Merry X'mas !

Wishing all my Christian friends a Merry Christmas!

Firewood in the canal

We worked for about 2 weeks, 7:00am to 6:00pm everyday, gathering what we needed in the woods. My dad estimated that we had collected enough firewood for a lorry-load and sticks for a good twine-climbing support, therefore prepared to move them out of the woods.

He cut some long pieces of raw rattan which were twinning round the trunks of huge trees. We carried the logs, the sticks and rattan on shoulder and moved them out. It took us about 1 1/2 days, we were slow because my father was a very easy going man, when I felt tired or bored I would wander away to catch fish or snails in the streams or to look at the trees or to study the insects.He did not bother me and went on to do the task on his own, and would take a rest himself now and then.

Outside the woods was a canal which led to the trunk road where a lorry could access. We lined up the logs side by side along the bank of the canal. The logs were of equal length and formed a very neat line. Father laid the rattan on top then used nails to string the logs up to form a raft-like structure. He nailed 3 strings of rattan on each log, 1 on each end and 1 in the middle. It looked solid, or so it might seem.

When done, we slowly slided the "raft" of logs into the canal. And it floated! I started to understand why father discarded the hard wood because it would sink in the water. He nailed one long piece of rattan to the head of the "raft" and guided it down the canal when it started to drift downstream. My job was to use a long pole to push the body of the long snake-like raft away from the bank, so that it would not get stuck in the mud bank.

After about an hour travelling down the canal, the head of the raft was caught in the mud bank at a bend. Father tried to jerk it free using the rattan, the rattan suddenly snapped. The body of the long "snake" started to curl, with all my might I tried to straighten it but in vain. You can not imagine the power of the water until you tried to go against it. If the raft were left to hit the bank, the rattan would snap or the nails would be dislodged. That would be a mess, we would have to start all over again to restring the logs.(Raw rattan are brittle, they are tough and resilient only when dried.)

I could not bear to watch the expression of despair on father's face, so jumped into the water to pull the head of the raft free. Then with one hand pulling the raft and swam with the other hand as quickly as possible to straighten the body of raft. Father who was stunned seeing me jumped, recovered quickly and used the pole to keep the body of the raft straight. I remained in the water and led the raft along until we reached our destination- the trunk road.

Father who was silent until now, spoke to me,"good thing you know how to swim!"
From then on, he would never scold me and my brother for swimming in the canals again, and it was unconventional in our village!

In the woods

When I was a child, everyone in the village used firewood for their cooking in the house. Those well to do families bought firewood from lorry drivers but those of us who could not afford would have to gather our firewood from the woods outside the village.

My father brought me along to gather firewood in the woods during one of the term school holidays. We cycled there. We left our bicycles at the fringe of the woods and went inside on foot.

We went to the woods for two purposes, one was to collect firewood, second to cut some small plants for building support structures for twines like long beans to climb.The ideal ones should be of the size of a thumb.
After walking for a short distance, we started to search for suitable plants. We did not collect small twigs like firewood sellers in fairy tale books do. We chopped trees with trunks of 1-2 feet diameter wide. We would then saw them into round logs of 4-foot lengths.

Suddenly my father exclaimed," look, that tree will be a perfect beam for the pig style!" I look at the direction he was pointing. There stood a tall, straight tree not far away. The tree was very near to the fringe of the woods, not very deep inside, I wondered why it was not chopped down by someone until now.
Father was excited because he was planning to redo the roof of our pig style for some time already. Now he found his perfect beam.

After admiring the tree for a long while, Father felled the tree and trimmed the leaves then carefully placed it at a safe spot by the path. We then continued with our search for suitable firewood. Not every tree in the forest is suitable to be used as firewood. Some tree are too hard and heavy and will not catch fire easily. Some trees will give out a lot of smokes. Some will emit strong stench. We were looking for wood which were easy to cut, easy to catch fire, give out little smokes and did not emit bad smell.

We managed to fell a few suitable trees and we used a big saw to saw the tree trunks into even lengths. The saw we used was a big one about 5-foot long, with a handle on either end. To saw a log, the saw would be placed perpendicular to the log and one person would stand on each side of the log.When one person pulls the saw, the other will help to push it, and vice versa.

We stopped work at around 5.00pm and got ready to go home.Of course, we did not forget to carry with us the straight log we fell early in the morning to be used as a beam for the pig style. We started to head for the border of the woods. But strange things happened, we could not find the way out. We were going in circles, it was getting dark by the minute, and the log we carried felt heavier and heavier.

Father was chanting quietly to himself because he did not want to alarm me.Yet we were still making circles in the woods. Finally we brought the log back to place where it was felled and laid it by the stump. We started out again, this time empty handed. Within minutes we were out of the woods already!

The next morning Father brought with us some "kueh" and fruits. The first thing he did on reaching the spot where we worked the day before was to put the kueh and fruits in front of the stump of the log we felled and burned some incise. We both prayed and asked for forgiveness from the tree stump. We believed it was the residence of the guardian of the woods - the "Datuk Gong" who was a Muslim. We annoyed him by uttering the word "pig" in front of him.

We continued our works, and we did not encounter any more strange thing after that. But as a precaution, we avoided using that path again. We cleared a new one and used it for the next few days to get the place where we worked.

