By Olivia Miwil
KOTA KINABALU: For US Navy Captain Robert Reyes, it has been a joy to be around the enthusiastic community here.
"As far as the interactions with the children and the community at large, I think everybody has been welcoming and warm, and we could not have asked for better hosts for this project.
"I appreciate their enthusiasm because it gives that excitement to the rest of the engineers as they work on this project," the Pacific Partnership 2026 mission commander told the media after the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the renovation of Babagon Toki Primary School.
The Honolulu, Hawaii, native also said he had learned basic expressions including "selamat pagi" and "terima kasih", as well as the Islamic greeting "Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh".
"I am a student of language, so I look forward to picking up more," he said.
He said he hoped improvements made at the school under the PP26 community project, including a gazebo and observation deck, would inspire students to realise their potential.
"I think that every young mind has the potential to move mountains, to change the world.
"They just need the opportunity and they need the inspiration."
Reyes said the school project, set against Sabah's scenic surroundings, was intended to provide students with an opportunity to broaden their minds and aspire to greater things.
Over the past 25 days, US Navy Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5 and engineers from the Malaysian armed forces, the Republic of Korea Navy and the Australian army worked side-by-side to renovate the school's infrastructure.
They installed 344 square metres of new non-slip tiles in the outdoor assembly area, made interior electrical improvements, painted the exterior of four school buildings, and constructed a 2-by-2.5m observation deck and gazebo.
"The result you see here is what happens when four countries join in a focused effort to improve the daily lives of students and staff.
"Together, we've strengthened their ability to not only withstand the effects of natural disasters, but we've created an environment that will allow generations to come to not only broaden their horizons but explore their potential."
Reyes said the project, which will benefit 68 students at the school, had been an invaluable learning experience in crossing cultural and linguistic boundaries among personnel from the four nations.
"Speaking to the linguistic challenges, I think those challenges aside, the engineering project is one of a combined effort that shows engineering across nations is almost the same.
"They have their own language, so to speak. What they do not understand or comprehend with their own native languages, they do understand when it comes to the universal language of engineering.
"Because a hammer is a hammer, a nail is a nail, and I think those techniques are pretty much universal."
Pacific Partnership is the US Navy's largest annual multinational humanitarian and civic assistance mission in the Indo-Pacific.
For 20 years, it has brought together militaries, non-governmental organisations and civilian partners from across the region to prepare for crises related to landslides, flooding, earthquakes or tsunamis.
Present were US Embassy Chargé d'Affaires to Malaysia David Gamble and PP26 Exercise Director Colonel Ismail Mohamed.
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