The boy’s life in the school started in 1965 and ended in 1970. Six eventful years were spent in the primary school – Nanga Sikat. They slept in a boarding house made of third grade timber plank and dried wood bark walls with too many holes on the floor and the walls as well. Undoubtedly the boarding houses were too well ventilated for mosquitoes and other insects to freely roam about on the look out for exposed young blood and skins. The children would sleep in smelly mosquito nets tied using raffia strings. When one string was pulled the rest of the nets would move in tandem like rolling waves in the ocean.
Morning routines were mandatory light exercise led by school student head followed by work parties. Works parties started at about 6.30 until 7.30 in the morning. During such work parties student were assigned different tasks some were instructed to fetch water (nyauk ai) from the rivers using specially designed tins with handles while others were assigned to gather wild ferns (pako) in the vicinity of the school nearby forest. Breakfast was usually simple and insufficient. Attending class with noisy and hungry stomach was the norm. Times for break and rest were given in between classes but there was nothing to eat or drink. Those who had coins could buy bun from nearby kayu kepapa where an old lady always had something for sale to the school children.
Wearing shoes and uniforms to class were unheard of. Some attended class without brushing their teeth and nails were usually long and unkempt. Most kids were smelly and nobody complain after all everyone was so used to each other foul body odors.
The boy and his friends normally earned a penny or two by collecting wild ferns and sell it to the middlemen for further sale at Mukah town. Some weekends were spent ngangkut pasir ari sungai ngagai moto chalo untuk dijual ngagai Ng Mukah. Pocket money was no more than 5 ringgit per school term. Recreation was in the form of hauling oneself from the riverbank into the flowing stream and swimming in the rivers. Other weekends were spent collecting firewood with the elders. The young boys usually got scolded during such outings for the small bundles they could only carry and yet ate the same amount of food compared with the seniors. Food in those days was shared equally among the children. Far too often they were scolded and chided. “Nya gaya perut buntas, perut peruti - ngambi kayu enda kuat tang makai sama ga nyampau nya” they loudly complained and cursed. The boy and his friend just kept quite and took the abuse in considerable fear and misery. Just who was there to defend them and turn too anyway?
School morning break times were spent main guli or main asin. What else was there to do? There was no money to buy biscuits or sweets. In one of those dinner times the boy kept and sacrificed his steam round egg for sale for 20 cents and used the money to buy coconut bun (pau kelapa) sold by someone under the tree near the riverbank. Most break times there was nothing to eat or drink!
There was this incident in class while everyone was standing up one of the boys stuck out a sharp pencil targeting the buttock of another. While the poor boy was about to sit down the pencil pierced his buttock and he cried out in pain. At such distraction the teacher would normally threw the board duster at the culprit from the front of classroom hitting the victim at the head. At another time the teacher would pull the naughty ones by the side hair near the ear until he cried in pain. Such action was standard punishment for lazy, playful or inattentive kids.
The boy was a fairly likeable and good kid. He was many times requested and selected by the teacher to wash his dishes in the quarters and in return got his chance to eat the remaining food on the table. The teacher’s hot tea or coffee taken together with cream crackers truly never tastes so good in those days. Others were not so lucky. The teacher in person had since died during the grounding of the vessel Pulau Kijang in one of the storms somewhere near the present day Tanjung Manis in 1970’s.
Traveling between longhouse and school was all about torture and hardship. From the longhouse the trip involved traveling by boat for about half an hour followed by trekking through paddy fields and peat land with rice ration and personal effects carried on our backs for another one hour, then a boat ride again under the hot sun or rain going down Mukah river for another hour before finally reaching the school. From the school the traveling route was reverse starting with a quarrelsome boat ride up Mukah’s river for an hour, followed by trekking through the fields and another boat ride to the longhouse. Going back for holidays from school to longhouse was usually a happy occasion but the reverse was usually a less pleasant experience. If life in the longhouse was difficult, life in the school was no less miserable away from parental love and pampering.To be continued........
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