Each visit to Sabah is different and is loaded with different discoveries about the communities and the team involved in the LCs. This year, I got to visit all the different learning centres in KK except one due to its challenging terrain of accessibility for me. Those LCs out of KK were manageable but requires pushing my abilities to manoeuvre the different access routes.
Amazons of KK
This is the awesome team headed by Dorothy Yet. The number of issues encountered are so varied but God has provided each one with special abilities and capabilities to handle them. A strong and fit physique is necessary to access our LCs; long hours of driving on moon-cratered roads; at times some acrobatic balancing and leaps in crossing the ‘bridges’; ability to ‘bounce’ with the boat on choppy waters; and even sprawling like Spiderman to climb up the boat jetty are quite the norm for the team as they set out to ‘conquer’ different obstacles at the different LCs. A lot of prayer for safety goes before all these challenge trips. One of the ways to de-stress from all these challenging feats are eating and laughing together.
Despise not my youth
At one of the centres, five community teachers in their teens are teachers in the morning but are being trained and educated in the afternoon. I could not believe that this small little girl is capable of teaching a P1 class. She is of the same size as her students and of the same age with some of them too! However, she is one stern teacher when standing in front of her class. Their desire to learn and elevate themselves from one level to the next as a team of good friends has helped them move on.
Over the mountains and the hills
I went to facilitate an exam at this centre. I had no idea that I had to go on a mini hike – first on flat ground with chickens to greet you along the way; then to an elevated terrain and going in between houses before reaching the centre. What a relief when I reached the centre which was situation on an elevation. The centre is in a house of the teacher; the classroom is the living room with a kitchen at the far end. It is well ventilated with a huge fan, cold drinks and water was prepared to welcome us.
It is well ventilated with a huge fan, cold drinks and water was prepared to welcome us.
While the students were cracking their brains to answer the exam questions, their anxieties were soothed by the chickens that came clucking in, a cat to rub away the tangled nerves and the aroma of food to awaken their thoughts.
On the last day of the exam, as the students were trooping home, I noticed this cute boy trying to stuff his pencils into his jeans pocket. When asked where his pencil box was, he pointed to his jeans pocket! How innovative! I was later told that he is an orphan who is cared for by the community, including our teacher’s mum.
Unwavering love and concern
One of the teachers attending the teachers’ training was very near to her due date to deliver. Despite her condition, she came for the training. One day, she suddenly told us that she felt very uncomfortable, possibly about to deliver – this is definitely not a module I cover in my training, “How to deliver a baby!” If I was not mistaken, she delivered the next day at home!
What struck me most was the love of the teachers for their students in their respective communities, using their homes as the LC and to attend the training. Despite the challenges they faced in their personal lives, they continue on in their LCs with love and concern. Kudos to our Amazons in Sabah who journey with the communities – encouraging, guiding, helping and building them up to maturity.
