THEY CAME BACK: THE CANADIAN

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.

SURVIVORS 3: THEY CAME BACK

David Hustler came back with his wife, Helen and son after 40 years. He came as young British Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) to teach us in 1967. Some of Class 66-68 student came back for the class reunion with him and family in Lawas. Liaw Kah Ho took this and other photographs with is digital camera and emailed them to me. David, now a retired professor in education at the Manchester Metropoliton University, told confessed he was inspired by us to become a professional and trained teacher when he went back to England in early 1968. He has written a number of books on education, simply search him in Google. If Richard Schatz was remembered more for buying horses from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and trekked down to Lawas, might be that he wanted to show off American cowboy spirit, David left his mark by starting the Boy Scout and the first whiteman to reach the top of Mount Hustler just across the school compound.

During the day they were taken to the local market place. Here David savoured the aromatic, delicious and punget durian, the king of tropical fruit. But Helen and his son could not enjoy this bizzare food.

David is a real survivor too like Richard from Whitworth University in Spokane. They still keep in touch. David and his family are spending a few months travelling and touring the world. They flew from London to Singapore by Malaysian Airlines and to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Liaw Kah Ho met him there and took them to Lawas. David and his family later trekked to Mulu National Park from Limbang using the Headhunter Trail in the rainforest. From Mulu they went to Miri, the famous oil town, where Cikgu Ibrahim and Bob took care of them. Later they continued their tour to Bintulu, the gas town and met Alias there. After two days in Bintulu the took Air Asia, low cost airlines, to Kuching. A few of us in Kuching entertained him after David and his family spent a few days in the first national park, the Bako National Park within easy reach from the city of Kuching. They then left for Thailand, Kampuchea and Vietnam. Now maybe their back in Manchester, England. Richard is coming back in May 2008.

THE SURVIVORS WERE HERE

I told you the famous TV reality program was made here in Sabah, Borneo. Here they are from an archive photograph. Give it a try and come over Borneo.