LIFE IS SLOW AND YAWNING IN THE KAMPUNG

During the Christmas season, I took the whole family back to visit the in-laws and out-laws territory..... Kota Marudu. Most of the time spent was in Kampung Langob, next to Kampung Masolog....which is about 25 minutes drive from Kota Marudu town.

This is the kampung house that my 113 years old grandma (in-law) is currently staying....alone and she is already disabled, unable to walk.... Anyway her son is staying next door...He is 77 years old and had a young wife. He works in the paddy field all day long.....imagine he is still very strong. His kids are about the same age as mine!

Look at the water clogged below the house....very worried about dengue, malaria....what said you, "chikungunya"? We had to sleep within mosquito nets, well just in case. Nonetheless, I had no issue sleeping throughout my 7 days stay. It was cooling at night.

Look! that's the grandmother....she is 113 years old but unable to prove her age as she had lost her birth cert and our IC department refused to give her an IC stating her age as such....the most they did was put her as 83 years old..... I still can't comprehend as her son is already 77 years old. He showed me his IC. Anyway, she told me it is not important now.....she wanted to see all her great grand children grow up and she is most happy to go back to heaven...may god bless her! That's one of the reasons why she refused to leave this very old house.....she told me that she is afraid of dying away from her house..... During her younger days, she acted as a Bobohizanz rituals, a priestesses who will perform various rituals like the Kinoingan (or rice spirit) worship and some traditional healing services. Because of this deep-seated practices of her yesteryears, she never convert to Christianity or to Islam. Three of her grand daughters converted to Muslim after marriage......and have mixture of Christian and Muslim relatives running through her family chain.

The small guy (making the gesture) is my son, and he was telling her great grandma that she should learn how to walk like him......

Her name is Lenminsing (what a name?....sounded like Len Min Sing???) as told to me married at a very young age to a Dusun man, who passed away after prolonged illness. They had a one son. She worked her life in the paddy field to bring up her family. She once worked for the Dutch Settlement as a planter.....and that was back in the 1900's. She remarried when she was around 30 years old to a chinese man (unable to get her name...), who during the Japanese occupation was beheaded on suspicion of providing assistance to the British. They have a daughter, who is my mother-in law (now 62 years old).

Photographs of the view in Kg. Masolog, on the way to Kg. Langob after a shower. This is the very mountain that supply water through gravitational feed (constructed by the Japanese) to the villages nearby.
This is the pic of a Dusun lady with her kids.....Are they cute, being captured with my Nokia N88, 2 megapixel, 4.8mm lens? Nokia do make excellent phone with good camera...

My Son celebrated his birthday in the kg itself with his many kg cousins. Looking and talking to them made me realise that these little kids residing in the kg are not going to be any more competitive than the little ones of the urban settlement. Connectivity is one of them......although you may have astro and radio services there but internet connectivity is just too limited. Of course studying in Kota Marudu (KM) do help but internet connects just breakdown too often too many times (as I witnessed it during my stay in the area....... I just have to use my friends' internet access to get in contact with my office works as well as my business associates and friends to wish them Merry Christmas and New Year 2009....) in KM town.

Moving along, I came across Datuk George Sangkin and family when he came back to Kg Masolog for Christmas celebration. As I was briefed he was my mother-in law's cousin brother (How they are connected may be his father and my grandmother in law are cousins). George was the former KM assembly man..... now he is no longer active in politics. Just imagine, how small is this kg, as I made my way to his house on invitation by a friend during the friends and family gathering just two days before Christmas.

He used his large backyard compound to plant maize (jagung).....well KM and its vicinity are famous for maize produce. Datuk, may God bless you for the determination and hard work.

The Kota Marudu Basel church on Christmas eve.... something to learn too. The set-up and entertainment on that night are just fabulous, something the marudu-an should be proud off. I remembered many years ago my auntie-in-law told me that KM and Kudat were towns in Sabah where GOD actually focus upon. There was a rare occurence where more than 50% of the population was converted to Christianity back in the mid-60s in a short time period. Prior to this a very bright light with a stranger descending upon those towns......the local said they saw GOD.

Anyway this is not too important, God or otherwise, KM town should have grown by leaps and bounce with the abundance of resources, but alas it has not. Education is important and is the only way to take the village folks out from poverty and into development. Connectivity with the world is important to motivate the parents in focusing on the development of their kids. While the government has been doing alot for the village folks including providing for those hard core poor living in town in terms of free education, much cannot be said about the determination on the part of the adults. Looks like, "kias makan pagi, kias makan petang" sort of thing. On the other hand, I believe that government can do more in respect of motivating the spirit of entrepreneurship amount the villagers and providing small (micro) business loans for the women folks and also have occassional filming of various national geographical shows to help build their understanding of what the world is out there and how they can likewise motivate their children in moving forward for the betterment........ just like my child hood days when I was living similarly in a village, which was not much different from those as seen in Kg Mosolog and Kg Langob.

Cheers......