The path to success is not always straight and most importantly, easy. Most of us clear of it, that in some ways the path would be bumpy, crossroads or even a hole, in fact a really deep hole in the middle of the road. Our road to success is like that. Always like that.It does not come easy because the harder we strive for it, we will much appreciate it. Definitely feel like we have won something big, really big...

God has promised that He will not test us with burden that we could not face or carry. In fact, He tests us to a point whereby these obstacles will make us stronger and most importantly to me, to be more careful in the future. Teaches me to be more delicate in managing myself and keeping it composed. Although, decision making is one of the most difficult tests, I guess...

God knows our every dreams and He will tests us to see how much we want it and to make sure that we don't lost while pursuing it. Whilst, not just something you said on a daily regular basis. I assure you that the test will help you on your way up to the top and have a grip of your dream!

I don't know what to write because my head is filled with "dialogues" and "images" of my unstable and unmanaged thoughts. I'll just wrap it up.

I just want to say, be and stay strong. God will be always by our side. Always.

leave comments if you'd love to..x0x0

Ok... I was supposed to be in Kuching this weekend but instead I don't know whatever thoughts I had in my mind that makes me postponed the intention.  and than this happened... Although I might kinda an outsider, but I was warmly welcomed here at Nanga Bunu, Skrang. I considered this as my second hometown and family... Last week I did not spend my time here because I had a lot of works which I needed to complete and this weekend I decided to f*ck it and just spend my weekend here with real people!

The front gate welcoming the visitors with clear blue sky and beautiful scenery. 

Nothing much happened at the first night but wait until the next morning... There was a plan to go "Ngiga Tekuyung"  or should I say snails "hunting". Haha... but the planned was postponed... Sad... and than, came a text asking a permission to spend a day here, from Norhamaiza and Rheitta, my colleagues. On saturday, I went back home for a couple of hours to get my laundry done before I can spend my time there with no worries about my working attire. Let's just move on... I'll just spare the story just to myself.

Done with chores at my place, I directly went to Nanga Bunu bringing along a 7 kg melon! That was a huge melon! Sharing the melon would be an exciting moment... Sharing the old stories and lounging together in the living room was very relieving. I love the pictures of smiling faces. 

The plan was to have a picnic at ai wong (waterfall) but the weather was not on our side today. They say that it has been like two days without raining here. That's why the river was very shallow and it was not even a waterfall! Just a running water over the huge and high rocks...

A smile to recover the disappoint heart...

With a disappointment at heart, we decided to go swimming at Sungai Bunu. In front of the long house this time. A walk back to the long house was quite tiring... huhuhu~

But this scenery cured it all... The greenery of black pepper plants and tall trees!

The happy faces!

The almost sun set view from Room 25's front door...

The experiences I had here were very addictive! There will surely be a next visit!!!

Adios!

leave comments if you'd love to..x0x0

The Outside and Inside Look + Me!

Can you spot Boi? hehe~

The long house was literally long! They have 37 doors which consist of nearly 50 families. OMG. That is a lot of people in a house... I'd like to tell you the history of this place but, that's not the purpose of this post. I'd like to share my experience spending the weekend with them, The Ibanese.

On the first night there, I witnesses  just a tiny bit of their free time culture. It's called "randau-randau"; simply means talking but figuratively, spending time together with a group of people talking and talking and more talking and sometimes laughing really hard. Yes... It was really fun to watch "half nude" men and women standing and few sitting outside on the badminton court, under the roof of the black night sky with just a few stars. It was a really beautiful scene to see. While us youngsters talking not so far from them, they seem in their own world. Well, so did us. Hahaha~ They really keep the "family" together and you know what? They can keep talking for hours and hours, standing! After a few hours of story sharing and the clock was pointing at almost 10 pm, they went inside grinning, giving sign that they were all satisfied. The youngsters thought it was still early and decided to continue to randau-randau up until midnight. Ehehe~

On the second day, I decided to went back home just a little while to shower and machine my laundry. But by the time I wanted to switch the washing machine on, POP! Blackout! Dang... Why now... Although I received an early warning about the electricity, yet so stubborn am I still wanted to get it done. Since that happened, so I decided to postpone the laundry and continue having fun on my weekend in Bunu. 

The real fun is almost there. We were planning to have a small picnic at "Ai Wong" means waterfall. At first, I did not believe that they have a waterfall just behind their house. When I saw it myself, my eyes could not believe it and  my mouth unconsciously keep wowing and praising the nature they have at the back of their house!

Can you find this at the back of your house?!! and they said, there are two more uphill!

