Hmm, actually didn’t plan to write anything about this….but then, after these 3 days of ” living” with them, i felt like it is a very important and valuable experience which not everyone got the chance to go through it.
Anyway, let’s start with Gombak Orang Asli Hospital, why is it call Orang Asli Hospital? Becoz there got a lot of Orang Asli? Or becoz it was opened by Orang Asli? No No…..its because, it is purposely set up for the orang asli in whole malaysia. ONLY orang asli can be admitted, when i say ONLY…means ONLY, if you chinese got accident there, want to admit, pai seh la, they will send you to the nearest hospital. This is the only one hospital for Orang Asli, i do not know why, maybe because government feel that they are not important enough? or maybe because Orang asli scare of us, and if the hospital is full of us ( i mean non-orang asli k), they will be frightened out of their wits?
Thats not the point, lets talk about something more important. The location…..trust me….you would NEVER EVER expect to see a HOSPITAL in that area. =.=” Behind the hospital area, there is a river and behind the river, its JUNGLE. Then, right infront of the hospital is a small pathetic road ( but don’t play play, got rapid KL going around ok…somemore go CHOW KIT leh….haha…this was a joke between us med students la….Orang Asli go CHOW KIT? ) Infront of this small, one lane for a direction road, there is a row of shops built of coarse cement or just normal WOOD. Mainly are food stalls and kedai runcit, small and nothing inside actually. The food is….urm, sorry to say im NOT VERY adventurous, i only eat at the only Nasi Kandar shop which looks the most HIGH CLASS there. Anyway, right behind the shops are………..YES, you are right….JUNGLE. hahaha…..Next to the row of shops, its the museum Orang Asli, well air conditioned, well built and overall, its a nice place to hid during hot days and of coz, when you have nothing to do la. Its the perfect place to sleep, since there is no one there….not a soul except the recorder playing a ghostly music sang by the orang asli. The floors are tiled and clean, so if you want a place to sleep, take a tilam and sleep there…lol
The hospital itself is a 3 building hospital ( aiseh…sounds great right….3 BUILDINGS summore…haha). Which 3? the main Hospital which is just WARDS ( there is no patient in wards….so usually is just a place for nurse to chit chat and walk around…haha), another building is the out patient department building…trust me, its the only building which has a lot of peoples ( when i say a lot, the number is still under 10 okay….haha..but got people mah and more than 2…so, must consider as a lot ), in the same building, there is a pathetically small X Ray Room, a equally small lab mainly to test TB, the admin office ( which is the nicest room of the whole hospital……imagine a normal office situated in old old place…of coz its the best la…) and some sterialising place. Oh, forget to add, there is the only place where there is staff toilet and labeled with gender….i will tell u why gender is important later…..
Last but not least, the transit area and Accident and Emergency department. UH has a whole floor,wide spaced, full of high tech stuff A&E, but our dear A&E here is just one floor and half a wing of the building….lol. The rest is used up as TRANSIT Building. Whats transit? to transit patients to another hospital? No No…i told you what, orang asli only stays here…they don’t stay in other hospital. The kononnya Transit area is actually a hotel room for the patient’s family. Haha. It looks like Sri Malaysia Hotel, except that they are not equipped with air con. This has something to do with the Orang Asli Lifestyle actually. They LOVES their family, so when they MUST be admitted to hospital, they MUST bring their family together or they would rather go away and die. Haha. So, when the family come, where to stay? Takkan Camp in hospital area and light fire to cook meh? You thought in Jungle kah….haha. So, stay there loh. But then, later on, the transit area is also the ward for the stable patients. AGAIN, its because they LOVE their family. So when they are stable, the DO NOT STAY in the wards ( thats why wards are empty lo…haha). Imagine how much they LOVE their family, the transit building is just opposite the ward building…..but they cannot tolerate and MUST stay together…….DAMN CUTE.
Talking about our dear Orang Asli, there is 3 main tribes and each got like 6 subtribes under it…so, got like 18 diff tribes altogether…..eh eh, wait, i forget to add the pigmies in…..so its 19. Yeah…malaysia got Snow white and the 7 dwafs de….lol…except that snow white is not white but brown and the dwarfs are not ONLY 7 in number but 100 of them. Lolz. Its very easy to recognise them……just compare them with see teng….haha……if they look old but shorter than see teng…then CONFIRM is orang asli…..lol. Sorry la teng, im just trying to sound funny……coz if say they are short, you all cannot imagine mah. Sorry la. Seriously, the highest of them is only 155cm? I met an orang asli yesterday, he is 17 ( although he told me he is 13) and i have to keep look down at him when i talk to him. I guess, he is about, 140cm? about 2heads shorter than me. So, Teng, you one head shorter than me mah….when u see them….u can laugh at them….lol. Joking joking…don’t angry la….
