My name is Surayati Soh.
I’m 19 years old.
I live in Kampung Terubing.
 
 
 
 
I live here with my family.
There's my uncle, father, mother, and siblings.
My mother asked my father to look for a land
for us to farm.
My whole family moved here to farm.
In the morning we travel to the plantations to tap rubber
Besides rubber tapping, we farm for additional income.
The money from rubber tapping is not enough to live on.
We have to save and be careful with our spending.
When it gets dark, it's very hard to cook,
to fold clothes,
to do housework.
We have to get everything done by 6 or 7 in the evening.
Once it's dark we can't do anything.
Especially when we're using knives, we may accidentally cut ourselves.
When we want to fetch water, we can't see.
The floor is made of wood and it's slippery.
We're afraid of falling and hurting ourselves.
We start lighting the palm kernel fire around 6 in the evening.
It gets very hot.
You won't feel as hot if you sit further,
but if its too far then we can't see.
It only lights a small area.
When the palm kernels are about to be extinguished, it explodes.
If it explodes and we happen to be sitting close,
we can get burnt.
The smoke makes us cough and sneeze.
Some people may feel dizzy.
If you're used to it, you can bear with it.
But it's dangerous for kids,
they have to stay away from the fire and smoke.
At night we will cook, wash the dishes.
Then the whole family will sit and talk together.
That's all we can do, nothing else.
When night falls and it's dark,
we can only sit until as long as the fire continues burning.
I do feel sad.
I can't accept why our lives
have been like this since the beginning until now.
Even if we want to use electric lights, we can't afford it.
 
We just use whatever we have. Sometimes we can't even afford candles.
So we just use these palm kernels.
Whatever my mother did, we followed.
I feel sad that I can't have electricity like everyone else.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
