was super frustrating.
Dr. Perumal informed us to be ready by 8am to go out to the pepper fields to help out. The plan was to go from 8 am to 11 am to have an hour of a break before lunch. We were all told to wear our hats, and long pants to prevent bugs from biting us. We headed there all in the back of the trucks ready to work. Once we got there, a lady from the long house showed us that all we had to do was pick up the weeds from each pepper plant/tree. It didn't seem that hard however, we were already starting to sweat. We were all told to at least do eight. It wasn't that hard, but the sun wasn't helping us do well. The lady that was helping us, was just giggling the whole time and told us to go to the long house around 8:45 am and that we were finished. We did not last that long.
There were honestly so many funny moments during that time. Some of them are a bit stronger than others, however all I can say is that the highlight of those 45 minutes was our friend Andrew singing "I want Jesus to Walk With Me" as soulfully as he could, as he was picking up the weeds in the fields. We all shared many laughs together, and enjoyed the time there.
We got back to the Long House around 9 and realized we had so much free time until noon. We went in, changed our clothes, and went in for the search of Wifi. I think it's safe to say Wifi is an extreme necessity for people my age in the Western Hemisphere. To our despair, the wifi was not good,and very disappointing. We all sat close by in exhaustion, having conversations, just hanging out, and sharing really good moments. I felt that the fact that each other's company was enough.
Dr. Perumal returned by 11:30 from town with the Chief of the Long House, with juices, bread and introduced the famous Rice Wine. Rice Wine is a cultural drink that the Ibans give to visitors if they have arrived to a Long House or during a celebration. They drink alot of it themselves. The Long house we were staying in was Adventist, so it wasn't consumed there. Dr. Perumal then explained that we were going to be visiting a wooden primitive long house and that we might have to consume it out of respect for the people. So that's why he only made us try a sip of it at that time. Caution, this drink did contain alcohol, quite a lot actually, so one sip was enough.
At noon we had lunch, we got to talk and just socialize with others. By 1:45, we took the 3 trucks(we are still on the back) and headed to a boarding school for kids. It wasn't that far, plus we got to cross a really cool bridge! We got to the school and saw that there were no kids so they were called out of their classrooms. A group of guys played soccer with them and so did the girls. By the time it was time to go, it started to rain a bit.
By the time we got to the trucks, we decided to all get in the back of the trucks again, despite the sprinkling of water. We headed off to visit the primitive longhouse and it started to rain. At first the guys and I were a bit peaceful. We all thought, it'll eventually calm down, no big deal. WRONG!.... Ok well it started to pour out of the sky, it felt even worse because the truck was going at a fast speed so the water hit us harder, we were getting soaked. Eventually, we just let it happen.
We got to the LongHouse (still raining) and the Iban people welcomed us with towels, handshakes, and well Rice Wine. Before we even got to the door, we all had about two shots. Many of the Ibans wanted to give us more, we said no. However many of us took about two more shots. We reached the point where we had to fully reject it. We were welcomed with Iban traditional music as well. We also saw that the chief of the Long House was a woman, and that there were mostly women in the the household.
As tradition for welcoming visitors to the last my house, the host usually dance for the most. So that's exactly what happened, yet with a twist, we all eventually danced the Iban dance. It was honestly super funny. Every guy's personality was reflected on the the way they danced. We also had Dr. Perumal dance the Iban dance, which was really interesting to watch. Due to the rain I had left my phone inside the truck so I couldn't take pictures or videos of it. All I can say is that moment is where the group started seeing how the culture within the Iban houses worked and that it was beautiful to see. We soon then said our goodbyes and headed off to the Long house in which we were staying in. We also didn't care if we got wet so we got in the back of a truck with no shame.
We headed back to the LongHouse to have dinner, but before that we had a time where we got to rest or take a shower. Most of us had no running water so we showered with buckets.
By 6:45 pm, we were at dinner gathered with people as they prepared a special meal and night for us. We ate, we talked, and once we were down we headed to the hall in front. We saw the instruments for dancing were there so we figured that we would have to dance again. We were talking and socializing until it was time to start. The dance started with one of the people from the LongHouse. Soon he started passing the dancing hat to someone from our group and so on. Every danced again and was having a blast doing it. Most of don't dance as SDAs, yet we knew that this was a culture in which the people danced as a way of life. I thought that night was incredible. Then at the end the people wanted to see an "American" dance, so Royce, Satchel, Andrew, and Matt did the "Watch Me" dance. It was so funny, I don't even know what the people were thinking of Americans at that moment, yet they wanted to see it. Despite the long house being small and in the middle of a rain forest, I also think that the Long House is where we received the culture the most and where we bonded more as people and appreciate it more. If I were told to go back for another day, I think I actually would.
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