Team Nicole's Garden

That morning, we were divided into 2 groups, to either clean up the longhouse common area (Sekan, Aping, Kijan, Sigang, Mujan, Mariam, Ganet) or set off to Aunty Nicole’s house to clean up her garden (Agan, Rina, Dayang, Supang Kecil, Lian, and myself). My team and I were all so excited about having to start off work, that we’ve even equipped ourselves with hats, bottles of water (full), sunblock, mosquito repellent, hand-gloves. All the necessary measure for avoiding being bitten by unknown insects that we don't see in cities or in our normal Year 4 science textbooks. Oh boy, I must say I was quite amazed at the extent of the preparations by my friends were on that day. Though I normally see my mom and dad just placing a bottle of water right beside them and gardening tools in their hands when they do gardening. 

When we got there, what we saw was a small wooden house with a large front yard. It was almost the same image I had while reading childhood fairy tales, where pictures show a wooden house with front yard and not fenced. 

Ah, nature, how nice would it be if I could live in places like this where there is no need to worry about dangers and safety. 

After we were briefed by Agan (Project Coordinator), we started off by weeding the front yard, all of us were so energetic that after seconds, we had gardening tools on our hands slaughtering weeds away from the rooted ground. 

Me grabbing a chunk of weeds off the ground. (Not prepared as Sekan took this picture)

During the whole venture, all of us started off by squatting down to do work, but after a while, we finally gave in and sat down wherever we were while weeding the front yard of the house. As we took 5 minutes of break here and there after 15 minutes of weeding, Supang Kecil and I were impressed at Lian’s skill in handling a parang, weeding off grass so easily. Obviously, we envied the Budak Seremban and said nothing but stared at each other, sighing. 

Lian with his pro weed-slaughter skills.

We weeded with all our efforts, and then finally realized that 2 hours passed. It was hot, real hot that afternoon, where we could feel the burning heat sizzling on our sweaty hands directly. 

After lunch, Agan decided that we should start our "Clean Drain" operation, so we continued weeding along the sideways of the drain. It was a hilarious sight when I saw chickens running around the drain which was covered by long and thick weed to hunt for their food. Then, Aping and Singgang came by and joined us with cleaning the drain. Aping saw some familiar plants and told us that those were yam, we were surprised. So we got Aunty Nicole to clarify the plant and we were asked to save those wild yams for Tepuq Sina Rang's pigs.

Aping cleaning up drain.

It was a challenging task, having to weed and preserve those wild yams at the same time. As the work got more and more intense, we even came up with a joke: 

"It's Yam-Cha, not Yum-Cha"

*Yum-Cha means getting a drink

Rinai taking a breather, Agan and Supang Kecil weeding.

Finally, all of us agreed to be not bothered about the yams but to continue our work with weeding. So we chopped off every plants that are in the drain and even dugged chunks of weeds that were blocking the flow of the water. While doing the heavy physical work, I began admiring those who do these kind of work for their living; handling heavy tools and mustering their strength to clean up the mess in drains, public toilets, public places. Around 5.30 pm, we finally finished cleaning, so we headed back to the Homestay to wash up. 

Although it was exhausting, I find it very healthy and productive because I got to build some muscles and also managed to clean up in the drain. After experiencing what those who do such work for a living, I was inspired to preserve and be conscious of what I do that will affect the environment. Thinking of the burden that we have made, creating pollution everywhere is easy, but when we get ourselves to clean up the mess, it becomes a challenge because it takes a lot of initiative and courage to do so.

Let's preserve and maintain cleanliness in our environment, even if it is little, it makes a difference. 

Ruran 
Ji Bee