So I made a very last minute decision to go back to Brunei because looking for references for my thesis has been a real struggle. And like putting salt to the wound, I feel like I was being mocked all this while because I was given the e-mail address of the PR correspondence at RTB yet I waited for weeks for his reply but did not get any. I went back to the person who gave me that e-mail address in the first place and turns out that PR Officer has actually acknowledged my e-mail. OK. If that is how it is going to flow then getting in touch through e-mailing is not the best move. So thank you, Air Asia for making my life easy. With only 15kg baggage allowance (the horror!) I went back to Brunei, with appointments and everything ready.
So yesterday I went to RTB to meet with the Public Relations Officer (PRO) who is the busiest man I’ve ever met. However, I am ever so thankful that he devoted a little of his time for me. We talked, exchanged life stories, found out that our families are linked somehow through his brother and my dad’s cousin and he told me to come back to RTB today. Mind you my house is in a different district and it takes about 40 minutes to about an hour to drive up to the capital which is in another district altogether but sure, this is a sacrifice I’ve decided to make from the beginning, so I’m waiting for word from him to tell me when the best time to meet with him is.
And there’s always that formality to begin with before ends meet. I still have to write a formal letter to the Acting Director (AD) so he’d know my presence in the compound and the reason why I’m there. It would be a good idea to meet with him too because the PRO told me yesterday how very corporate minded the AD is. My thesis’ heart throbs with the many possible topics I could use though I have to narrow them down painfully in the end but hey, research is what research is and that’s what I like so much about it. I was also told that there is a student from the University of Brunei Darussalam (UBD) who is writing a thesis about RTB and how it links to MIB so perhaps today when I meet with the PRO I could ask for this student’s contact details and we could work shoulder to shoulder with this bit here.
It is, however, not the best timing to be back in Brunei to meet with these people because this is the month of celebration and there are many public holidays so I’m scared that I might be stranded here for a while. I don’t want this to be a brief encounter with the people of RTB because I want to get as many information as I could. I read a thesis about RTB written by someone who studied in Cardiff in the 90s and upon checking the Bibliography and Appendix, turns out that person did what I’m doing now. The best way IS to meet up with these people at the RTB and talk with them personally.
I’ll keep the updates coming while I’m still here and meeting up with the RTB people. Hopefully, updates after this will look better and less vague than this one.
