It is Sunday afternoon after 4pm and two thirds of my time in Sarawak have passed by. Thinking about what life would be like to live here, two comments come to mind. Sabim, one of our Gawai hosts in Kampung Apar, is also a musician with a wonderful smile, a warm personality and free spirit. When asking about the beaches here, he hinted that he knew how to surf, but didn’t. Why? Because people here don’t have that kind of free time to spend. When there is free time to spend, it is dedicated to time with family; and not something as solitary (aka selfish) as ocean surfing.
The second example of how life is spent here comes from a brief interaction with the owners of the condo here at Village Grove. They received a report from their plumbers that fixing the master bathroom’s tub stopper would be more difficult than anticipated. They were scared at what kind of damage had occurred to it, so they stopped by to investigate. After briefly assessing the possible solutions, they decided it was easiest and cheapest to simply remove the drain stopper when showering. In fact, in all the time they owned the condo, they had never used the tub, only the shower. The owner said, “We don’t have that kind of time to spend for soaking in a tub for half an hour or more (like you in America do). Five minutes in the shower, at most. We’ve got work to do.”
This leads me to ponder on the following question: Is our American culture SO self-indulgent and pampered that personal activities and hobbies are accepted as valued and much needed re-charging time? Here however, those same activities are dismissed, and maybe, even judged as an extravagance.
No comments:
Post a Comment