The Village

The village of Sungai Galing is laid out along the river bank. There is a concrete sidewalk that was laid some years ago and as you went farther up river from the dock, there were houses on both sides of the walk. Just beyond the second row of houses is dense jungle. 

The houses vary in quality of material and landscaping. Some are very poor, the wood faded and in poor condition. Others are much nicer, with ceramic tile steps and porches and decorative windows. All have corrugated metal roofs, which makes it very hot inside. About half of the houses have satellite dishes. It was strange for us to see all of them pointed straight up… I guess that’s what you do when you live right on the equator! There is no electricity, but most homes have generators which they use to run their lights and their televisions at night.

There are a lot of children in the village, from toddler to middle school ages. It seemed like they made up more than half of the population. When we first arrived, one of the kids saw my hat and yelled “Cowboy!” (pronounced kuh-BOY). That became my name for the rest of the week among most of the kids. As I would walk back and forth to Aboy’s house and our main meeting place there were always shouts of “kuh-BOY!” The rest of the team were greeted with “Hello!” or “Good morning!” (no matter what the time of day) by the kids as they practiced their English.



The Animist Altar



Because of the heat, most people sit out on their porches or under shade trees by the river. This gave us opportunity to at least greet nearly everyone between Aboy's house and the church.

Unlike what I saw in Cambodia, there are not so many symbols of religion around. The Dayak people (the main tribe in this part of Borneo) practiced animism. The largest and oldest tree in the village has an animist altar at its base. We didn't see any sacrifices there, but were told that sometimes the people would bring offerings of food and place them there. A few of the homes had symbols of Catholicism and a few of Buddism. There appears to be a willingness to mingle practices and beliefs from several religions.

The main source of family income is from rubber and/or coconut palm trees on their land. Some also work at nearby coconut palm plantations. The plantation workers make $50 every two months. Yes – that's just $300 per year.

Since the village is so far from any city, and because there are so few lights, the night skies are amazing. The sky looks like a planetarium, with thousands of stars visible to the naked eye. We found ourselves just standing on the sidewalk and staring upward. The words of the old hymn came to mind: “Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands have made. I see the stars... Thy power throughout the universe displayed... How great Thou Art!”