kampong life was not all bliss

lest the people who grew up living in modern housing estates have the notion that kampong life was always beautiful, let me help dispel this perception. although we oldies always hark back to the good old carefree days in the kampong, it does not mean that we all would like to embrace that kind of lifestyle all over again. kampong life was fraught with dangers and there were quite a number of drawbacks.

drawback number one was the state of hygiene which we had little control over - the sharing of latrines which used the bucket system. imagine twenty or more families sharing three latrines, that was what happened in our case. sometimes, especially in the morning, you had a queue waiting to use the place. and not everybody was accurate when it came to dropping the missiles. then there were the women who threw their bloodied pads into the same receptacle.

drawback number two was experienced by those living in low lying areas which were prone to flooding. now that we live in high-rise flats i do not have to worry each time the rain comes down in torrents. back in those days i used to worry about my siblings being caught in a flood or stranded somewhere because the path leading to our kampong home was covered by flood water.

drawback number three had to do with privacy. in our kampong houses, the walls were thin - just a plank - that they seemed to have ears. i can still recall an incident involving a eurasian couple who rented a corner house with a footpath by its side. one afternoon i saw a group of men showing special interest in the cracks between the planks. not long after i heard a shout coming from within the house and the men outside ran helter skelter in different directions.

tied to this loss of privacy was the fact that anything that happened in your house would be common knowledge to all your neighbours. for example, when you got whacked by your parent/s, everyone would know about it. sometimes, punishment was carried out in the open for all to see.

drawback number four was the creepy crawlies that made their appearances when you least expected them. i have mentioned this before in an earlier blog - when it rained, sometimes, centipedes would drop from the thatched roofs.

the dangers came from the influence exerted by the other kids in the kampong. as kampong kids we were acquainted and friends to all, regardless of their character. so we had gangsters, bullies, gamblers and, in later years, drug addicts in our midst. we did not shun them but we tried to mix with them less.

it was not difficult to pick up bad habits like smoking, gambling and fighting in that kind of environment.

i know one of my kampong kids who was detained indefinitely, under the pleasure of the president of the republic of singapore. a few others were jailed for taking drugs and/or drug trafficking.