More jungle, more kampongs, and a whole lot of Montfort.

It's only just occurred to me that another month has flown past without a blog, and honestly I just don't know where the time has gone. This month has been spent largely with my boys at the hostel, and in these closing stages of my project here (just 7 weeks left!) I want nothing more. But April also saw the arrival of two fellow Londoners in the area, two friends of mine from home, Rob and Lucy, who I had the pleasure of hosting for a weekend at my project. They provided the perfect excuse to finally check out a zip wire centre that's based just 10 minutes from our project, which proved to be a brief but pleasant day out. Always good to have some London folk around, there's only so much Scottish banter one man can take... (I'm joking it's not that bad).



Some cool kids ready to have lots and lots of fun!

As scenic as a zip wire can be

The following weekend, we had a 6 hour jungle expedition. It was a long old slog uphill, crossing countless rivers along the way, all the way up to the kampung of Borombon where one of our staff members, Cornelius, resides. Jungle trekking is a cracking passtime. As you walk, you can be deep in thought and reflection, or simply thinking about nothing else except where your next step is going to be, and both prove to be delightfully therapeutic. This, all supplemented by the sheer beauty of your surroundings- the free-flowing rivers that carve through the dense jungle landscape, coupled with the cacophony of sound produced by just the smallest insects- makes for good walking. Add my boys into the equation and you've got yourself a fine day indeed!

The morning mist as it meets the great, rolling hills.

A cloudy but beautiful morning

An exodus of boys making their way to the next kampung.

Lads at the kampung

The Raptor Crew!

See if you can spot the nutty white man

Loving life

Happy hikers

I love Sabah

The dense jungle

Kampung Borombon, our destination.

All the boys and the view from Borombon, looking out onto the Crocker Range.

Me and Weldy and the Crocker range.

The descent was largely spent with this man right here, Benddy. A tad slower than the rest, but you never leave a man behind..

That Crocker Range again!

Onto Montfort week! St Louis Marie de Montfort was the founder of the Brothers of St Gabriel, for whom I work for. Thus, his feast day is quite a big deal in the Montfort calendar. For the previous two weeks I had been doing my best to teach the boys the story of Montfort, as well as preparing some volunteers for a story telling competition about.. well, guess who. Monday was the quiz night, Tuesday was the story telling, and Wednesday was a Feast Day for which me and Hugo provided an abundance of flapjacks. They were crumbly, some were burnt, but my Montfort they were good! They were the first item of food to disappear, always a good sign! It was lucky I kept back a tray in reserve; that secret stash kept me going for the remainder of the week. A feast day at the Montfort centre was also observed. No flapjacks but there was some stunning food and pleasant company.

Monday night quizzing

Three markers not taking their job seriously at all

Tuesday night- last minute story telling preparation

Some riveting story telling from Lol here

But it was a tough crowd.

Hugo eyeing up the vast array of splendid food

All the lads after a successful Feast night!

Montfort Feast day sing-song

Montfort LADS

On Friday, while Hugo went off to Montfort, I went back to one of the boy's villages with one other boy. The three of us were supposed to be picked up by his brother but he was a no show, so it was a bus ride and a 2 hour hike some up rocky jungle roads. After the jungle trek a couple of weeks back, we conquered this walk with ease, although there were some interesting obstacles, like over flowing rivers with a strong current and no other way round. But we soon reached his kampung (village), and in true kampung style, we kicked back, ate bakas (wild boar soup), drank tapai (a local brew made from tapioca), and watched a collection of shows on his HD TV, ranging from local Dusun karaoke to Charlie Chaplin. A couple of years ago, if someone had told me I would be watching Charlie Chaplin in a village in the middle of the jungle, I would've given them the 'cool story bro' treatment and ignored them completely. But here I am, living the dream (a slightly surreal and deranged dream it has to be said, but a dream nonetheless). We were fed impressively for the entire weekend, so on Saturday morning I was pleased to hear that I could be of service to the family. A new house was being built by the brother, and some bricks needed transporting, so the traditional bamboo baskets came out and me, Marcellus, and Alvetus slaved away all morning carrying a load of bricks from one place to the other. Despite the ever increasing  heat of the sun, we made light work of it, and my word the rewards were great. To my sheer delight, when we returned to the house, Marcellus revealed his very own PS3 console. And then, to my unbounded joy, FIFA 12 was lying before my eyes. I couldn't quite believe it,  and it was perhaps this disbelief that put me off my game at the start, 3-0 down after just 10 virtual minutes. Like the pro I am, I regained composure, and began to fight back with some style. 4-4 at half time. The second half didn't prove to be quite as spectacular, and one goal was enough to carry me to my first Fifa victory of the year! I ended up playing 4 games that day, and won all 4 like a boss, making  me the undisputed champion in Kampung Ruminding ( now that's not something many people can say).

