Recording Artist, Tour Guide and White-water rafter!

White water rafting on Kiulu River

       Last weekend started with a white-water rafting expedition organised by our new Project Manager as a team spirit exercise. Not very many mentors turned up, however I really enjoyed myself and will definitely be bringing my visitors down the Kiulu River . The CD/ Songbook has started to sell in Tambunan and next week I am hoping that it will sell like hot cakes in Ranau. My only problem is that I can't find any blank CD's to copy the songs onto.( Does Adele still spend her free time copying her CD's I wonder?)  Deliveries up the mountain are very sporadic - we will be without yoghurts for two weeks and then suddenly they appear in both supermarkets; the same sarongs are seen for months and then last week all the shops had some new ones. So I'm hoping that the blank CD lorry will deliver in time or else I will have a two hour drive down the mountain to the nearest shop.

     My latest role as a mentor, since yesterday, is being a tourist guide. One of my headmistresses said as she was leaving for a meeting. "Fiona, we have some orang putihs visiting the school - could you show them round please". What?! Who? When? Why?  I asked but it was too late she had gone. I arrived at the school ahead of time and they were already there waiting in their very nice air-conditioned bus. They being  a group of ladies, over a certain age, from the UK on a Saga Holiday in Sabah and somehow through the tour guide they had expressed a wish of visiting a school in the area. I'm sure they were very disappointed to see another orang putih greeting them which I imagine ruined the charm and authenticity of a primary school in the mountains of Borneo. However, they were very interested and fascinated by the children who posed for their photographs continuously (with the V sign of course!) The school grinded to a halt and there were about thirty children following after them, ripping flowers from the flower beds and presenting them to the ladies. The ladies were charmed  and when the Year 1's spontaneously burst into 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" like it was the British National Anthem, their hearts were won forever. " Are they all your sisters?" the children asked me. "No" I replied in horror but thinking about it, the children here will have as many as fourteen brothers and sisters and according to the children, we orang putihs all look the same! Again I am amazed by the trusting, welcoming nature of the Sabahans. Would we in the West equally welcome them into a school I wonder?

My sisters!

A strappy top and micro shorts. Where did our  cultural sensitivity go to?

  Trying to get books, reading corners and  a more stimulating environment for the pupils is my main aim at the moment. The delightful Masinin ,who is the school handyman, went out to the jungle and chopped down some bamboo and has constructed a lovely, perhaps rather wobbly. reading corner for the Year 1's. We have painted it and there is going to be a carpet and now all we need is some nice books that the children have access to. I launched my appeal to the Saga ladies and they promised that they would send some books to the school and so now I'm going for a wider audience. If you have any ideas of how we could try and get some nice colourful reading books for the children I would love to hear from you. If all of you sent one book, ( it can be second hand ), that would be enough for one class. In some of the village schools, the children will have never seen a book before they go to school and have to be taught how to hold it and look inside. I think giving these young children a chance to enjoy reading could open many doors that have been closed to them before. Your ideas and generosity will be gratefully received.