From Strangers to Family

Participating in Project WHEE! was a very last minute decision for me. I only found out about the project after they had held the first two sessions of the Training of Trainers for Batch 7 participants, hence my late application. To make matters worse, I wasn’t in town when they had their next two sessions so I had a separate training later on with just Shu Anne (one of our coordinators for Batch 7). So that meant that I had not met any of the other participants before the trip. Since most of the participants had already met up a few times before the trip and were already friends by then, I was a bit worried on how I would be welcomed to the group.

I flew to Bario one day later than the rest. So I finally met the group when they came to pick me up from Bario’s very small airport. I thought it would take some time to get close to them but we all got along really well, really fast. The day I arrived in Bario was a Sunday so it was a free and easy day for us.

My room for 21 nights

After I settled down and had lunch in the longhouse where we all stayed in, a bunch of us went to play Frisbee at the secondary school’s field, which was just a 10 minutes walk away. That was my first time walking around Bario and everything seemed so wonderfully simple. There were no high rise buildings around, no shopping malls, no highways and no traffic lights. Everything was within walking distance.

Bario's long straight road

Every morning we would be awakened by the sounds of the roosters crowing, dogs barking, and the sounds of the floorboards creaking caused by the footsteps of the early risers. I would finally drag myself out of bed at 7.30am to have breakfast with everyone. No one usually showers in the morning over there because no one would want to shower with cold water when the morning air is already quite cold.

My assigned lady - Tepuq Bulan - and I agreed to meet at her house at 8.30am every morning. It’s only a two minutes walk from our part of the longhouse to Tepuq’s house. I always take my time walking to her house so I can take in the beautiful surroundings and breathe in the  cold fresh morning air. Everything seems so much calmer in the morning. Within my short walk to tepuq’s house, I never failed to see chickens and their chicks crossing the road and dogs lying around. I would just admire the mountainous backdrop behind tepuq’s house as I walk towards it. The clouds would hover around the mountains early in the morning, which made the view even more breathtaking.

There is no doorbell on her door, so I would just knock or shout her name and she would open the door and greet me with a “Petabi Leketang” which means good morning in Kelabit. I would then spend time with her from morning till late afternoon either at the paddy field or her house.

            
By 4pm, all us participants would start returning to the longhouse after we were done with our work. We would exchange stories about what we did earlier during the day with our respective tepuqs. It is never dull to hear those stories as everyone’s day differs from each other. Before dinner, we would usually nap or hang out with each other, play cards or watch TV shows on a laptop. 

The living room where we would hang out at after work.

On some days, we would all workout together in the living room to make up for the amount of rice we consumed there. Then we would take turns to shower and get ready for dinner. One thing that I enjoyed surprisingly that I thought I wouldn’t was the cold showers. Granted, not all days at work were tiring for me as some days I got to stay in Tepuq’s house doing housework, I really appreciated the cold showers on the days that I did work in the paddy field under the blazing hot sun. Even though we had the option to boil water so our shower wouldn’t be so cold, I had no need to do that as I really enjoyed the refreshing cold showers. By the end of my stay in Bario, cold showers became a norm for my body.

            
I always enjoyed the food served for dinner. Tepuq Sina Rang, our homestay host would prepare us a variety of dishes, buffet style. We ate our dinners on a long table in the longhouse along with the tourists that were staying at Tepuq Sina Rang’s homestay as well. Every night after dinner, we’d stuff ourselves with Bario’s mouth watering pineapples. Bario has the sweetest pineapples that I’ve ever tasted. I had it everyday after lunch and dinner and even brought some back for my family.

            
The time we spent together in Bario flew by so quickly. Before I knew it, it was already time to pack up to fly home. Spending three weeks together can turn a bunch of strangers into family. I can now say that I have a family back in Bario that will be in my heart forever and a group of friends that I can call my famiWHEE!.

 My new famiWHEE!