I taught in SEDAYA for a year in 1975. And one memorable dish I learned while serving there was the Cucumber and Sardines Salad.
We had a Husbandry Club and students learned to grow lots of vegetables besides rearing ducks, cows and chickens.
I had my own plot of Chinese radishes, but I did enjoy buying cucumbers and other vegetables from the club. The club's earnings helped poor students, funded farewell parties and bought the school's first TV!!
Prepare slices of cucumber. slice plenty of bombay onions thinly and lay them on top of the sliced cucumber. Take half a tin of sardines, or just a small tin...crumble the sardines a bit and place on top of the cucumber and sliced onions. Dressing Use the tomato sauce of the sardines . slice some chillies, add to the tomato sauce, add juices of limes (to your taste) add some sugar if you like...pour on top of the sardines. To serve : Squeeze more lime juice... Note : We normally don't stir fry the sardines, just from the tin. Some people do heat up the sardines...If you need to heat up, you will have to cool them down so that the cucumbers are cold and crunchy. Enjoy... I know a friend would take one slice of cucumber and place a bit of onion and a bit of sardine on it..make a canape.... Have a try.
Rantau Kemiding is a lovely longhouse not too far from Kanowit town. The long house chief is TR Benjamin Angki Kaboy, the first Iban man with a degree from East West Centre of Hawaii.
He and his relatives have turned the longhouse into a special homestay business. Recently it won an award from the Ministry of Tourism, Malaysia.
These are some of the activities you can choose from:
Day One
Welcoming drinks
Cultural dance
Accommodation
Foods and drinks
Longhouse tour & story sharing session
Trekking
Entrance fees
Day 2 Blowpipe demonstration
Handicraft making
Indoor traditional games
Optional Activities
(Can be arrange upon guest request)
Fishing safari
Rubber tapping & processing the rubber
River cruise using local boat
Ranyai and betaboh session
Try yourself Iban traditional costume
if anybody happens to be interested, you can log in to their website: http://rantaukemiding.blogspot.com and if you want to drop by on a visit, the tuai rumah‘s contact numbers are 084-753563 or 013-8823076.
Remember how the students had to queue up for their food at meal times?
Food was freshly cooked from supplies sent from Sibu (Sarawak Cold Storage) and the school Students' Food Committee would be controlling the quantity and quality. They were really excellent!
However I remember how easy it was also for the cooks to open up tins of sardines and other types of tinned food at meal times. Often I marvelled at the opened tin cans at the back of the kitchen.
It was nice to know that many girls who had small appetite would pass their surplus food to their fellow boys students who were sitting at the next table.
And most important of all it warms my heart to have met a few good cooks who would pass extra fried ikan bilis to the boarding students who had very little appetite because they were homesick and still not used to Boarding School Food!!
Work party....this made MEN of our boys.....and how often they have come back to me and say that work parties were really good training ground for them.
One YB said that the parang holding has helped him develop a good golf swing!!
And I am sure he is not the only one thinking of that!!
Till today I still love having some vegetables growing in a pot or a box although I have never become a really good farmer or gardener myself.....
\(These photos are from my black and white collection taken in the 1970's)
My first thoughts -
There is a popular Foochow saying which goes "Round also can. Flat also can." This refers to a person who is very malleable and congenial. He does not really have a mind of his own and he does what is asked. Go with the flow. Even if it is not just. In fact many people belong to this category. Men and women without a strong mind of their own. But to the leaders they are good people.
I am often reminded of this saying whenever I eat my Foochow kampua noodles. Each time I order a bowl of kampua mee the stall owner would ask me "round or flat'? I would always order round noodles. Why would I never order flat noodles?
I would say "I always order round noodles."
Now thoughts about Kanowit
It is a lovely riverine town with a beautiful Brooke Fort (Fort Emma) and was home to me for a whole year. I loved the way I had to cross the Rajang each evening for a lovely cup of kopi-o in the bazaar. I loved the way my colleagues and I paid special attention to the little food stuff we could buy in the few small shops (e.g. Hock Tong Seng ) and the coffee shop we frequented as a group.
