Harry Potter and the Middle of Nowhere

I was recently looking through some old photos from one of my first trips to Borneo, a couple of years before I moved there full time, which has brought back a lot of memories. I had joined a Raleigh International expedition as project manager, leading groups of 30 or so young adults over a period of three months. 

The project I was leading with a colleague was to build a Kindergarten in a remote village in the centre of the Malaysian State of Sabah; mainly an area of subsistence farming communities. 

Although I have hundreds of photographs from this expedition, I had forgotten about this particular picture which was taken as we were waiting a couple of hours for some local transport to take us from the main road, where we had been deposited by buses from the local town an hour away, to the village, Paus, via some pretty rough terrain, through jungle and mountains. It being Borneo, it was thunderously hot and humid.

In the picture, one of the volunteers is reading a book... A Harry Potter book, in  fact... The Deathly Hallows to be precise.


In the weeks preceding this long wait by the side of a road miles from anywhere it had become obvious that many of the volunteers, all aged between 17 and 24, were not just Potter fans, but were waiting impatiently to read the final book in the series, which was to be released during the second month of the expedition. Some had even lamented that in the excitement of the trip they had completely forgotten the book was due to released at the same time and now regretted not asking their parents to buy it and post it the 7000 miles from UK to Borneo. One had even grumpily mentioned that had she thought about it properly she may not have come on this particular trip, a heat of the moment complaint I'm sure.

The picture that brought back memories

As the date of publication neared, more of the volunteers were getting worried. With another six or seven weeks of the expedition to go after the book had been released there was the real possibility that the entire planet could know how the Potter story ended before they did. A fate worse than death apparently. 

I perhaps didn't help by pointing out that I would be more concerned that someone may accidentally let slip part of the plot before they had a chance to read the book themselves. A fate worse than a fate worse than death!

Something had to be done. Clearly others reading the book before them could not be allowed. So a plan was formed. The weekend of the book release, sometime in August 2007 I vaguely recall, also coincided with one of the rare occasions that project managers managed to escape the group and head to the big town, Kota Kinabalu, mainly to find those odd things for the project that could not be picked up locally or during one of the regular re-supply trips. 

Knowing that I would be heading into town, where they knew there was a book shop, two of the group had pooled their meagre cash and scraped enough for two copies of Deathly Hallows. Why not just one? They looked at each other sheepishly and I understood they hadn't been able to decide who got to read it first.

They handed me the money...  I handed it back... and pointed out that as a new release it would be hardback only. They looked forlorn, left for a few minutes, then returned with enough for two hardbacks. I assume cash for  chocolate rations over the forthcoming few weeks had been seriously depleted.

So I agreed to get them the books on my trip into the big lights, which they were very happy about; so happy, in fact, they told the rest of the group... immediately. Suddenly five other people ran from the camp area, rummaged around their sleeping bags and returned with fistfuls of cash. 

Seven hardbacks? Seven? How about three? No, no... they said. We project managers had being drumming into them all expedition that they must act as a group, so they were going to read Potter VII... as a group.

And so the following weekend, when I should have been doing something much more important like trying to find replacement oil lamps or my first decent coffee in a month, I strolled into a book shop in Borneo and asked for eight copies of Deathly Hallows. Eight because, whilst I had fully intended to buy a copy myself on my return to the UK, by this point I was in so deep I might as well go with the flow.

That they had eight copies so soon after it was published amazes me. I may very well have wiped out their stock. The cashier looked both very pleased as I handed over hundreds of Malaysian ringgits and slightly confused why I might want eight copies.

And right next door there was a coffee shop. Well, a Starbucks, but an approximation of decent coffee is close enough after a month without.

So, three days later I sat in my hammock, strung leisurely in the corner of a wooden hall with no windows and numerous water buffalo looking on, miles from anywhere and, along with seven others, started reading Deathly Hallows. 

In the village of Paus, in the middle the Malaysian State of Sabah in Northern Borneo.

One photograph... a lot of memories.