Reunion

The planes taking us to Bintulu were small, forcing our group to split in half and fly out a couple hours apart. I was in the second group and when we arrived in Bintulu we discovered that most of our luggage had not arrived with us. I guess the airport employees reasoned that since all of our luggage could not fit on our plane, why not just keep it there in Kota Kinabalu until the next morning? Not like we would need it or anything. Something like that.

We left Bintulu in busses for the final stretch of miles between us and the longhouse (our home for the next week). It took about an hour to reach our destination near the city of Tatau. The busses halted at the base of a hill over which ran a dirt road. Our longhouse was just on the other side of that hill. As I climbed I paused to rub a bit of reddish-orange clay between my fingers. From the top of the hill I saw a crowd gathered at the longhouse below. The fading sun drenched everything in warm light and the vast, vibrant jungle stretched the edges of the world. I soaked it all in. I’d waited an entire year for this moment. During many dark, frigid winter nights back at home, I had closed my eyes and imagined this very moment. Before I even reached the longhouse I began spotting the faces of my friends in the crowd and rushed forward to greet them.

The welcoming ceremonies included speeches by the mission president and various leaders, dances by native women, and of course (the crucial part of any Iban celebration) food. I didn’t eat a lot—I was much too busy talking to my friends, pastors from all over Sarawak who had come to help us build churches. Many of them I’d befriended last year.

A longhouse is kind of like an apartment building…a long hallway with household doors on the left. Each door is a separate household, although sometimes it’s difficult to keep straight who lives where (especially where the children are concerned) because the longhouse folk often visit other families’ houses. We were divided into groups of 8-10 (boys were on one end of the longhouse, girls on the other) and assigned to houses.

As my luggage hadn’t arrived I didn’t have some things such as a sleeping pad, but my host family generously provided what I lacked. They even lent me a change of clothes!

Comments