I loved the way our SEDAYA boat man(Tinggal) would take us across the fast flowing river right on the dot at 4:30 each evening of the week days. I love the way my friends continue to be my friends until today. We still call each other and remember the happy days we had in Sedaya (acronym for Sekolah Datuk Abdul Rahman Yakub) and not KSS (Kanowit Secondary School) as founded by the Colombo Plan and New Zealand Government way back in the 1950's.
I died a few hundred deaths when my young husband had to send emergency cases (students with appendicitis) down the river in the school speedboat in the middle of the night. I would imagine how a log would hit his boat and he would drown or the speed boat would jump onto a sandbank where a crocodile would have him and the boatman for a midnight feast . The night would be spent waiting for him to return and another day would start with all the students having breakfast and he (without any sleep at all) announcing that the student was in good hands in the Lau King Howe Hospital.
So in this article I remember with fondness the ever faithful Tinggal the boatman who could sling a 40 horsepower outboard engine across his shoulders like an Olympian. My family and I have been wondering what he is doing now after his retirement. Did he go back to his kampong? Did the government treat him well? He gave almost all his life to the government as a boatman of a government secondary school. His rewards would not be a BBS or an AMN.....but I am sure all the teachers and students would rmember him well and "belanja" (give him a treat) in Kanowit.
And 35 years later I would come here again to sit in a new Kanowit coffee shop and enjoy a breakfast (for the first time in my life) of Foochow kampua mee and kopi-o with my young Sibu Foochow friends. We staff in those days would never cross the river to have breakfast in Kanowit. It would have been a great crime.
Pulut Panggang (look just like all those years ago)
Slightly different in taste now.
Iban men using chopsticks
A group of Foochow men sharing a nice breakfast (there were very few Foochows then in Kanowit) And most of the Foochows from Kanowit speak good Iban which is the lingua franca here.
An Iban family enjoying a nice breakfast - Kampua mee is a food which is borderless.
The ubiquitous Kampua Mee - this is Kampua mee Black (ie with black soy sauce)
Is Kampua Mee the domain of the Foochows? You are right - the stall owner is a Foochow after we interviewed him.
It is a small world afterall.
Now that I am retired I look at the place and think what would have happened if I have stayed on in Kanowit all these years.
And then I look at the noodles and kopi-o in front of me and my friends - how much have really changed. Not one in the town recognised me....And I only recognise the names of the shops and remember the things they are selling. Most of the shop keepers are new or they were children when I was here. The very old ones are very very old.
Shadows fade away as the sun rises above our heads.
There is a special bitter sweet taste in my coffee.
Kanowit is one of the very special Chinese bazaar towns in Asia. While almost 100% of the shops are owned by the Chinese those who come in to trade are the indigenous people (selling rubber and oil palm and other jungle products) while the Malays and some indigenous people belong to the Civil Servant group.
One of the earliest Churches established in Sarawak is the St. Francis Xavier Church by the European Roman Catholic priests. The church also set up a very good clinic which served many people for miles around and that benefitted the schools which have been set up around Kanowit too. I know a good nun called Sister Barbara who served here very selflessly for decades. Although she should be retired now she is still serving in different missions elsewhere. She was a saviour to many young mothers who could have lost their lives while giving birth. Many unwanted young baby girls were also sent to the Convent to be educated and later led good lives.
The Mission Road in Kanowit has a very different reputation from that of Sibu.
This road is also the address of the Dayak House which provides accomodation to people from the ULU who could not afford the small hotel rates.
Boarding House for the Ulu People...5 family rooms are available.
The old school buildings of St. Francis Xavier
A long time ago there was a young boy who went to school for the first time . He knew that his father had named him Xavier. When the Primary One teacher called the names of the students he realised that his name was not called. At the end of the morning the poor boy was in tears and the teacher did not know what to do with the unregistered boy but wait for the father to come. The father being illiterate proved the registration of the boy at the school by producing the birth certificate.
