Homestay weekend

I want to make sure I have it at least on my blog coz’ it about something I might not get to experience again. It’s not all good, wonderful and awesome, but it’s definitely something hard to experience again and again in a person’s life.

Last weekend (2^nd and 3^rd October 2010) I went for a homestay project. Not on my own will and choice. Not because of two reasons; it’s not the right time (c’mon, its DURING the semester where I have loads of things to do and it’s the weekend where I’m supposed to ONLY wanting to be at CF on Saturday night and Sunday morning) and I’m broke; completely broke (that’s another story totally).

It’s for one of my Elective subjects; Cultural Tourism where the lecturer makes us to watch movie class, makes a field trip to the State Mosque, makes it compulsory for us to spend at least a night at a homestay, watch new movie (Eat, Pray, Love; which I’m currently downloading from the net because, again, time and money issue) and also go for the open house held at Chancellor Hall. Not saying that it’s all bad and time and money wasting. I just feel, most of the things, it’s not okay for some of us if it’s made compulsory. Make it an option, and as long as we finish the task, I guess it should be fine. I get her reason for doing all this; so that we can ease up ourselves from the stress we get from other things, relax, have fun while doing something that she uses to asses and evaluate us. But as I said, it’s not so feasible for some of us.

Okay, back to the main purpose of this post; the weekend I had. So we went for the homestay project. It was Mitabang Homestay at Kiulu; one and a half hour drive from UMS. I thought I could at least go for the intercessory but we had to leave early because they were scared we get lost, it’ll get dark, etc. And I could only get the car late and pass the van too. I had to leave at 2.45 pm to fetch some of them, get the directions for the homestay co-ordinator, fetch more people then leave at 4pm. It wasn’t that hard to find the place, though we over-shoot twice to different route. Thanks to some miss-directions on the direction sketch. We managed to reach there safe and on time. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the Chairman, and the little kids there. It really reminded me of the lovely people in Kudat; the friendliness, the care, the love, the smiles. There was nothing much for few hours upon reaching there. We were all very hungry. And I was keep thinking about CF, especially about transportation as it was around fetching time and there was totally no coverage at the place. So, I was just praying everything was fine. It’s not that CF won’t be CF without me and things will go wrong without me. But it’s just different being somewhere else on Saturday night.

We were just talking to each other, watching Indon drama with the people there; mostly kids, taking pictures among ourselves and with the kids there, disturbing the youngest kid of the Chairman and host family; Ezra, 2 years old small girl. Very adorable and very attached to the mum and very scared with strangers, and very adorable (I know I said that, but she is VERY adorable). Well, I think all kids are adorable, as long as you know how to see them as kids and love them as kids.

Then, dinner was served. We ate with the people there; the host family and the neighbors who happens to be all relatives (which made me feel quite down thinking how I wish I had relatives too; relatives who ARE still relatives and keep in touch, and visit one another). They were all from Seventh Day Adventists. It was interesting knowing how they were like. This family, I felt they were very much like Muslims; their way of life, what they eat, the way they talk, the songs and radio station they listen to (this was the major one).

The food was nice (especially thinking back that we paid RM100 each for the trip, and thinking how life has been with instant noodles due to the constant losing of appetite again, and how I miss home cooked food). Though the mushroom tasted weird, but it was really good dinner, plus the langsats were sweet and nice.

After dinner, the chairman explained some cultural things and also what tourists usually do when they go over, plus what we will be doing the next morning. It was interesting. Then, they played the gong for us. There were 6 different sizes of gongs. I just wanted to play them so much. And we got to J Which reminds me, I really want to get a mini gong as a souvenir from Kudat, at least before I leave Sabah (if I’ll be leaving anytime soon; don’t know about future plans yet)

So, they played the gong for us, then allowed us to play it, and showed us how the Sumazau dance is like and told us they play the gong and we’ll have to dance. I was okay with it. I really want to wear the Sabahan traditional costumes; any of it. So, dancing the cultural dance was not a problem for me (related? I think it is. Lol…)

We danced together. It was a short one. But it was sweet and also recorded. Haha.

Then, it was already get-to-bed time. I was tired, not sleepy. Was thinking about CF again. Missed it so very much. Watched Ultraman with the kids and others (well, the kids were watching it), showered, then went to bed. Managed to receive messages and managed to send 3 messages out. Thank God for the 1 bar coverage near my bed.

Next morning, walked up the hill to the farm/forest. Very nice view. Then, after the picture taking, fish feeding, fruits eating, scenery viewing, talking, laughing, we went back to the house for breakfast. He taught us how to eat lada. As we told some of us are not big fans of it, he made it sweet, with lots of sugar, so the specialty was gone. We all had it though. We all thought we would eat together with the family, at least that’s what we or, at least I personally hoped for; never had much of that in my life. But it didn’t happen. It was only 6 of us eating together. Space, we could eat outside like the time we had dinner. Not a problem for us. But, it okay. I still wish we ate together though.

After breakfast, we went up to the farm through a hanging bridge. It wasn’t so long nor was it very high. But it was definitely nice. If I’m not mistaken, that was my first time experience (I don’t travel and go around). We took fruits from trees and ate it just like that and we even plucked small fruits called kulangit. Thank to the small girls who helped and taught us how to get them.. We were also taught how to tap rubber, and how rich we could be by just tapping rubber. But inside me, I was just wondering if rubber tappers could really earn as much as he was saying they could earn, then why is it I always read, hear, and see that rubber tappers are poor and also having financial difficulties. Exploitation?

We collected some leaves, which I can’t remember the name for our lunch. I like the bag he was holding. It was like the bag the ladies use when taking tea leaves. I just loved it. Not my kind of thing usually, but this time, I just had this special interest in this bag. Took few pictures with it on my back. You should see the smile on my face then =D

After that, we went back to the house, to drink water and get our things to go to the waterfall. Unfortunately, we were afraid to wet the car and some of us didn’t have extra pair of clothes and we were also worried that we were over-shoot the time. So, we decided to just follow, feel the water there but not bath and play there. Sad. Very sad. It was definitely a challenging journey to the waterfall. The hanging bridge was scary. It felt like we were on a ship and it was moving and we were looking at the river which was flowing extremely fast. Scary. I felt like I was about to have height-fear at that time. Thank God it didn’t happen. I actually had the courage to stop and look down a few times. Super-girl? Why do people always call me that…?

Anyway, I got a cut on my right palm on my way to the waterfalls. Don’t know which tree I held, and got a cut. Thought it was a small one but it sure did hurt. Imagine I had to drive back too. When we reached the waterfalls, it felt so good. Those who decided not to get wet, we felt so jealous seeing them bathing and playing there; jumping into the water again and again. We on the other side, just sat there on the huge stones, looking at them, talking, feeling the cold water, and taking more pictures.

We left to the house, I felt on the way, in the mud, and felt I could have just played at the waterfall if I knew I were to fall. Thank God we had a way to ensure the car wasn’t dirty or wet. Showered (that was a real good bath I had there, loved it so much), had lunch, then had our interview done. We left at around 4pm. Reached UMS half an hour earlier than we expected, based on our journey going there.

I had a lot more I wanted share. But let this 4 pages post be it for now. I’ll continue some other time. Now, time to get back to assignments. I really got to finish everything as soon as possible so that I can start studying earlier. Need to achieve what I want and must and should achieve this time. Only You know dear Lord...