OFF-ROADING is not everyone’s cup of tea as it is always associated with rough, tough hazardous activity or even life-threatening
A recent trip to Kg Sonsogon Magandai, about 30km from Kota Marudu township, saw only-woman co-driver cum mechanic, Marliana John (35) among 10 other male drivers who teamed up to help with the CSR project for the community in seven villages in the area.
It was an enriched humanitarian project executed by Swepa (Sabah Women Entrepreneurs and Professionals Association) to the communities in the villages in Sonsogon Magandai.
The rose among the thorns, Marliana braved herself raiding the mud roads as high as the height of the vehicles, uneven road surfaces, deep potholes, and the like, saying it is part of life and an adventure no other places would provide the same “excitement”.
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Furthermore, they had reason to do all these “dangerous” activities, under humanitarian ground, they dutifully volunteered under collaboration with the NGOs providing necessities to the rural people who were deprived of many basic needs.
When no other means of transportation could reach out to this community deep inside the rural places, four-wheelers are most important group to help giving out humanitarian assistance.
Another common sight – children walking by themselves going back to their respective villages in Kg Sonsogon.
Patina with her two children and mother waiting for transportation to Kota Marudu hospital.
Asked if she was the only mechanic in her hometown in Kg Kionsom Baru, Tamparuli, she reluctantly agreed to the statement.
“Probably I was the only lady to know every bit and pieces of mechanical work in my hometown as I have not heard any others (women) doing this task. I kind of enjoy doing it,” she said.
Datin Jeannette Tambakau showing a vehicle after coming out of the Sonsogon excursion.
One of the drivers, Alex Tahing’s, vehicle was rammed.
The terrain to Sonsogon was challenging and several vehicles were nearly overturned.
She attributed her interest to her father, John Gusi who is a mechanic and owns a workshop.
She said she had been following her father repairing vehicles ever since in primary school till today and had been exposed to mansuch work.
“So, it is nothing new to me when it comes to repairing vehicles, fixing punctured tyres or even lifting heavy machinery or maintenance work.
“My burning energy comes from helping out in driving this 4by4 off-road,” she laughed.
Not denying the journey to Sonsogon was indescribably tough, she said to just ‘enjoy’ the journey as much as one can.
She had been behind the four-wheelers to off-roads in many interior places and participated in related events countless of times and defined each expedition different from one another.
She remembered an incident which almost took her life when she drove to Kg Gusi in Ranau with her co-driver, another lady, Nurul Abddullah a nurse, who was equally enthusiastic about off-road driving.
“We passed by the river with few feet depths halfway that we realised the brake was fading and did not function accordingly.
“Not to mention other hurdles which were equally risky and life-threatening as well.
“Hard to explain, but situations like that we cannot afford to be panicky, we just had to find ways to fix the problems in calmest situation no matter how crucial or difficult it may be,” said Marliana.
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Terms they used to define when comes to off-roads such as winching, recovery gear, on-board air compressor, mishap, roll-over, chainsaw, ground anchor among others are common words used by the 4x4 drivers, she said.
She said women, whether they have interest in repairing car or not, should have some knowledge on repairing vehicles.
“I am saying this so that we are not easily duped by irresponsible people out there when we want to get our own vehicles for repair, as this happens often especially to woman-drivers,” she said.
Mienol Jianol Mastom (31) of Kg Kappa, Tamparuli, an experienced 4x4 driver had been involved in off-road adventure for the past 10 years.
He was glad to be was chosen by his team leader Professor Dr Shahril Yusof to assist the Swepa in their social responsibility for the deprived communities.
He said first and foremost 4-wheelers should be calm and steady at any situation especially in the worst scenario they could imagine. This is to not further ‘frighten’ their already-stressed passengers.
“This is what I have experienced the past ten years, we need to professionally discharge our responsibility not only transporting our passengers to the destination, also we must ensure calm situation and their wellbeing although we know that there is ‘danger’ ahead of us.
No situation is that bad that can’t be solved, everything happened for a reason, so we might as well go through it in the calmest way, so that our passengers would feel the safeties and security albeit the traumatic situation,” said Mienol.
The three-day trip to Kg Sonsogon Magandai in Kota Marudu had further toughened up the drivers to many more excursions in the near future.
They faced more than ten times of winching vehicles, rollover moments, as a few vehicles experienced overturn when they were not able to fasten or grip in certain terrains. They eventually made it through with the help of other 4-wheelers.
Mienol said the topography in almost all the part to Sonsogon is indescribably challenging and only fit and modified four-wheel drives are able to go through that kind of situation.
“Only a short distant of road being maintained by the oil palm companies but further down to the interior the road has been in depressing sight,” said Mienol.
One of the critical moments was when Alex Tahing’s (one of the drivers) vehicle was accidentally rammed by another four-wheeler on its verge to safe it from being stuck in the feet-high muds.
Another vehicle was in bad shape when one of the wheels was torn off, and hadn’t it made an immediate stop, the said vehicle would have been plunged into the nearby ravine, said Mienol.
Professor Dr Shahril commended the undivided support by his team who had portrayed the unity among them in carrying out the somewhat described as the ‘most dangerous’ tasks, completed the three-day trip successfully.
He especially praised Mienol for being able to help ‘fix’ the most challenging situations together with other members in encountering their difficult moments.
On their way out from Kg Sonsogon Magandai, they met up with a family who were waiting since the morning for transportation to Kota Marudu as one of them was sick.
“We had no choice but to help these families that we met along the way as they might have waited since the morning but there wasn’t any vehicles passing by (except ours).
The fact that they were desperate to come out, it means there must be an urgent things they had to do in Kota Marudu (KM).
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So eventually we found out that one of them was suffering from a big boil on her backside that needed doctor’s attention,” said Mienol.
Patina Jubin in her early forties, together with her two children and her mother awaited transport going out to KM since early morning but to no avail.
When they met up with the 4x4 group who came out almost noon, only then they were able to get a lift to the town.
“We only brought some water (no food) as we were confident that one teacher from the school would come out to KM town, but he never appeared till we met up with the NGOs team,” said Patina who was suffering from big boil at the back of her body.
She was in agony but managed to answer some of the reporter’s questions. She was given some money to buy some food and water upon reaching KM.
Her two young children were offered with some biscuits as one of the children was asking for food while awaiting the 4x4 vehicles to be fixed.
Mienol said this is a common sight when entering interior, some families would be seen squatting by the roadside seemingly taking chances for any vehicles they could hop into to reach to the nearest town, KM. Most reason was to buy essential stuff, or to go to KM administrative office for some documentation issues, or to clinics or hospital for medical attention.
If there was no vehicle plying on the day then, they had no choice but to go back to their miles and miles away villages, he said.
Dr Shahril said their next UMS four-wheel drive group’s charity activity would be to Kg Gusi in Ranau (somewhere near Kg. Kaingaran) to erect houses for the identified underprivileged families.
He however said that materials for erecting the building such as cement, sand pebbles, zinc, plywood etc. would have to be brought in to the intended village in Ranau. It means that the heavyweight would further put their life at risk when crossing the rivers.
Describing the condition to Kg Gusi as different from Sonsogon, Shahril said the rivers were deep and rocky with other trials, equally life-threatening.
“The challenges are in different forms but all the same, we must tackle them in whatever ways.
“With my team sticking to each other, we can conquer what come may and empower each other with our spirit of oneness when faced with difficult situations.
“Everyone ultimately played their role for the same cause – for humanity,” he said.
An OCDN reporter braving a ‘fragile’ path.
Marliana, the only lady mechanic in the team, helped out in fixing vehicles.