Two Sheets of rubber a Day

 Two of my cousins dropped out from school because the era they entered was rather confusing. So many of the new secondary school students were afraid to go to school because the teachers were strict and they used the cane. They were the first batch of the Transition Classes, to undergo a year of English lessons and they would transit from Chinese Medium to English Medium. Many schools , teachers and students were not ready mentally for the transition.

Besides it was a torture for many who could not cope with English , a totally foreign language to them. My cousins could not even remember even a few English words per day. 

Each day was a school day of suffering and they did not have the joy of learning. These were only days away from Merdeka. People talked about the formation of Malaysia, people whispered about the guerrillas fighting in the jungle. Sometimes school students even saw soldiers bringing out dead bodies from the jungles to the jetties. The stench of the dead bodies reached the sky and people saw the horrible conditions of death.

Many students thus declared their own freedom from school and left school by not attending classes for two whole months. They would not be deemed expelled from school, but just school leavers. Many without a testimonial or character reference from the Principal.

They tapped rubber as much as they could to redeem themselves.

Each day they could only tap enough to make 2 sheets of rubber. They were thin boys and girls and were not even half adults.

But when they looked at themselves they felt that they could not survive on the income gained in this way. They had to look elsewhere. Besides they were underaged. They had to labour on until they were 18.

My cousin Ah Hung who eventually became a Sawmill Supervisor in Brunei for more than 40 years dropped out when he was half way through Form 1. Another one was Ah Kiat, a girl who dropped out when she was in Form 2.

The two of them formed a team to tap rubber as my uncles' rubber gardens were not too far away from each other. Ah Hung was able to chaperon Ah Kiat as a fellow rubber tapper. Ah Kiat eventually became a shop assistant in Sibu, learned a bit of tailoring and was married by the age of 18 to a lovely young man who was well related to a good family.

Ah Hung eventually was too young to go to Brunei to work because he was underaged. He went to Roban to help his older brother to look after his shop and also to act a nanny to his brother's young children. 

Today Ah Hung can laugh with me and say that he was the early version of Mary Poppins. He was nanny to three small children in Roban and was pretty good at it. When he earned enough and he was old enough to make his own passport, he left for Brunei.

His mother, my aunt was quite happy that he was given an opening in life.

These are two stories of how drop outs in Nang Chong, during the days of insurgency, support themselves and eventually found a way to make a living. Life was still rough and tough for many. It was tough for my two cousins..... even though 50 years have passed since the Foochow pioneers arrived in Sibu.