I used to be a Rubber Tapper

This is the journey of my life before I further my study in Diploma. I used to be a rubber tapper and farmer. Who I am today because of what I do 'dulu-dulu'..Every school holiday, going back to kampung and putung gata..orang lain pigi melancong, jalan2, mandi2 di laut..lepak2 di tepi pantai..

but the rubber tree is my companion and the farm is my holiday vacation heeee. I always 'merungut'..Its so tiring, you know. early in the morning wake up, have breakfast then went to the farm. Putung getah sampai 10 oclock more or less..rest for two hour. wait for the latex to flows into the cup attached to the tree. By noon or early afternoon, the latex will have stopped flowing. then go back to each tree and empty the latex collected in the cups into a pan. Coagulate the latex then go home carrying the wakid with the kapingan in it. aaahhhh so tired but once I reach home, my tiredness disappeared immediately. Home sweet home :). 

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I felt that this is the most tiring process, collecting the latex. Moreover, our rubber farm is on a hillside. After that, formic acid (known 'cuka getah' by the local sabahan) is added to coagulate the liquid latex. Poured into moulds before it get completely coagulate. A day will be enough to transforms the liquid latex into a firm solid block of rubber. The rubber sheet is manually rolled using the mangle to make it thinner by squeezing out the water.

Mangle ~source : sarawak-rubbertapper

Our kampong is far away from the rubber factory. so, once a month the middlemen will come to our village and bought the rubber sheets (of course harga akan lebih murah sebab dorang pun mau dapat untung juga kan).

This is me. Baru siap keraskan getah dan sekarang mau balik sudah. Getah yang telah dikeraskan kelmarin akan diangkat balik ke rumah menggunakan wakid. That's why la kami ni yang kebanyakan berasal dari kampung-kampung pendek-pendek tegap. Tangan pun kurang sudah halusnya, urat pun jelas kelihatan. Saya mula kerja menoreh getah ni masa umur 12 tahun. And masa budak-budak sudah kena train angkat berat-berat. Kayu api, ubi kayu, getah kapingan, kantalan....

Haha saya ingat lagi masa pigi kolej dorang selalu tanya ' ko atlit kaine? tagap betul, tangan pun berurat', and mula-mula terasa rendah diri juga la kana cakap begitu. Sebab sumandak-sumandak yang lain body cantik, kulit halus mulus. Tapi lama-lama inda peduli sudah, sudah memang betul apa dorang cakap jadi biar saja la dorang. Cakap saja ' iya, atlit duluuuu tym sekolah menengah' (betul juga la hehe).

That's all, kampung story of mine. 

Mau cerita benda lain tapi cerita ni pula keluar. hehe whatever la.

Papun, have a nice day ahead you all. Tc.