When we arrived at our very first accommodation at SMK Ulu Balingian, it appeared to be a peaceful, small rural school ( about 3 hours ride from Bintulu town) Boy, are we in for a thrill ride ! First we entered their dorms, it can only be described with 3 words.. Oh-MY-GOD!!. There was no fan ( that was ok, since it was quite chilly in the hills), but the bed.... it was dusty and it appeared to be the cemetery ground for the insects there ! eww~~~ Later my friends decided to take a bath, the first sound we heard was... OH MY GOD !!.. There wasn't any door to close behind the bathrooms, meanin, we bath 'openly'. Not forgetting the shower heads, there were actually no shower head, only a small hole ejecting water from the wall. So we literally need to stick our bodies to the wall so that we can enjoy the cold water !!
Though this is a very small place, the people here have big hearts. The female students were actually waiting outside the bathrooms, asking us " Kak, dah mandi ke ? Nak pakai Sarung tak ? Kita ada " ( have you taken your bath ? We have sarungs if you wanna use it . They also waited for us and provided dinner although we arrived very late. The next day, in order to repay their kindness, we decided to carry out a workshop at SMK Ulu Balingian. Guess what, their response was overwhelming ! The students there were so obedient to their teachers' order. And since I was the the emcee, at the first announcement asking them to take their seats, they were scrambling to get their seats, and all were seated within a short few minutes ! Throughout their workshop, we could really see that they appreciate our appearance there. Somehow it made us feel like Super stars !
When the workshop ended, they thanked us with all their hearts. its like what we did for them was some life-changing event. When they turned toward us to bow and thanked us, I could feel tears forming in my eyes. It was something that you get from these pure and innocent hearts. In the evening, they were so eager to play along with us that they refused to take their dinner ! All they want is to be with us as long as they can. From what their teacher said, it had been almost 3years that outsiders visited their school. It was sad that others did not notice the presence of these innocent kids.
At the end of our entire tour, we realised that this rural school actually gave us the best experience. Some of the urban schools we visited were actually not quite thankful for the things we did for them and commented that we shouldn hold these programs anymore as they're a waste of time.
