“Hush, hush, hush,” Meidy was standing on the sand trying to drive away her ‘enemies’. But they were still swimming around her. “Ouch!” finally one of them managed to pinch one of her calves and it drove Meidy out of water. “Don’t feed them again!” she shout at me. I just smiled, said nothing. It…
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“Dr. Jane, you have worked so long on conservation. How could you still be hopeful?” I asked one of the most famous primatologists in the world. “My flame of hope is on and off. It is off when I hear the chainsaws roar every day in the forests of my project sites and I can…
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“Let’s go back to Window island,” I asked Asrin, my local friend and host, to drive his motor canoe to the tiny island across. I had explored the area around Tangkian, Asrin’s village, for the whole day to find a suitable beach or island for our project: cottages for tourists. There were seven white sand…
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Having had a short chat with the newly arrived local ecotourists from Jakarta, I continued walking to my room. Passing one cottage, I returned to them. “Please don’t buy the crab,” I said. “Please, please, let it live. It is rare, an endangered species.” They look at me with surprise, but said nothing. The tourist…
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When I started my health and conservation project in Sulawesi two years ago, I was optimistic with fundraising at Green School, Bali. I worked here and there were more 400 “green” people in the community; more than a half of the families are rich, at least 20 of them are millionaires or billionaires. The result…
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Jerry, the teacher of grade one, notices that most expatriate parents just drop rupiah coins in any place or container in their houses. The highest value is 1,000 ~ 10 cent dollar; the cheapest cake or drink at the school canteen is 50 cent. The next values are 500, 200, 100, and 50 rupiah; they…
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On leaving the restaurant, he handed me a folded bundle of rupiah banknotes–all 100s–“For you.” I was astounded. “I can’t take it,” I said. “Take it. For your foundation.” It took me another two seconds before taking it. Yes, I need money to run my project, actually to keep it alive after resigning from the…
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“I remember your face, but do not remember your name,” the nun told me. I forgave her; she is 74 and the last time we met 28 years ago. I had not remembered her name either a few minute before until her junior nun mentioned it. Bumping into someone I had not met for years—without…
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The new building, almost finished, would be the third largest building in Watutau; it has at least six rooms. I read the billboard in front of it: ‘The Office of Lore Lindu National Park’. Below is the budget: 650 million rupiah ($65,000). It is more than double of the fund I have raised for my…
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First, I read this: These [Togean] islands also support one of the last populations of the endangered coconut crab, a giant crab that spends most of its life on land. This crab has been wiped out throughout most of its range in Indonesia by human population. Almost 60% of the land area of the Togeans…
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If we can afford it, we normally want a comfortable, artistic house surrounded by a lovely large garden facing a scenic view, preferable the Nature. Although the people in the interiors of Papua, Togean Islands, and Lore Lindu can afford it—their customary lands are large enough and wood material is abundant for building such an…
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To be anxious about having not enough money to buy food and pay house rent in the next few months is normal to most of us. We are going to panic if the time is a few days ahead and will use money only for food. I do not see these situational anxiety and panic…
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Living in the community is the best way to know the community; I believe in this principle and, in the previous visit to Togean Islands, my contact Asrin had welcomed me to stay in his house in Tangkian Island. Tangkian is a tiny rocky island five kilometer from Kadidiri Island, the main destination of international…
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Wiah, my neighbor who was one of my visitors, called to the man in the motor canoe. The man pulled towards my house’s front deck and tied the canoe rope to one stilt of the house. “How much is the fish?” Wiah asked. “Ten for three,” he answered. Nothing were unusual with one dollar for…
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“If you want to stay, I can help you.” James Peacock had been very kind to me. This offer was the peak; I was leaving within two weeks. I knew it was not easy to get a residence permit for me, but Jim was willing to try. His chance was actually good because he was…
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The hierarchy in the hospitals, at least in Indonesia, is obvious. Senior specialists are at the top of the ladder, followed by junior specialists – residents – general practitioners – interns – paramedics and, at the bottom, nurse assistants. Fear is the dominant feeling toward the people with upper positions, which is understandable because the…
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“Police!” Jack slowed the car down. I saw the police car after we passed the bend about two minutes later. Jack’s radar was not on the front dashboard anymore. Speed limit did not exist in Indonesia, which I think it should have, because Indonesians drive much crazier than Americans and the roads in Indonesia were…
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“Too many. You have to take out irrelevant courses,” Mark Sobsey, my tutor professor, told me. I was disappointed but he was right. I was greedy, enrolled in so many courses that were not correlated with my major in Environmental Health. I took Spanish, medical anthropology, medical sociology, medical geography, medical ecology, general ecology, tropical…
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I always enjoyed the train trip in Java. Taking train for eight hours from Jakarta to Yogyakarta will show you the life of the majority of Indonesians living in Java. We can see the slum and high building complex side-by-side in Jakarta downtown; the paperboard houses along the rail; the dirty and slow rivers cutting…
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Try to recall your life events during your first three years, you will get either none or tiny fragments. Our memory records everything we see, hear, and feel in our life time, but it only allows us to recalls the event after 5-year old—not all of them with the same clarity; in fact, many are…
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