People to people peace Corps Sarawak

building surrounded by anti-aircraft guns (because of the Confrontation with Indonesia).

Now the guns are gone and the building has been replaced by a large, modern structure. I soon found that the outskirts of Kuching have been transformed into a sprawling city, but the center around the old bazaar seems the same. The open market might now be covered but the basic atmosphere remains.

I attended a dinner in Kuching celebrating the 50th anniversary of Three Rivers School in Mukah. I was not a teacher at the school but I lived nearby for one year and had many contacts with the teachers, so I was very pleased to be invited. Most of the speeches at the dinner were in Malay even though TRS was an English language medium school in the 1960s. And there were many Muslim prayers. On this trip a major change I noticed was that almost all Muslim women now wear the tudong, or head scarf. I think it may be more a matter of social conformity that religious orthodoxy.

Simanggang (now Sri Aman): After a few days in Kuching I took a bus to the town where I spent my second year: Simanggang. I also worked and lived for a few months at the nearby Melugu land development scheme. When I moved into town I was the first volunteer to live in the bazaar, above a carpenter’s shop. While the shop is gone, the building with its row of shops still remains. The old market with all its food stalls is still there, and the nasi campor is still delicious. I stayed at the Hoover Hotel because I remembered it from before, when it stood alone at the edge of the downtown area. Now buildings have been constructed right up to the hotel.

When I went back to Melugu, I could not recognize anything because I remembered it as a barren landscape cleared to construct the homes for the Ibans relocated from the Indonesian border. Now there is vegetation everywhere.

My main feeling upon returning to Simanggang was that I forgot how much I loved it towards the end of my two-year service. I am not sure exactly why. Maybe it was the local friends, maybe the fellow Peace Corps and other volunteers, maybe the exciting combination of Iban and Chinese culture, maybe the food, and probably the fact that by then I had given up any thought of accomplishing any major work and just enjoyed living here.

Mukah: Mukah has been transformed more than Simanggang, mainly because it is connected to the main highway system. Now one can drive to Mukah rather than taking a ten-hour journey by Chinese launch down the Rejang River, then a little longboat through the Kut Canal, then down the Oya River to the coast, and then a little bus or taxi along the beach to Mukah. When I lived in Mukah there were only two or three cars: the priest had one that he drove the few meters to town from St. Patricks School plus the taxi that used to run along the beach between Mukah and Oya. Now there are hundreds of cars in Mukah. By the way, while Mukah has changed mightily, Oya remains exactly the same with it run-down row of wooden shops.

In Mukah some familiar buildings remain. The building that used to house the Mukah District Council office where I worked, the youth club, and the old post office building still surround the padang. And while most of the old wooden bazaar has burned down, one row of wooden shops remains. But a new high-rise administration building exists, as well as a completely new section of town with many shops and activities. The old Melanau kampongs that only had dirt paths and small bridges now are served by paved roads.