It was only a five minutes walk from their long house. Do you know the perks they have by having this kind of waterfall? So far, they have paid NOTHING for water supply! They intelligently build a pipeline from here to their long house. Brilliant! and the water was freezing cold!!! Very refreshing...

The happy beautiful faces. 

The not so very dangerous activities.

Less that I know, they bring along a shampoo! Fighting over the hard flow cold waterfall was super fun! Minus me...

One more thing, hearing the sound of a kid's laughing voice is so peaceful. Without I even notice, a week stress was like lifted from my shoulders. Just like that... The stress was, not the work! The work is still mounting on my desk. Wait... I don't want to talk about that... 

Black peppers!

Enough about the waterfall. Later that afternoon, we had a badminton match. When it comes to badminton, they really put up a fight. Only if some of them did not drink too much of "Tuak"-a home made rice alcoholic drink, that afternoon. Yet, they still play it well... I was just lucky to win the fights... Three times! Eheheh~ After three winning games, I surrendered and passed the racket over to a friend and I ended up watching a pretty good matches. Whilst, this one drunk shirtless adorable uncle entertained us with his beautiful Iban songs. Dancing all around and singing is one of his talent, while he's drunk at least. Hahaha! It feel wonderful to laugh a loud after a very long week.

That night, I ate my very first "Manok Pansoh"- chicken cook in a bamboo- and "Ikan Pansoh" - fish cook in a bamboo. This cooking method is their traditional way of cooking. Mostly they cook this way in the jungle while they're hunting. The smell of it was very tempting and I could not wait to have a taste of it! OMG! The taste was smooth and the sweetness of the fish and chicken is much preserved. The taste is kinda like steam chicken mixed with chicken soup, but far more delicious! I was like stuffing my mouth and did not stop, not until my tummy is full... Ehehe~ That pansoh was really really good... If you have the chance, try it! You won't regret it... In fact, you'll ended up like me bragging about it's great taste here in the internet!

A visit to some other houses really bond things up. My plan to randau-randau wasn't going well because my eyes were begging me to quit it and go to sleep. I can only survive less than a half an hour... Sorry guys... Blame me not! Its my eyes...

Woke up with a sore throat and a tiny bit of runny nose. It was a really cold place and yet warm hearted people...

After four long months here at SMK Datuk Patinggi Kedit, Betong, last May 23^rd, the one long-awaited news was out, which is regarding the new teachers’ posting. Some of you might don’t know that all of us, I literally mean all of us, the “Graduan Ijazah Sarjana Muda Pendidikan (2011)”, have waited for almost a year to receive the good news! Whilst waiting, some are working at a grocery store as cashier, some if lucky are a substitute teacher and most of us are unemployed. The worst part is to know that you are a degree graduate and unemployed for almost a year! That was just sad… really sad!

Well, I was one of the lucky guys, I guess. In August, about a month before my convocation’s day, I receive an offer as a substitute teacher near my village’s primary school for two months. After that, back to unemployed and I think I changed my workplace status in Facebook quite a few times and I was tired of doing so. Waiting for a letter from The Ministry of Education (MoE) was tiring. Like all my energy drained tiring. It was just supposed to be a piece of paper and it took like forever! But I don’t want to waste any time waiting, hearing and believing rumors regarding our posting of course. Here I list some of the rumors…

Rumor 1: We will be posted to allocate school in November.

Rumor 2: Occurs when November was at end. We will be posted to allocate school by end of December.

Rumor 3: We might not be posted until the year’s end.

Rumor 4: (My brain was tired to remember all the nonsense created by irresponsible individuals, so… skip it!)

*It was quite a few actually.

So, I decided to run for job hunting near Kuching.

Job 1: A supervisor at nearby grocery stores.

Job 2: A clerk at nearby banks. (Bank Islam & Bank Rakyat)

Job 3: A tutor at tuition centers.

Job 4: A Research Assistant at Biodiversity Centre, Puncak Borneo.

Job 5: A lecturer and a tutor at UiTM Samarahan.

Job 6: A lecturer at Swinburne University.

Job 7: A tutor at Taylor’s University.

Job 8: A Shift Manager at The Starbucks Coffee.

And a few more jobs at Jobstreet.com. (I don’t remember how many resumes I send to them actually…)

*Arranged chronologically.

Who said that we, graduates are picky in choosing job? Well I don’t! You know what; even the grocery store didn’t call me back! Not even for an interview! Who’s picky now?!AHAHAHA! ROFLMFAO!

