Sungai Mengalong

akhirnya, budak-budak ini (sepupu-sepupu, adik, dan anak buah) sudah merasa mandi di air sungai mengalong (juga tidak dinafikan mesti ada yang terminum juga air sungai mengalong), baru lah boleh mengaku "Ya, saya anak jati SIPITANG".


my sister claims that she's 'terlampau bandaran' because she never got the chance to enjoy 'swimming' in Sungai Mengalong, padahal sungai tu di belakang rumah saja. when i was younger, every Hari Raya i looked forward to 3 things (a)meeting with cousins (b)FOOD galore and (c)mandi di Sungai Mengalong. Mulanya uja besia (sikapnya Pacik Salim jaan Angah Mastul) ada biawak tu Sungai Mengalong tu. au mengasi tu caita besia tu, we were out of the water in a nick of time! that's the only way they can pull us out of the water, by telling such stories. i think when my sister was younger, we didn't continue swimming at the sungai because most of my cousins are getting older like me, jadi kiranya malu lah kan bmandi2 di sungai sudah, and the little toddlers were really little (belum qualified untuk mandi) and aunties and uncles pun sudah limpas zaman kan mbawai kanak-kanak mandi. so for my sister Zura, yesterday was her chance (though not really swimming lah, we were only walking in flood water because simpang jalan tu tanggalam baah aing sungai mengalong) to know what it feels like to have air sungai mengalong between her legs. au bejasa ne sungai mengalong ne.

ani tah anak KADAYAN damanya -- this is what we call as anak kadayan. my cousin acha and my nephew amir dgn seluar pinjam nya tu. nampak betul xmuat kan? dua-duanya berenti mandi when my brother caught them swallowing too many water.. kalau di sungai nda pa jua, ani di jalan raya depan rumah ne, air banjir dari sungai mengalong sj. sebenarnya ndada yang di izinkan daddy untuk mandi aing baah (air banjir), but it started with one cousin...then another, and another, and another, hujung-hujung semua pun dalam air sudah -- including my brother yang claim he's only there 'untuk jaga anak' but i know deep down it's not that! ha!

ini namanya bgubang -- small sampan. doesn't look like my cousins are getting out of the water anytime soon...perhaps they haven't heard the story about biawak? heee mesti sepantas kilat dorang blari naik if they did.

bukan main lagi dorang sengaja masukkan air, as if they're finding the thrill in scooping out the water later on.

taking pictures and freezing their memories gave me great satisfaction, because i know how they feel playing in water. it feels like 14 years ago past so fast, but at last i can reconnect the feeling through the joy i see in their eyes. where ever we go, sungai mengalong tetap di hati, no matter what!

this was what it looks like around the house...

the actual river only starts after the rusty 'tong', so yang bahagian depan ne actually air sungai yang naik. mum pointed out and says 'sungai ne nampak macam bhantu saja' and later she carries on telling us stories about the famous dragon that lived up on a mountain, and everytime it floods, it is said that the dragon is also coming down from the mountain. some call this dragon 'tambuakaa' in mother tongue. my grandma later tells me that this 'tambuakaa' is GIGANTIC and is very long. 'maasai kau telihat kah nik?' -- have u ever seen it urself? and she said... 'au mistiiiiiiiiii lah inda maasai'. idih. i thought the long mistiiiiiii means she ever saw one. she said only few people did, but she assured me that there's such thing as 'tambuakaa'. interesting. more on tambuakaa here (a link to blogger A.S Kasah). tangah, minjam ku blog mu ah! thx :)

sungai mengalong, mun ku inda takanang yang aku ne pun basaa sudah, batah sudah ku mencabuu dlm aing tu kalamaie.