The rest of our time was spent playing a bit of football, swimming in the river, eating local food, watching more football and drinking some lychee liqeur. To sum up Kampung life in a word, it's relaxed. These people don't aspire to go out of their way, earn lots of money, travel, or anything like that. Simplicity is the name of the game. This is the third kampung I've been to now and I've had a good taste of what it's like now. In many ways I admire their approach to life and its humble nature, but as a city boy it would need some spicing up for me live there permanently. Nintendo Wii maybe? 

Once a road, now a river.

Our two hour walk on the jungle road to the village

Our first sighting of his village. Stunning stuff

Casual shotgun for hunting wild pigs. Looks like I'm waiting for when pigs can fly with that aim! haha funny

That's right, FIFA!!!! Unbeaten in Malaysia. Still got it.

Kampung kid helping to carry bricks in a traditional basket/backpack

Life is sweet

Shower time in the river with my new buddy Dueduy

Having fun munching on a chicken foot and eating rice from a leaf #thisissabah

A view from Marcellus' lounging spot, with the morning sun popping up above the hills

Same shot, but with a cool sunset mode

Me and the Ruminding crew

Picture time after a church service.

Sunset St Paddy's and a birthday in Borneo

Since our energy expending expedition up Mount Kinabalu, perhaps in the knowledge we won't be hitting those highs again in a long time, there's been far more drinking than before. But St Paddy's Day and my birthday are certainly the main causes for such an increase.

St Paddy's Day was spent on a private beach in the capital, chatting with some fun loving Malaysians and watching the sun set behind the islands. Of course, once the sun set, it was dark, so this particular party finished at an unprecedented 7 o'clock. Drinking session number one over. However, this hardly bothered me and Hugo as we had to meet his family at the airport. We were early, so a KFC over a game of Scrabble was our chosen pass time. Once we got back to the hostel, this was when I discovered on Facebook that my dog back home, Monty, was to be put down the next day. When I left my house in London all those months ago, saying goodbye to Monty was the only goodbye that almost provoked a tear to fall as I knew it could well be my last time seeing him. He was a cracking dog, much loved by all who knew him, and he'll be greatly missed. 

A sunset beach party, a better excuse than any to whip out the rascal shirt.

Onto a more happy and up-beat birthday week! It just so happened that my birthday fell in the school holiday, so my birthday was not to be in the hostel teaching. Instead, my holiday kicked off with a bike ride with Jason to join the prefects from my hostel for a camp up in Monfort's recently purchased land in a village called Kokol. It's a stunning place, with the best view of the capital you can get. However, to enjoy such a scenic view, that requires going up-hill. A lot. And we were cycling. Considering we had gone weeks without any training, I've got no idea why we thought we'd be able to manage it. We started at Monfort, and covered a good 30km as we reached the foothills of the bigger hill that Kokol lies upon. We began our up-hill struggle, and our energy seeped away at a rapid rate as our saddles simultaneously savaged our behinds. We reached the Kiamon Waterfall and decided we were due a break and a refreshing soak in the fresh water. We waddled up to the waterfall and gingerly lowered our bruised bums into the beautifully chilled water. Pure relief. Of course, I had no swimming shorts, and I wasn't wearing boxers as I had to save them for the remainder of the camp, so my see through shorts provided plenty of entertainment, particularly for the leering collection of gays that were congregated at the foot of the falls. Their staring was persistent, and any attempts to out-stare them didn't work as any eye contact seemed like an open invitation to come and get a better look at what lay beneath my thin veil once known as shorts. At this point, we decided it was time to go. We soon discovered that our break was an absolute rookie error, as we had had to conquer the hardest part of our cycle in mid-day sun, an impossible task. We gave it a good go, made it all of 20 metres, and decided walking was a much better option. This, however, still wasn't pleasant. Regular stops were made wherever we found shade, but our water supply began to wane, as did our willful spirit (despite singing various classic scout songs to lighten the mood; I've spent too much time with Jason for sure..). We made a decision to hitch-hike up the rest of the hill, but we were still fairly chuffed with the effort that we'd made. It was certainly an eye opening cycle in regards to our big cycling trip in July. It's going to be tough! 

