Training wheels?

This little gal seemed oblivious to the fact that her wagon was a little worse for wear!?

Sate Ulat Sago

Sate is basically the Indonesian word for kebab... meat on a stick.  The most common is chicken sate, delicious with a peanut sauce... but you can also get fish and other types of sate, including this one:  Sate Ulat Sago - Sago Palm Larvae!  Yup... Maggots on a stick... Grub Kebabs!

Sate Ulat Sago

I had tried this before at the Danau Sentani Cultural Festival, since it is a traditional Papuan food specialty... But since it made an appearance at the Traditional Food Fair at the Raja Ampat Festival as well, I had to try it again!

And actually, it was different... I remember it being kind of sweet and almost carmelized the first time... Well, this version was very oily, and tasted kinda like cheese....   not so delicious.

Obviously, ii's reaction was not one of pure taste bliss !  haha!

 Well, I guess I missed Hallowe'en again, but at least this year I got a little taste of spooky food!  And it sounds like it's not just here in Papua, but insect-eating is becoming a trend in SF as well... and I remember back when I was planting we made blackfly pie in the bush one year... 

Dive Glasses

Kaca Molo, or Dive Glass, are the traditional masks for seeing in the ocean in Papua, and the rest of the Pacific islands for that matter.  They're literally coke-bottle bottoms artfully embedded in home-made wooden casings... gives a whole new meaning to what we usually think of as coke-bottle glasses, no!?!  And they're not as easy to use as these kids make them look!

I tried, and because you have to sort-of scrunch your eyes to keep them in place, it's hard to get a decent seal, and they leak like crazy!  Not to mention the strange sensation for us scuba mask wearers of having the nose exposed... there's another trick to it!  Anyway, everyone had a good laugh at the 'bule' trying out the local-style scuba gear...

Most Popular Toy in Raja Ampat

The simplest pleasures...

Every kid wants a toy with tires...

I guess when the bike dies, or oxidizes because of the salt-sea air, this is phase two!?

YosPan & Other Papuan Delights

In keeping with the Indonesian tendency to create 'singkatan*', Yospan is actually short for Yosim  Pancak.  Literally translated:  Drumming Dancing.  They really get right to the point when they name things around here.

Yospan is my favourite local custom… and of course, most people get a real kick out of it when I join in!  It's a little hard to describe, and much more fun than it sounds!  Basically, you grab a partner and form two lines... the 'leaders' do a series of 'steps' while constantly moving ahead and going in a big circle, and the rest of the participants copy the step... Honestly, it's much more fun than it sounds... and a pretty good workout, too!

This is one of the most fun Yospan's I've participated in...  put on for the Kalabia by participants in Warsambin village.



















And here also, a group of children performing a Yospan in Sawinggrai village.















Below is a video of my introduction to Yospan and Papuan music and people (including the late pak Leo on guitar) back in 2006!  It was a rather tight area, but what fun!  - OOPS... sorry, looks like the video isn't working.

I have discovered a new Papuan treat (yes, Bro, I know... "enough with the food already"!):  Sinoli!  I was asked to be a judge at a traditional food competition at the Raja Ampat Jambore in February, and was delighted at so many new tastes!  Sinoli was the winner, hands-down, for me!  A mixture of sago palm flour and coconut with just a little red palm sugar, it's the perfect replacement for GORP (Good 'Ole Raisins n Peanuts).  I know, all tree-planters out there are going... "as if there could ever be a replacement for GORP!"  (sorry no pictures.. I just got my camera back finally!!!)

* Singkatan - means the 'shortening-up'/abbreviating of numerous words; slightly different from an acronym where the first letter of each word is used to form a new word (ie. SCUBA - self-contained underwater breathing apparatus).  There are numerous examples of 'singkatan' in Indonesian... my favourite has to be:  Jumpa Berlian (Jumat Pagi Bersihkan Lingkungan Bersamaan)!

The Box




Here is another classic 'reused' toy: the box.

Like children all over the world, lots of kids in Raja Ampat get high mileage out of a box as a playmate. Unlike their counterparts in the 'developed' world that prefer to play with the box their expensive toys came in, these kids usually don't have the choice. But little Diti doesn't mind!

Tire Swings and Recycling



A universal toy... and such a practical, simple one (not to mention, the best use I can think of to re-use an old tire)! These tire swings have sure gotten a lot more mileage out of this tire than the odometer of the car would have read! Funny though, no cars on these islands!



