(June 8): Sabah teacher Jesteni Salim's life was turned upside down when the ground shook last week.

The 5.9 magnitude earthquake that rocked Sabah last Friday forced the music and arts teacher of SMK Ranau in Sabah out of his home after it was declared unsafe by the authorities due to deep cracks in the building's supporting pillars.

He and his family now have to temporarily “squat” with his in-laws in nearby Kundasang – an arrangement he is not too happy about.

“My in-laws are happy to have us. They're glad their daughter is back home and their grandchildren are around,” Jesteni said.

But it is not home, said the 49 year-old.

“I can't do what I would normally do in my home,” he said.

Home for Jesteni was the four-storey teachers’ quarters that were rendered unsafe by Friday’s quake.

The epicentre of the quake was just 14km away from the town of Ranau and the tremor, the strongest to have hit the state which lies close to the Pacific quake and volcano zone known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, almost brought down the school's two teachers' quarters.

Several of the supporting pillars of the building in which Jesteni lived with his wife and three of his four children were so severely cracked that the Public Works Department immediately declared the two buildings unsafe.

The school authorities ordered all teachers living in the 24 units of the two blocks of flats to move out.

Life is also a squeeze now.

Jesteni had the luxury of three rooms in his flat, but now he has to make do with what his in-laws can spare, even though “my in-laws have a big house”, he said while sitting in the car park in front of his near-abandoned flat.

There are three other extended families already living there.

He was against the idea of renting a house as the rental cost of between RM600 and RM700 a month would bite deep into his budget.

As he watched his block lighted up in the evening light, the more structurally damaged adjacent block was in total darkness.

However, lights could be seen coming from a unit on the top floor.

Jesteni had returned to pack some much-needed belongings into his 4x4 wheeled drive vehicle and his daughter's car to be taken to his in-laws' house.

“Now it's still okay. It's just like a Raya visit. I'm sure things will change later,” said the avid sportsman who has a passion for paragliding.

Life was made complicated because the house he bought in a new housing estate developed by Syarikat Perumahan Negara Malaysia (SPNB) in Ranau in 2008 was still not completed.

“It was scheduled to be completed in 2010 but now it looks like the project is abandoned,” he said.

“It would have been great if the house had been completed. We would have moved out altogether.”

When school reopens in a week's time, Jestine and his wife, who teaches English in the same school, will have to commute daily between Kundasang and Ranau.

This will add to his troubles as it will increase his fuel bill. – The Malaysian Insider