Mia Wieler – Blog 2: Kopisanangan from Sabah!

After a 32 hour travel journey involving brief stints in the airports of Xiamen and Kuala Lumpur, Frances (my fellow CAPI intern, friend, and roommate here in Sabah!) and I arrived here in Penampang, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, on the island of Borneo–the third largest Island in the world, behind only Greenland and New Guinea. Sabah is one of two states that make up East Malaysia, or Borneo Malaysia, which is separated from West Malaysia by some 400 miles of the East China Sea.

It is hard to believe that we have been here for just over a month already, immersed in an entirely new palate of sounds, languages, cultures, and beliefs. Time is flying, and living on Sabah time has been a refreshing adjustment of pace; there is a certain lack of urgency here, a reorientation to the concept of being ‘on-time’ that accounts for fluidity and flexibility. This is in part because the logistics of driving or walking somewhere can often be dependent on the rain, which falls in sudden, torrential sheets here, quickly overwhelming drains and flooding roads and walkways. Sabah rain exists in a whole different category from the relative downpours back home on BC’s west coast. 

Frances and I are interning at two different but connected organizations, myself at PACOS Trust and Frances at TONIBUNG. PACOS, which stands for Partners of Community Organizations in Sabah, is an NGO that focuses on empowering Indigenous communities here in Sabah, and is run by Anne Lasimbang, a Kadazan woman who is the eldest of 13 siblings. The Lasimbang siblings are quite the household name here in the Penampang district; many of them are heavily involved in local community and advocacy work centred around Indigenous rights and culture, and several of the siblings are or have been involved in various levels of government. Rita, the second-oldest Lasimbang and a linguist who works to promote Kadazandusun language revitalization, is also our landlord, and has affectionately told us to consider her as our host-mother here in Sabah. Frances and I feel very grateful to have been welcomed into the Lasimbang orbit, both inside and out of work. 

When thinking about my impressions of these first few weeks, the generosity, friendliness, and graciousness shown to us is what comes to mind first. This has revealed itself in a myriad of ways, both big and small; from the way that the cooks at PACOS’s kitchen make sure that I have something vegetarian to eat at staff meals, to the friendly conversation and recommendations often offered from Grab drivers (a transportation service similar to Uber), to the patience of restaurant staff while I practice (often quite clumsily) my Malay. The language barrier, perhaps contradictorily, also creates conditions for connection; much hilarity has resulted from Frances and I’s attempts to order food (particularly in the first few days of arriving here, which included significantly more miming) and we are far from being the only ones who are laughing at ourselves. We are now regulars at several of the mamaks and other food stalls close by, whose servers often smile when they see us coming, anticipating our fledgling language skills and responding with a mix of laughter and encouragement. 

It has been inspiring to learn about PACOS’s work partnerships with village communities through a range of programs and projects that reach across various spheres of advocacy, from gender empowerment to land rights. This work includes supporting traditional Indigenous management systems of natural resources, increasing access to childhood education in rural areas, training youth to be effective community organizers and advocates, and helping communities to assert legal title over their customary lands, which is especially important in the face of land encroachment from resource extraction industries, particularily palm oil.

A highlight of my time at PACOS so far has been spending time with and learning from my co-worker and new friend Jelyna, who, among many things, works at the Kinavatu Nature Farm here at PACOS. KNF practices and teaches traditional nature farming techniques and their cultural significance, and also acts as a learning centre and seed bank. Jelyna is generous with her knowledge and friendship, and I admire her resilience, joyful nature, and easy laughter. Last week, I spent several hours helping her make gula gula halia (ginger candy) from raw ginger, turmeric, and cane sugar–a process which at first involved leisurely stirring as the mixture boiled, and then all of a sudden became quite frantic, spurred on by Jel’s shouts of “faster Mia, faster!! … go go go!” (in defiance of my earlier comment about Sabah and urgency..) to ensure that the sugar crystallized at just the right consistency. We made about 6 kilos, which will be packaged and sold in the Community Processing House. This is where PACOS processes and sells a range of products made from raw ingredients sourced from village communities to support their socio-economic development.

It has been just over a month here, and the chorus of stray dogs that converge on our street to howl in unison most nights has become a familiar part of the soundscape of this new home. I now look left where I used to look right, have mastered the ‘ng’ sound of ‘kopisanangan, ngaraan ku nopo nga mia’ (dusun and kadazandusun for hello, my name is mia), and am eating more rice than ever before. I touch my hand to my chest when I shake hands, use boleh to mean any variation of “sure,” “certainly,” “no problem, ” “is that possible?” and “let’s go,” and have a newfound awe of the phenomenon that is tropical rain. 

I am consistently reminded of just how little I know, and how much there is still to learn — and I am oh so grateful for the opportunity to do so here in Sabah and for the grace that has been extended to us in the process. 

Jumpa lagi! <3