Cultural Meets - The Kids

As I walk around the village I saw a group of young kids gather near one of the traditional bamboo hut. Something comes up in my mind which I feel like to know them better. I stop by and greet them. I know they will be very excited if I took photos of them so I ask them to stand up and give me a pose. They did it and from only six there more coming until I have to ask them to relax. Then I ask their names one by one and they seem to be interested with me too. They were asking me who I am and where I am from. They are between age 4-10 years old, boys and girls.

Then i continue with my hidden agenda. I ask them what they want to be when they grow up. I asked one by one and seem to be almost all of them want to become a teacher. Besides that, there are a few wanted to become a police, army, doctor, singer and there was one young girl give me an interesting answer. She wanted to become an NGO. Actually there was one NGO that working in their village and she wanted to become like them. However, the other kids laugh at her and they belittle her. But I show my interest and pleased her for her answer. Then I asked further, why she wanted to become an NGO. She said she like to travel and visit villages. She wanted to visit and work with communities. Actually she only eight years old and really what the NGO doing in their village attracts her interest. This is a good sign and I hope when she grow up this ambition will keep in her heart and mind. We need younger generations to continue working with communities.
After that, I continue requesting a few things from them. I ask them if they can sing a song for me and I tell you, they can sing very well. Harmony and it was a very good choir. At first they sang Malay songs and then I requested for Murut’s song and they did it too. These kids are really good.

I am not done with them, I asked them to dance their traditional dance. They are so excited and they make one round and started to dance. In the hut the older groups put up an audio system so they help me with the music. They played a Murut’s dancing music and those kids started to dance. But…..the things that make me a bit disappointed when they are not dancing Murut’s traditional dance. They are doing Sumazau dance, the traditional dance of Kadazan-Dusun.

Hmmm….this is something weird but maybe this is an influence from outside or maybe because the elders didn’t teach them Murut’s dance. No further comments on this but I still praise these kids for their effort on doing all the things that I asked.

Knowing these kids is also really great experienced for me.