Once a Chapter of my life...

It's almost a year since I left Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, at times every single thing I do and everyone I met along my short journey there; it still lingers in my mind when I sat down alone in my room... pondering up to the black night sky or with the full moon giving me the most charming glow... Or simply some of the incidents co-incidentally re-occured in my life now... At the same time, some part of me want to forget the people and things that had happened... Somehow, its just impossible...

Keeping in touch with several of them from PNG in a way reminds me that, it once was a chapter of my life... and nobody and nothing can ever change that. If it's not because of the 3 years there, I won't be very much who I am today... at the same time, I'm grateful that Alvin is always there for me... loving & caring me *Hugs*

The chapter begins...
My first time experience to fly on an aeroplane at the age of 23 in October 2002. Feeling excited but it was a very painful depart from home because my mom refused to talk to me for the last 2 weeks before my departure; hoping that her anger & disappointment will sink into me and I will change my mind. Nevertheless, nobody could stop me if I had decided on something as especially big decisions like this. Being the youngest to be recruited as an Expatriate, Rimbunan Hijau (PNG) Ltd. was my first serious career... a job that I felt a sensed of belonging. I started as a Shipping Assistant in the Marketing Department; with only myself and the Asst. Marketing Mgr. Can imagine the bundles of tasks; the one-leg kick style. Every hour, anything can just happened in this field of work. Still very much fresh in mind, my 1st two weeks was pretty scary... as the Asst. Mgr left for his yearly vacation & suddenly the staff that resigned decided to leave on 24 hours notice after a couple of days I joined with the childish-est reason. She is a mother of two and resigning to open her own boutique. Not going into detail of the incident that had occured between us... to painful & cut me deep.

Before I left my home, friends and relatives always advised me that I'll be all alone in a world unknown... and being there for the first few months were something I had to agree on how true what people said. Because, I'm the one young lady who embark into this land of unexpected all alone... unlike many who have some relatives there or parents or they are men. Many asked me; "How could you be so brave to come here?" and all I replied was, "I wanted freedom and to experience life away from home..." and here I was... from a princess; naive and straight... into a young woman who is still very much naive and straight.

(Picture taken in October 2002 when I first arrived the office; I have moved three times within the duration I was there. Click on the picture to zoom in on the writings I scribbled before.)

I was placed at the Philippino (Pinoy~they called themselves) residents with my Asst. Mgr's girlfriend. It was okie in the beginning but then, its just get worst and worst by the day. And that's when I requested so badly to be transfered to the next vacant Malaysian residents. Staying with the whole house full of Pinoy automatically allowed me to understand Tagalog and speak some of the simple words too. Alvin was there to always encourage and support me. And the best was he is a good cook!! I love many of his home-origin dishes and my favourite is simply "Chicken Adobo". Wow! Recalling it now; I sure missed the many cooking sections we had with all his friends... its a tour of cooking not an expediture of food; which of course we had to eat eventually after our cooking. The time spend preparing were just exciting because we can turn the most basic things into food for a meal. And in returned, I cooked some simple Malaysian food for them to taste; as cooking is my passion I'm very delightful that my cooking are well-liked; new to them. Hehehe... Think the best meal I cooked was the "Chicken Rendang" with coconut milk & pandan rice. And I will always remember the simpliest "Mee Goreng" (from Indonesia) that Alvin cooked for me; with luncheon meat (Tulip brand); always our favourite even my last few days there. Never get bored of them!! So, with all the multi-countries' cultures and ethics; its just the best place one want to be... a 3rd world country, so much poverty, high-crimes, remote, etc... but, its a place I learned and experience the mixed cultures & the "kampung" (village) lifestyle...

Accomodation & 3-main meals are provided by the company. We worked 5 & half days a week; from 8am-5pm. Every morning, I'll get up around 6.30-7am because the sun comes out very early; 4.45am-5am. And usually the dogs are already barking when the dog-caretaker feed and bath them every morning around 6am-6.30am. It's like an automatic alarm clock for me because the dog house is just right behind my bedroom. There are several dog houses surrounding our housing-area; its the only residential compound that had this kind of security to protect the resident. Not sure who came up with this brilliant idea. Dogs in this compound will only bark & bite the locals; National or whoever wears complete-black colour. (Not sure the dogs are colour-blind or they are getting old). I don't take breakfast everyday but occassionally if I do; its gonna be quite a heavy breakfast because the Mess Hall served fried rice, fried mee-hoon or fried noodles. The usual bread is available and white porridge is a must. And there will be fried anchovies, canned spinach, baked beans (my favourite) and other canned food to accompany the porridge. Cooking here are very much influenced by the Fuchow-dialect (as 97% population of Malaysians are from Sibu). There are 3 cooks; 1 Chinese-lady and 2 Philippinoes. Lunch is served 12pm daily even on the weekends; of course the food are all ready by 11am. Dinner is served very early at 5pm onwards and by 6pm; if we do not special request to reserve our food; its all gone within an hour. Thus, sometimes; I'll take my dinner at 5.30pm after my shower and will head back to work at 6pm again. They have a schedule to follow that each meal, they will served one kind poultry or seafood and each meal have 2-kinds of vegetables or taufu or eggs. Each meal have soup. Weekdays; not much of "life" other than work and work; I had to work till 11pm sometimes, on my first few months there because I had to learn and do everything by myself & if I'm not sure; I had to go around seeking for help. On weekends; I'll do my own laundary every Saturday afternoon and clean up my room and wash the toilet (if they are dirty), change the bed-sheet and etc... "Super-marketing" will be after laundry; just to get some necessities; fresh milk (I drink a lot of them because its cheap & a milk lover), fruits and whatever raw ingredients to cook or baked. There is no Mall here... so, the best place to save! I can't afford to eat out every weekend so; its only reserved for emercency times (when the food in the Mess Hall is not able to consume by me ~ Prawns & Beef) and celebration; birthdays. On Sundays, if I don't go to church service, I'll sleep until very late after I got up at 7am for a quick-snack of breakfast; I'll returned back to dreamland till 12pm-1pm... like a bear hybernating for the winter... and wake up for a late lunch...followed by baking, cooking, watching TV or chit chatting or if there is somewhere to go... and that's like the normal weekly routine. Boring, huh?

