I am not sure why I did not feel the least bit apprehensive about not knowing anyone on this trip. Neither did I ask anyone else if they were interested in coming along, which is something I usually do knowing how socially inept I am. I just signed up without telling anyone. I quite enjoyed the trip honestly even though most of the trippers were almost twice my age. I guess this was also one of the reasons why the schedule was quite lax with each day ending about 3pm. We visited two long houses and one ibanese church. I really liked the communal feel of the long houses although I am not sure if the ibanese do gather at the common area frequently or if they only do that on special occasions. The long houses are like Hdb flats built longitudinally, with modern sanitation like running taps, flushing indoor toilets, etc. I liked the longhouse (which held 51 units) we visited on the last day, which had a porch facing a large paddy field. It was enjoyable just sitting on the porch and having lunch, a simple fare using raw ingredients gathered from their surroundings, eg wild ferns, core from the trunk of a banana tree, bawang Assan, etc. We played games with the children, did a nativity play, taught some of the adults balloon sculpting, etc. What struck me most from the trip was the Christmas procession. I just felt so amazed that Christianity is celebrated so openly in a mainly Muslim country and also by the large throngs of Christians participating in the procession. It was a truly beautiful sight to behold.
Everything went smoothly for the entire trip except for the first and last day. On the first day my luggage lock died on me and I was so flustered, worried that u wouldn't be able to access my luggage during any security checks. But thankfully, the airport staff solved the problem easily. On the last day we almost missed our flight back to SG as the transit time was way too short for an international flight. We had only 40 min to collect the luggage, check it in, clear customs and get to the boarding gate. It should have been clear to me that this was a mission impossible yet I didn't think of it, and just rushed off wanting to get the luggage checked in. If we had not done that, then the two trippers wouldn't have been left behind.
On the whole, I felt that I did not do anything really significant for this trip. I guess the purpose of this trip was to just lend a bit of encouragement to the ibanese Christians there and to establish some bonds, and not exactly to make any impactful changes.
I thought what would be more useful to them would be medical care such as dental checks/ treatment and physiotherapy techniques for pain relief in the knees. But that would be another mission for another day.
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