Kalabia August September October

I've had a chance to be out in Raja Ampat aboard the Kalabia several times over the last couple months.  Each time I'm out, I fall more in love with the area, and I'm more impressed with the ability of the education team to overcome the limitations presented to them working in the villages here!  Here are just a few of my favourite random shots from the last couple months in the field in Raja Ampat... Enjoy!

Something Fishy...

I finally got a chance to get in the water with the Kalabia team on a day off during the Waisai Festival... We went to Waiwo, geared up, then went for a dive at Blue Magic.

I swear it has to be one of the fishiest dives in Raja Ampat!  No mantas this time (last time I was there we shared the site with 4 or 5 massive pelagic mantas!), but still a great dive!

There were some pretty big schools of fish...

 ... and others just hangin' out...

... and a black-tip reef shark and GT even zipped by as we prepared for our ascent!  Yay - there are a few sharks still avoiding the finners!

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... 

Coral Mining

The education trip aboard the Kalabia in September was inspiring and devastating at the same time...

When we took the kids of Kabare snorkeling, it was difficult for us to find an area of decent reef - an area that had not been ripped up.  Once we did find a spot, it was dominated by fragile, branching-type corals... not the massif corals that make up the foundation of healthy reefs, and also, as it turns out, good solid foundations for houses.

The scale of the coral mining was unprecedented... scary.  And even scarier was the AWARENESS and apathy.  Just a few hundred metres away from where we took the kids snorkeling were piles of coral ready for loading to bring to shore... When we asked the people that came in the boat to pick it up if they were aware of the impacts of coral mining, their answer lead us to believe that they were at least partially aware of how devastating it could be for the community if the reefs were completely ruined.  They said those were the last ones, and that the community had decided to stop the coral mining, but yet they continued.

In each of the villages we visited in North Waigeo, the streets were lined with piles of coral that had been pulled up from the reefs and were set to become roads, streets, foundations and walls...

In part I blame the Indonesian government poverty index which holds as one of their indicators the type of houses families live in - wooden houses are for the poor and cement houses are for the rich it says.  The ironic thing, in my opinion, is that from a safety and comfort standpoint, these houses aren't the best or most practical for the local element... Wooden homes are much cooler and allow for some air circulation in this over-heated environment.  I remember during the Jogja earthquake, going around afterward as part of the medical mission, and seeing entire communities of flattened brick and cement homes, with the only shelters left standing being that of the cattle, because they were made out of flexible bamboo which withstood the earthquake!?

Hopefully this new generation of Raja Ampat youth, with the influence of our program, will not only have a better understanding of the devastation coral mining causes, but also care enough about it to stop the practice!  This goes for all the issues facing conservation as far as I'm concerned... including the unsustainable development practices and lack of facilities I've blogged about before in these past blogs:

- Mayalibit Bay, Development, Transmigration and Kalabia

- Why Sigh? - The new capital of Waisai and its garbage problem

- Division - Transmigration slated for Papua

- Avatar - Similarities with the Papua situation

- Kaliyam & Wailebet - Forest Destruction, Turtle Consumption and Fish Bombers

- Transmigration Woes

Four-legged Snake?

A little blood n' guts for those of you getting ready for Hallowe'en in Canada!

Although the people here in Waigeo call this a 'legged snake' and told me it could be dangerous, I think it's probably a skink, and most likely fairly harmless... Nonetheless, they had chopped it up before I arrived on the scene.

I had never seen a critter with such teensy disproportionate paws!

Daun Bungkus

Daun bungkus (the wrapping leaf/leaf packaging) is a very popular plant in Papua... and probably well on its way to becoming extinct...

No, I'm not talking about the traditional banana-leaf wrap for foods like those below... 

...although it is certainly considered amongst the favourite gifts from the forest for the men here in Papua!

 

It is a 'traditional' Papuan treatment that has gained fame amongst men (and women as well apparently) in many areas of Indonesia for its use in enlarging the male sex organ and drive pre-coitus!?  Whether this popular belief holds any basis in fact, I doubt... but this is certainly not the only such treatment I have heard of in Asia (they are generally called "obat kuat" (strengthening medications)), and I might think that the tendency to believe in so many such 'remedies' is more a direct testament to the Asian man's lack of confidence in his unit!?

I'm just saying...

a spoof photo i found online when i did a search for "daun bungkus"! haha

I found only one other blog that talks about 'daun bungkus' - it can be found in Indonesian here.  The google-translated (and edited) text in English is below:

A lot of people are talking about Papuan efficacy leaf packs, especially men who want to have their penises bigger and stronger than before. Although until now there is no one study which states that the leaf sheaths can extend and strengthen the penis, but already many people who claimed to have proved his prowess.Papuan leaf packs has the effect of extreme itching to users in early use, but still leaves it as sought by the men believed to enlarge the male penis. Eventually the police found it necessary to intervene to curb this issue, so that eventually Papua Police issued a ban on the use of traditional herb leaf sheaths for the younger generation who want a career in the police force is felt because it can be very influential to the psychic and mental health of police candidates."We want the police and police recruits have a healthy physical and psychological as well as powerful, the use of leaf packs in our opinion it does not signify a person's confidence that doing things that are beyond reasonable," said Head of Public Relations Papua Police Comr Agus Riyanto. 

