Reflection for Day 4

Aidil Yassin:

6 local students joined us today for our tour. I was quite surprised to hear them speak differently from us. We may expect the local people to speak Malay fluently, however Sabah people tend to speak with an Indonesian accent. One of the local student was my buddy, his name is Sam. I sat with him in the bus and chatted with him about Sabah, and found out how the weather is normally like, how he travels from one place to another and what are the past tribes that Sabah had. Through talking to him, I learnt that Sabah's lifestyle is completely different compared to Singapore's. Thigh-length floods are common in certain parts of Sabah, while in Singapore, it is rare eventhough we may experience heavy rain. The locals have to wait for about half an hour for their public bus to be transported from one place to another, while in Singapore, buses take around 10 minutes to arrive. There are a lot of jungles in Sabah & less city areas while Singapore has few jungles and there are buildings everywhere. It was interesting to find out about the lifestyle Sabah has from my buddy. I've learnt that living in Sabah is not as easy as it is in Singapore. Through this experience, I've learnt to appreciate what I have back home in Singapore.

We went to Mari-Mari Cultural Village in the afternoon. The cultural village showcases how 5 different ethnic tribes in Sabah lived in the past. Some of the tribes do not exist anymore, while some still exist but prefer to live in a more modern way. In the older tribes, they lived in villages that are made out of only bamboo sticks. They had to find their own food to survive, make their own fire with just bamboo sticks and rice was gold for them as it was rare at that time. This tells me that the past times in Sabah was more difficult than it was in Singapore. Headhunting was famous at that time and the people live their lives with fear of being headhunted. Thankfully, headhunting was banned in Sabah at 1910. Through this visit to the cultural village, I feel blessed that in Singapore, we do not need to hunt for our food, we can get it instantly and it taught me to be more grateful for the things I have.

Overall, I have learnt some school values from this trip such as resilience when I was climbing the mountain, respect for other cultures and their beliefs, being confident in interacting with the local students and our tour guides and being compassionate by motivating my friends not to give up and look forward to the aftermath of the climb. This trip was really meaningful for me and I've gain a lot of knowledge through it.

Misnurlifah:

Today was a real eye opener for me as we went to visit a local secondary school, La Salle School. We met a few local students, one of them was my buddy, Shenassa. Initially I had the impression that she was a very quiet girl, but when we chatted on the bus, I was surprised that we have a lot in common and we had much to talk about. It made me realise that I should not judge someone before I get to know them.

After that we went to Mari Mari Culture Village. I got to learn a lot of things through this visit. I learnt about the process of making wine and how the villagers protected it from being stolen. I also 

learnt about how the villagers created fire from using just bamboo shoots; it seemed easy at first but I realised that it was actually tough to even create a spark. I felt blessed that in Singapore, we do not need to use such methods as we have lighters and matches to start a fire. 

I got to witness how people from different tribes greeted each other when they were crossing each other's territory. To be honest, I was quite scared when I was doing the re-enactment but I am glad that I got to experience it. I really enjoyed the performance at the end as it was really unique and I have not seen such a performance in Singapore. I was amazed at how quickly they could perform the bamboo dance and my friends Fathin and Dian got to try it on stage too!

All in all, I learnt some school values from this expedition, one of them was resilience as I had to push on till I reached Laban Rata, which was really tiring to me. Another value is respect where I learnt to respect others' religion and beliefs. Also, I showed compassion to my friends, especially my buddy as I lent her some things that she did not have for the trip.

It was really challenging yet a fun expedition! If you are planning to climb Mount Kinabalu, you have to prepare yourself not only physically but also mentally. You have to persevere until you reach your goal.