After the hike we had tea and crackers at Sooyau and Johnny's parent's household, next door to Tuai's. That's when we really met Colony and Johnny. Johnny told us he wasn't in school today because he was "sick." He's in the equivalent of high school. He goes to a mission boarding school in Song. Usually he leaves on the boat early Monday morning and doesn't return until Friday night.

During the afternoon we talked a bit and watched a woman named Upang. She sat weaving a rug at a loom in the middle of the great hall. She was at it much of the time and we saw her gradually progress up the rug.

We decided to try the long walk down the great hall to room 39 again. The day before we ended up at a great party before we got there. Today we had bad luck though.

Several dogs run around the longhouse. They're pets. They serve little other purpose as far as I can tell. (Joan: I think some of the dogs are used on hunting trips). We saw a little girl holding the front paws of a young dog and walking with it, forcing the dog to walk backwards. But the dog didn't mind. It looked like a happy friendly family dog.

A moment later a saw a sad-eyed dog resting in the middle of the floor. Not thinking I reached slowly over to pet it. Quick as a cat it jumps up and bites my hand! Then it high tails it down out of the building and down the stairs. A man nearby laughed loudly.

The dog had broken the skin slightly in two places on my left pinky. We walked back to Tuai's to treat it. I knew better than to touch a dog anywhere around here. In Indonesia I had stayed the hell away from them. Most dogs in the Third World seem to be underfed and as a result, they're mean and mangy. I guess seeing the little girl playing with a dog (not the one that bit me) took me off my guard. It's humiliating to admit this since I really did know better.

We heard a travel horror story before we left about a woman traveling in India. She was at a busy market with hundreds or thousands of people crowded around when a dog suddenly appeared, bit the woman, and ran off into the crowd. The woman was a doctor and feared Rabies. She had to travel a long way to find the medication and they had to do it in 48 hours. When she finally found it, she had to give herself the shots.

After a talk with Tuai we decided it was very unlikely the dog was rabid. People get bit all the time and he's never heard of a case of rabies. (Malaysian for rabies translates to something like crazy dog sick).

We sat in the great hall for a while reading. Joan talked some more to Upang the weaver. An old man with lots of tattoos sat near me.

The little kids were home from school now and playing in the hall. The night before I had played my horn for a while. The kids had been mesmerized. I played lots of Christmas carols reasoning that since they were Christian they might recognize them. I don't think they did. After every song I got nothing but stares and silence. It reminded me of the scene in the Blues Brothers where Elwood and Jake finally make their grand entrance at the Palace Hotel Ballroom and the whole crowd is dead quiet. I did what the Blues Brothers did and just played another song.

The must have liked it though because the next afternoon they pestered me to play some more. I brought out the horn a played a few things for them. They wanted Jingle Bells so I played that. Finally I told them that was all.

The tattooed man next to me had be attentive but silent the whole time. After I finished though, he invited us into his home for a drink. He was quite enthusiastic.

We found out his name was Belikau. He is co-headman with our buddy Tuai. Remarkably, he's 80 years old. We couldn't believe it at first. We thought we misunderstood. His hair was still mostly jet black with just a few hairs of gray so you knew it wasn't dyed. He's thin but not frail like many old people around here look. He walked only slightly slower than everyone else but seems nimble on stairs. I would have guessed he was 60.

His place was a lot different from Tuai's. It was darker. On one wall was a huge tapestry of Jesus with his hands outstretched. He had some dressers identical to Tuai's and on top were touched up family photos that also looked just like Tuai's. Next to the family pictures though, hung three large posters of beautiful women in bathing suits like out of Sports Illustrated's Asian Bathing Beauties edition.

We sat down in the middle of his floor and someone brought out a bottle. He served each of us about the equivalent of two shots of tuak. It didn't look like much but Belikau makes his stuff differently than everyone else. His stuff takes like whiskey, not wine. It was really strong.

We could hardly communicate with him but he is one of those rare people where it doesn't matter. Like our friend Badul, Belikau would used good hand gestures and had lots of energy for communicating. He was also good at making us comfortable. He had a great smile.

When people invited us in for a drink, I never quite knew how long to stay. I felt if I stayed too long they would feel obligated to bring out more tea or wine or whatever we were drinking. (Joan: So that's why Eric kept wanting to run out of the room after drinking. I thought we often left places abruptly). On the other hand, it would be rude to leave too soon. After we finished drinking, we usually left at the second or third lull in the conversation. Actually, most of the people at Nanga Bangkit are so friendly, it would take a real social klutz to offend them.

We decided to make another attempt at walking down the full length of the great hall. This time about eight kids escorted us the whole way.

We fascinated the kids to no end. Still they remained very shy. They would surround us and stare silently. If I looked one in the eye, they would giggle and try to hide behind the one next to them. After a while the braver kids played with the hair on my legs. They aren't used to that. None found the courage to play with my beard but I know they wanted to.

We handed out sweets and pens and even a couple cheap calculators we got for about US$1.60 in Singapore. But the kids started following us before we started giving stuff away. They would sit with us then suddenly two or three would jump up and run off. A while later they would reappear. It seemed like a great place to be a kid.

That night Tuai's son Nicholas, sister, and brother-in-law(?) returned from a trip to Song and Tuai's sister made dinner for us. It was about the same as the night before - rice with a mix of fresh and canned vegetables, a dish of pork, and maybe some fish. Tuai's wife was apparently having dinner with friends somewhere else.

Joan was hot to buy the rug the Upang was working on but Upang said it would take another month. (Joan: actually, she had said it would take one day. But when I asked Tuai to tell her I wanted to buy the rug, he talked to her and then translated saying it would take one month). Tuai found out that another woman had a rug with the same design. After dinner Joan went to see it. It wasn't nearly as nice as the one Upang was working on but Joan bought it anyway. (Joan: I didn't want to anger Tuai or the other woman, and I figured at 40 ringgit, it wasn't a bad deal).

Tuai sat and talked with us a bit. He knew we were planning to leave the next day. We told him our plan to go to a longhouse called Rumah Kalop. Richard, our friend in Song who got us ready for the trip, highly recommended Rumah Kalop but Tuai said it was very small, only 12 doors and that they were moving. "Not a happy place to visit," he said. Then Joan asked if we could stay another night. He very very enthusiastically said Yes. He started talking about making a big barbecue for us, if we would pay for the chicken wings. We agreed.

He said they would need 30 ringgits for the barbecue. I gave him 50 said they could bring back any change. I don't think he understood and we never saw any change. But I really didn't care.

The kids started catching huge thumb-sized bugs that flew around the lights in the great hall. They would hold a broom up to the light and pretty soon the bug would land in it. They squeezed them in their hands and the bugs made a shockingly loud buzz that sounded like an electric razor. The tighter they squeezed the louder it got. I thought Tuai or his wife would tell the kids to play with the bugs outside, but they didn't. Tuai told me they make good bait. When the kids left, two or three wounded bugs crawled around on the coffee table.

That night, Tuai, his wife, and Nicholas slept upstairs for some reason and his sister and brother-in-law and us slept downstairs.

Next: We Fix Stuff

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