“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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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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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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I saw my dog Goi sitting in front of the Supreme Judge of Afterlife. Goi was rewarded for his good karma (guarding my house well and greeting me always when I was coming home): reincarnation as a top predator of the food pyramid in his next life. He could choose between a transmigrant (a human…
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Lore Lindu is not only on the map of the important bird areas (IBAs) of the birders, but of the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) as well. Schistosomiasis is widespread in Africa, Asia, and South America, but in Indonesia it is only restricted to Lore Lindu, Central Sulawesi. As a medical researcher, this phenomenon is very…
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