Crown-of-Thorns Cleanup!

Martin & I went diving on Sunday; but it was anything but the lay-back-and-relax, let-the-current-carry-you, scenic tour we're accustomed to here in the world of Bunaken diving... we were on a mission to rid the local reef of the insidious "Crown-of-Thorns" Starfish (COTS). Armed with nothing but bamboo tongs, we scoured the reef for several hours.

This colourful, spiky critter naturally occurs in tropical coral reefs, but is very invasive in the reef ecosystem... more so in many areas because their natural predator populations (especially the Napoleon (Humphead) Wrasse fish and a Triton seashell) are declining due to exploitation and over-fishing. Could a change in climate also be a contributing factor? I'm not sure, but I wouldn't rule it out entirely.

So what do they actually do to the reef? Well, they basically eat it alive. The COTS feed on coral polyps (you all know coral is 'animal' not mineral, or plant, as most people believe, am I right?). They use their suction-cup feet to manoeuvre their way over the reef, then they basically extrude their stomach outside their exoskeleton (body) to cover a section of coral. The stomach then releases its digestive enzymes and they go to work!

Even though they are causing damage to the reefs, I find reason to marvel at COTS. They are voracious predators... one individual can consume up to 6 square meters of living reef in a year!

Anyway, because these little devils are nocturnal feeders and tend to tuck themselves in holes and under the reef to stay out of the sunlight during the day, it was no mean feat collecting them up! The local guys here say that for every one that we found during the day there are surely 4 more that we could find if we hunted at night.

For various reasons we didn't. Although it wasn't the official reason given, I have a feeling that the danger factor was the deciding factor. The long spines contain poison, which inflicts great & long-lasting pain if you get pricked. A friend of one of the local men we dove with was 'bitten' (that was his terminology) and became violently ill for a couple of days (including nausea and vomiting). Just another minor marine terror that I find myself in close proximity with!

The haul.

The Indonesian Government takes action regarding Bird Flu???

Given the rising number of cases of Avian Flu virus in humans, and the fact that Indonesia has the highest number of deaths attributable to bird flu thus far, the Government has decided to change a few things…

I just read an article in the Jakarta Post claiming that the Indonesian Government intends to implement a law that will see residential chickens banned throughout the archipelago!? This in an effort to curb the spread of the disease.

Boy do they have their work cut out for them!!! This is a country where street poultry is rampant (I mean, I literally have to watch my step on the way to work for chicken $#!*). In a place where there is no more common scene than chickens in the backyard, front yard, rooftop, fencepost or street-corner, I have to question whether or not this will be an effective fix.

We are taking our own precautions, and although we haven’t cut chicken and eggs completely out of our diet, we are being careful about how we prepare them, and of course, we’re not petting chickens on the street.

Singapore!

I would never have imagined as I drank my first "Singapore Sling" at a bush party in Madoc that I'd one day be hanging out in it's birthplace, the Raffles Hotel. (The real thing is much better than the backwater teenage concoction, I must admit, although still slightly disgusting!) The hotel, a veritable landmark in Singapore, is swank; Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling both stayed there in their day... we're staying a couple of blocks away, in a place more within our budget!

Unfortunately we're not here on a pleasure cruise... we came so that Martin could have his hand repaired by a qualified surgeon.

Martin had a run-in with a window pane back in mid-January... but wait, it's mid-February you say! Yes, we went to Emergency at the public hospital in Manado... however the medical care there was LESS than adequate! At least, what I saw didn't inspire confidence -- the doctor opening Martin up farther to 'look around' for the tendon -- apparently their anatomy courses aren't comprehensive so they do their studies on live specimens! I had further proof that my hunch was right about the inferior repair of Martin's hand when, after 3 weeks, the tendon ruptured again!? At this point, we flew to Jakarta with our boss (who was just completing a site visit and review with us in Manado) to get checked out by a more capable doctor... Of course, we flew into Jakarta in the middle of the worst floods they have seen there in 5 years! -- the city was SOAKED ! ... BUT we were referred here, to Singapore, for surgery...

