As the two-week Hari Raya cum school holidays were coming to an end, we had to send Melissa back to her rural/jungle school a bit earlier – on Saturday as she had to conduct extra classes for the Year 6 students before the forthcoming UPSR (Primary School Assessment Test). No, she’s not teaching those examination classes but it seems that it is the school policy to rope everyone in to do something for the kids, not just the actual teachers of those classes. I, for one, would not want that as I would not know how to help pupils that I am completely unfamiliar with…and besides, if I had prepared them well and thoroughly, I would not want any other teacher to come and talk crap and mess things up.
She was given the whole of Saturday afternoon and she did not want to go all the way back to Sibu for one night and make her way back there again the very next day so we decided to spend the night there with her since all the other teachers were not around or had not come back yet – only the Year 6 students and the warden on duty.
Melissa has moved to the new teachers’ quarters now…
– in the concrete block at the far end to the right of the above photograph. For one thing, it is a lot more comfortable – very nice and a whole lot better in more ways than one than those poorly-maintained dilapidated wooden ones.
She and a colleague are sharing one unit…
…which has a spacious living room, kitchen and dining area and 3 bedrooms and one is still vacant at the moment plus there are ceiling fans here, there and everywhere so it definitely is very very much cooler than in the old place – I would feel like coming down with a heat stroke everytime I lingered around a bit longer there.
While she went to do her part with the students, we helped her sweep, clean and mop up the place – after two long weeks, there certainly was a lot of cleaning needed! Later, we cooked some rice and heated up the food we had brought from home for dinner and these were what we had for our first dinner ever at Melissa’s school/quarters – chicken curry with potatoes…
…and durian flowers fried with sambal udang kering (dried prawns)…
The next day, we had lunch before we left and there was ayam pansoh…
– the local ethnic Dayak delight and my missus made these fritters with french beans and ikan bilis (dried anchovies) added….
Soon, it was time to make our way back to Sibu…and I could see that Melissa was very touched and so happy we stayed there with her for the night and I told her that we would love to do that again as and whenever necessary.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 