Some of the Orang Asli stay near the urban area……oh, one important thing, no matter where they stay,they WEAR CLOTHES okay…don’t think they only cover with leaves…………………………BUT, for children….haha…they wear shirts only, didn’t cover their bottom….lol (thats what my prof say la…i din see any uncovered children in hospital..lol). They are mainly nice people. shy shy de….when talk to you….yes also nod their heads, no also nod their heads and i think if you scold them, they will also nod their heads. Lol. They don’t look at you striaght into your eyes…but like olden days girl, head low low and talk soft soft. hahaha….i REALLY WANT TO LAUGH when i talk to them. But, they are nice la, seriously, kind and never stingy of giving you a very fast smile ( fast means, this second they show you a smile, next second the smile disappear..)
Oh, their lifestyle, they live mainly on own give la. Means, they hunt for deer, rats * yes, they hunt rat for food not to take the rats away*, they catch fish, prawns, ” shui mu”, they plant their own vege ( mainly cabbage….urgh, imagine living on cabbage mainly…i can die!! ), crops, they have their own chickens but according to my prof, only children got to eat chicken…..so sweet….give the young ones to eat better food. Their houses are actually made of wood, sticks, some smarter ones will make from Bamboo. Not very strong houses yet very cooling. But think about it, they can easily build a new one when its old….so, got new house every 2-3 years?haha…i stay in my house 11 yrs liow lo…..but they ALWAYS got new house. Their water supply mainly is from River, but there is a big problem which i shall talk later. Imagine a river…..long slim……they divide into 3 parts. 1st part, highest off the ground would be for cooking and drinking…..2nd part of washing and bathing and last part is for urination and defecating. MAIN PROBLEM is……what is your village is under another village? so your 1st part of river becomes the 3rd part of the river for the other village………urm…..imagine urself k….haha….Besides that, they also use bamboo to drain water from the spring water up in the mountains….sometimes they also collect rain water. Acid rain also drink…haih….
Their belives, mainly animism which is belive in wind, tree stone ( they say if there is hurricane, means someone step into a kawasan larangan and that culprit must throw a drop of blood into the hurricane to apeace the anger of the god…..but think about it, HURRICANE wor….won’t that person got suck into it? ). Yea, animism…..but DO NOT BE SURPRISE if they tell you ” saya, islam tapi saya christian”. lol. You can’t blame them actually. What happen is, maybe few years back, some islamic ppl came and they ” wanted” to become islam….so they practice practice….then few years later, some christian come and they think christian is also good…..so they also practice christian. Lol. BUT, they proudly tell you, they still belive in wind gods and tree gods. haha. Everything goes back to rule zero la…they are still animism.
Customs, not much being told actually, only one thing is…..GUYS must not see unmarried girls who are not in proper clothing. There was once a case which happen in that hospital. A guy student went to the ward’s toilet, the toilet is not labelled for guy or girls….any gender can use la. So, he open the toilet door and ” oh O” he say a girl squatting and of coz didn’t wear anything la…..so ah, this guy was FORCED to marry that girl. In the end, don’t know got marry or not…haha…imagine, 20yr old go get married…summore becoz you go to a toilet see a girl there and need to marry. Thats why ah, we students were told not to use the toilet in the wards and go to the toilet in either A&E or Out patient department. Yet, A&E is dangerous la…..coz its in the same building as transit building….so, who knows a girl goes into male toilet? hahaha.
Oh,i suddenly remembered the canteen. You all must wonder why i risk my life of getting diarrhoea and still go to eat outside food?WEll, coz i have no choice. Lol. THere is a CANTEEN in the hospital…..but a non-operating canteen. Lol. It is NEVER open and i didn’t even SEE anyone go there before. Lol.
Orang asli’s hospital was actually a good place for the Orang Asli la. Imagine, the hospital provide medication, treatment, boarding and FOOD. How nice….the best thing is….THEY DO NOT NEED TO PAY. hahaha. Please la, say adi mah, Orang asli, where got income de? how to pay?Summore, if they are admitted due to screening ( eg, TB), they will be picked up from their kampung maybe in jungle in Kelantan and sent to Gombak, KL then when they are given holidays by doctors, got car send them back to kampung……..then when its time to come back ….got car go pick them…and finally, after finish treatment….got car send them back summore. Oh, and if they need to go H KL or some other hospital, got car fetch them also. AND…..the best thing again…….ALL ARE FREE trips….lol…..no need pay for taxi….
One good thing you must always remember if in future you come into contact with an orang asli…….DO NOT FORCE THEM. BUT…………..Bribe them. Haha. Make them understand what you doing to them….why they must take medication……and how long. Tell them if you finish this medication, i let you have this for dinner la…i take you to fishing la…or i bring you to pick flowers la…etc etc….just like pujuk a children like that. If you force them, you will notice that while you are not looking, they already run to some other places where you would never force them again. Lol.
Alright, will talk about their languages and the difficulties i met during my interview with my cute TB orang asli patient tmr…..now no mood….hehe….
Orang Asli = Fun….don’t you think so…..