Until today I still can not find a logical explanation to what happened that day inside the woods.

Swimming in the canals

The village which I lived in as a child was a wet padi growing village. It had a very good irrigation system, there were more than 20 canals controlling the flow of water into and out of the padi fields.The grass growing on the banks are trimmed regularly by the workers, so it was very neat and tidy, ideal for us kids to roll on, and then drop off into the water.
The canals were not filled with water all the time, certain months the Agricultural Officer will order the water gates to be shut and no water will flow in the canals. Only pots and patches of water pockets here and there. It was a good time to catch cat fish in the pockets of water.We loved it.

During this time the padi began to ripe, later ready to be harvested. After that the formers will plough the dried up land to plant secondary crops like tobacco, chilli, sweet potatoes, brinjo, water melon,long beans,etc.
When these crops were ripen and harvested, it was time to flood the fields again getting ready to grow the main crop, the wet padi.
The Agricultural Officer would announce the exact date for the water gates to be raised. He would send his men to go round the village on a land cruiser armed with a loud speaker to blast the news to everyone. Notice would also be pasted on the notice board outside his office.
When the gates were opened,the canals would be filled with water up to 5 feet deep feeding every field along the way.
The workers from the agriculture dept would patrol the canals ,inspecting the water outlets to the fields and the grass on the banks. The grass were important for preventing erosion of the canals banks. At the same time the workers would chase away any children lingering on the canals banks, because no swimming were allowed in the canals. Not only the water level was too deep for the kids to swim in, it was also extremely dangerous to go near the water gates. The whirlpools created by the gates would suck them in if they went too near. Moreover the kids climbing up and down the banks would damage the grass also.
We still sneaked to the canals after school to swim and play. But we were not foolish enough to go near the gates, we always swam at least a few km away from the gates. Not only it was safer, but also not so easily detected by the agriculture dept workers. For some reasons the workers liked to hang around the gates.

Beside the workers we were also on the lookout for our parents and neighbours. But we knew the hours they would pass by the spot where we were swimming and we would be less absorbed in our games and be more alert during those hours. When we spotted someone approaching, we would all submerge in the water and hold our breath until he passed. If we were unlucky to be seen, we would know what awaited us at home that evening! Yet we could not resist the temptation of the canals and would return even after receiving the punishment.
The workers had a more effective way to deal with us. Sometimes they shouted at us from afar to scare us away. Sometimes they sneaked up on us and collected our clothes (we all swam naked, we were the originator of the nudist movement...hahaha) then only shouted at us. We all ran away naked and they pretended chasing us from behind on their bicycles.They made us run round the village across the main street and they then went back to their quarters, with our clothes.
Finally, shame overcame fear, we went to the workers' quarters to beg them to give us back our clothes. After what seemed a life time,the agriculture office would come out and made us write down our names, class, and class teachers' names. He made us promised to finish our home works everyday for the next week and to show him every day. Strange, why did he do that? May be his girl friend was our class teacher?. Ummm...must be.

A tough question to answer

Sometimes I ask myself,"Have I made the right choice by leaving the kampung?"
I know I cannot answer that.

My father was a farmer in a small Chinese new village, planting padi and tobacco alternately during the year. We kids had to help in the field during week ends and school holidays. By the time we finished our 6 years of primary school education we were quite strong and knew most of the works to be done in the field.

Except for a fortunate few who were from well to do families like the shop owners, senior government officers, most of the kids would naturally drop out and adopt farming as a way of life. Alternatively they will become apprentice for various trades in the town. There were good reasons for this, the most obvious one is of course they would start to bring home earnings or boost the productions in the field. The second reason was that many could not get through the Primary Examinations hence could not advance into secondary schools. The third reason being that their families could not afford the school fees and the cost of livings in town, because the kids had to leave the village to further their studies. There was no secondary school in villages then.

My father was a very poor farmer, it looked like I was destined to be either a farmer or a tradesman. But I would not settle for it, I wanted to change it. I studied hard whenever I found time in between doing chores. When the results were out, I was one of the only 2 students who scored grade 1 in my class. It was something during that time, I tell you.

So I told my father about my intention to carry on studying. He said he had no money, if I want, I could take some rice from home and feed myself in the town. I had to ask my mother for cash because she was working as a domestic maid in the big town quite far from home. She agreed that I was too frail to start working and should wait for a few more years when I grew bigger.

So armed with RM30 and a bag of rice for every school term, I continued my study in secondary school. During school holidays, when my class mates planned for their vacations, I was asking around for jobs available during that period.

Also I was busy asking seniors and my classmates if their elder brothers, sisters or cousins wanted to sell their used text books. And I sold my used books to my juniors. Those days text books were not changing like fashion shows every year, so they could be passed down from seniors to juniors. This saved the students quite a bit of money.

After completing form 5, I joined the Government as a technicain. While working I sat for the external diploma which was recgonised by the Government. It took me 6 years to complete, and I got rapid promotions whenever I passed a stage.

I went over to the private sector later because it was more challenging. I became a computer hardware engineer. I worked for several multi-national companies before I retired.

The problem with me now is that my 2 kids are still studying in colleges, and I could not find proper jobs due to my age. If I remained a farmer, my children will be happy as farmers too. There will be no worry of whether I could support them until finish colleges or not.

Did I make the right choice?