I’m Donny Sirait
Born in Law King Hoe Hospital at Sibu Sarawak, Malaysia in the mid 50’s. My baby days were spent in Bawang Assan a small village on the bank of river ????? (anybody can help me here?). Regarding Bawang Assan, actually my given name is Donny Assan Sirait (Assan is taken from Bawan Assan) but due to poor administration records back in Indonesia in the 70’s my official become only Donny Sirait without the Assan as the middle name.
The reason for this Indonesian Batak to be born there in Sarawak is because in the 50’s and 60’s my late Father Rev. Philemon Sirait was assigned as a Methodist missionary among the Ibans, and I remember how they used to call my father as pengajar or teacher in the Iban language. Actually there are 3 batak families serving as missionaries there, the other 2 is the late Rev. Jaleb Manurung (my mother’s brother) and the late Rev. Lucius Simamora.
Our Family and my uncle’s family returned back to Indonesia (Sumatra) in the late 60’s after completing the assignment, but the Simamoras stayed there and eventually become Malaysian citizens. However one of my cousin (the daugther of the late Rev. J. Manurung) DR. Rita Manurung stays when we returned since she was determined to finished her studies there.
My Boyhood days were spent at Binatang (now Bintangor) a small town at the Rejang river bank and I got my first education at the Binatang Town School and I’m among the first student of the newly opened school. I still recall of the days when we have class below the government office when It just started. Later we moved to a wooden building, away from the government building. Then on the 4th year we moved to a repesentative newly build 2 floor building on the side of the road to the District Officer’s house (now the road to Sarikei).
Unfortunately I cannot recall of my former classmate names and missed contact with them when our family returned to Indonesia. However I have nice times there in school, I can still picture out how my former headmaster looks like and I still remember one of my school teacher rides a bicycle to school and she stays at the other side of the Rejang river. I still remember we have reading lessons and we use Dewan English reader as our reading book.
When the new teacher’s collage was build and operated (further down the road to Sarikei) we even have some of the lecturer came to our school and give us lessons. I remember there was a Kiwi (New Zealander) teacher who offered me a lift from the school, and that is the first time in my life I ride on a Mercedes Benz.
During my early years in Primary school we stay in a wooden house near the town center but then when our school moved to the new building we were also given a new missionary home very near to the school, so I just walked to school. That Missionary complex is located near the dispensary and not so far away from the hill where the water reservoir is located. We have numbers of orange trees there and when the orange season comes we did enjoy the sweet orange (I learned that now Bintangor is famous for it’s orange).
I was sad when after 20 years later I return and found out that the house I stayed before was poorly maintained, and probably now it is no more there.
I have a Korean neighbour The Kim’s also a missionary from South Korea. No wonder I spend a lot of my time there playing with their son Byong Chul Kim. However again I lost contact with them after we returned to Indonesia.
After more than 20 years later I did make a nostalgic journey back to Sarawak, and found out that there are still a lot of our friends (my family’s friend) still remember’s me and my parents. I am privilaged to met Pengulu (chief) Jimbai in Sarikei and also his daugther and son in Law and his son in law brings me to meet George Jimbai (another pengulu Jimbai’s son) who formerly stays at our house when he is in his secondary school. I also met Lemok one of my mother’s friend and her son Saga who is working for RTM. Also I met a very special Jerry Rabu who was the President of the Iban Methodist Annual conference, he spoke highly of my late parents as his teacher. Well as a matter of fact my father spends most of his time there among the ibans teaching them nearly everything. It is also the reason why I am not very close to my late father since I seldom meet him at home. He had a boat driver who took care of the long boat and the 40HP machine and take my father to the long houses where the ibans stayed.
Occasionally during school holidays our family went to Sibu and visit my uncle who stays at Lanang road but again the former house was not there anymore which was replaced now with shop houses. It was actually a nice house and we can get to the house either by road (infront) or by the river (behind the house).
One interesting fact is while there are so many rivers there in Sarawak, I did not know how to swim until we returned to Indonesia (Sumatra) where there are much less river.
During my nostalgic trip I thought of Sarawak as a very nice place for a ham radio operator and could be a nice place to live where you still have lot’s of space. Well I know Bintangor (formerly Binatang) now is very much different from the days I remembered but still you can find lot’s of space and fresh air. Hopefully they still keep the forest growing.
Here in Indonesia I study Economics and majoring in accounting, but never work in my field of accountancy instead all of my professional career was spent on marketing, 15 years in the marketing of pharmaceuticals (Knoll Ag) later in EAS system, insurance and now in mining.
Through my ham radio hobby and my job assignments I have the privilage to visit friends abroad and stayed at their homes.
Now after experiencing those years I become just a simple guy, a Ham radio operator who love to work DX, participate in Amateur radio contests, travel and eat good food.
I have been in several IOTA expeditions and enjoy the thrill of being on the other edge of the pile up.
Through ham radio I made live long friends, invited and visited other ham radio stations and also stay at their homes.
If you are connected to some of the stories above, I’ll be happy to get in contact with you and Ibe can reached through yb6ld dot don at gmail dot com or if you prefer to use snail mail you can send it to P.O. Box 1206 Medan 20001 Indonesia
vy 73 de YB6LD
Donny Sirait
