Sibu Tales : kampong chickens

Most people would rear their own chickens in Sibu until the time when Sibu Urban District Council started to fine those housewives who kept domestic animals in their compounds.




My mother was most upset when she heard about her friends being fined by the SUDC.

However she took everything very very fatalistically and accepted the situation.

For my 4 confinements she asked her own sister in law to raise the kampong chickens. Just enough ( for example like 12) so as not to bother too much. She insisted that the first week I should at least have kampong, free range chickens to eat so that I could get back all my energy from 9 months of pregnancy.

Then we heard a lot of tales of people raising kampong chickens in Oya Road farms. Many made a lot of money selling them because the Foochows really love kampong chickens.

We also heard about a business woman who asked a timber camp Iban lady to raise chickens for her. She would collect about 20 or 30 chickens per week from her and then sell them to good faithful customers. She became very popular because her chickens from the timber camp were really tasty and "fat". She had this arrangement for a long time.

But the best tale that involved my mother was a mystery which until today was never solved. One day, she received a telephone call that someone had sent her a basketful of kampong chickens from Kanowit. There were about 8 fat kampong chickens in them.

My Third Uncle was deployed to collect the chickens from the boat. Who could have sent so many precious chickens to my mother? Both of them asked around for many days. There was no note and answer. So for many days my mother enjoyed her chicken soup and she , also at that time, recovered from her illness. Who was that mysterious giver of gifts?

Today I use my blog to thank the mysterious giver of kampong chickens. May God bless you always.