THE RUBBER TREES.
Non fiction manuscript as told by my brother.
Copyright© by lilly-sue2005.
Extract from my ‘yet to be published book “WHISPERS THROUGH THE CORRIDOR”.
April, 20th Monday, 1953.
The day and year I’ll always remember. My first day getting ready for school. I’ve missed school for a year because I had to tap rubber. Living in a rubber estate is like a dream with no ending.
In a Malaysian rubber estate, the workers are given housing, with free water and electricity. The water that came as a trickle was on from 8am to 6pm from a tap in front of the house.
The house is just a room 12ft.by 12ft. with a window and door. ¾ of the room is a wooden platform, 2 ½ ft high. We slept on this with only pillows and blankets.
Every block had 8-10 rooms, 2 families shared a bathroom. A bathroom that had ½ a roof, this made it easier to catch rain water. There was a veranda in front of the rooms and a raised cement table, one table for 2 families. On this was 6 bricks, this was our kitchen.
For fuel, we collected twigs and chopped up fallen trees. The toilet was about 20ft. at the back of our rooms.
We, the kids would never use those toilets. The smell and the fear of falling into the bucket were too great to even try. We often dug holes around the estate to do our business.
I hated this estate.
Last year, when I was 7 years old, my foster mother and sister, 2 years my senior taught me how to tap a rubber tree.
Learning to tap the tree was not the hard part; I learned very quickly. After a week I was given 300 trees to tap. The worst part was waking up at 3.30am, still half asleep, being bragged onto the back of my sister’s bicycle and the horrible bumpy ride. It took us 20mins to get there.
Arriving at the little shed we collected our pails and head band fitted with a light, and had to start work immediately. Every minute counts, work had to be done by 10 am. Once the sun was up, the trees will not yield much latex.
I hated the eerie darkness, the howling wind; leeches that suck your blood made me hate the estate even more. Every day telling myself I must find a way to leave this horrid place.
I hated the rain. The stories about suicide ghosts with their tongue hanging down to their waist. Ghosts with no legs, floating down the trees with their guts training along looking for victims. The howling wind and rustling leaves made these stories come to life, in my mind.
And in my years tapping rubber, I have never once looked up to see the tree tops. I did my tapping as fast as I could, praying for the first ray of sunlight. Sunlight, the only weapon to destroy the ghosts.
My first encounter with leeches was last week, it rained heavily that night and the next morning the ground was wet and muddy. After tapping ten trees, I heard my sister shouting, ‘Watch out for the leeches’. I replied, ‘Where?’ She said, ‘On your legs’.
Looking down, with the light from my head band, I saw little black knobs on my feet and up my legs. I was only wearing tongs and shorts. I tried to shake them off but nothing happened, I screamed and panicked, running to her.
I tried to brush them away, Why won’t they fall off,? Why did it not hurt? I tried to pull them off; they just got longer and stuck on.
My sister said, ‘Don’t panic, put some of your saliva on them and they’ll fall off ’.
I was crying and trembling, ‘Put saliva, how much? There are millions of them on my legs; I don’t have that much saliva!’
She said, ‘Usually when they are full with your blood they’ll fall off, but try scraping with your knife.
Next time, after a rain, you must tuck your pants inside your socks and really bind them tight, so none of the leeches can go on you. Wear shoes, and long pants.’
Stilling crying I shouted; ‘Now you tell me. When I’m being sucked to death!’ It was a lesson well learned.
As I looked at my books, even though they were secondhand, I saw hope. Hope that with a better education I would be able to leave this place.
Copyright© by lilly-sue2005.
Extract from my ‘yet to be published book “WHISPERS THROUGH THE CORRIDOR”.
April, 20th Monday, 1953.
The day and year I’ll always remember. My first day getting ready for school. I’ve missed school for a year because I had to tap rubber. Living in a rubber estate is like a dream with no ending.
In a Malaysian rubber estate, the workers are given housing, with free water and electricity. The water that came as a trickle was on from 8am to 6pm from a tap in front of the house.
The house is just a room 12ft.by 12ft. with a window and door. ¾ of the room is a wooden platform, 2 ½ ft high. We slept on this with only pillows and blankets.
Every block had 8-10 rooms, 2 families shared a bathroom. A bathroom that had ½ a roof, this made it easier to catch rain water. There was a veranda in front of the rooms and a raised cement table, one table for 2 families. On this was 6 bricks, this was our kitchen.
For fuel, we collected twigs and chopped up fallen trees. The toilet was about 20ft. at the back of our rooms.
We, the kids would never use those toilets. The smell and the fear of falling into the bucket were too great to even try. We often dug holes around the estate to do our business.
I hated this estate.
Last year, when I was 7 years old, my foster mother and sister, 2 years my senior taught me how to tap a rubber tree.
Learning to tap the tree was not the hard part; I learned very quickly. After a week I was given 300 trees to tap. The worst part was waking up at 3.30am, still half asleep, being bragged onto the back of my sister’s bicycle and the horrible bumpy ride. It took us 20mins to get there.
Arriving at the little shed we collected our pails and head band fitted with a light, and had to start work immediately. Every minute counts, work had to be done by 10 am. Once the sun was up, the trees will not yield much latex.
I hated the eerie darkness, the howling wind; leeches that suck your blood made me hate the estate even more. Every day telling myself I must find a way to leave this horrid place.
I hated the rain. The stories about suicide ghosts with their tongue hanging down to their waist. Ghosts with no legs, floating down the trees with their guts training along looking for victims. The howling wind and rustling leaves made these stories come to life, in my mind.
And in my years tapping rubber, I have never once looked up to see the tree tops. I did my tapping as fast as I could, praying for the first ray of sunlight. Sunlight, the only weapon to destroy the ghosts.
My first encounter with leeches was last week, it rained heavily that night and the next morning the ground was wet and muddy. After tapping ten trees, I heard my sister shouting, ‘Watch out for the leeches’. I replied, ‘Where?’ She said, ‘On your legs’.
Looking down, with the light from my head band, I saw little black knobs on my feet and up my legs. I was only wearing tongs and shorts. I tried to shake them off but nothing happened, I screamed and panicked, running to her.
I tried to brush them away, Why won’t they fall off,? Why did it not hurt? I tried to pull them off; they just got longer and stuck on.
My sister said, ‘Don’t panic, put some of your saliva on them and they’ll fall off ’.
I was crying and trembling, ‘Put saliva, how much? There are millions of them on my legs; I don’t have that much saliva!’
She said, ‘Usually when they are full with your blood they’ll fall off, but try scraping with your knife.
Next time, after a rain, you must tuck your pants inside your socks and really bind them tight, so none of the leeches can go on you. Wear shoes, and long pants.’
Stilling crying I shouted; ‘Now you tell me. When I’m being sucked to death!’ It was a lesson well learned.
As I looked at my books, even though they were secondhand, I saw hope. Hope that with a better education I would be able to leave this place.
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