Pulau Ketam - the people

Last Saturday (19/9/2009), I went with a group of photo enthusiasts to Pulau Ketam, off the coast of Klang to carry out a photo shoot. There were all in 27 of us, quite a big group and we were split up into three groups. This was my first time participating in a shoot like that.

My group started our photo-journey from the other end of the island , as opposed to the other two groups. Our end of the island was pretty quiet, and we walked for a little while before we could see anyone. Even then, we were hesitant to talk to them. Oh ya, we had a little “assignment”, that is, the theme of this photo-shoot was “People”.

My team-mates are more photographers than writers, so I guess they were a little shy when it came to talking to strangers spontaneously. But I’ve been doing that for some time now, so I had to do something before we “failed” this assignment.

I approached a man who was cleaning up the outside of his house, and just greeted him in Mandarin. I beckoned two of my team-mates over. Then we started talking to Mr. Pang, the owner of the place. We asked him pretty general questions about where he was from and all that. Soon, we warmed up to each other. He also didn’t mind us taking photos of him close up. After talking to him for a while, we thanked him for his kindness and moved on.

My team-mates soon got used to the idea of talking to random strangers. They had linguistic skills that I didn’t have which enabled us to carry out conversations that I couldn’t have done.

We talked to six or seven people along our journey, and they were all really friendly. One of them, Mrs. Lim, even invited us into her home and served us drinks. To us city people, that was really a big deal! She wanted to serves us some of her home-grown fruits, but they were not ripe yet. We were really grateful for her hospitality.

Over all, it was a wonderfully memorable experience. We were received warmly as we probably couldn’t have been in the city. There were no pretences, no hidden agendas, no end to serve. We were just having heart-to-heart dialogue.

The promise of a better life elsewhere has lured young people off the island. Some years back, the population of Pulau Ketam peaked at around 20,000 people. Today, only a third of that is left. Fishing, which is the main economic activity of this village, is becoming more difficult noawadays, what with pollution and environmental changes affecting the harvesting of fishes.

The people of Pulau Ketam consider their island backward, but I believe that material advancement is not the most important thing in life. It is that warm, honest heart-to-heart bonds among humans that matter the most. They may not have much, they can sleep easily at night (except when there are floods), and they don’t even close the doors when they sleep. That’s how much they trust each other.

I had an extremely fruitful trip that day; it left me with a deep impression.

Still more to come.

You can see my photo album, “Pulau Ketam – the people” at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=112651&id=606887744&l=a158eb33f6

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