After waiting and waiting and waiting for our Indonesian drivers to come, we loaded up the vans and headed across the island to the real jungle area. Along the way we stopped at a rice farm so our driver could take a picture with the "whities." Acres and acres of muddy rice paddies spread across the valley. The home area had large flat paved areas where the rice is dried. Then it is carried into a building I didn't see and the husk is removed somehow. The roads are crazy here. Traffic seems disorderly and chaotic but in reality it is well timed and flowing. People just take more risks. Sometimes it doesn't turn out so well, as we saw when we came across a truck on its side. People were a little more careful in the mountains where the roads were winding and steep. The drops off the side were very long, and the road was only one lane wide most of the time. The sides of the mountains were covered in coconut palms. I hear that half of the jungle in Indonesia has been destroyed for the cultivation of coconut oil to sell in America.
After two hours bumping, winding, and sweating we arrived at "Mama Roos" (meaning Rose) bungalows. We ate a traditional meal of rice, vegetables with quail eggs, tempeh and tofu, perkedel (basically a deep fried paddy made from potatoes and onions) and the strangest water bottles.
After lunch we prepared to hike through the jungle. We were instructed to wear long pants with socks over the ankles to keep out the bugs. I decided to try it in shorts and see what the difference was. We hiked over five hours in the jungle. It was a lot like some places in Florida, but the plants and animals are totally different. The heat and humidity was the same though. I love the warmth. We saw two troops of Macaque monkeys. They wandered all around us. The kids were playing in the little trees, bending them down and hanging from them. Further on we saw a red knobed hornbill. They have no micro hooks in the fibers of their feathers that allows the feather to interlock. That means that the air flows through a lot easier and they make a noisy whooshing sound when they fly. We also saw a rather shy marsupial called a Cuscus. It was like a big possum, very dark in color with hair on it's prehensile tail. The climax of our walk was a huge strangler fig tree. It had totally destroyed it's host and you could climb inside like a jungle gym. I climbed about 60 feet high on the inside of the tree. On the way back we hiked in the dark. At a certain tree we stopped and saw Tarsiers. Those little buggers are really small. Supper, worship, and a shower were all in order. The shower and toilet arrangement was quite strange. All the showers in Indonesia have a bucket with a scoop. In some situations it's so you can mix scalding hot water with cold water and then dip it over yourself. In the Tangkoko bungalows it was because there was often not enough water pressure to get water out of the shower head. So it came from a lower faucet into the bucket. The toilet was flushed by pouring water into it.
In the morning we woke up to roosters crowing and a massive critter banging around in the wall next to my bed. Ivan, Seth, and I started planning our next trip here as a way to wake up. At 6:30 we went for a bird walk and saw several different types of birds. All of them were unique and different than what I've seen before. We had to describe and ID at least 6 of these for our assignment here. I think I want some binoculars now. It's frustrating to share three pairs with 20 people. On our walk we met a local man and his two kids. He knew a lot of the birds in English and helped us ID them. Matthew Wilson gave the little boy, probably 4 years old, his binoculars to play with. The little guy loved it, and wouldn't give it back. We all laughed when he decided he needed to use the bathroom. He needed no privacy, and seemed quite proud of his show.
At breakfast I was pleasantly surprised to see that they fry eggs here the way I like to have them fried. I also figured out how to properly eat langsat fruit. For church we walked down to the beach. On the way we found a flying lizard, and we spent some time catching butterflys. The beach is black volcanic sand. There were dozens of boats out past the surf. They were platforms for night fishing. We saw them through the trees all lit up as we walked out of the jungle the night before. We sat together under the shade and several different people led out in discussions on the adult Sabbath school lesson. Even in outdoor church I had a hard time sitting still, so I analyzed the wave patterns and saw a rip current that was consistent enough to be worried about. When I got tired of that I noticed that the beach was alive with little hermit crabs. Ok, they wernt little, they were tiny. The smallest I saw were a few millimeters long. The discussion was rewarding, and the spiritual food filling, but as soon as we were done I raced for the water with my mask. Ivan was the only other one who had brought a mask. We were told that this beach was dead, and there would be nothing to see. As soon as I hit the water I saw an explosion of life. The sound of coral eating fish rang in my ears, and bright colored fish darted everywhere. The reef was incredibly shallow, and soon others in our group were stubbing toes and scraping their legs. With a mask on I could see what I was doing and avoid getting hurt, but when I took it off to loan it to a friend I kicked a coral and cut my ankle. After awhile we got moved down the beach to the place that had no coral. Dr. Snyder was surprised I had found a reef. I looked around at our new spot a few minutes walk down the beach and found the edge of the reef. So now the group could play in the water without getting hurt, and I could snorkel. I was pretty stoked. I shared my mask around with several people. It was way too cool to not let others see it. That way I was able to soak up some sun, and see some really cool fish. After while we came back on shore and built bible scenes from debris and then we went around and tried to guess what everyone else had done. After that I went for another swim and spent a lot more time under the water trying to interact with more fish.
We hiked back to the bungalows and on the way we walked through the troupe of black crested Macaques again. One little guy in a tree above us almost peed on one of the guys. After lunch we drove back to Klabat University.
Over all it has been a really good day, and the trees here are pretty sweet. I have a great daypack thanks to dad. Yes mom, I cleaned my cut with some betadine based antiseptic. I had no negative side effects of wearing shorts instead of long pants and socks. You just have to watch yourself so you don't get stung by anything. I was worried about chigger like bugs, but I didn't get any.
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