If you work in a museum, you never know who will come and bring something old, including memories. In the last few days of 2008 a big and tall man simply walked into my office and introduced himself as Lloyd Jones who hails from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. I stood there shaking his hands as if struck by lightning and went blank.
This guy brought his memories to my museum. He and a group of Canadian volunteers came to teach in several newly built secondary schools all over Sarawak at the height of the undeclared war with neighboring Indonesia in 1963. He taught until 1965 and came back to teach for a short period in Binatang, now Bintangor.
After an hour or so listening to Mr. Jones and looking at copies of old photographs, I sensed that he felt in love with Sarawak and its people. Like my own Peace Corps teacher, this guy was once a fine teacher who loved the kids and really wanted the kids to succeed in their studies and lives. Mr. Jones was so proud to tell me that some of his students went to universities around the world and some became lawyers, engineers and priest too.
They came back to see the difference they had made. They came with cameras in the early 1960s that were still rare in the interior Borneo. These barely 20 years old teachers made the difference and so were those jungle kids in the years to follow. That rare cameras of the old days preserved photographs of people and places that are rare and valuable now. Thanks to the big guy, Llyod Jones. Tell me if you know those in the photographs.