... and are VERY relieved. The surgeon was fantastic and did his best to repair the mess the Manado doctors made of Martin's wrist and hand... he thinks that Martin should recover full mobility and almost-normal sensation in a couple of months.



To the left... post-op... back of Martin's wrist, before he got sewn back up!






Of course, we're trying to make the best of our time here... Exploring the sights around this modern metropolis.... which doesn't even feel like it's part of Asia!? It's hard to believe they're neighbours with Indonesia... cuz these two countries are WORLDS apart!!! Anyway, we're enjoying the incredible variety of food, as well as our air-conditioned hotel room (complete with tv and hot water!!!) until tomorrow when we head back to Indonesia.

You can almost hear the grass growing…

The New Year also brought with it the beginning of the monsoon season. The ‘rainy’ (I fondly refer to it as ‘hurricaney’) season has brought more than just disasters to Indonesia…

It has a constant mouldy-humid stench on everything... because nothing ever COMPLETELY dries!

It has also increased the growth-rate of our lawn exponentially! We have been ‘letting it go’ for several reason… Aesthetically, I prefer the jungle theme we’ve created – it attracts all kinds of birds whose voices are much more pleasing to awaken to than the ambient street noise beyond; but more than this, there is part of me that is doing it out of defiance… we found out that the grass-cutting guy who cut our grass for us once more than quadrupled his charge, especially for us… (even after we invited him for lunch when he was done, and gave him ice tea while he worked – I’m pretty sure he doesn’t receive treatment like that anywhere else!) so we are refusing to give him any more business!

The neighbours may not be happy about it, but we wouldn’t know ... we don't know them... i think it's a medium-scale neighbourhood pretending to be upscale... so they're not into jungles, and most likely have a problem with the crazy white girls lawn… honestly, we've never even SEEN half the neighbours... they live behind TALL gates (which their ‘house-helpers’ open for them)... and they drive right up to their doorsteps, so the sun can only touch them for 1.4 seconds....



White = beautiful, you see!

You wouldn't believe all the whitening treatments, creams, scrubs, soaps, etc! (And although I haven’t seen them, Jonathan tells me that when he was here the big thing was the breast enlargement creams at all the checkouts (where you'd normally find the gum)!)

Tangkoko and its most-visited inhabitants, the Tarsiers!

Over the Christmas holidays Martin and I rented a motorcycle from a local ojek driver to get out of the city and see some of the rest of North Sulawesi.

One of our intended destinations was the Tangkoko-Dua Saudara Nature Reserve in Batu Putih, just on the other side of the northern arm of Sulawesi from Manado. "Intended?", you ask? Exactly. Oh, don't get me wrong, we made it there... eventually. Luckily life's about the journey, right!? There really are no such things as 'road maps' in Indonesia, so we didn't even bother trying to find one before setting out... we figured, hey, our Indonesian is beyond passable at this point... we'll find our way.

We had a breath-taking tour of the ENTIRE Northern tip of Sulawesi before finding a toppled over road sign (another rarity in Indonesia!) indicating a turnoff down a cow path to the tiny town we'd been in search of. The vistas were absolutely stunning, and although the roads were somewhat treacherous at points, we certainly found a few lovely out-of-the-way spots along the coast on our way to Batu Putih (translated: White Rock, and no, there wasn’t a single one!)

The jungles of the Tangkoko Reserve are home to a variety of flora and fauna, including Black Macaque Apes, Hornbills, and Maleo Birds, however its mascot species is the Tarsier Monkey.

The Spectral Tarsier, smaller than the size of my fist, is said to be the smallest monkey in the World! Its eyes (and satellitic ears, for that matter) are literally bigger than it’s stomach… and it can rotate its head almost 180 degrees in every-which direction! Needless to say, these little gremlins really impressed me. We trucked through the jungle at sunset (trusting that our guide would be able to find his way back in the dark!), to arrive at the ‘sleeping tree’ of a family of Tarsiers just as they would be waking and heading out to find ‘breakfast’. They are nocturnal animals, and live in family groups – they spend the night foraging for insects, but always return to the same tree at dawn to sleep the day away. About ten minutes after sunset the first set of eyes peered out at us from the hollow trunk of a giant fig, then another, then another (I counted 10 in total, including one tiny baby!)… the group spent a few minutes interacting (or posing for pics???) before leaping off in different directions in search of food. These miniature munchkins can leap about 2 meters in a single bound!

