Ritz Cracker: Pagalungan Experience ~ Briefly

I’m back, yes in one piece, thankfully… although still tired and overwhelmed!

I’m glad despite all the hesitations, I went!

(where we slept)

I couldn’t sleep at all the first night… without my smelly blanket and my sunken mattress… and my weathered pillow… my brain just won’t shut down so there on the stiff wooden floor I laid stiff… and enjoyed a night of the sounds of music orchestrated by lovely snoring horn, crickets strings and the froggy percussion…

The next morning, I was the first to arise… as I didn’t sleep at all… anyways, after washing a bit I went out for a morning walk with MW… fresh air was so fresh I can feel my fat cells start growing aggressively and I was hungry in no time!

Breakfast was meehoon with chicken nuggets!

After the Murut Sunday Service… preached by Pastor Loh…
I was a bit … when Pastor said “Tidak apa kalu kita miskin, tapi kaya di depan Tuhan”… I also wanted to tell the people, we don’t need to be poor, we can change for the better and that is to glorify GOD!”

I sometimes felt sorry for people who had to listen to pastors telling them that it’s okay to be poor! Because it is NOT if we are poor because we didn’t work hard to achieve good things in life! No?

After the service, we quickly sets up for the medical aid… the anxious villages already looking eagerly outside the church… all things are set in no time at all!

I was assigned to give Ubat Cacing to the children!
That’s a blessing to me, as I love children!

But I didn’t expect to see SOOOOOOOOOOOOO many children at Pagalungan, there were more of them than adults because one young couple could have up to 6 children and at least 2 or 3!

When I asked the children to come for the Ubat Cacing, they were so happy for the treat, taking it like honey syrup! But of course, there are some suspicious kids… when I uttered the words “Ubat Cacing” they refused taking it, one even said “Tak mau cacing”! So I had to explain there’re no worms in the medicine, but the kid won’t listen to me anymore! Sigh… so from then onwards, I asked the children to come for some “madu oren” (orange honey)!

Funny thing was, even some of the adults and old grandmothers asked if I could administer some of the Ubat Cacing to them! I gave a few but then when too many of them start to ask for the medication I had to stop giving telling them the medicine only works for children! :p (I honestly believe so when I was saying that but later found out from the Doctor that actually it will work for adults too… so did I lie?).

It was a hot blazing Sunday!

After a long hot day, it’s finally time for dinner

time to call it a day… I went to bed early, and was sound asleep in just a few twist and turn…

Next morning, when the emotion finally sets down, I prayed… I felt humbled… and wish I could have done more… is there anyway I could do more to the people? What do they really need? Has our visit been really beneficial to them? We pulled their teeth but at the same time gave them goodies like soft drinks, sweet biscuits… we gave them tooth paste but forgotten about tooth brush and have no time to education them about hygiene… we thought we were so “great” giving them aids… but are we giving them what they really wanted?

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After breakfast, which was French toast as I suggested (thanks to Uncle Surrounding Stars)…