FOCUS Syamil had his boat almost wrecked by the waves while his was on the way back from Belaga town in Sarawak to his school. He was trying to get clothes for the children in school, to prepare them for the coming inter-school chorus speaking competition.

It was a raining Sunday afternoon. A 20-minute journey from the town to his school, SK Airport, is usually convent-quiet but that day was different. The bow of the boat hit something in the water, all of a sudden. The boatman quietly stopped the engine as the boat began to be filled with water.

“It was really great that the boat didn’t flip over,” said Syamil. “We tried to get rid of the water and stopped by the riverside. Everything was wet.”

Syamil tried to dry the clothes in the quarters at night as the competition was to be held the next day. The evening was sleepless. Some of the clothes were still wet. He tried to fan them and warm them with an iron.

This is his fifth year working as a teacher. Syamil ( photo ) is from Ipoh. Sarawak had never been among all his choices during his job application. But when he got it, he carried on without a doubt. It’s located upstream of Rejang River, and could be so amazing.

There are a few ways to reach the school. First, you can take a three-hour express boat from Sibu to Kapit, stay overnight and then take another five-hour express boat to the school. The boat would have to shoot some rapids along the way.

The other alternative is to spend 3.5 hours on land transport from Bintulu. The road is not good enough. The road between Belaga town and Kampung Asap was previously built under the Jiwa Murni programme.

The Malaysian Armed Forces have built 141.2km of roads involving four completed projects, and another 56.2km for two ongoing projects. Belaga has had one of them for two years but the tar is so thin that the road has already become riddled with holes.

Working in remote schools is always difficult. Transportation is always the biggest concern as Belaga town is too small to have shops selling things in many varieties.

“I was planning to buy a printer in my first working year. Together with a colleague, we travelled from Belaga to Sibu by boat,” he said. “It took us 10 hours to reach Sibu. As we checked in the hotel, the sky was getting dark. Quickly we went to some electronic shops and looked for a printer. Early morning next day, we returned to Belaga, that’s another 10 hours ride.”

‘An airport in the middle of nowhere’

Florence Kavang has been the principal of SK Airport since 2007. Unsatisfied with the school name, she had tried several times trying to apply for the school name to be changed, but failed.

“There was an airport opposite this river, back then,” she pointed at the Rejang River right in front of the office. “It was in the middle of nowhere. If the people wanted to travel by plane, they had to row a boat to the airport.”

The airport closed a few years back due to the low number of passengers.

Florence ( photo ) is a lady with a tattoo. Different from other staff, she has had the tattoo since a young age as tattooing is one of the traditional practices of her tribe, the Kayan.

“I had mine after Form Five. My grandmother did it for me on my fingers. It was painful,” she said.

Decades ago, a tattoo symbolised the status of a person. A tattoo is a kind of beauty mark and also a mark of someone’s social status.

“A brave man from another village will have to travel through the very fast-flowing rivers by his small boat in those days. When they reach the village, they will look for the girl by looking at their tattoo,” she said. “They get the girl by considering her social status and also her hygiene.”

Florence’s village was in Bakun last time. The village was submerged due to the construction of the mega Bakun Dam. She and her family were resettled in Kampung Asap in 1999.

“There were good and bad things after the dam construction,” she said. “The good thing is that the river is no longer easily flooded like before, as the dam could control the amount of water flow. But since then, our river has become dirty. More rapids are being seen, and that’s quite dangerous for small boats now.”

Neither did the villagers get the compensation as the government had promised they would get before resettlement. The promised seven hectares of land became four hectares.

There was a power cut during my visit to the school.

“We were supported with two generators in the school. It was actually good,” Florence said. “But they were too old to function. We are facing problems of the machine not being repaired on time. Sometimes the diesel won’t be delivered on time. That is why we suffer power cuts.”

1Bestari Internet was provided in the school but it works too slow, such that the staff have problems to key in their data online.

The Rejang River in front of the school was flowing slowly. January was a low tide month. Fish is abundant in the upstream areas.

Syamil stays in the school during weekends. He only leaves for West Malaysia during the school holidays. The only option to leave the school is by boat, and that costs a lot unless he’s sharing with some other colleagues.

‘We have a lot of things to do’

I asked him if he felt bored staying in the middle of nowhere.

“I am trying to keep myself occupied,” he said. “We have a lot of things to do. There’s the ‘Bulan Bahasa’, some inter-class competitions, co-curricular activities and so on throughout the year. We do the banners by hand. And as for the stage, the teachers will need to set up everything. On weekdays we hardly have time to do it.”

Syamil is planning for the sports day this year. The school had one in 2015, and Syamil is the main coordinator. He raised RM1,300 from the Give.my programme to hold the event. The school had stopped the annual event since 2012 due to budget cuts.

The limited budget was not enough to get new medals and trophies. Syamil decided to modify the old medals they had in the school.

“I polished them and fixed them on my own,” he smiled. “They looked new after that.”

Part 1: Shooting the rapids - teaching in the heart of Borneo

Part 2: Dalat - a town of the river people

Part 3: No hardship allowance for ‘remote and rural school’ staff

CHRIS LAU is a freelance journalist.