Another tiny inhabitant of the Tangkoko Reserve left its impression on me as well… the genones (chicken fleas?) left me scratching for days!!!

Survived another one!

You've probably all heard the news about the 7.3 earthquake here in Manado last night. Although it was scary and strong and looong, there is no major damage and very few injuries. We were at the gym -- I had just stepped off the treadmill, and when it first started, I wasn't sure if it was my legs that had turned to jello from running... then I realized, and got OUT of there!!! It lasted for almost a minute, but was a liquidy, side-to-side motion (not like the jolting and jerking in Jogja); the ground just seemed to turn to jello beneath our feet!

The craziness began with the panic which ensued when the news stations issued a tsunami warning! We also decided best to be on the safe side and went to a friend's house which is on the size of a mountain. We are ready for another, staying alert, but not getting caught up in the panic.

Just so you know, thankfully, we're ok.

Flight (Transportation) in Indonesia

With the latest rash of transportation failures in Indonesia (passenger plane crashes, ferry with 600 passengers capsizing, trains de-railing)… I am less-than-inspired to put my life in the hands of any of the budget airlines in operation in Indonesia.

I remember thinking that when we were on our first site visit to Papua and we boarded a dash 9… I saw several missing bolts, as well as track-lighting held down by duct-tape… it made me wonder what else they were using the magic silver stuff for… Although I’ve always been a big proponent of duct tape as useful for almost anything… in my opinion, that DOES NOT include mechanical repairs or bungee jumping! The picture above was Martin, BEFORE boarding, that particular flight (note the smile... it was not there upon landing!)

It’s no wonder, really, that Indonesia is plagued by air-carrier issues… when the airlines choose confidence-inspiring slogans like: Lion Air – We Fly Because We CAN; Adam Air – We’ll fly if we want to; and my favourite, Wings Air – Fly is Cheap….



…groan…

On top of this, it’s a well-known fact that the communications network in Indonesia has several gaps in the system during which planes disappear from radar and flight crew have no contact with ground (almost like the Bermuda triangle of Asia, but worse because a) it’s a kaleidoscope of geometric shapes, and b) it’s EXPLAINABLE!)

The Adam Air flight that mysteriously disappeared on January 1st hasn’t even been FOUND yet… And because the plane was destined for Manado, every day on the front page of the paper there is a new series of speculations as to what may have happened… the latest, today – a bomb! This is followed by a list of the shards of the plane that have been found, as well as personal items that have been recovered. No bodies yet, though.

Unfortunately, no. No new camera yet. Those photos were 'archived'... But I'm working on a solution. The problem is that the underwater housing for my camera was NOT stolen... but it will only house my specific camera, so I have to replace it with the same model. Of course, my model has been discontinued by Canon, and I can't find one HERE anywhere! I have found it on ebay, but none of the ebay sellers want to ship to Indonesia! What a rig-a-ma-roll!

The Peanut Vendor


I remember playing a song in our highschool jazz band called "The Peanut Vendor". It was one of my favorites... I had a funky sax solo. But I didn't know such a thing actually still exists!?! Only in Indonesia. They usually come out in the afternoons, around the same time as the corn-on-the-cob carts.

The Bajo -- Sea Gypsies



Just before the Christmas holidays we made our first trip to Nain Island. The people of Nain are of Bajo decent. The Bajo have always had a very close association with the sea... originally they lived a nomadic lifestyle on ships. Now, although they have settled into permanent, or semi-permanent communities, they still live on the water -- literally! The majority of their houses are built on stilts above the water. The Bajo people rely on the sea for their livelihoods; they have a close cultural and spiritual affinity with the sea and believe that the sea spirits have tremendous influence over their lives. The Bajo are often thought to exploit the sea’s bounty however they wish, causing a decline in marine resources, however, oftentimes, the Bajo employ much more sustainable fishing practices than other fishing communities found in Indonesian waters.

