awesome experience so far. Our team is
on their own this month, living in the jungle with the Asli people. We sleep in the local church and live, work,
and eat with pastor Hem who is one of the leaders in the village.
an “eco-village” where people from outside can come, stay, and buy local goods
the Asli people grow and produce. We
have cleared some land, built a bridge, and are now working on building the first
of many chalets. All the materials used
for the construction are from the jungle around us…the entire structure is
built from wood, bamboo, and vines. It’s
really interesting to see the different building techniques and how the Asli
people have been building things here for generations.
mornings and as we go, many of the children follow us and play in the river and
hang out while we are working. When we
get there, the village women are already weaving together palm branches for
what will eventually become the roof. Eventually
some of them also start to make lunch for everyone. They begin by wrapping rice in leaves and
then packing them into bamboo that is filled with water and then put over a
fire. When meal time comes we all sit at
a long table constructed of bamboo and then unwrap the rice and eat everything with
our hands. One of my favorite things is
being able to partake in local traditions and live the same way the locals do.
lunch and teach them English. The kids
love learning English, but it has proved to be a challenge to teach them
because most have never gone to school before. Most will never go to school because there isn’t a school nearby, so
they typically grow up not knowing how to read or write.
When we first got here the kids wouldn’t even come close to
us and some of the young ones would even cry when we got near them. Over time though, most of them have warmed up
to us and we are able to interact and play with them. We love to hang out with the kids and go
swimming in the river, play frisbee, play guitar, or just chase them around the
village for awhile. Another game the
older guys play is something called Sepak
Takraw. This game is crazy. It’s hard to describe, but you basically play
on a volleyball court…except you use a harder, smaller ball…and you can only
use your feet. They are even able to
spike the ball, but you have to jump in the air and almost do a flip to spike it
over the net. I’m not very flexible, so
I tend not to be in the spiker’s position…they usually put me as the server or
the setter since I cause the least amount of damage in those spots. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea
of what I’m talking about…
