Part 5 Long House Stay: Learn from The Environment.

         During my stay at the Long House, one afternoon Lembak (One of the relative)  invited me to visit her farm,which She visits seasonaly. It was a hill which was surrounded by, fruit trees such as  Cempedak,  Jack fruit , Breadfruit, Rambutan and Banana trees. She even had planted few types of  turmeric. Her daughter and her grandchild taught me how to find edible shoots, stems, flowers and leaves.

     

     They plucked few edible stems and shoots and asked me to try, those taste sweet and sour. On our way back to the long house they showed to me the other long house residents farms, some grow their crops intensively and some just as past time!! i said seasonally because, Those trees bear fruits according t season, only cempedak and rambutan bear fruit through out the year. She said around March Those trees full of fruits and they just eat as they like daily. One of the Grandpa and his wife invited me to visit another Long House whi was  abit far away form this one. They , with their 3 kids took me to one of the long house in their canoe.

       

      The  family which we had visited was a retired Army officer, Who had educated his children. One of his son works as an Engineer in Sabah. The furnitures in that long house were all made from Teakwood. He  was the only  man who had given good education to his children. When I asked him how he finds living in the Jungle where the basic needs are not available, He said   " apa yang tak ada di disini, semua ada "( means everything is available here)  he said fern and edible leaves are available  at every corner. and  there is nothing to worry about food,  fish is in the river and , they catch according to their need.

     

      On our way  back to the long house it was  raining heavily, and we all got wet in the rain. We were all shivering when we reached the relatives long house, I requested  my foster sister if  we can get  hot Coffee and she said yes. Unfortunately the relatives wife  was not in the house, so kak Ani  volunteered herself to prepare Coffee.First she heat the water and then mixed  hot  coffee for all of  us. Coffee  was  served with Cream Crackers .
      For the cold, The coffee and Crackers tasted good. After chatting  with the relative , we said bye to him  and left the long house, on our way back home, , My foster sister found some edible mushroom .we  gathered those mushrooms, while her husband and two sons on the other side started to look for fish in the river, they managed to get few small fishes.