As part of
Habitat for Humanity, our Malaysian hosts organised a trip to an Iban longhouse. This involved a forty minute trip down the river. We stayed at the longhouse, safely ensconced in mosquito nets (kind of - some were pretty holey), and some of the students needed to double up, but they did not seem to mind. There is a certain discomfort in making a tourist item out of a people, but
the Iban do economically benefit from the trip, and from our tour. Additionally, it did not seem they were totally dependent on tourism, as they had ricefields to tend, and many people went away to work. Our students, and of course, we teachers, also learn about different cultures through tours such as these. As Japan is a pretty homogeneous society, and prides itself on being so, this type of exposure is usually something new for the students. The Iban, too, see many different cultures. That can be viewed as good or bad, or somewhere inbetween.
The river trip was pretty special. We took 3 canoes to get there. Only ours had one person on the engine/rudder and the woman at the front. All others only had the guy on the engine. Ours was the heaviest, too, having me, and the other non-Japanese staff, and the fully grown bus driver who had driven us from Kuching, who was also Iban. Sitting there in our yellow puffed up life jackets made me, at least, feel like a displaced marshmallow. But meh, what can you do?
I got all artsy with this shot. It does not really reflect Malaysia, but is perhaps my favourite shot of the trip. I could cut out my jean leg and sneaker in the lefthand corner, but I think it might muck up the proportions. Perhaps.
As part of Habitat for Humanity, our Malaysian hosts organised a trip to an Iban longhouse. This involved a forty minute trip down the river. We stayed at the longhouse, safely ensconced in mosquito nets (kind of - some were pretty holey), and some of the students needed to double up, but they did not seem to mind. There is a certain discomfort in making a tourist item out of a people, but the Iban do economically benefit from the trip, and from our tour. Additionally, it did not seem they were totally dependent on tourism, as they had ricefields to tend, and many people went away to work. Our students, and of course, we teachers, also learn about different cultures through tours such as these. As Japan is a pretty homogeneous society, and prides itself on being so, this type of exposure is usually something new for the students. The Iban, too, see many different cultures. That can be viewed as good or bad, or somewhere inbetween.
The river trip was pretty special. We took 3 canoes to get there. Only ours had one person on the engine/rudder and the woman at the front. All others only had the guy on the engine. Ours was the heaviest, too, having me, and the other non-Japanese staff, and the fully grown bus driver who had driven us from Kuching, who was also Iban. Sitting there in our yellow puffed up life jackets made me, at least, feel like a displaced marshmallow. But meh, what can you do?
I got all artsy with this shot. It does not really reflect Malaysia, but is perhaps my favourite shot of the trip. I could cut out my jean leg and sneaker in the lefthand corner, but I think it might muck up the proportions. Perhaps.
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