A good friend and work-mate of ours is a native of this tribe, so we were his guests for the visit to the island... and as such, we were welcomed with open arms, and treated like kings!


From an early age, kids are one with the water.



They live a simple, unhurried lifestyle. My favourite part of the 'bajo' day, was the afternoon nap... There can be nothing more relaxing than chilling in the shade of a bamboo stilt house in the afternoon sun... the reflections from the surrounding water dancing off the floor, walls and ceiling sooths you to sleep, while the cool breeze blowing from the sea keeps you fresh. aaaahhhh...


Apart from this, there seemed to be little escape from the sun, which seemed more potent in this setting.... So I had to purchase a new hat... It's actually a 'fisherman's hat', but I thought it was pretty and practical (oh, groan... mom, I'm definitely your daughter!), and for 50 cents, you can't go wrong!


We can't wait to return to this unique community next year!

Christmas Season in Manado

Being that Manado is a predominantly Christian city, Christmas is BIG here…

There are a few things that really struck me that are commonplace in Manado in this Festive Season; the Manadonese people seem to think these things are normal and ok… Kids playing with fire being the big one! Talk about an un-Merry Christmas /Accident waiting to happen! At any given time of day, there are children in the streets with fireworks - everything from fairly innocent sparklers (believe me they don’t look so innocent in the hands of a 2 year old!), to cheap fireworks (on sale in every street stand for Christmas), to home-made coke bottle bombs! The snap-crackle-pop, sizzle-simmer-bang, oohs-and-aaahhhs are a daily event beginning about the middle of December on through the New Year.

Another Christmas Commonality is food… and WAYYYY too much of it. Martin and I were invited to a workmate’s family home for Christmas lunch, which was a scrump-diliicious buffet of Manadonese food… they then invited us to continue on with them. Not knowing what this meant, and having no other prior-engagements, we agreed. It ended up being a culinary tour of ALL of their friends and families’ homes around the city! In Manadonese tradition, people make the rounds for Christmas…. Stopping by and eating and visiting, and eating, and drinking, and eating again… oh MY goodness… I was soooo over-stuffed when we got home, Martin had to roll me in the door sideways!!! Because you see, you can’t refuse… everyone insists that you try their spread… they are even more adamant when you’re a foreigner… they want you to try ALL their dishes, their specialties, their secret family recipe; main courses of beef, bat, fish, pork, dog, and chicken cooked in every style, some veggies, fruits, and all kinds of cookies, puddings and nibblies.

Manoeuvring around the street in town is a little trickier than normal… the city is PACKED! One day the headliner of the city newspaper read “Orang Gunung Turun Gunung” (Mountain People come down the Mountains)! The streets are also crazy with "Sinterpits", teen gangs dressed in santa costumes with black face paint on the hunt for 'naughty' children.

So… for the sad news… I’m afraid I can’t share any of the above with you in picture form, and alas, it will be a long time before I can upload new pics to my blog… my purse (and everything in it, including my camera!) was stolen from our house while we slept on the eve of Christmas eve day! Big Bummer... Could have been worse, I suppose.

Rambutan - The hairy fruit



All Indonesian fruit seems to be so wonderfully textured, inside and out! This is one of my favourites -- Rambutan. Rambut means hair in the Indonesian language... so you can see where they came up with the name!

Unlike Durian, which it shares a season with, Rambutan is delicious! It's actually very much like lychee; it's white flesh is sweet and wrapped around a large oval pit.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!


A post and a pic to say Happy Christmas and Merry New Year to you all from Martin and I! It's hard to be away from home for the holiday season; we're missing friends and family a LOT! I'm missing WINTER, too... But I'm hoping you'll have a ski, a toboggan and a snowball fight (and maybe even make a few snow angels) for me!

