So I’ve been out of the jungle for a bit, earlier than I had originally thought but that just goes to show that nothing can be planned here. Like infected mosquito bites. Not pretty, I’m talking about craters on my legs. Lesson learned: never, ever scratch or begin to touch mosquito bites or anything itchy. Oops just broke my promise right now, I had an itch on my leg.
I feel like it is always just the beginning. Always something new to experience. Whether the first time sweating the most in your life outside of a sauna or having flies on your legs eating the puss from mosquito bites.
The last month at camp has been quite active and exciting, all starting with the arrival of the Swiss students right before I left for Bali, and all was well. Right away there was this clean, efficient re-organization of camp and everything. Very refreshing and inspiring, with this new air of energy and enthusiasm.
The few days of being back involved a pregnant kitty and then 3 kittens born on the bookshelf in my room, wonderful women time, eating real breakfast like cereal and pancakes our cook makes sometimes, swiss chocolate, cooking pasta, mini dance parties, coming upon orangutans, appreciating the forest more with an almost new outlook, new datasheets, new data, sleeping better, more energy, more laughs, more smiles, sarong parties (days when it’s just us girls at camp and we lounge around in our sarongs), brainstorming community outreach and living immersed in each moment.
Orangutans have been abundant and plentiful, that is to say they have been around or we’ve been able to find them. I came back to Jinak and Jerry, a mother and her older infant who is about 6. They day was going pretty normal (although Jerry has a history of being very curious and coming down to check out people eating and their hammocks, some people most likely fed him in the past…tsk tsk) when a male, probably flanged because he was making so much noise traveling, started to approach from the distance. Nothing happens right away. Then, just as I had sat down about 20m from the group to eat my lunch, I see Jinak and Jerry fleeing across the transek, traveling quite low to the ground and fast obviously moving away from this male. I didn’t realize how fast they were going until I walked over to the direction they were heading in and they had vanished, very possibly to travel on the ground. So we stood in the transek for a moment wondering how that just happened, when Preman, the flanged male comes in the same direction and then stops about 5m from the ground and 15m from us. He is just sort of sitting there and then he long calls. At this point we didn’t know it was Preman yet, who has a reputation of being pretty lazy and laid back, not at all like Nico the big-bad-dad-boss-man of the forest, and so I was a bit frightened and shocked to be hearing a long call from so near. You can hear long calls from up to 1km away if not more. Like when I was hanging out at camp one day, just doing my laundry when I hear the grumbles of a call from the north maybe 800m away and then some minutes later a response from the south and just as I was pondering this vocal duel, there was another response from the first individual in the north (I imagined it was Nico, having flashbacks to when I ran into him by myself and ‘ran away’ as slow as possible, making a huge loop around to get back to camp, the whole time shaking with fear). And so we started to follow Preman (later recognized by the dip cut out of his flange and a scar on his back) as he ate his way through the forest, high to low, leaves, bark, termites, whatever caught his eye.
I saw my first owl the other evening, almost back at camp from a day following Sony, Sidony’s newborn infant, watching him observe his surroundings- his mother, us- play with twigs, leaves, be held by his mother as she looked at him suckle, and even explore the area out of body contact with her (very rare for young infants to leave their mothers body or not be always clinging). These days, when I see a human baby I see an orangutan infant and vice-versa. It really is amazing.
One morning, as Jacquie (the Brazilian, Swiss student who redid our whole map to precise accuracy) and I were walking out into the forest for another intense day of mapping or checking the tags for two 3000km transeks, Miss Mia our mamma kitty followed us from camp on the boardwalk as if she wanted to joing or wish us a good farewell. I was even more surprised when she continued to follow us on the transect, jumping down and then proceeding to hop like a jungle-bunny-deer. But then she paused to lick an itch and I suppose returned to camp shortly after.
That day I discovered the glory of my hiking boots and poles.
My longest day in the forest started as any other follow, except a bit earlier at 4am because we had to cover about 1500m to get to the nest. We were following Sidony, Sony and Streisel, a mother with her 2 offspring, Sony (5mo born in March) and Streisel (about 6 or 7 who is semi-independent). The are a southeast family with a recent history of making nests as late as possible, when darkness hits the forest, which can be quite heavy when you are about 1 ½ hours in the dark away from camp. But if you can do it in the morning, you can do it at night. It was exciting big news when Sidony, Sony, Streisel were found, for they had not been followed since Sony’s birth and we still have little data on them. Sony is a tiny little creature, with clown hair and the silliest expressions, hilarious and cute.
We were in the far east around 5pm and still they hadn’t made their nest. My supply of fluids was running out as my patience dwindled with the fading of the light. The journey back, though long and hard, went by, but not without an intense feeling of dejavu’ on the part of trasek WS without boardwalk, a challenge to gain footing on small trunks laid across swampy mud areas, struggling in the non supportive clumsy gum boots, and feeling a deep sense of fear, anxiety, creeps when I realized I’ve been here before because I dreamt of this moment in a previous nightmare. And I was there, living it, overcoming it, rising above my fears. I arrived at camp both broken in body and spirit with newly infected mosquito bites (that I am just healing from right now). But I was still excitied to see the Dayak-Muslim nuptial ceremony for our partime cook Jubai and our assistant Idun. The highlight of the night wasn’t the actual wedding which involved a lot of paperwork and explanations, some vows and other things we bulehs didn’t really understand. The most interesting part was when they did the blessings of the couple with egg whites, rice and water, placed on the head, forehead and sprinkled with some leafy vegetation over the body. Later we all started dancing on the specially made stage to poppy-electro-asian-videogame songs that played over and over, the favorite being ayam tripping (tripping chicken), with the kids, young adults and a couple of the older women. It was silly and fun.
The most recent last week at camp, it was us 3 bulehs (whities) at camp with the cook Ibu Igo and her husband Cedi who works on transeks, and our nightguards. Then when the cook left and our sub cook couldn’t work anymore, the two guards Icun and Nurdin, young guys from the village jumped in and became our gourmet cooks as well. It was so surprising and so awesome when we saw them coming to camp with fish they had just caught from the little canal and fresh young fern they just picked as well as young banana, breadfruit and coconut and one hour later we had an amazing meal, in the top I’ve had at camp!
I started teaching English to the local kids. My first English class was both challenging and hilarious, with almost all the kids from Trapon and Tuanan (about 20) plus the curious parents and older villagers. Arriving from Trapon via klotok (dayak boat) we unlocked the school which felt like had been abandoned and unused for years and in a sense had with school being on pause without a teachers for some months. Right away the kids start grabbing the stick brooms and sweep the dust off the tables and floors, a direct example of their enthusiasm and motivation for school. Unfortunately, it was so dark inside, so the setting for English class has become the area right outside of the school, bringing out the benches formed into a u and me standing by the blackboard leaning against the trees. The best part so far was singing “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” and getting them to join in. Last class I tried the “Hokey Pokey” but I think that’s a bit advanced right now so it was pretty much just me doing “the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around.” Good times.
I really do begin to miss the forest after being away for even just a few days. It’s something special, that goes deep into the self. There is always a noise, sounds abound around endlessly, infinite rhythmic melodic beats of the rainforest that tell the story of life, the all encompassing reality of the symbiotic relationship between animals and plants and how one cannot exist without the other.
Interspecies connections enlightens a path to new ways of living, in acceptance rather than denial, like a parallel universe, distant worlds beyond our imagination.
Time flows as life goes. Kittens will crawl, slowly open their eyes, some with one eye already peering, as lovers will someday soon be reunited and flanged males will pronounce themselves with a long call reaching over their homeland.
At the end of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
_T.S. Eliot
