SMK TONGOD, DAERAH TELUPID, GABUNGAN SANDAKAN, SABAH, MALAYSIA.

Assalamualaikum and hello to all my beloved friends and lecturers. Aswritten above, that is the name of my school; TONGOD... and I haventfigured out what does it mean yet. Okay, first of all, brace yourselffor a really lengthy message that some of you might not findinteresting at all. For those who're willing to continue reading...thank you very much, writing is one of the only few type ofentertainment that I have around here.

I am now staying in the village of Lilingkuon and if you want to knowwhere it is, take a Sabah map and point at the centre of the map.Wallah! there is it, you've found the sub-district of Tongod. That'swhere you can find the abundance of small villages around the area. Myschool is actually located at about 195-200km from the Sandakan City.A journey to the city will take you about 6 hours in a 4 wheel-drive.It will also take you around 6 hours from my place to reach the Cityof Tawau (down South) and Kota Kinabalu (up North). So that is why myI said that my place is right at the centre of Sabah. WTH! itshould've been the capital of Sabah if not for its ultimateremoteness. The 6-hours journey that I mentioned previously is not asmooth ride to heaven. All along the journey, you'll have about 2-3hours of normal road route and during the remaining hours, you'll beenjoying the rollercoaster ride of your life. Have you watched any ofthe 4 wheel drive racing before? Imagine something like that minus theriver. The route consist of jalan ladang kelapa sawit (which is notthat bad) and ... jalan BALAK... (which is the interesting one). Weeven have to cross privately-owned road which requires you to pay upto rm500 unless we are staying in the inside (fortunately we are!haha...). So you can imagine that during the whole trip, I can onlyimagine of the worst possibility (I have previously been informed thatthere would be no electricity with only celcom line). I put myexpectation to the lowest possible coz I've learnt to be hugelydisappointed before. From the conversation that we've had with ourprincipal on the night before the journey (yes! our principal was inKK and treat us for a dinner at Tanjung Aru beach), he has informed usabout the remoteness of the school (2nd farthest school on land inSabah).

As I arrived to the school, I'm grateful that I have lowered myexpectation. By this, I didnt mean to say that my school is a hugebuilding fully equipped with facility but what I found is a basic'rumah atas' wooden school consisting of few classes. By the time Iarrive at the village, the electricity is still on (we have electricsupplied by generator from 8am to 5pm and 7pm to 12am). The PK 1 whodrove us bring us to the school quarters an now I'm squatting in thequarters together with 8 other guys (the principal, school driver,4teachers and 2 new teachers). Despite all the challenges anddisadvantages that I have faced in this place so far, I am indeed verygrateful to the great God! Alhamdulillah! I could not have asked for abetter principal who have been so friendly and accommodating so far. APK that is not so friendly the surface but really helpful anddilligent. The guys I'm living with? they're already like elderbrothers to me (I'm always blessed with this kind of people aroundme), they sincerely worry about me and always find ways to keep us(newbie) happy and entertained. The teachers (after 1 day of school)are very hardworking and proactive... they all remind me of my'kencang' friends in IPBA... they all seem to really care about theirwork and they don't just hang around and chat bout nothing. I guessone of the reason is they're mainly first-posted teachers and some ofthem has been serving the school for more than seven years. I hopethat this will inspire me to become a better teacher.

About teaching, havent had any chance with it since today was my firstday and lots of administration works goin around. the revisedtimetable will be ready in few days time. I am the 2nd teacher withEnglish option, the first teacher being a cool and 'rock' teachernames Mr Presley. I might be teaching fully english for form 1,2,3,and 4. We'll see about that. Students wise: there are 300++ students,very low proficiency, a lot of illiterate (bm and bi) up to form 5.There are 31 school in the Gabungan of Sandakan and we are ranked inthe 31st place, mainly bcoz of the standard of English. The principalwas quoted as saying that " the percentage could have gone up to70plus from 40plus if students pass english". So there it is, theburden lifted from the principal to the shoulder of this fat new guyfrom semenanjung. Huhu... i'm trembling at the thought of creating thechange needed for this school. Problems? the most imminent disciplineproblem in this school is truancy and tht's the only problem so far.It was said that 2 absenties per class in a day would be a miracle coz15-20 absenties is the normal one. Therefore, eventhough most studentsrespects the teachers very much, their interest in learning is verylow and most parents did'nt see the importance of education. That isthe challenge!
Finally, let's talk about some amusing trivia bout my school:

1) As an SMK, my school has 3 feeder schools, one named SK Kiandongofrom the village of Kiandongo (KIAN DUNGU)
2) My SMK is in afternoon session, coz we're sharing the same buildingwith SK... school hours; 12.25 - 5.45 (electricity was cut at 5).
3) As mentioned before, we're sharing the same school with SK.Teachers in SMK only received the 'insentif pedalaman'(incentiv e forrural teachers) at P1 level : RM500. while the SK teachers receivedP2; RM1000. Now, my school is pleading to get the same amount (fingerscrossed. pray for me!)
4) Just few hours before, we were told that we're gonna have toevacuate the house we're livin now as they're gonna build newclassroom building on our site. They might start as soon as next weekand we only get to know just now!
5) I am now using school's internet (in this quaint little staffroom)at night with limited connectivity which can only browse basic neducational website; no friendster, facebook n multiply for me. So, ifyou want to contact me, please use this email
That's all I have for now. Hope that you're entertained. Wish y'allall the best. Pray for the best for me. Cheers and Wassalam.

Cikgu Faisal

p/s: only celcom is available here... so my new number is; 013-8774294(do sms me please, calling might be a lil bit difficult at times butyour sms bring smiles to my face and connect me to the world outside).

Life might not be fair to you,

but...it doesn't give you the right to treat other people unfairly.

Life might not be fair to you,

but... you could make it fair to millions of life around you.

Life might not seem to be fair to you,

but... who are you to say so,

when you're destined to be great,

you're fated to something more!

(firus_azali_ 070108)

a poem written as a challenge to my own self,

without intention of implying it to anyone else.