Visiting Beladin in the 1970's

My cousin was a trained teacher who taught in Beladin during the 70's.

My Uncle Lau Pang Ping. His wife, Aunty Sia (baby in arms)
was a very hard working and determined aunty. My cousin in the middle,front row, taught in Beladin.

After graduating from the Rajang Training College, many new teachers did not even know where their schools in remote Sarawak were. They had to ask help from local education office and made their own way by boat or by land. These remote places could be Trusan near Lawas, Pedawan, Ngemah, Beladin near Pusa, places they had never heard of before in their lives.

In 1970, my cousin was just happy enough to know that she was qualified and was to receive a handsome teacher's salary. With stars in her eyes and a heart to teach the diverse races of Sarawak she was ready for any challenges and hardship. Nothing was too tough for her because she had grown up on the lower banks of Sarawak and the college had given her the right orientation to serve the state with dedication, especially in the remote areas. She had gone to school in Chung Cheng Primary School, barefooted, and had to tap rubber before attending school!!

She remembered her first journey. It took her quite a few days to travel from Sibu to Pusa by stages. Because there was no direct road from Sibu to Pusa then, she went by coastal motor launches from Sarikei to Kabong, and then from Kabong to Pusa.

She said,"I was so brave at that time. Probably I did not even fear death!!"

Recent photo from Google of Pusa.

A few months later, her mother decided to check on her. Equally courageous, her mother my late aunt travelled from Sibu first by motor launch to Sarikei and then by a bigger motor launch.

She told her daughter that she "blindly" went from one place to another by asking people where to go and how to get there, in fact with no knowledge of any local languages.

When she reached the tiny village of Beladin, she was glad that she could see her daughter. She stayed for a few months to get the feel of t he place and realized that it was like any Chinese village in t he Rajang, except that the people were different and they spoke a different language. She and her daughter travelled by boat to see Debak, Pusa, Saratok and even Simanggang.

There was no government electricity. They used pressure lamps. They were not even able to buy their own generator.  There was no piped water so they depended on rain water collected during the wet season and well water during the drought.

My cousin collected her monthly pay in Pusa and my aunt accompanied her  there. Compared to her, my mother was so blessed because my younger sister was posted to Kwang Hua school. just one hour by boat from Sibu. Life was hard to imagine by many mothers who did not suffer like my aunt and other mothers whose daughters worked in remote areas.

It was not easy to see a daughter who was newly married and teaching in a rural school. Seeing each other was perhaps once a year at the most, or even twice in three years since travelling in Sarawak was difficult in those days. It was even worst for grandmothers who, in their old age could not travel at all and could only see their grandchildren who were working in remote places in Sarawak once in several years.

Here is a snap shot of those days of hardship. From Debak, my late aunt had to go by another small motor launch to Beladin which took one night and the next day she would reach the kampong.  There would be a lot of fishing boats moored by the river side. The jetties were not really wooden jetties as we Foochows would know of. They were just wooden posts for boats to tie up and the fishermen would just jump knee deep into the mud.

In the same way, during low tide, the travellers had to go knee deep in the mud when they alighted from the small motor launches.

It was just normal to do that. Upon reaching dry land, the travellers just had to wash off the mud!

Babies were carried on the back. It was the life style then.

When the tide was high, the motor launches could berth more easily and the passengers could just jump onto the bank at the estuary.

Beladin in those days was a fishing village. Fish were caught and traders would come to buy the fish and send them to Debak and other places around the village. The fishermen and t heir families prepared salted fish, dried fish maw and also processed jelly fish.

2021......Many fishermen are still doing small time fishing using small boats. But now deep sea fishermen from Beladin go more than 12 nautical miles away from the shore and fish. They usually land their catch in Kuching. Their boats are more powerful and they bring in better income. This is indeed a great progress since the 1970's.

The population of Beladin has grown to more than 20,000. The village has a good jetty for boats to berth.