Had a cracking weekend....
Following on from my remarkable performance at the Walkathon (still getting it ripped out of me for doing a head dip at the finishing post) I spent the afternoon making a 'Happy birthday Jonny' banner for Sunday's celebrations (Radley boy turning 18) Nancy's 5 little kids helped me, Nancy is a year older than me, and is clearly a swift worker. The kids insisted on drawing bees all over the banner, but I'm down with that.
That evening we went to the 'Y2K', which is a general store just over the way that stocks a host of useless and very dusty items, including a box of very dusty dusters. It has a seedy side room attached where you can sit and do kareoke with an assortment of toothless local types. They sell beer and 'Chupap pae' (sp?) that you can buy from the shop and take through with you.
Chupap pae, or 'chuck-up ay' guarentees exactly that, and has been the ruin of previous WC groups. It's rice wine, weighing in at a colosal 50% and is the rice wine boke- the most rank brew available to mankind. Locals deem you to be a low-life if you indulge in this beverage, so naturally it was for us.
On Sunday morning we were invited to go to church - which turned out to be more of a large hall really. All the tribal elders were there with their garish nylon outfits - one of our kids had to wear one that she borrowed from Nancy who had deemed her chosen outfit of a full length sarong to be too racey - the static build-up could have powered the whole village. The dangly earlobe brigade were out in force, and we saw one woman arrive on the back of a motorbike who had to hold onto her ears to stop them swinging. The service was very animated, lots of singing, dancing and stage routines, certainly the most memorable service I've ever been to. Our group did a song, we were miked up and everything, well pro. We've got several musicians in the group, so it actually sounded really good, and went down a treat with the congregation. As we neared the end of our third hour in there, things started to turn a little strange. We were invited to go up to the front to be blessed, and others crowded in behind us, and in front of us. The preacher cranked up a prayer on the mike and everyone started to do different chants which got louder and louder.... and lounder. Next thing we knew it had reached a fevered frenzy, with people putting their hands all over us, some of the kids got a bit freaked out! After about 10 mins of this we were allowed to return to our seats, and the nxt batch approached the stage, and a similar thing started to happen - only this time people started to throw themselves on the floor, and were wailing uncontrolably. We were all quite shell-shocked when we were finally out of there.
Anyhow, after some lunch we were met by our guide, and now best buddy, Johnson. We'd asked him to take us to the top of the tallest peak in the region, and all agreed to come along, except the usual girl - sometimes I wonder why she came on a trekking expedition. So we set off, calling in at Johnson's house in the next village for donuts, bananas and tea, which was served by his 18 year old bride, who he already has 3 kids with - he's 37, dirty dawg. Their dwelling was certainly humble, and a real eye-opener, one thing I've certainly realised during this trip is how incredibly easy we have it. After that we headed up to the peak, past some beautiful scenery - mainly terraced paddy fields, hut and hills.... then the thunder storm began. The mountian was extremely steep, much more so than Kinabalu, and it was really hard work - but I had my trusty pole, which was now becoming a bit of a worry, being that I was clutching to a metal rod in a lightening storm. We had to shelter in a chapel 10 mins from the summit, as it was absolutely lashing down, and we were drenched. It wasn't really much of a chapel, more of a shelter. We ended up staying there for an hour and a half,
but made the most of it by running around in the rain - some of the boys chose to do this with no clothes on, my girls were disgusted. In the end we couldn't get to the top - not having much luck with summits! as the latter bit was supposed to be even steeper, and would be impossible with the rain.
We finally made our way down, although most of it was on out backsides, and we went back to Johnson's for crackers and more tea covered in thick orange mud.
When we got back to Nancy's they had put the banner up, and had made an amazing job of the decorations. Her husband had hung tropical plants and balloons all over the place, and nancy cooked a huge feast, including bangers and mash, which soon disappeared. Much beer was drunk, and a cake and four fight followed, which was started by a bunch of local kids. The house was trashed. Started up a limbo contest which was a bit of a frenzy, with 10 kids trying to bend beneath the bar at once. All in all, a bit of a crazy day, which ended at 3 this morning, and started again with a hair of the dog at 8.
Grrr... better go, there are glaring people waiting to get on this computer.
Bye then! xx
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