Adventures with Sina Sarina

Here is the star of my trip, the person my two weeks were centered around, Sina Sarina.

One thing I really like about Sina is that she is always smiling. She smiles when she's talking to someone, when she's shaking her head at my plant-watering skills, when the sun is hot, when one of the school doors is locked, when we were both tearing up when saying goodbye. And what a lovely smile it is, too.

Sina is a 37 year old woman who works at SMK Bario as a janitor. This meant that my time spent with her was divided between the school and anywhere else. A typical morning for us meant sweeping, dusting, watering the plants (...which I am not very good at - the watering cans are heavy, okay) and so on before it's time for a break, where Sina will then proceed to convince me into drinking coffee, Milo, and/or eating an entire pack of biscuits. She had long since stopped accepting the (true) fact that I'd had breakfast at home, so I'd try to joke it off, saying I'll get so fat the plane cannot carry my weight. Her response: "Baguslah tu, muk tinggal di Bario saja!" 

Sina Sarina is an incredibly capable person. One day when we were walking back to school, she suddenly moved to the side and started pulling out plants and fruits that are everyday food. Midin! Rebung! Paku pakis! She'd reach into the foliage and pull out a new plant for me, despite the fact that I might have eaten it some time. In the school, she did every task efficiently, from planting flowers to cleaning the school. Despite that some of the work was actually quite tiring, she never complained of any pain. The only time I ever heard about pain was when we held a beauty session for the ladies, and I asked her if she had any sore areas she wanted me to help massage, and she pointed out parts of her legs and arms.

Sina also has an great sense of humor. When it's time for lunch, we'd go and pick up Mujan from the kindergarten and slowly walk home. At some point, Uncle or someone from Arur Dalan would stop by on their motorbike, and we'd send Mujan off to home with them and continue our walk back home. (It soon transpired that she was hoping that our walks would make me hungry enough to eat loads.) Our conversation topics ranged from school gossip to the kids, or my family and life in Selangor. One day, we stopped by the sawah and waved frantically in attempt to catch my batchmates, Karthik and Tharunnia's attention. They did not notice us, and Sina said I should stop jumping up and down, "nanti orang ingat Ru gila". Another day, she heard that we'd been playing in the sawah, and the next day she greeted me with "semalam ada kerbau main di sawah!" - which, okay, is pretty funny and I'd use it as an excuse for whenever I messed something up, like "ya la saya ni kan kerbau, mana pandai buat kerja".

Another time, Sina drove us from home to school on Uncle's motorbike. If you have been to Arur Dalan you will know that the road is bumpy at best because of the rocks embedded into the road. This combined with the fact that motorbikes were a fairly new experience for me meant that I was quite terrified when I got on the bike behind Sina. I told her "tolong jalan slow sikit, saya takut lah Sina", so naturally she accelerated the motorbike. I exaggerated a little. Sina did not accelerate, but she did go very fast. I was practically hanging on for dear life, and the fact that Sina kept turning around to make sure I was alright didn't exactly assure me of our safety. At one point Sina noticed that I'd closed my eyes and said to me, "takut apa, ini adventure!" while laughing, presumably at the fact that I was genuinely scared. For the rest of our ride, Sina continued to offer little gems like "kalau accident pun tak sakit, tak ada darah" and "klinik pun dekat saja", and that's the story of how I taught Sina the words 'nightmare' and 'bad dream'.

On the English side of things, Sina was quite proficient at holding a conversation in English. My favorite thing was when she would randomly use things we've discussed beforehand, like "Hello, chicken!" after we talked about greetings.

All jokes aside, I do miss her. I was so comfortable around her, and I hope she was, too. She made me laugh plenty of times and I do hope I've made her laugh, too. I miss Sina Sarina, who sent her daughter out in the rain to pick me up, who one day silently tied a kabuk she bought for me around my neck, who is lovely and funny and caring, who asked me to come stay with her if I ever came back. I could go on and on about the things we've shared. If I ever get a chance to go back to Bario, I know the first place I will visit.