Kebun and Sawah

Being a participant of Project WHEE!, you are expected to be a slave, well, not for 12 years... but just for 3 weeks.

Okay, I am kidding, it is not that bad. You are not a slave. You are a valuable assistant to the tepuqs and they love you!

The first week there, it was harvesting paddy, 'ketam'-ing paddy all day everyday.

When you harvest for the first time, it will definitely be an amazing experience to properly use a sabit (sickle) to chop off paddy. But after few days of harvesting, you would find that harvesting is a very mundane and tiring job, and you would definitely get back-ache.

The passionate me holding a strand of paddy.

Yes, getting back-ache from chopping paddy.

My second and third week, I followed Tepuq Lemupok a.k.a Aunty Tagung, and I did a lot of gardening. Also another back-aching job, because you have to bend down to dig the mud, bend down for weeding and more weeding, and never ending weeding, because the weeds grow every two weeks. The route to her garden is like Narnia, you would open a door and another door to enter a magical world of greens.

First door (spot the white light at the centre)

Second door (spot the shining entrance on the left side)

Taaa-daaaaa her magical world of greens

Grown up french beans

This basically sums up my daily activities throughout the three weeks experience, harvesting and gardening. It is definitely worth the time and effort to experience what the tepuq's go through every single day. Their hardwork in producing the famous local Bario rice should never be taken for granted.

Oh, some tips on what to bring:

1. Long football socks (to protect your leg in the mud)

2. Long trousers / pants (to protect your leg in the mud too)

3. Hat (to prevent sun burn on your head)

4. Long sleeves (to cover your hand and prevent sun burn)

5. Sun screen

Good luck!