And a side note: we won't be having turkey for Christmas dinner (since it's super expensive if you can even FIND it... and then, we'd have no oven to cook it in anyway... an who would even want to bake in this heat!?!) So please have some turkey and stuffing and think of me too!

But, hey, there's always roasted bat... they come in packs of two for 20,000Rp at Hypermart!

Another trip to work:

After writing our initial short story, we were asked to put ourselves in the shoes of someone observing us along our way to work and write in the 2nd person. This is from the stance of one of the schoolgirls outside a school I pass daily if I am going to work at the Bintang Laut office:

Here comes the BULE again…. Wow, that hair is so beautiful….

Hey, I’ll run and get the other kids… let’s see if she smiles and gives us the same response as every day if we call out to her… Screw mathematics, this is bule-hassling time…. Besides, I’m sure our teacher won’t mind… she usually comes out and stared with the rest of us as the Bule passes by… “Hello MISTER!”

“Bule!” “Bule!”
“Hallo Bule!”
Maybe she can't hear me, better YELL just to make sure... "BULE!"

Where is she coming from…. Does she just come to our little neighbourhood to hang out… What do those Bintang Laut people actually DO? I want to hear her funny accent again… guess I’ll have a chance tomorrow. How can I get hair like that?

My trip to work...

As part of a creative writing workshop that made up one of the conference sessions we were asked to write a short story about our daily trip to work… I thought I would share mine with you… now that I’m finally back at making one (a daily trip, that is…)

My journey to work changes each day. Depending on the work location I may find myself from simply walking or taking public transport to participating in more of a triathlon…

To go to Bunaken Island for instance… Because of the limited public transportation options, we are forced to start the journey the day before we actually teach at the school. I pass through our local neighbourhood with it’s manicured churchyard and houses with high gates behind which a few people can be seen working in their gardens.

I ride the cramped blue bemo jostling through the busy streets of Manado city to arrive at the seaside market from where the public prahu (boat) to the island departs.

As I saddle down the darkened alleyway at high noon, it is a test to see how long I can hold my breath. The mingling scents of fish and rotting mango with the salty sea air are the perfume of this dockyard.

I descend the harrowing stone steps that have been all-but completely eroded by the tides, and hesitantly step onto the wooden gangplank. I tentatively put one foot in front of the other while gripping the prickly rope above my head for extra support.



I straddle the sacs of rice while trying not to crush an old woman’s already wilting water spinach, and I’m into the cool, shaded haven of the prahu… the boat is over-crowded with people, their children, and their fish. It is a slow, rolling trip through the wavy sea to Bunaken Island. But the trip isn’t over upon reaching the island of course, because this boat only goes as far as the village, and the Education Centre is on another beach. It is possible to walk, but it is at least 45 minutes fast hike, and usually the prahu pulls in to the village just before dusk; I’m not usually up for a night time bushwacking trip!

So, as the last leg of the journey, I hop onto a local ‘ktingting’ (a tiny narrow boat carved from a single tree trunk, with two bamboo wings out the sides for stability, and powered by a compressor motor with a propeller the size of my travelling alarm clock!). The brightly painted 3-seater is the perfect place to watch the sunset from; this is my favourite part of the trip to the Environmental Education Centre where I work.

Seeing the sense underlying the madness!

We are slowly learning that the apparent chaos that is Indonesian society and everyday life, in fact has a very efficient system.

Take the vendors, for example. Until now, we have just felt like the streets, and our neighbourhood, are crawling with random people, carts, vehicles, etc, selling their wares. This cloud of noise and motion was completely separate and apart from our existence… other than the fact that they begin to wake us up at about 5 every morning (and there is no snooze button)! The only one among them that seemed to be consistent was the icecream man – usually on bicycle, and always playing the same jingle over and over and over! In fact, they all have a unique noise or call which indicates what they have to offer. A selection of the regulars include: The veggie man who uses what I think of as a circus horn (you know, black rubber bulb, shiny silver bell) mounted on the helm of his scooter, which he sounds on an even beat for the length of the street; The bakso boy (bakso is noodle ‘meat’ball soup) who pushes a cart and gives a little tink-tink against one of his bowls with a metal spoon; The rujak man (and this can sometimes be a woman, selling an interesting version of ‘fruit salad’, which is usually sweet and sour, and topped with LOTS of red sugar) who has a higher-pitched metal-on-glass-tink; and The trusty fish lady who simply yells “Ikan (read, EEEEEK-AAANNN)”, but whose presence is usually foretold by the scent which wafts ahead of her (or the flies???) as she saunters down the street.

