We keep receiving visits and running sessions for schools from further and further afield — Brunei, Singapore, France, China, Bangladesh, Australia. That’s a good thing, and we’re grateful for it. But the local kids need this too, maybe more. Jong racing belongs to a wider Malay maritime world, and for a local child, learning to sail a jong isn’t just picking up a skill — it’s picking up a thread that runs back through their own history.
The dream would be to make this part of every Bintan child’s education — a real curriculum, not a session that only happens when funding allows. We’re a long way from that. For now, we run sessions of twenty kids whenever a sponsor makes one possible.
Our most recent session, made possible by The Residence Bintan, ran the afternoon before the Selatan race. Kids from the neighborhood and as far as Kawal gathered on the beach — some had sailed jongs since they were seven or eight, others had never touched one. We started with the basics: reading wind direction, learning to hold a jong steady into it. Then each pair of kids named their jong, and the racing began.
Assim, who would go on to take second place in the medium-jong race the following day, stopped to give tips to the youngest ones. Zaki, twelve years old and sailing since he was seven, helped translate the vocabulary of jong-building for the others. By the end, the kids had organized their own races without anyone asking them to. Nobody wanted to stop.
Learning by doing — and not wanting to put the boat down when the lesson’s over.
The full story of the youth program, in Michel’s words.
This year’s sessions, photo by photo.
The newest group of kids on the beach.
An earlier session — the program before it grew.
One afternoon on the beach, start to finish.
What all that learning looks like once the jongs are on the water.
Jong School
Planet Samudra