We only need 90-minute drive to reach Tangkoko Nature Reserve from the airport of Manado. The road is in good condition but very winding once we leave Bitung town. Comparing with the Lore Lindu National Park (217,000 hectares), Tangkoko (8,700 hectares) is very small. But, it is very rich with bird species and it has…
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I spent the last night in Wuasa, the center of Napu area. At the Sendy Inn of Wuasa, I met Herve and Noelle, the couple birders. Herve, about 55, is a French medical doctor. He practices only three months in a year; the rest of the year he travels around the world with Noelle. It…
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Along the margin, I saw some paths entering the Park. At one entrance, I found a pile of planks. According to the farmers, the planks belonged to the merchants from the town. But, I believe they also involve in this illegal logging. It is not hard to find illegal logging activities in the Park; the…
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I managed to rent a motorbike from a villager and decided to explore the north area first. One kilometer from Watutau, I took a path off the road. Passing a coffee and cocoa plantation, I ended up at a wooden house. The owner was from South Sulawesi, the most populated area in Sulawesi Island. He…
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I arrived in Palu in the afternoon. Having checked in at the Santika Hotel, I looked for a rent motorbike, but no luck. It is much easier to rent a car than a motorbike outside Bali in Indonesia. Thus, I had to spend 450,000 rupiah on the car to drop me off at Napu Valley…
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Jerry, grade 1A teacher of Green School Bali, wrote: Today (Oct 5, 2012) grade 1A had a bake sale and “PopcornPalozza” and raised 1 million, 1 hundred and 99 thousand rupiah for the Dr. Ating Foundation. Two hundred thousand of it ,was for shirts, so a bit less in the total profit. It is not…
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The low rate of response from the contacted people by mail was very discouraging. The tone of the responses is similar: “We applaud the project but unfortunately we have no fund to support it.” I am aware that without support from a big organization, funding will be extremely difficult. Although I am an Indonesian, the…
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On the last day of the school year, the Principal announced the staff who will not return in the following year. This year I was one of them. Ben Macrory, the communication officer, announced it as the last event in the assembly. He had guessed the event would be poignant. Before I rose from my…
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Among hundreds of people we sent emails to, it was only Alicia Kennedy from the Jane Goodall Institute who responded very well. She is interested in helping us both personally and through the JGI, specifically the Roots & Shoots program. The R&S program is suited well for children and young people. She offered this program…
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Jerry Lloyd Jerry and I joined Green School at the same time three years ago. He and Lee Wood—already left—are the people I like most since the beginning. He is an excellent teacher, especially in reading and math teaching. His impressive skill is behavior management; no matter how difficult the children are, they will behave…
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Mairead Furlong During the Earth Day celebration at the school, grade one set up a table for our foundation. We sold tarsier T-shirts and asked for direct donations by putting a glass jar on the table. Although a lot of people attended the celebration, only a few stopped by our table, mainly for buying T-shirts….
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Owen Orion Husband-Meyer In the second to last week of the school year, Owen (grade 2B) and his mother Rebecca Husband came to the clinic. Parents, by themselves or with their children, visiting me was not unusual. They asked for consultation for not only their children, but for themselves, even for their guests and employees,…
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Jerry Lloyd, the grade 1 teacher, is the first and most ardent supporter of our project. He invited me to present our project to his students. They asked a lot of questions. One of the questions was very startling. “Are you going to leave us?” Kyan asked. I was tongue-tied looking at Jerry for help….
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Sven, Lena, and I tried hard to spend time on the project while we were busy with our main jobs. I drafted the concept, sent it to some friends, received their feedback, and revised the draft. In total, I made 10 major revisions and it took me about six months to finalize it. Sven and…
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It started with a question from Sven and Lena Gelin: “What did you want to do but you could not do because you do not have the resources?” My answer was to run a conservation project that preserves tropical rainforests and saves the wildlife living inside them. It was 2010, just a few weeks before…
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