After a few weeks of waiting, I was very excited to know that I was accepted to work at Swinburne University… An Engineering Mathematics and Physics’ lecturer to be precise. I read the email all the way to the bottom of it with smile and joy… until this one god-damn line informing that I must sign a year contract with them. GOD!!! IF ONLY I am not a MoE’s Scholarship holder, I with no hesitation will accept the offer and sign a year contract with them, GLADLY! But my contract with the MoE is still intact. Who knew if we will be located within my contract with them… Who knew? If so, I am in a really really big trouble. So, I was not coming for the set-up interview with sadden and broken heart. My mantra to calm myself was…

“Mungkin ada hikmah di sebalik kejadian”

… and indeed, the next week I got a another job offer, a call from The Starbucks Coffee Co. So, I just follow what God’s plan for me with all trust I have in me and went to the interview the next day at Jalan Song.

The day came for me to report myself to the store manager. But before I was trained for the Shift Manager post, I must attend an “8 hours-paid-in-house-training”. Let’s just skip that part… I started my week as a Junior Barista before I was appointed the Shift Manager post. To tell the truth, I never really became one!!

“Ku sangkakan panas hingga ke petang, rupanya hujan di tengah hari”

I was doing well in my job and suddenly a call collapsing my entire beautifully arranged dream.

A: Sa, Aku dapat sa!~~ (nada ngada-ngada)

Me: Dapat apa?!! (macam terkejut tapi sedikit menjerit)

A: Cekgu Interim!!~~ (nada suara ala-ala gedik sikit)

Me: HUH?? Macam mana ko tau? (sama jugak… tapi mata dah mula membesar dan keluar dari soket sikit)

A: Ko call JPN tanyak ko dapat ke tak. (nada takde perasaan)

Me: Ok. Jap aku call. Nanti aku bagitau ko lagi. (kengelabahan memuncak)

*A summary of one minute or more phone call and a bit exaggerated. EHEHE… Well, it’s my responsibility to make the story interesting. Right? AHAHA

I literally punched my keypad real hard and call JPN (Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri). As expected, no answer. So I re-check the number a few times and press Call again, and again, and again. After a few try, I’m in! It was less than a 20 seconds phone call and I got it too!! Well you know that already. ehehe... After that very short phone call, I jumped to my manager with invisible shaking knees and discussed the matter with her. A frightening 10 minutes of discussion conclude it. She suggested me to resign and accept the offer. It’s OK, she said. Hence, I submitted my resignation letter the very next day and that was my last day there. It was so sad to leave my friends there… (T.T)

It was Wednesday and I went to the JPN to get my official offer letter, black and white they said. Actually, we must report ourselves at the mentioned school last Monday. Since it was the last week before Chinese New Year’s school break, so I decided to call SMK Datuk Patinggi Kedit, Betong to ask a few questions and PK1 told me to report myself tomorrow! It’s frieking Friday tomorrow! My blood rushed to my brain since I haven’t prepared anything yet! We discussed it and he agreed to let me report on the next school opening day. That’s next two weeks. Enough time for me to prepare physically and mentally, and also my luggage… don’t forget that. Ehehehe…

I report myself at SMK Datuk Patinggi Kedit, Betong on a bright and sunny Monday morning. Praised be to God, everything went beautifully. And then the workloads and headaches day starts and continues for four whole months! Could we skip that part too? ehehe… It even tiring me to tell that part of the story…

And then, wait again… wait for the “real” news. After a few meetings of graduates’ bodies and committees with the ministry, it’s out! The interview lists. I thought after the interviews were ended, the rumors might stop or rest awhile but instead the new much worse rumors were out.

Rumor 1: We will be posted to allocate school in April. (The Best News Ever!)

Rumor 2: After April approaching its end, we will be located in May. (The Second Worst News)

Rumor 3: Biology and Chemistry major will be located in Second phase in July. (The Worst News EVER!)

I was just speechless and preparing myself for any good or bad news to come. Luckily, all rumors ended not until the result was out on May 18^th and 19^th. The list was out and thank God I am amongst the First Phase name list. Yuuhhhoooo!!! \o/\o/\o/\o/\o/ ß Inside, I was jumping crazily happy but I tried to hide it from the world~~ehehe…

BUT… BUT… The story did not end there… I only knew that I am amongst the First Phase and still in blindness! I STILL DON’T KNOW WHERE!! WHERE WILL BE MY NEXT SCHOOL? AM I STAYED OR RELOCATED? UuuuUUU… Only God knows how unsettled my heart waiting and guessing for the news…

Thus, I hereby announced that I am officially a “Pegawai Perkhidmatan Pendidikan Siswazah DG41” or simply known as a Teacher here at SMK Datuk Patinggi Kedit, Betong.

To all my fellow friends whom receiving the bad news, I pray for you guys and may God ease all your difficulties.

Well, everything big starts at a small beginning, right?

Thank you for reading.

x0x0x