Brother Ben

Brother Ben

The road to Bundu Tuhan

I received an sms message from Sister Caroline on Friday evening just before going to bed. "Do you want to meet Brother Ben tomorrow?" "Of course!" I texted back and quickly changed my plans and was ready at 9.30 am to set off to Bundu Tuhan, which is a small village tucked under the shadows of Mount Kinabalu. Our first stop was to look at the house that Sister Caroline and her 10 brothers and sisters were born and brought up in, which has a view that feels like you are on top of the world. She has a brother who still lives there and she pointed out the wood behind where they were sent as children to collect firewood and were always scared of being attacked by lions and tigers!

Sister Caroline's family home

The next stop was the orphanage where Brother Ben was waiting for us in the kitchen. I was expecting an elderly man and I was met by this tall, upright, sprightly man who was obviously very much in charge of the whole operation at the orphanage. This legend of a man kindly recounted part of his story.He told me he had entered studies for the Roman Catholic Church when he was 16 years old in Holland, went to England for some time and when he was 26 years old he was sent to Sabah and never came back - he is now 83 years old.

Chatting in the kitchen

 There were three brothers that arrived first in this small village and in those days the only way to get up the mountain was to walk - which took several days and it was only in the late 1950's that the first jeep managed to reach the village and a track/road was made. One of the other brothers had been a farmer and they had all done a short agricultural course with their aim being to introduce tobacco farming but they had brought vegetable seeds as well. To cut a very long and interesting story short they taught the villagers about fertilisers and the vegetable growing took off and became what it is today. One of the main problems in the early days was marketing and the challenge of getting the vegetables down the mountain, however that is another chapter. Brother Ben's expertise was in carpentry and after building a church he set about building a mission school. They were joined by some sisters early on and when one of the woman in the village died in childbirth and her husband couldn't look after the baby, the sisters offered to take care of it. This was the beginning of the orphanage which now has 80 children in it.

Rice for the orphanage!

It must be so tedious for Brother Ben to recount his life story all the time to strange people like me and he was saved by a group of people who had driven from Sandakan with a car loaded full of rice, eggs and fruit to give to the children. He explained that this happens all the time and that they never have to ask for help from the Church as the people of Sabah provide them with everything they need. He was occupied with photos and so we left him but what I was struck by was how happy the children seemed and what a lovely atmosphere there was despite many of their tragic stories. There were so many interesting details he told me but I don't think a blog is the place for all of them - I believe he is writing a book!

The laundry