Miri
I visited Miri in my second week of staying at Matang Wildlife Centre and was met at the airport by a lovely couple called Jean and Francis Liam. We then started a long bumpy journey way into Sarawak’s beautiful forest, where we travelled along an unmade road that logging trucks constantly use, we passed many longhouses and saw a completely different side of Borneo to what your normal tourist sees. local life as it has been for many years the beauty of the untouched countryside is breathtaking especially when you visit Logan Bunut nationalpark complete paradise and because it is so remote not often visited
after a 2 hour very uncomfortable journey( but worth it for the experience) we reached Everland a paradise on earth. Everland is a 50 acre farm growing predominantly dragon fruit, which is a strange looking purple fruit that in my opinion is probably the best fruit in the world.
There are 6 horses that share this paradise with Jean and Francis and they were eager to learn how to look after them better. There are three mares, two youngsters and a very majestic stallion all living together in harmony.A small amount of breeding has taken place and this year 2008 two foals have been born, it would now be a good idea to castrate the Stallion and then concentrate on breaking the horses to riding the nearby area is ideal for riding and the forest adjoining the farm is currently being cleared of years of fallen trees and leaves to make a very natural and scenic riding trail, Gareth being very much involved in carriage driving is planning this summer to try and longrein the mares with a view to breaking them to a carriage. Riding through the forest has got to be one of the best things I can think of doing.
The children in this small community are learning English and love the interaction given by foreigners who are able to go into the school and help with the English lessons. Gareth and I are starting to help with the building of a kindergarten and hope to sponsor a local teacher for this. the kindergarten is a necessary addition as many children are behind in not only academic skills but social as well when they start school and if they cant adjust to school life they just stop going, the pressure on getting children to go to school is not enforced by the government the way we enforce it so consequently many children get no education at all, hopefully this kindergarten will be up and partially running by 2008, with volunteer help to build and construct it and the involvement of the local people this should be a real assett to this community.
I have been back to Everland several times now and my next visit is May 2008 with Gareth, we are helping with the volunteer project there and will be going back into the schools to meet the children, the meeting of the local people again will increase our knowledge of their culture and hopefully renew old friendships. .
MIRI 2008
My return to miri was to introduce two volunteers to the farm at Everland and spend some time joining in the activities, Jean and Francis have acquired an extra 50 acres of land and have now been able to employ more local staff to help plant vanilla and sandlewood trees, putting the vanilla seedlings in pots was one of our first jobs. The next stage is planting them and the work that goes into growing vanilla is incredible. It was great to be back the hospitaltity from Jean and Francis is exceptional and once again I had a week in which to eat as much dragon fruit as I wanted.
The six horses have increased to eight with the birth of two foals in November 2007, the horses look well and are starting to be ridden again, both Mauve and Zoe have got to grips with the unusual method of looking after horses in this country which involves not doing much at all and letting them live as natural as possible, meaning that catching and grooming can be difficult and a crush is sometimes needed to restrain them in order to get saddles on, the horses are however very well looked after and both people and horses are enjoying the riding.
Last years foals Storm and Thunder had not forgotten the attention given to them the last time volunteers were here and enjoyed the contact again.
The farm is located near the Logan Bunut National Park and as accessibility is difficult not many people visit, this is a shame as it is a beautiful place hosting the largest natural lake in Sarawak, and having one of the few remaining wetlands in Malaysia Borneo. The lake is fed by tributary rivers so that when the main Tinjar river is high in the monsoon season it feeds the lake and when the dry season is here especially February May and June the river water level drops so the lake feeds to the river this means that the lake can dry up completely leaving cracked mud flats We tried our hand at the local fishing called selambau which is done by throwing a large net into the river from a floating house this is the traditional way of catching fish and the object of the floating house is that they can change the house direction depending on the flow of the river, but unfortunately no fish were caught.
Cruises around the lake are popular and the day cruise is very relaxing with the spotting of many colourful birds especially kingfishers and Pied Hornbills. The night cruise is completely different the local superstition is of a spirit of the lake which is a bright light with one eye that is believed to the eye of a giant as the light is so high up in the sky, it follows you around whilst you are on the lake, obviously we had to go and try and see this unusual phenonemeum for ourselves, surprising enough it did not appear for us that evening, but we were fortunate enough to see of the eyes a false garial crocodile in the wetlands. The cruise lasts nearly two hours and it was a beautiful clear evening with many stars in the sky.
The school children were excited to see English volunteers again and benefit enormously from the interaction given, several mornings were spent in the school and one particular day we were given the whole class to teach unaided, I think we managed alright and the children seemed to enjoy it an afternoon of fun and games and a visit to the local Penan longhouse where a lot of the children live finished the end of the school week. Saturday saw 40+ children descend on Everland farm for a morning of conservation education, their time spent in the surrounding forest identifying the local flora and fauna a talk is given to the children at the end of the morning to try and show them them that there is another way of making a living for themselves when they get older, they do not have to destroy their forest and hunt the animals around them if they take a good look at the farm and what can be grown alongside their beautiful forest hopefully we can teach this next generation to respect their homeland, the children enjoy this day and learn a lot.
Unfortunately the kindergten is still not up and running this is due to no local teacher being found. Lapox is extremely remote this coupled with a low wage and basic living facilities will not attract teachers from the towns, it is a great shame as when you are teaching in the primary school it is so apparent which children there have had kindergarten teaching for some children especially with English speaking they never catch up, they then feel inadequate and many do not continue their schooling. Maybe an English teacher with some knowledge of the Malay language is reading this who would like to help.
Gareth spent his week enjoying himself on a mini digger cutting a road through the outside line of the forest to reach an area where a hydro dam will be built to feed electricity to the property, it was very hot work and it is amazing how strong the local farm workers are with carrying diesel a long way across the farm to feed the digger each day, the job finished and a promise from Gareth to return later in the year tohelp with numerous other jobs around the farm.
