Indonesia Finally!

The next leg of my journey took me from Istanbul to Singapore to Jakarta, where I had to spend the night. Very early the next morning, I boarded my final plane to Pangkalan Bun, Borneo (or Kalimantan, as the Indonesian side of this island is called, Borneo being the Malaysian side). Three days after I set out from South Africa, I was finally here. It was absolutely crazy to go from the bushveld in South Africa to the bustling European city of Istanbul to middle of the tropics, small town, Southeast Asia all in three days.

Unfortunately, only two days later I had to fly back to Jakarta. Since I came directly from working with other primates, I had to get some blood tests done before I could start work with the orangutans, since primates are very susceptible to diseases. I spent about three days there getting this done at a very nice international clinic. Jakarta was a nice little vacation with some first world amenities, namely Starbucks. There was a Starbucks right next to the clinic and I got like two vanilla lattes a day. I walked around a very western mall, and resisted the urge to buy clothes I don’t need. I spent most of my free time just chilling in my hotel room, watching TV (hey again, Law and Order: SVU!) and using the first-world fast internet. My tests all came back clean and I flew back to Pangkalan Bun to finish out my 10 day quarantine period.

Some notes about Indonesian life

I live in a small town called Pasir Panjang, which is basically a couple of roads with houses lining them. The Orangutan Care Center is about a 10 minute walk down the road. It’s very hot here, high 80s and above, but with like 90% humidity. The good news is that is seems that the rainy season is now so it rains and breaks up the humidity every afternoon. It looks very tropical here, with lots of big green trees around. The bathrooms are different; they are squat toilets, basically a porcelain hole in the ground. They don’t use toilet paper, they don’t flush. There is a tiled tub-like structure in the bathroom that is always filled with water. To flush you just pour some water from there with a pail down into the toilet. To shower you also just pour water over yourself from the tub with the pail, standing right there in the middle of the bathroom. It’s actually quite refreshing, but not quite as cleansing as a running shower. I’ve gotten quite used to it though after a few weeks. Indonesians take their shoes off before entering any building, a custom that I enjoy. The food here is actually really good. It’s a lot of rice. A lot. Rice basically comes with every meal. It’s rice or noodles with vegetables or chicken. Perfect for me! Although she uses a lot of salt and garlic. I live in a house with a woman and her two sons, one’s 12 the other 7. I live with another volunteer here, who has coincidentally also been to CARE. She cooks 3 meals a day for us and does our laundry. I have a room to myself, with a double bed mattress on the floor, a closet, and a fan. Simple but nice.

Orangutans and Work

My job title here is Enrichment Intern. Enrichment is a widely used practice of creating interesting and different food items to help stimulate camptive primates’ minds. In the wild they would use more of their brain power to forage for food almost constantly, whereas in a captive setting they don’t have to do this because food is provided to them. I create popsicles filled with fruit or juice, bundles of leaves and popcorn, puzzle boxes, etc. Here it also involves a lot of building fun and playful structures for their enclosures, like tire swings and wooden ladders. I’ve only been at work for a couple of weeks now and am still finding my feet here.

The orangutans are absolutely incredible. Very different from baboons. Orangutans are more solitary and much more mellow than baboons. You can interact here with orangutans that are 8 years old which you absolutely can’t with a an 8 year old baboon. By around 3 years old, baboons are too strong and too aggressive and can cause you serious damage. Don’t get me wrong, large orangutans are very powerful and could probably rip you apart if they really wanted to, but they are generally have a better disposition than that. I’ve only had a few really hands-on interactions with them so far. I took out a few babies one morning with a friend of mine. They just climb into your arms and give you great big hugs around your neck and then run off and play in the forest, often coming back to hang in your lap or just to say hey. I also spent a couple of hours out in the forest with some larger males and one female so another volunteer here could get some photos and an adoption update. This one female took a liking to me and kept coming back to climb into my arms and just hang out there, maybe to get away from all the males around her. I was sitting on a log and she would just come sit next to me and put her arm around my shoulder, like we were old friends. It was incredible. I also spent an hour out in the forest with an older orangutan female who had had a stroke and lost most of the use of her limbs. We just hung around the ground shuffling about eating grass and bark. It was a nice experience to get her out of her cage and into some natural sunshine and trees. They are absolutely incredible, intelligent, creatures and I am looking forward to more time with them as I get more settled in here.