The Batch 13 students during their graduation ceremony yesterday.
KINARUT: If it weren’t for Montfort, Alex Johnny, 20, won’t be relishing the moment of triumph of finally completing his vocational training in metal fabrication and graduating in front of his proud parents who had traveled nine hours just to get to Miri.
For a long time, gaining an education was but a faraway dream made harder to achieve due to the distance between his village, Kampung Long Apu in Miri, Sarawak and the nearest school.
“I am from the Kenyah tribe. We are a small tribe belonging to the Orang Ulu group. I am 20 years old and I am the youngest of five siblings,” he said when sharing his testimony in front of beaming parents and proud graduates as well as the present trainees and educators at the training institution ran by the Montfort brothers.
“My father works in a timber camp, and my mother is a housewife. My father’s salary was not enough to for the upkeep of the family, so my mother helped out by selling homemade cakes and kuih-muih (local cakes),” he said.
He explained that his family was always moving because of his father’s work.
In describing how difficult it was to reach his village, Alex said that from Miri, it took nine hours to reach it.
“I have to get a ride to Kiloten camp to reach Pekan Lapok. From there, I have to take another transport before I can reach Miri. Going back to my village is more difficult. If I arrive there late at Kiloten camp, I will have to spend the night at the hut near the check point because there is no transport at night.
“From the check point, I will hitch another ride on the timber lorry to reach the junction to my village and from that junction, I would need another ride. It is even more difficult when it rains because the road gets muddy. The road is very dangerous because it is a logging road, which is only used by big lorries to ferry heavy timber. That is why my family seldom go to Miri town to get our food rations,” he said.
And due to the long and arduous journey, going to school became a problem for him.
“It (the school) was very far from my village, therefore, I have to stay at the school hostel as a boarder. I only attended Form I for a month, and then I quit in order to help my mother. I started to envy my friends who went to school and decided to study again. So my father sent me to Form 2 the following year. Again I stopped after some time due to the same reason. My parents then gave up on me due to my irresponsible attitude. But I kept running away from school because I missed my family a lot,” he said.
He said that he began working at a timber camp as a scaler, earning RM600 a month, when he was merely 16 years old.
“It was a tough and dangerous job. I felt the pay was not enough. I had a lot of time to think at the camp because there was no entertainment to distract me. I told myself that if I continued to stay at the camp, I would not gain anything and will have very little future.”
Fortunately, his aunt, a Carmelite Sister in Miri, initiated an idea that he should go back to school and enrolled him on a course in Montfort at Kinarut.
“The sisters sponsored my ticket to come to Kota Kinabalu for Montfort. It was my first time coming out of my village and I felt happy, excited and nervous. It was like a dream come true. I was so touched when my family, uncles, aunts and cousins came to the airport to send me off.”
He added that before arriving to Montfort, he had almost no knowledge on the facility and only knew that it was a good school that would teach him English and that he would be well cared for by the missionary brothers.
“I was too excited to ask questions because I only wanted to go back to school. I know how hard it was to work and I want to get a certificate in order to get a better job,” he said.
As he was used to hardship, he found it easy to adapt to Montfort’s strict environment. Moreover, he was determined to attain his certificates and prove to his parents and those who have helped him that he can achieve his goal.
“I learned a lot at Montfort. I received my Level 1 and Level 2 Certificates in Metal Fabrication. I obtained my Green Card from CIDB (Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia), 6G training at The Welding Institute (TWI),” he said.
And in terms of character transformation, he said he had improved in his respect for others and had become more responsible.
“I also learned how to uphold safety as the most important aspect in industrial skills training. Our faith formation nurtured me to be strong in my faith and taught me to pray always…although there were times when I missed home and my family, I prayed for strength to go on.”