Fri 29th April 2016: Arrived and was welcomed by Genevieve from Kampung Babah, whom Evelyn Masudal (Kampung Pogunan) passed me onto. She is a Kadazan from the Papar area. I had seen Evelyn's photo and figured that they would be about the same age... Her fourth child, Constance was also there to pick me up from the airport. We enter the kampung via Jalan N.C. Mogunting, named after her husband's grandfather. They complained of no electricity - but when we arrived at 1130pm, the lights came on.
Genevieve was born a Catholic and her husband Sylvester Disimon was converted into Catholicism at the age eight.
Sat 30th April 2016: Susan Bansin turned up to welcome me. Her husband is a Penang Indian who is a (judge) in KK. They met during Pesta Ka'amatan (22) years ago when she was helping out, minding the (tapai) drink stall (set up by the KadazanDusun Cultural Association). She showed me Gaya Street and talked about how the Allies had bomb-flattened KK in (the World War II), trying to oust the Japanese and one building in Gaya Street was intact. The only other significant building that I know so far, that survived, is the St Michael's church on the hill.
We could not stop talking and I had my first banana leaf meal at Bandaran Berjaya at Sri Latha's Curry House. Susan began her career in Sabah as a quantity surveyor after graduating from England. Meantime she has held the roles of activist, theatre practitioner, playwright and performer. She enjoys contemporary performance discourse and improvisation, and has been appointed the role of theatre development advisor by the Sabah Society of Performing Arts, Kota Kinabalu.
There is a contemporary performance and art collective space that she used recently called The Asylum in KK. The upcoming KK arts fest will use this space too. She offered a workshop and performance at the Sabah Muzium last year and an earthquake occurred on that very day. The few participants who turned up despite the earthquake, were deeply affected by this event, changing their perspective on the forces of nature.
Sunday 1 May 2016: Found out too late that the 1st day of Ka'amatan was in Tenom and it was two and half hours away... ended up going shopping with Genevieve. She has taken the task of giving me lifts everywhere, bless her!
Monday, 2 May 2016: I was invited by the host of my homestay (Kampung Babah, Penampang), Sylvester Disimon to the Grand Ballroom for the KSS Hontog Ka'amatan 2016 - The Launching Ceremony. His traces back to the Mogunting line, which the road we enter is named after in Kampung Babak. More details on the Ka'amtan blog...
Wed, 4 May 2016: Genevieve mentions that her sister-in-law used to be a practicing bobohizan...maybe she will contact her... We arrive at Evelyn's place and it is here that she informed me that one of the Ka'amatan villages is in Kudat. The river near her place used to flow deep and carried traders on their boats right into the village. The Pogunon museum exhibits huge ceramic jars apparently bought from Chinese traders in exchange for salt, spices, etc. These expensive jars were only bought by the rich who eventually buried their dead inside it. Many were discovered in a dig near the surrounding hills?
Thurs, 5 May 2016: Susan takes me to Penampang Proper: The house that her parents lived in when they got married; how her father and some of the other men in the village brought water supply to the village; she took a photo of her brother’s house and commented how because the kampong was on a floodplain, the water level would rise up to the roof during the rainy season towards the very end and early part of the year; her cousin’s house; her father is now frail, she takes him for dialysis every Thursday afternoon, today.
Back when life revolved around the Moyog River; how the bobohizan would do their sacrificial rites. She and her nephew are compiling documentation and gathering information for a project “Stories from the River”
At the Penampang tamu (a community market) :
Kombuongo is the stem of a shrub. Shave a bit of into a glass of warm water and it can relieve mysterious illnesses that seem to appear from 'nowhere'. The Bobohizans often carry a string of them in rituals as it is very effective for channeling spirits. Kombuongo is activated in this manner only if one prays, chants or meditate over it...