4th October 2013-It came as a bit of a surprise to us when SJKT Boh 2 ( Boh 2 Tamil Primary School) was amongst the 1st few schools to voice interest in joining our Mossy Forest Education Tours ( sponsored by funds from The Embassy of Finland) . This is a school with predominantly Orang Asli children (indigenous people) from the village of Panggen. One would have thought that Orang Asli kids with the jungles of Cameron Highlands as their playground would have already seen the mossy forests. We were wrong. Perhaps we should not have been surprised given what we were told some months back when we were visiting the village of Post Trisu. An Orang Asli father actually said,”Baik juga ada program di Sungai Wi kerana anak-anak saya belum pernah tenguk sungai bersih” ” It is good that you are conducting programmes at Sungai Wi as my children have not seen clean rivers before.” That was a real shocker! That the environment around many of the Orang Asli villages are so degraded that not even one clean river can be found in their vicinity. This innocuous statement from an Orang Asli father sums it all.
So we took this group of 16 shy primary school students up to the mossy forest in Gunung Brinchang. The setting was perfect for a mossy forest tour. Mist hovering all over, parting occasional for the early morning sun to shine through. Satya, our facilitator soon put the kids at ease and spoke to them as an older brother would. They listened, enthralled. Then they trouped single file up the board walk under the watchful gaze of their 6 teachers namely Headmaster Mr Vairam Shanmugam, Mr Prakash Arunasalam, Mr Narayanan Kochimuni, Mr Mohd Azlisham, Mrs Suganthy Dorasamy and Miss Pushpa Latha Nanchappa. The railings and steps were damp with condensation but the view was worth it.
Our group visited the biodiversity site next and planted some trees after another briefing by Satya.
This was followed by a short art session whereby the students were encouraged to draw what they have seen on that trip. We wanted to know how the mossy forest and biodiversity centre look like from their view points. It was very nice of the school to give us a token of appreciation at the end of the outing and we thank the teachers and students for making this trip a successful one. There will be more trips for the local schools these few months as we continue to spread the message for the conservation of our forests.
