Successful berjalai for a teacher with dreams

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Nelson and Alice with the Long Tuma School staff.

NELSON Janting was a young Iban with dreams when he first enrolled at Batu Lintang Training College (BLTC) in Kuching in the 1950’s.

He was very eager to teach and had thoroughly enjoyed his teaching practicals at several schools in the state.

His posting to a school at Long Tuma near Lawas changed his life forever. There, he met his life partner and soul mate.

“Teaching is a good vocation and is equally awesome when your own life partner is also a teacher,” he beamed.

As Nelson reminisced about his young days, his pretty Lun Bawang wife, Alice Daring, was smiling all the time. If a man can do this to his better half, he must have done a lot of right things in life.

Alice was one of the first Lun Bawang girls to be selected and educated at Tanjung Lobang School, Miri, in the 1950’s.

Theirs has been an incredible North-South union, a cross-cultural, Iban-Lun Bawang marriage which resulted in three children and a wonderful family history.

Today Nelson and Alice are retired and living in Miri.

Incredibly, the couple had spent over 30 years as contract teachers in Brunei together with many other Malaysians who joined the teaching force at the Sultanate from the 1960’s.

Teaching in Brunei was an exceptional case for the couple but Nelson’s story is not a simple, ordinary one.

Nelson and Alice with the IGP of Malaysia on a visit to Brunei.

He started as a BLTC trained teacher in Long Tuma. While Sarawak was facing social and political changes in 1963, Nelson too was facing personal challenges.

With a young family, he felt the urge to do something bigger. Could he bring up a good family in an ulu school? Moreover, the ulu school he was supposed to be transferred to would take five days to walk to. There was no other means of transport and he would be completely cut off from his own people in Betong.

And being from Betong, Nelson has been exposed to bigger towns such as Simanggang and Kuching. He has also attended college and would really like to do something bigger for his family.

So he took a huge leap of faith by applying for a teaching post at St Andrew’s School in Bandar Seri Begawan. While waiting for word on his application, he taught for a few months at Chung Hua School, Lawas. The pay was very small but the family got by.

In 1967, Nelson and Alice were accepted by St Andrew’s  School as foreign contract workers — and they were to hold their posts as foreign contract teachers until they retired in 2002.

Back then, Brunei provided opportunities to Malaysian and other foreign teachers. The benefits were not only financial but social as well. Their children attended good schools, were given government allowances and living in a good environment.

While Alice taught at St Andrews and served as special tutor to many royal children, Nelson taught at several government schools after his term at St Andrew’s.

Teaching at a government school entitled the couple to government quarters and extra allowances. Nelson taught at Berakas Government School from 1976 to 1985, followed by a short stint at Limau Manis. His final school was Kampung Ayer where he taught until he retired at 60.

Young Alice Daring.

“I continue to meet up with my former students. A few from Kampung Ayer are now fishmongers who are happy to give me free fish.

“But I cannot take their gifts just like that. I have to pay for them. We have genuine respect for each other. I like all my students – whether or not they were the top in class. They are all very endearing personalities.”

Alice chipped: “Yes our students send us photos and their parents let us know about their academic pursuits overseas.”

Teaching at different schools gave Nelson ample opportunity to study Brunei’s culture, history and geography. He also made life long friends with his colleagues and others he met in church and social circles.

Nelson was offered an “amazing opportunity” because the Brunei government considered him a “special breed” whose fluency in the Iban language was found to be extremely useful by Radio Brunei. Between 1970 and 1980, he was a special RTB broadcaster.

“I was recruited by the Royal Household of Brunei to man RTB’s Iban section. As a result, I learned a lot about the history and politics of Brunei,” he recalled.

As an Iban broadcaster – together with his brother-in-law, Michael Gawan – he was popular with listeners in Limbang and Lawas.

“We usually did live radio broadcasting. I translated most of the news which was approved by the Istana. Life was fairly jolly at RTB and the exposure was a very enriching part of my life. I promoted the Iban language at the same time.

“Live broadcasting is very special. I was told most longhouse people loved listening to RTB. Limbang and Lawas are two of Sarawak’s most northern posts and radiowaves from the station in Kuching were not easy to capture there at that time. I was told the people of Limbang and Lawas listened to only RTB for a long time.”

As an Iban language broadcaster, Nelson was known throughout Brunei and because of his command of the Iban language, he was officially appointed as a Brunei Court Interpreter.

In this extra service to the Brunei government, he made friends with many Bruneian and foreign lawyers and court officials.

“I was often called to active service. My school had to release me for duty because it was On His Majesty’s Service. Most of the cases were very interesting.

“There was one involving three Filipinos who attempted to rape an Iban woman. Two of them were actually chopped by the nephew of the woman. The bloodied parang was picked up by the police at the crime scene and the Iban man confessed.

“A Pehin was asked to testify and he convincingly related the origin of the Ibans in Brunei to the presiding judge. Whether it was the Pehin’s presence or that the court was convinced by the testimony and the defending lawyer (a Foochow from Sibu), the Iban man was acquitted. It was one of the most interesting cases I ever helped to interpret.”

As a school teacher in Brunei from 1966, Nelson was involved in many sports activities. Actually he and a few others, including one Dr Ding, were the people who started the Tasek Lama Jungle Trek in those early years.

A fire had damaged a part of the hill and this group of outdoors enthusiasts decided to clear a path for climbing and trekking.

Today, Tasek Lama remains one of the most frequented health spots in Brunei. The Royal Family has also made it their special playground and exercise spot.

Nelson said while he and his friends were clearing the Tasek Lama Jungle trek, he challenged a contractor friend who brought a chainsaw to help them clear the jungle, to stop smoking.

In the very short time of befriending this group of Ibans and a Sitiawan Foochow doctor, the contractor actually gave up smoking!

Together with his health-conscious friends, Nelson has climbed Mt Kinabalu more than 10 times. Mountaineering for him was a great thrill – and it was such a marvellous feat for him and his friends that they went back again and again.

An Iban climber on top of Mt Kinabalu.

Today many Bruneians and Sarawakians continue to enjoy climbing Mt Kinabalu.

Nelson and Alice have three children, all of whom were educated in Adelaide.

Like Nelson, his son-in-law also had travelled far to find a life partner. A Guangzhou-born man, brought up in the Fiji Islands, he was educated in Australia. And it was in Adelaide that Nelson’s daughter met this science undergraduate.

Now, all of Nelson’s children are residing in the US. It’s no wonder he names his house at Taman Tunku, Miri, Texas House. Nelson communicates with his children through Facebook, the Internet and iPhone. It must be awesome for his children to listen to Dad’s Broadcast from Borneo now.

Nelson continues to have lots of stories to tell and entertain his relatives and friends.

Retirement is not at all boring for the couple as they continue to lead a very active social life via their handicraft shop in the Miri Handicraft Centre.

While he does a lot of gardening and looking for antiques to buy, she does all the beadworks she sells in the shop. She takes special orders to make beaded belts and necklaces, using traditional Lun Bawang designs.

The couple help out with the Baptist Church of Miri. In their spare time, they dine with friends or drink coffee. They even travel to Bekenu to meet up with old friends, talking about fruits, gardens, medicinal plants and food.

Nelson Janting is like a true Iban who has gone for his berjalai and is now back in Sarawak with his loving wife of 51 years.

A friend remarked: “Half a century of living together has not dulled their relationship. These two people have set extremely good examples for people around them.

“They have managed their time well and continued living active lives and contributing to society. We need more people like them.”

The couple as contract teachers in Brunei.