Long Sepigen – Tree Planting for Borneo UniBreak

COUNTRY: Borneo & Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Environmental Conservation
WRITTEN BY: Richie Allchurch

I said goodbye to my little mate Zedi, who had taken a liking to me at Long Sait Primary School, following me around when I was there, and gave him a frisbee to play with. The trip to Long Sepigen was calm and relaxing, cruising along with Sumi in the back of the boat, watching the dark brown river speed by and the trees on the river bank come and go. I realised how happy I was to be out in the jungle, in the wilderness of Borneo with a great group of people doing fun things. We made it Long Sepigen and had some coffee and Rambutan to fill ourselves up and then set up for the next four nights.

A new day arrived in a new village and we were doing something different going to the tree nursery, crossing a couple of pretty, jungle-lined rivers, filling up little black bags full of soil for the seeds and saplings to be planted in. We all had a lovely bathe in the cool, pretty river in the afternoon and then headed up the hill behind the village to gaze upon a glorious sunset. The land beyond was a lovely mix of hills, jungle, valleys, the river and a mountainous plateau in the background called Maunten Murut.

The splendour of the sun changed the colour of the sky and clouds to different hues and shades of blue, orange, yellow and pink. It was a magical moment up there with the team that we will always remember and look back on fondly.

The next day was time for some actual tree/seed planting so we geared up ready to do so. However, we ended up going on a bit of jungle stroll along rivers to an amazing waterfall, cascading down a flat rockface into a deep pool with beautiful jungle all around. Most of us had a refreshing dip in the pool, swimming up close to the waterfall and letting the water pelt our back, giving a welcome massage but also filling up the ears with water. We decided to explore further up the waterfall, climbing up the rockface and into another little stream that led to another smaller yet just as pretty waterfall which we all had a swim in. We headed back to the nursery where, while we were up the waterfall, the Penan ladies had gathered seeds and saplings for us to plant. We didn’t do much of this, it probably only took 30 minutes at most, but it was still good to see trees safeguarded in the nursery for future sustainable harvesting for the village, rather than cutting down older trees. I think this program could be expanded upon and more resources probably need to be contributed to increase the scale of it to make it more effective and to spread it to other villages as well.

The following day we harvested some rice which was monotonous but quite enjoyable once you got into the rhythm of it especially with Gus’s motivational beats to listen to. We managed to harvest a fair amount of rice although not nearly as much as the Penan could. That night, where we sat in the setting sun halfway up the hill behind the village, I decided to have my hair cut as it was quite long and getting pretty thick and hot. So, Gus the mighty barber, who had never cut hair in his life, proceeded to cut my hair, in the fading light with Grace at the ready with torchlight to ensure that he did a good job. And he did, it felt a lot better. Well done to Gus! Over dinner we found out that the Australian election had been called for September 14 which was funny hearing that out in the middle of the wilderness. It shows how technology has brought the world together although there is still a way to go to establish this for the Penan such as telephone and internet access which would allow them to connect with the outside world, raise awareness of their plight and consequently increase the chances of their continuing survival and improved education and development.