Apik's love of learning

Apik can survive in the rainforest, completely alone, with a parang and some salt. He hunts, dives for fish and makes a bed for himself under the forest canopy.

He climbs trees to harvest honey from wild hives. He picks ferns and bamboo shoots to cook, and finds edible fruit and roots. He collects herbs to heal, and uses ipoh, a tree bark, to prepare poison for blowpipe darts. He travels to neighbouring villages in a wooden longboat, with an engine modified from a grass-cutting machine. He manoeuvres the longboat through rapids strewn with giant boulders, as expertly as KL folk weave through rush-hour traffic.

If he finds snakes on jungle trails, he picks up them up with twigs and branches, moving them away from the paths, and from other travelers. He makes fishing nets, and mends them, with a dexterity associated with more delicate, less muscle-bound, maidens. He can remain underwater for an astounding length of time, looking for fish or a missing propeller.

He rears puppies, teaching them to hunt for barking deer and wild boar. He can carry a wild boar heavier than himself, on his shoulders, through the forest, for hours. His real passion, though, is teaching. He teaches pre-school and primary school, in his small, remote Orang Ulu village in Sarawak. His students adore him, trailing after him after classes, pestering him to go swimming with them.

cfu: apa pentingnya pembangunan sekiranya masih ada lagi anak2 yg tercicir dlm pelajaran..ini salah satu kisahnya...terdapat beratus lagi anak2 yg terpaksa menderita semata2 utk bersekolah kerana tiadanya kemudahan infrastruktur...walhal negara kita dikatakan negara yg pentingkan pendidikan dan terlibat secara aktif dalam UNESCO...lihat lah pelajar2 dipendalaman Sabah dan Sarawak...mereka menderita utk mendapatkan ilmu!!!