Gazing into Kiamon Waterfall

Jay the scout by the waterfall

Waheyy!

This is my refreshed face.

Finally at the top of the hill by Kokol, wearing our fresh "Unite Against Cancer" gear.

Chilling in my motorbike helmet..

If you can't make it, stop and take some pictures

We made it to the camp, where I was warmly welcomed by my boys, and we got some classic leadership games on the go, and set up camp where me and Jay got to practice our bamboo chopping skills! With every swing of my machete, I felt a little bit more Malaysian. It was nice. Climbing a coconut tree and collecting a haul of 5 only added to my growing inner-Asian. And once again we had a quite beautiful sunset as our back drop, always an added bonus. That night, the boys had silent reflection time in their tents, all totally petrified by potential ghost attacks in the night (a cemented belief in the minds of most Sabahan people; supposedly Kokol is haunted, although I still think the only ghost that night was me walking round with my shirt off). The staff, however, spontaneously decided to grab some beers and provide me with drinking session #2. This comprised ghost stories galore, perhaps in an attempt to make me and Jason as scared as the boys. They clearly don't understand just how much of a hard man I am.

The next day was more of the same, and we finished in style with some karaoke, BBQ and some cracking games in which I had an absolute mare and they're still rinsing me about it. To give you an idea of how bad it was, it turns out I can't count to 7 anymore. I'll say no more on the matter.

Team building for the win!

San Damiano's favourite team builder.

This is what happens when I'm given tape.

Leadership leadership leadership!!!!

Kokol in all it's glory.

The sun falling upon Manukan Island. 

Absolutely dead after an abundance of BBQ chicken, and of course all that leadership.

My actual birthday turned out to be a much needed day of rest, as the next day I was off to the interior kampongs (villages) to visit some of our boys from the hostel. The further and further you go into the jungle, and the worse the road gets, you begin to wonder how on earth people have settled in such a remote place. It really is incredible. To sell any of their produce in the town market, they have to cover so many miles, for very little return. But the majority of the boys seemed content with their kampong life, and with the beauty of their surroundings it's hard to blame them. I stayed with Elvin, one of my Form 2 boys. In the evening, his family and the neighbours all gathered around and those who could speak English asked me question after question about life in London, whilst the drunk Father thrust Calsberg after Calsberg into my welcoming grasp (drinking session #3). In the morning, I was sobered up by a great swim in the deep river before I said my goodbyes to my new friends around the kampong. 

About the size of a car, but cars don't leave massive turds on the road.

A quick jungle trek to the next kampong.

Some views along the way..

This is Sabah.

Your classic kampong. 

A beautiful kampong home.

Buffaloes looking on...

The local brew, Bahar. Haven't tried this one yet, but it's a really enticing colour!

I am kid kampong.

I could get used to living like this. 

There's something fishy about this picture =P XD

Drinking session 4 and 5 inevitably fell on the weekend as we welcomed our Project Trust desk officer Chris Hitch to sunny Sabah! We took him out to the islands off KK, got sunburnt, then took him to our favourite Irish Bar, both nights. It was his birthday as well so there was plenty to celebrate. I woke up in Jason's hammock with my face covered by a sarong which most people would have used as a blanket for their lower body, but apparently not me. This marked the end of my birthday week and concludes another month in Malaysia, which has simply flown past with little time to catch any breath. It's all going too quickly! 

Happy Easter one and all, I've got mini eggs!

Hey.

Speedboat banter!