(Pictures taken during my first few days arrival. Click each picture below to read the descriptions)

Events in Year 2002:
As all around me are mostly Philippinoes in my first year, I will tagged along or will be invited for their parties and functions. First was the Hallowe'en Day, I was kinda excited because never celebrated this in Malaysia before. The nights before, we were busy preparing homemade candies for the kids that will be coming for "Trick-or-Treating"; this year there is no pumpkin on sale so no parents carved them. Not in season... A few of us helped out to organise costume party for all the kids in our compound. There are like more than 10 of them... (Photo: EveHalloween1, EveHalloween2)

Secondly, the Philippines' Food Fair... I just tagged along for fun and I discovered many of their delicacies and food. The colour purple on a delicacy kind of scares me... but its actually made of yam (taro) with a little colouring. That's what food fair is all about, right? Here, is a new journey starts with different cultures' food...(Photo: Fair1, Fair2).

Third was the Christmas & Boxing Day, of course most of the Australian companies are closed for the long holidays of the year. Things are pretty slow at office and no shipment are to be arranged for the holiday-season until the 2nd week of January. Spent my first Christmas at a foreign country with lots of feasting around and travelled out to this little fishing-village of one of Maricar's staff. About an hour drive on winding-bumpy road. Upon reaching the village, I'm sure you can imagine the poor life of theirs. You don't see pipes or toilets in their homes, no fan on the ceiling and no TV... not a proper place to cook and the list goes on... I don't have a camera then, so nothing was captured but its captured right in my memory... That explains why this colleague of ours will usually bring her toothpaste & toothbrush to office to brush her teeth. After looking around the village, we waited for a while for her bro-in-law to bring us out to sea. We took a "dinghy"(motor-boat) and Maricar & Ronald said we should head to Loloata Island to visit the rest of our friends who are there for the holidays. So, Alvin, Maricar, Ronald and myself get into it along a few little kids and the boat-captain and headed to the Island; without any proper clothing and sun-block... you can imagine that we turned into red-lobster when we got back. We were not allow to berth at the Island as its a private island, so we wave to our friends from the dinghy. How surprised they are?!?! The ride was undescribeable and its a long journey; think we were on it for 3 hours and we had to hunt for fuel at one of the village. Runs out of it! How worried we are... Pictures tell the rest of our journey... (Photo Album: Dinghy-Ride).

Inchizen: A Dinner out at the famous Japanese Restaurant

Big Smiles from Jasper & myself.

A shot before we go to sleep; Maricar, Me & Grace.

Events in Year 2003:

Spend my first ever Chinese New Year here and one experience was enough... Never did I wanted it to repeat. You know why? Because there is no "Ang Pow" to collect here... not much, not even exceed Rm50.00 even after 6 houses. So, every year, I'll go back for CNY... Here, CNY only lasted 1 day because the company only allow us for 1 day holiday and by 2nd day of the Lunar calender, its back to work... we will have a grand-chinese-get-together-dinner with shark fin, sea-cucumber, crabs, prawns, roaster pig, and the list goes on... all the grand food. This year the MD decidedd to hire the Lion Dance to welcome the New Year. But, there was not much of CNY mood because its simply too short, too quiet and not much small goodies to enjoy. This year, I missed home so much during the CNY and I called home and talked to my mom... then head out to clubbing at Lamana Club; my favourite here.

My birthday in May this year was celebrated quietly by myself because no one knew about it but rewarded myself with a few hours of a cruise and that was simply breath-taking. Eventhough, I had took the Star Cruises for 4D3N but this is uncompareable. This is actually a "barge" (large flat-platform cargo vessel). I don't own a camera yet this year so only got this of myself. Can you belief it, I was the one manualling a U-turn of the barge back from the open-sea when the sun-set while all the others (100 over lives in my hands) are merrily dancing, talking, fishing, eating and drinking away... Catch me in action!

In the month of July, two little cute puppies were born from Crystal & Ah Boy. Crystal is a pure German Shephard breed wherelse, Ah Boy is just plain black dog. Saw them when they were whinning near the bushes one day and started to feed them milk when they were about 1-2 weeks old. Olive and myself brought them to the Vet for their 1st injection and I was playing with them everyday until its time for them to go back to their "home" after like few months old. They are always chewing on old shoes and clothe. Brownie didn't survive but Blackie grown to be a very handsome dog; I love his tail the best part. Its bushie and he has the sharpest feature from his mom. Couldn't take picture of him because he is always running around in his "home"...

In September, attended a church camp at Babaka Beach. Its 3 hours of bumpy-hilly-winding road with lots of portholes to this Beach. Alvin drove there and I drove back. It's a very challenging drive... wished I could have more rocky-chances like this. The camp is supposed to be 2 nights but we only joined 1 night for the experience of living at an open-space land near the beach with the jungle behind us with no electricity, no toilet and bath from a well. And sleep under the stars and black sky... Even though, the food are cooked tradisionally with firewoods, I enjoyed the food very much and till now, I missed the scones for breakfast and the BBQ lamb for dinner. And we have to control our stomach...(Photo Album: Babaka Camp)

**To be continue...
In my next post on the subsequent years...
And more photoes...