Out of the Blue!

Sorry... I just realized that last post was rather out of the blue for most of you!  And then I forgot to POST this post - hahaha!  So here it is almost a month later - more on the last month to come!

A quick update:

I spent until mid-March in the Galapagos with Martin, enjoying the enchanted islands, trying to figure out the best ways to run our little dive business, luxuriating in the sun sand surf and sharks and sealions, and being frustrated over both our visa issues!

Enjoying the sea breeze on Isabella Island

Curious baby sealion allowed out to play for the 1st time!

Mid-March I arrived back in Indonesia, with a teeny stopover in Florida to see my parents in their fabulous new digs and enjoy a special belated birthday dinner and some delicious strawberry shortcake together!

Best birthday dinner ever!

yummmy!

I specifically came back to Indonesia to support the filming of our education program by a Swiss TV documentary - it was a great success, and I can't wait to see the program!  They agreed that it is probably the most important program for conservation of this phenomenally biodiverse area, and we all think this film will do wonders for funding the future of the program... fingers crossed!  I have also had a great deal of opportunity to work with the Kalabia and do some more training with the education team since being back.

Students gather outdoors with Kalabia at the end of the jetty

Then, and as a result of that week of filming, I had the incredible opportunity to be aboard the MV Pindito for her first ever Whale-Macro Journey, which was informational, inspirational, fun, and all-round absolutely fabulous!

Sunset over Pindito

Transmigration Woes

A related story, both to the Wasior disaster I wrote about yesterday, and also to the general degradation and destruction of  the natural environment:  transmigration.

The Indonesian government has been employing transmigration plans to decrease pressure on highly-populated areas of Indonesia (such as Java and Bali)  by spreading people around the archipelago, specifically targeting areas like Papua.  There are many theories as to all the reasons for this… including cultural and religious dilution, increasing the speed of development (read resource exploitation - there is actually a new government mandate for the ‘increased speed of development of papua’!?).  Anyway, I don’t want to debate the reasons here, but instead speak a little bit about the effects of transmigration, aside from religious, cultural and social issues, but focussing specifically on the environment.

Firstly, we have the blatent, first-hand destruction of natural systems and conversion of land to clear land for the newcomers.  Some have suggested that these transmigration plans are no more than fronts for logging operations which would otherwise be unpalatable.  Regardless, the forest destruction and fragmentation is unavoidable... and worse, as the manner of undertaking these projects in these areas is uncontrolled (poor, if not non-existent, drainage systems, minimal impact plans, buffer zones and watercourse deference), the destruction of the watershed, and thus also the coastal ecosystems, inevitably follows.

Secondly, the inherent pressures associated with the additional populations on the natural environment.  This is another no-brainer:  more mouths mean a greater need for food, thus more fishing pressure and more land conversion for agriculture... all with the same effects as above (especially because of the lack of government control on these processes)!  This is compacted of course, by the already-increased fishing pressures that exist in Raja Ampat, by foreign fishers coming from areas whose oceans have already been depleted of fish stocks sufficient to sustain the populations in their own areas.

Third, the constant and detrimental decrease in general stewardship of (caring about/for) the environment, as a result of a new population with no direct feeling of responsibility or ownership over the local natural environment.  Especially in the Indonesian cultural context, where, regardless of where you live, or even where you were born, your ‘home’ is associated with your tribe of origin.  Although the people native to Raja Ampat currently live extremely closely in an inter-dependence with nature (it would be complete harmony, if not for the outside influences), it can be predicted that the transmigrants will not do so, and will dedicate themselves to other forms of business.  So generationally, and especially with population dilution that will result due to intermarriages inevitable with the new populations, the degree of 'caring for the environment' will decline steadily, resulting in a population with no direct link to the environment with which they are surrounded.

Is this starting to seem like a familiar story?  Oh, I forgot to mention that this is all occurring with little to no consultation with the peoples who have inhabited these lands and waters since the beginning?

Perhaps I have become too pessimistic... or perhaps it takes this long to have your eyes opened... and once they're opened, it's like someone stuck toothpicks between your lids and now you can't stop seeing it all over the place!?

Stink Meals

While in Sorong this time, I am staying at the "Je Meridien" Hotel (it’s actually a bit out of the way, across from the airport, several kilometers from the city centre). I don’t mind that it is a commute to the office and other areas of town, because it is clean, and quiet, and comfy (probably because it's still new)!



One thing that tickled my funny bone when I checked into my room and was reading the general rules of the hotel, was number 9 on the list: Please do not carry or consume the stink meals!!!! They are referring specifically to the Durian fruit (which really does have an offensive odour, and for me, taste too!), but I got a kick out of the translation!



(Sorry about the picture quality... my camera is having focusing issues in all-but perfect outdoor conditions)

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!

SAGO

... since I'm still chillaxin' in B.C., I thought I would finish off a few blogs that I had started over the past year from Indonesia...


