For the pass few months we had been busy discussing and planning our General Studies' Project. There were so many changes and plans. Finally, today is the day of our project. We are suppose to visit an indigenous people (orang asli) settlement and learn their culture while mingling with them. It was a great experience as it is very rare for us to actually meet orang asli.
We went to a settlement in Labu, Negeri Sembilan and their settlement is located very deep inside the oil palm plantations. A group of 5 friends and I reached there first as there are some problems with the bus not being able to enter the tunnel and i was in an Unser. Therefore, we it wasn't a problem for us.
It was quite awkward at first as we don not know what to do since we were the first to arrive. At least we got to eat first xP. About 15 minutes later, the others arrived. The orang asli's are also getting starting to come as we group in their church. There were lots of children and everyone is playing with them cause they find them fun and adorable. They were quite shy at first but later they became playful. Some of them was even surrounded by children.
After eating, the Penghulu (i think) gave us a brief overview of the orang asli and their lifestyle. Then we got to see orang asli 3 traditional dances. They all look very similar except for the hand movement. It is very easy and repetitive, therefore, it is easy to learn and later some of us started joining them. Then we went to the "kitchen" to cook together. They
taught us how to cut the banana plant's heart and we tried some very bitter vegetable.
Curry chicken... honestly, the curry is quite tasteless

Banana heart which was used to cook with the bitter vegetable. The heart tasted not bad though.
After lunch, they taught us how to fold tali dendan (i am not sure is it dendan or dandan) from daun palas. At first it was confusing but after you get the hang of it then it is fun and easy.



Finally, we had group photo (will be uploaded in fb soon) and some giving ceremony. It was a great experience to know a little bit more about the orang asli. I am having another camp with the orang asli in November but this time they are not children but teens.