So far, of the many young people who use the leaf packs, several users have been suffering from infection and are seeking treatment to remove pus.  Based on these grounds it was also the Papua Police issued a strict prohibition of the use of leaf packs for the police and police recruits .According to Dr. Boyke the tradition enlargement of the vital tool by use of this wrapper leaf is quite dangerous and it is better to be removed from the Papuan people.Do you want your penis turned into a jumbo-size, but looking and feeling like it's been bee-stung with Papuan leaf pack use?

Root Fruit

Another unique bush find...  The kids are always so excited to show me new stuff when they see how interested I am!  Here is Safrika displaying a root with nodules that the local kids enjoy eating...

Not much actual flesh wrapped around those brown seeds, but it's a sweet, rooty taste that feels like a gift from Mother Earth.

Putri Malu - Shy Princess

Another fabulous forest find - this plant, Mimosa pudica, is sensitive to touch.  The reaction exhibited when something brushes up against it is known as a thigmonastic response, and can be seen in the venus fly trap plant as well.  In this plant the leaves fold in on themselves at the slightest irritation they sense.

undisturbed leaves

the same leaves after being touched

You've probably seen this plant at home - I think we know it commonly as "Touch-me-not"... Here it's called the shy princess (in India the shy virgin). You can see by its pretty pink pom-pom flower why it might be considered a princess.  But these plants also have thorns on their stems, and often kids in the villages have scars around their feet and ankles as a result of playing barefoot carelessly and getting into a tangle with these spines.

I came across a patch of it the other day and after spending countless minutes playing, decided it would make a good addition to my blog, so took some pics and video.

The team tells me that this plant is often use for medicinal purposes as well, and supports treatments for smooth birthing, asthma, insomnia and malaria.

Buah Bungkus

Another interesting gift from the forest... though not to be confused with Daun Bungkus!

It grows in small field-like open areas in the forest... these kids knew of a patch nearby and wanted to show me...

The berry casings hang like beautiful Chinese paper lanterns from the stems, and are as light and fragile... and beautiful!

The berries themselves are wrapped in a light sheath of fused leaves...

Which you tear open to get to the jewel inside.

Green when not yet ripe, although sour, these berries are still tasty.

The golden ripened berry is sweet and savoury... delicious!

In my search to find the true name of this plant, I found this site helpful.

It turns out this plant is part of the genus physalis, and is part of the nighshade family... related to tomatoes, eggplants, peppers... which explains the Indonesian name for this plant as 'terong hutan'  (forest eggplant).

Fruit of a Princess

Buah Putri literally translates as Princess Fruit....  and there's nothing in the jungles of Papua that can make you feel more like a forest nymph!

The fruits grow the length of the vine and they have a beautiful wrapping of a fuzzy fluffy nest of fine green filaments with pretty pink tips.

The fruit transforms into a golden nugget when ripe, and tastes like passion fruit, and the flowers appear to be fit only for royalty.

...And even better yet, its filamentous fibres lather up... Apparently the locals here used to bathe with it... I saved some to try, and although it wasn't quite as liberating as I'd imagine it would be bathing in cool river waters in the middle of the forest with a backdrop of birdsong, it still left me feeling fresh!

Bulana

It seems nobody has written about this tasty little fruit before... I don't know the English name, and when I searched for the Indonesian name I was told it is called bulana, even that was non-existent online... perhaps it is a local dialect.

The closest thing I found online was something called Duhat, which it could very well be, given the descriptions online.

Here is the tree (sorry, too far away for any kind of ID):

And the fruit:

Bulana are small, plum-like fruits that are about the size of a large olive... They're tasty - quite sweet, but with a sour edge.  But more than taste... bulana produces a unique textural feeling in the mouth as well which is hard to describe - it's like it sucks all the saliva from the mouth lining for a split second, producing a slightly numbing sensation, which is replaced by a sense that the entire tongue and inner mouth has been coated with a fine fur, and just as quickly, it's gone...  Although when ripe, you can eat them straight off the tree, I'm told that often the fruits don't get a chance to ripen on the branches - they're just too delicious slightly underripe with salt.  (This is also a common taste for eating under-ripe mangoes here as well).  On each occasion I've tried them, I've had a different sensation of taste... most recently I thought it tasted mildly akin to the nutmeg fruit I tried, with a hint of spice.... That was on Bunaken Island, where apprently they call them Anggur Bunaken (Bunaken Grapes)!

One thing to be careful of is the juice - it stains instantly; a purple splotch is a tel-tale sign that people have been eating bulana!

The website that I found referring to 'duhat' says another name for this fruit is the Java Plum, which makes me even more sure that we're talking about the same thing here... Syzgium cumini.  Actually... seeing the latin name makes me wonder if this is the fruit of cumin (if I remember the pit is approximately the right size and shape)... that would explain its 'spicey' taste, too...  and we are, afterall, only a hop-skip away from the "Spice Islands" of Maluku!

Gifts from the Forest Queen

Even though I now spend more time on the coast and in the ocean, and have in effect metamorphized into a sea pixie from my previous being as a forest nymph, I still enjoy any chance I get to romp around my 'old playground'...

... except my 'old playground' holds all kinds of new surprises. (which in itself is no surprise, since a forest is not just a forest, and the forsts of my formidible years are a far cry from the tropical forests in these parts... yet, i digress.)

This earth is an incredible mother - a host to us and so many millions of other species... for all of whom she provides.

In Waigeo Island, there seems no end to the special and secret treats afforded us by the forests.

There are bulana, root fruits, and mangoes...

And one mustn't forget my favourite, buah putri... the princess fruit.