The mystery was solved. In the birth certificate the boy's name was not Xavier at all. But instead he was registered as SPOON. The clerk at Registrar of Births obviously could not spell Xavier and wrote down SPOON instead. In Sarawak this is actually quite a common story . Tales of funny names because the father of the child cannot spell the good name he wants to give and the clerk is not any wiser. Perhaps this problem is slowly being alleviated by better education.
School Pledge
New St. Francis Xavier Church
New school
Self explanatory
KANOWIT will always have a special place in my heart.....and the bazaar provides such a wonderful experience too. One day I will try to row a boat across to Sedaya if I have the energy left and the river current is not too strong.
Just five minutes drive from Kanowit Bazaar is a beautiful longhouse Rh. Benjamin Angki or Rantau Kemiding where you find a little stretch of the romantic Kanowit river meandering to the left of the longhouse.
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When the sun shines on the river you see jewels shimmering in front of you. You wlll definitely like the scene. A kepayang tree with its big leaves will beckon to you too. I saw some fruits on the tree.
There is a small chalet for homestay if you like. Or you can choose to stay with the Chief of the Longhouse or Tuai Rumah who is the only Long house Chief with an American Degree in Sarawak!! TR Benjamin Angki Kaboy (his full name)is a retired Shell employee and studied in the US.
the longhouse has been Roman Catholic since the first RC priests came to Kanowit to spread Christianity. Sunday Mass is said in the Ruai of the longhouse from time to time. But as the road to Kanowit is now opened up most people worship in St. Francis Xavier one of the earliest churches in Sarawak!!
The clean and beautiful belian wood ruai or living room of the 60 door longhouse.
The Headman's kitchen has grape vines overhanging from the nice trellis. It is open air and delightful. Fans (they have government supply) cool the air.
The sign says : Welcome to Rantau Kemiding Long House. and the h/p no is 013 8823076 or email ben88_45@yahoo.com. This longhouse was home to the famous late Penghulu (Datuk) Francis Umpau - one of the Iban leaders who saw the formation of Malaysia in the 1960's.
This is the chalet for homestay. The Tuai Rumah and other families also offer rooms for homestay if you choose to stay with families.
Journalists and writers Yi Fang (See Hua Daily News) and Steve Ling (United Daily Newspaper) signing the Visitors' Book. Sitting down is Mrs. Benjamin Angki (Margaret) - a retired English teacher who for a long time was a Miri resident.
An extra feature for those of you who are interested in a video of Rantau Kemiding.....
Perhaps next Gawai (June) you could book the chalet or some of the rooms in the longhouse for a nice Gawai holiday in Sarawak!!
Kanowit is only 40 minutes from Sibu by car!! See you there!
Kanowit was a great photographic outing for my friends and I and especially when we had in our company - "Mr. President ". And definitely the town offered us plenty of subjects of interest.
But nothing beat this : the humourous President of the Sibu Photography Society - Steve Ling- and the Mermaid of Kanowit....
Question : Why is there a mermaid in Kanowit? Is there a legend of a Mermaid in the folklore of Kanowit?
In the history of Kanowit there are two significant events : the construction of Fort Emma and the murder of two Brooke Officers : Steele and Fox.
How long will Fort Emma (which is now a 21st Century Wifi Centre) be left standing here? Can the mermaid protect it adequately? How fast is the erosion at Kanowit? Nature takes its course and after 150 years the rivers here seem smaller at some parts and bigger at other parts. The water is Teh C colour now - a sign of upstream erosion.
Rivers continue to be the main means of transport but Kanowit is now swarming with Hilux and other 4 wheels - the significant evidence of modern agricultural impact.
What's the future of Fort Emma? I hoipe that Our Mermaid will be there to see that all will be well.