I was talking with someone here about garbage the other day; The 5 R's: Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle... and the importance of the ORDER of them. It's interesting to be in a society where, for the majority of people, refusing or reducing is not an issue (because of their economic state, they live an almost completely non-consumerist lifestyle), and the concept of reusing exists purely out of necessity. The concept of recycling doesn't exist at all of course, because the facilities don't exist; and creating the infrastructure in an area like this would be a nightmare (in terms of being geographically feasible, and also given the climate of corruption that envelops the Indonesian government)!

Of course the major problem with the lack of recycling is the same as anywhere: in the amount of packaging! Packaging, and plastics and consumerism is in its raw beginnings even in these far outreaches of the planet... (urged on by industrial giants, media, and a very small affluent minority of the public that believes that their wealth can be affirmed by being big-time consumers)... but the facilities to deal with the impacts of all the waste that will be generated are nowhere in sight! (Why, why, must developing countries repeat the same mistakes made by all 'developed' countries!? A whole step in the cycle could be averted and save a lot of earth-ache.)

The charming, traditional, practical and natural banana-leaf bungkus (packaging) is going by the way-side and being replaced by colourful, expensive, NON-BIODEGRADABLE, turtle-and-whale-killing, sea-smotering, plastic. uuugh.

Pisang Keju
(Cheezy Banana)



The only thing to do outside the office in Sorong is hang out at the ‘Tembok’ waterfront area. Tembok literally means wall, and it is the break-water wall where several food/drink street cafes are setup in the evenings.

The official menu usually offers some tasty treats, and typical drinks. One of them is pisang keju (cheezy banana), which I tried for the first time the other day. The unofficial menu includes hard liquor (like Cap Tikus, or Arak, Indonesia’s famous moonshine). I was let in on this inside secret early on during our stay in Sorong: if the locals are facing the cafes/street, they are just hanging out… if they’re facing the sea, it signifies they’re doing some hard-core drinking!




And NO, we're not yet back in Indonesia... but we're on our way. Martin is finally back in Canada, and we just got back from a whirlwind tour: Toronto, Niagara Falls, Guelph, Madoc, Sherbrooke, Ottawa, and home again!

Happy Puppy



I don't know why or how this name stuck (I think it may have something to do with their unnaturally-happy zealous mascot), but it has turned into the biggest, hottest, most trusted name in Karaoke in Indonesia! This is a 'family' establishment. No sex, no drugs, no hostesses (ie. hookers). I guess sex and drugs don't go with the rock'n'roll in this joint! (As a side note: They don't serve booze, although you're not disallowed from bringing in your own!)






Indonesia is Karaoke-CRAZY! Karaoke is one of the main forms of Entertainment that Indonesians indulge in... and I feel ashamed (or proud!?) to say that we lived in Indonesia for two years and somehow avoided this activity... until the second-to-last night! Once our friends in Jogja discovered this sad (in their opinion) fact, they insisted that we have a karaoke session. Truth be told, it wasn't as much like torture as I thought it'd be, and I even rocked out to the Supremes, and Marc Antony (seriously, check out the ultra-embarrassing pic!)! We actually did karaoke in English, Indonesian, Mandarin, and Spanish! And everyone joined in, whether they could speak the language or not, and of course, whether they could SING or not! (yes, any longer than 2 hours listening to the slightly off-key singers and it WOULD classify as torture!)



Funny thing is, that since being back in Canada, I've heard about how popular the video game 'Rock Band' has become... to me, this seems like another example of one of the fundamental differences between Canadian and Indonesian cultures; in the West, we want our entertainment on demand, and in private (not to mention the video game addiction)... whereas in Indonesia, EVERYTHING is a communal gathering!

And talk about a creativity-killer! I mean, what if Beethoven had been sucked into a game where he just had to follow a colour-coded mime of a song, instead of thriving on the freedom to CREATE!? I actually played Rock Band one evening with Amy over in Campbellford, and even though I consider myself quite capable musically, there was still lots of room for improvement on my scores! Of course, that's not something I'll be working on... I would much rather GO PLAY OUTSIDE!

Congklat (chong-klat)

It sounds like the Indonesian word for Chocolate actually, but I'm not writing about food this time... Congklat is a very popular game in Indonesia, and in fact, all over Asia. Although it is also sometimes called Congkak, or Congklak, which means ‘cowrie shells’ (because those are used as playing pieces), it is thought that the name is derived from the ancient Malay word “congak”, which literally means “to count”… this makes complete sense given the nature of the game itself.

During our visit to Bema traditional village in Flores, Sigit and I came upon this lovely group of ladies sitting around chewing betelnut and playing congklat while shooting the breeze. Some of these are Sigit's pictures, some are mine.