Sabah, oh Sabah….

26th January marked my journey to the land where God has placed me for my first ever career posting. Honestly, I was really excited about this posting as I was eager to know what God had planned for me. As I said goodbye to my parents, I knew that I will be alone probably for the next few weeks of school till I am able to see them again. This was the first time that I truly felt the loneliness in me. Strangely, my trip to New Zealand wasn’t that lonely compared to this.
At 12pm, my plane to Kota Kinabalu took off! As it reached for the sky, I began to miss home. I felt as if my home was so so so far away, beyond anything that I can reach. The flight took me almost 3 hours to arrive in KK. After clearing everything, we were picked up by a few district education officers and were told that we would be heading off straight to our placement district. Not really knowing what was going on, I just followed orders. In the beginning, we expected that there would be a briefing in KK but due to the current economic recession, the education department had to cut short some of the state activities and therefore, we were sent straight to our district. The district officers who picked us up were very nice people and they were very accommodating. They even went to the extent of helping us find accommodation! I’ve heard of stories where there were some teachers who were left to fend for themselves when they arrive in town! Thank God!
The journey to Tenom was picturesque! The view was really awesome as we drove up the Crocker Ranges, with green hills on both sides of the road throughout the journey. In contrary to what was expected, the road leading to Tenom was quite good. I was like any other roads in Semenanjung Malaysia, apart from a few steep stretches of road. Imagine driving up a road, uphill at an angle of 25 degrees! My oh my, it was scary at first but the feeling just subsided as we reached the peak of the road where the view was just plain AWESOME!
Upon reaching my district, I was picked up by school principal. He seemed a nice man to me. He found a place for me to stay, saving me from all the headaches of finding accommodation across town. He even offered to show me around town! As I settled in my new room, I found that there were no windows in it! OMG! I was really disappointed! The room was warm and stuffy! So I decided to call my landlord and asked if I could possible look at other rooms with proper ventilation. He gladly showed my around the house and eventually, I moved to another room. Well, this new room is smaller than before but the consolation is that there are windows, not that it helped much!
When I began unpacking, the feeling of loneliness began to set in. Somehow tears just began to flow down my cheeks. I really miss my family a lot! Thank God for my mother who helped iron my shirts before I left. There was nothing in the house, not in even in the room! All I had in my room were 2 mattresses, a chair and a fan and of course lights. Boy! Was I surprised! It felt like some cheap budget hotels around town, like the ones you see in Hong Kon movie where people pick hookers up and do the job for the night, EXCEPT that this was a house close to my school, less than 3 minutes away! During this time, I was desperately looking for some comfort and companionship in the midst of my loneliness in Tenom. I texted my family, loved ones and even friends, just to get away from the feeling of being lonely…. No doubt my loved one and family were very encouraging. They kept feeding me with encouragements which I really needed at that time! THANK GOD FOR THEM! The night wasn’t that great, I unpacked a little bit, had my shower, ate and tried sleeping…. WHAT A SLEEPLESS night it would be!