Translate

Friday, April 19, 2013

Visit to Kuala Gula ! A friendly village, three hours far from Kuala Lumpur

I had a great chance to be with Mehdi Almasi and Parvin Pakzadmanesh, both PhD students, to go to Kuala Gula to help Mehdi to fill his questionnaires on SWOT analysis of the participatory management of Matang Mangrove Forest. Kuala Gula is a fishing village near the sea and most of its inhabitants are involved in fishing.
For several reasons, I found that these people are really hospitable. When we arrived to the village, we went to a coffee shop which seems to be managed by a woman. Everybody was very kind to us. First of all, there was a Chinese Malaysian who really explained about the village, they even invited us to Ice-Lemon-Tea, and after being with them for some time and explaining about our work (while some people filled some of the questionnaires), we left the village to Kuala Sepetang (another village), and then they seemed to be waiting for us, as we told them that we would come back in the afternoon.


One strange thing was that again a Chinese man living in the village invited us to dinner and even bought for us a dinner (Nasri Goreng Sayur Sayuran). They really helped us in filling the questionnaires. There was one young lady who acted like a facilitator and was explaining about the questionnaire to others who were sitting round a table. In summary the behavior of the community members towards these three students who were trying to connect to these people were much friendly. Do not forget that we had the language barrier too. Not so many people talked in English, while their Malay was not good. Anyway, we had really a good time and a fruitful experience over there.
I wrote these lines as an appreciation to what they did to us today. These people were really hospitable and we really enjoyed ourselves.

But this visit gave me a good opportunity to think more. When communities are somehow far from cities, when the people within the community are more close to each other, the community seems to enjoy from a solidarity that can help its members. I do not know and it is very difficult to say it without evidence, but I am sure those people whom we met today - who are not rich people - are living in peace. I am sure they have a good life since they seemed to be happy. That's something I found over there.