Her journey began when she married Sidney Dickman, a Eurasian Shell executive in Colombo and within two weeks was in her way to Borneo in November 1964.
Sidney, who was a Dutch Burgher of Sri Lankan and European descent was more than happy to go but 20-year-old Barbara Gunasekaran was hardly prepared.
“Sidney loved the jungle and the wildlife and Borneo, but I was appalled. Two weeks after we had been married at the registry in Colombo I was on my way to Sandakan.”
“We had left the modern Colombo International airport and taken a connecting flight to Singapore and Sandakan. After the Fokker aircraft landed I found that the airport was little more than a cowshed and I wanted to cry,” mused Kindergarten teacher Barbara Dickman who later spent close to 50 years in Sarawak.
Better known as “Mrs D” to the scores of primary school students she taught at the Lodge School in Kuching in 1973, she later retired and returned to Sri Lanka 30 years later.
However, since then Mrs D has been returning to Kuching biennially and her most recent trip was in early December 2018 to celebrate her 75th Birthday with her students and Sarawakian friends.
Reminiscing, Barbara spoke on the epic journey to Sabah and then Sarawak a year after the formation of Malaysia.
“When Sidney was posted to Sandakan we lived at a small kampung in Karamunting. It was a difficult time for me as I was still a schoolgirl at heart and my husband was 18 years my senior.”
“Tragedy struck a year after we landed in Sabah—I lost my first child, three days after my son was born. After the heart-break I hated every minute I was in Sandakan,” she said.
A ray of sunshine came five years later when Sidney was posted to Kuching to be the Shell Manager in 1970. By then Barbara had a daughter Marlene and son Gerard, whom she brought back to Sri Lanka as she prepared for the second phase of her life in Sarawak.
Barbara continued: “In those days they only taught Bahasa Malaysia in the Kindergarten at Sandakan and I wanted to give my children an English education.”
“Back in Colombo I sat for kindergarten Montessori diploma course and prepared myself not knowing what I would find in Kuching.”
To her delight, she discovered that it was a quaint town with kind and friendly people who spoke English. In 1972 she taught at Modern Kindergarten where the medium of instruction was English.
Then she heard that the Lodge school was looking for a teacher and since she had Montessori diploma and was also a music teacher, she applied.
“The principal Mrs Ong Leng Kiat was very kind and took me in. All the teachers and staff of the Lodge school which was then situated at Jalan Taman Budaya , treated me like family.”
When the school was relocated to Tabuan Jaya and as it expanded, Mrs Dickman continued with her journey and saw it grow into the international institution it is today.
She added: “When I retired in 1999 it was the saddest day of my life. I had to leave the school where I had so many new members of my family — all the scores of children I had taught over the years.”
In Kuching she found a lifelong friend in the family of former Sarawak Cabinet Minister Datuk David Teng Lung Chi and his wife Ann.
“I taught all of their children and they became attached to me. Soon I was family to the Tengs and since then I have been returning to Kuching every two years.”
However, that was not the end of story. During her stay in Kuching Mrs D taught the daughter of this tribune writer and they were to cross paths five years later during the tragic 2004 Tsunami.
Barbara recalled that on December 26, 2004 she was at the home of Sarawak’s assistant minister Datuk David Teng Lung Chi when she heard on TV the news of the tragedy.
Even then the staunch Catholic teacher’s thoughts were on helping raise money for her countrymen and she knew she could rely on Sarawak’s charitable community.
The Tsunami had taken the lives of 35,000 people and leaving 900,000 homeless.
Three weeks later the journalist was invited to Colombo to write about the sad episode which was published in a newspaper in Kuching.
In the meantime, Barbara was busy doing social work, helping raise funds for the victims much of which came from Sarawak.
She said, “Special thanks to all the parents of my children at Lodge especially the Tengs, Alan Sim and Lau families who have helped in the cause.”
Sidney Dickman who moved to the Awisawell forest to be closer to nature, was bed-ridden after a bad fall while feeding wildlife a few years ago. He died peacefully three years later.
Mrs Dickman who is now a full-time charity worker, gets her moral support from her daughter who is now a Malaysian citizen working in Kuala Lumpur and her businessman son and his wife who is an Al-Jazeera journalist based in Sri Lanka.