SAGO

Sago, or Sagu, is the staple food in the Indonesian province of West Papua (or at least, it used to be). Growing especially in coastal areas, sago palm trees (metroxylon sagu) are not planted by island or coastal residents, but simply harvested from the jungle. Rice is coming to replace sago in most of the coastal areas I've visited, although it is not grown in the area and has to be imported.




One Sago Palm yields enough sago starch to feed a family for weeks or even months.

There's no word for it in English... and there's no way to fully describe it, either.

Sago can be 'processed' and cooked in several ways... usually the tree is harvested and brought to the seaside for processing to extract the starch. The trunk of this palm has thorns, so usually the outer bark is removed (cafefully!) after felling the tree, and before it is brought to the shore. The inner core (or pith) of the tree is then chipped out to yield the high-starch raw material for processing. (This image is from Wikipedia... amazingly, I can't find a single one of my own in all my pictures!)



Update:  See this blog, which contains a little about our attempt to help in the processing of Sago on Biak Island, or this one, which delineates the entire process from a visit to Sarmi!

Sago flour is the most common result of processing, and this is what is then used in food preparation. I don't think it has much nutritional value – seems like your basic tummy-filling carbohydrate.

So far, I have eaten sago as 'papeda' (served with a yummy fish curry) and 'bagea', as explained in this previous blog.  The traditional ceremonial feast called "Bakar Batu"(literally, roasted rocks) often includes Sago as well.

As with most things on these islands, every part of everything is used, and so the Sago Palm leaves are also used in many villages to build rooves for huts.

Buah Merah
(Red Fruit)



It's red, and it's a fruit... they hit this one BANG ON!

Maybe you remember the post I did a while back on Ants' Nests?

Well, this remedy is even more celebrated... everyone in Papua has a buah merah story... I've heard about some pretty miraculous cures that I'm not quite ready to pass off as fiction.

Buah Merah is heralded as THE ultimate natural medicine, curing everything from cancer, to paralysis, to diabetes, to aids!? Can we please get some samples of this into the lab to study!?!?! I couldn't find any official data, but several sites claim to have information that buah merah contains all kinds of antioxidants, multivitamins, minerals and antiviral compounds, to which it attributes its ability to defeat many different diseases.

So I went in search of this miracle cure... thinking I really can't go wrong! And hoping to check for a slightly processed version (meaning, well-packaged) that would make it through customs and border security. Turns out it's not that hard to find in Sorong, nor is it very expensive... I walked into the market, asked, and was directed to an area full of ants' nests and red fruits!



Good luck getting that across the boarder!

Latin name: Pandanus Conoideus Lam.
Geographic Distribution: Endemic to the Papuan central mountains; 2000-3000 m alt.
Uses: food, traditional medicine for cancer, cholesterol, rheumatics, diabetes, hypertension, lung spots, hepatitis, coronary problems including stroke, vision care (including prevention of blindness!), immune system problems, intestinal worms, skin disease, low-metabolism, to osteoporosis and HIV Aids.

Traditionally, as a food, it is cooked using a process called a 'Bakar Batu' ceremony. As a medicine, the liquid-gold oil is extracted from the 'skin' of the fruit and consumed alone or as a tea.



I will be starting my buah merah regimen immediately (apparently one teaspoon is enough for eternal life (or something like that, I didn't read the fine print). And luckily, buah merah oil is sold in sealed containers, so I will be able bring it home without being detained at the border for questioning!

FLOOOOD!

I'm not talking about anything on the scale of the New Orleans flood, or the Jakarta 2002 floods where hundreds of thousands were displaced from their homes; there was no heart-wrenching footage of entire families taking refuge on a make-shift raft as their roof gets swallowed by water... but last week our staff house flooded!

This is the first time we've had flood issues since being in Indonesia, but according to friends it had to happen sooner or later (most have experienced floods, and some on several occasion)! "Everyone has to have an Indonesian flood story to take home", consoled Cecilia!

In fact, the situation wasn't THAT dire... it was just the series of factors that came together: high tide ("so", in terminology I adored, a coworker said "the sea was full"), major garbage problem in Sorong (ie. blocking the gutters and sewers, and more devastatingly their outlets to the sea), heavy rainfall (duh!?), and a low-ish lying property. But the worst that happened for us was that a few things got a little wet... but they probably needed a good washing anyway (luckily nothing electronic)!

Of course, then yesterday it *almost* happened again... when I realized it had been raining on a torrential scale for quite some time, I rushed home to 'guard' against the floods (how does one do that exactly!?)... when I arrived the water was already surrounding the house in a dirty brown moat, and not a speck of the patio was showing, but it hadn't quite reached the doorways. After raising everything up off the floor and out of harm's way (including the clothes which were not quite dry from the thorough wash they got after the last event!), I spent two hours running from the front to the back doors, checking on the 'current situation' and readying 'dykes' at the doorways - haha!

The rain slowed, and we were safe... this time. Let's hope this isn't us in the future!

Baggage Carts

One of the many amusing things about flying into Sorong...