The bakso boy's cart.

This, combined with the church-bells next door, a far-off mosque’s chants, the twittering of birds in our mile-high-grass lawn (much to the chagrin of the neighbours), and the incessant hummm of motor-scooters, is the orchestra of our neighbourhood.

Indonesian Money

The likeness of Indonesian paper money is striking in its resemblance to Canadian bills, and Monopoly money. The bright colours make it a pleasant experience to open my wallet and find a rainbow inside (if I've been to an ATM recently, that is). And the designs include important Indonesian figures and culturally significant locales around the country.

Indonesian currency is the Rupiah (Rp). I don't really know which is my favourite denomination... Depends on the situation, I guess. When I am riding a bus, it's the 1 000 (seribu) note, because unless I pay with it, the driver will surely not have change!

I like the funky pinkness of the sepuluh ribu rupiah(10,000) note, but one has to be extra careful not to confuse it with the seratus ribu rupiah (100,000) note which is a barely-distinguishable shade darker red.



Sepuluh ribu rupiah

With a value of just under a dollar, the 10,000Rp note it's quite handy. 10,000Rp can buy you:

- 2 loaves of bread
- 10 mangoes
- A complete dinner at a warung, or 2 at a kakilima (street vendor)
- 2 iced cappuccinos
- 41/2 rides on the "Malalayang" bus to my work, or to anywhere in the city
- 2 hours at a 'regular' internet cafe or 1 hour at the super-duper-highspeed
internet ZONE on the fourth floor of the Mega Mall

Necessary Instructions!?

This is just a quick post to share something that I found hilarious... I wonder what the other folks in the washroom thought I was doing as I laughed my head off in my stall!?!



The picture above was the sign above a "western" toilet in a pretty swank washroom (as far as washrooms go in Indonesia)... You wouldn't think that it needs instruction/explanation... but when this is your normal toilet.... maybe you can see the connection.

NEW PICS!!!

HI ALL! I can't figure out how to upload video clips... sorry to disappoint... but I have posted a few pics to the online photo gallery: Check them out!

Hope all's well at home!

Poisonous Sea Urchins: A Nasty Encounter



I wandered down to the docks after a celebration in another island community. All the children from the entire village were gathered there, swimming and playing in the super-clear water. Of course, I couldn't help but jump in and join them... After getting over their initial shyness of this strange new creature, the kids swarmed me. We played a bit in the water, but when I went to get out, the fun was over. In order to climb back up to the dock, I chose the wrong footing on the wooden uprights... I didn't know what, but SOMETHING pierced my leg... OUCH! When I got out of the water (by way of a different route), I had the venemous black tips of 10 or more sea urchin spines in my shin! YIKES! I've heard stories about people that've been stuck by this particular variety of sea urchin and they're never very nice... as a result I'm always super careful not to touch or even go near them... uuuggghhh....

Well, everyone seemed to have a different take on the best method to 'cure' me, but I decided to go with the advice of the elder who was actually from the village... he didn't have any teeth, but he was still going (at age 70+!)... seems like a reliable source of local knowledge. So, he whisked me off to a nearby hut and ordered some hot water... meanwhile he pounded the embedded spines with a blunt piece of bamboo... o.k....? He explained that if you splinter the tips into bits, then apply a VERY hot compress, supposedly the poison comes out on its own and the shards are dissolved and absorbed by the body... o.k...? I was somewhat skeptical of this magic, but ok... what choice did I have? What do you know... within moments the pain had subsided, over a few hours some of the black spots began to disappear, and less than a day later, there is no sign that I had ever been through the trauma!~