What is a Trekforce Expedition?

Trekforce organise expeditions to Belize, Borneo and Guyana lasting between 8 and 20 weeks. The expedition that I took part in was to Borneo and lasted for 17 weeks. The time for my expedition was split as follows:

In order to take part in the expedition I raised £4500. Find out how here.

Other Members of my Expedition             Pre-Expedition Preparation

Project Phase

The project phase of my expedition started after 6 days jungle training (31st January 2004). We were split into two groups: one went to build a trail into the Maliau Basin, aka  the Lost World of Sabah, while the other group (which I was in) went to the Danum Valley to build an accommodation block, followed by 10 days at Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre completing a variety of small projects. Everyone lives in hammocks in the jungle near their project sites, cooking on campfires and washing in the nearest streams.

Find out more about the Maliau Basin.

Danum Valley

The Danum Valley is more famous than the Maliau Basin, mainly because it's easier to get into! It is located in the south-east of Sabah, part of Malaysian West Borneo. It is mainly secondary rainforest and is still logged, although there are some tracts of primary rainforest which are protected. Lots of important scientific experiments take place there, including the one which we were helping with, the Sabah Biodiversity Experiment. This is an experiment which aims to try and recreate primary rainforest from secondary forest. It is a 50 year project, which Trekforce have been helping with from the start. So far expeditions have involved planting thousands of trees. This work finished last year, and our job was to build an accommodation block and wash block for scientists working on the experiment. Before we had finished, anyone wishing to study the experiment had to do a 90 minute drive each way every day, but now they can live on site, making it a lot easier for them to complete their work.  We learnt many building skills which came in very useful at Sepilok - Trekforce do not use power tools, so we all had to learn to hammer, saw and drill by hand in order to complete the project.

To find out more about the project that we did, according to Trekforce, click here.

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Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre

After completing our work in the Danum Valley, we spent the last few days at Sepilok. This is the larger of the two centres specialising in getting orang-utans back into the wild in Borneo. We completed a range of projects in groups of 6:

Working in Sepilok was different to our work in Danum, as we knew all of the building skills that we needed and had learnt in Danum. This enabled us to work independently, with only minor supervision from the main leaders - making our projects truly ours! All of the materials for the project were contributed by the Sepilok Orang-Utan Appeal UK - Thank You!    

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Teaching Phase

After our teacher training and cultural preparation the group was split into pairs and threes and sent to schools in rural villages. These schools are often understaffed and short of resources. Our work is very important as it helps children to pass their subjects in school - at the end of junior school (ages 7-12), they must pass in all of their subjects or get put into low classes at secondary school so everything we can do expands their opportunities.

The school that I went to was in a village called Long Napir, 3 hours from the nearest town of Limbang and accessible either by longboat up the river or truck on the logging tracks. There is no communication with the outside world - the only news comes when somebody has been into Limbang - and electricity comes from a generator turned on during school, church and in the evenings. Water is provided by a gravity water feed running into the village.

The children at the school come from the Kelabit and Penan tribes, 2 of the many indigenous peoples of Sarawak. The Kelabit are the more modernised of the two, with many of them working in the local logging camps (one of the few available jobs). The Penan tribe are still semi-nomadic and many of the children only attend school for a few months each year, starting from any year. This meant that of the 100 registered students for the school, only 54 regularly attended, with children appearing and disappearing all the time. All of the children are boarders, as it is highly likely many of them would go to school otherwise. 

The school is split into 6 classes, one for each year, with class sizes ranging between 2 and 16. The official starting age is 7, with students attending primary school until they are 12. English is compulsory for all of the children, although none of the teachers are qualified to teach it. Luckily some of them were educated in English, so they provide the necessary lessons. Year one and two students are also taught maths and science in english. This is why it was so important for us to be there, and to give the children extra chances in their lives.

I taught English to Year 3 and Year 6 and Science to Year 2. My teaching partners, Jenny and Sarah, taught English to Years 1, 2, 4, and 5 as well as Maths to Year 2. This meant that all of the students benefited from us being there. Each class had a complete ability range, from students who spoke near fluent English, down to those who had only just learnt to hold a pen and write their name. This made teaching a real challenge, but all the more rewarding when you could see that everybody had made progress by the time you left.

Outside school, we got involved in community life by playing sport, visiting people in the village and going on trips to fish and to the nearby Penan village. We also spent a lot of time keeping the children occupied by playing games, doing art and generally having fun.

The teaching phase was a real change from the jungle, but just as fun. Getting to know the people in the village and experiencing real Malaysian culture was amazing and I would do it again at the drop of a hat - I will definitely be going back to Long Napir.

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