So I thought that some of you might enjoy this story from a couple of weeks ago.
There are a number of choices available when I need to get from the forest to Kota Agung: super crappy bus, a rumured nicer bus, motor bike, the rare treat of a WCS car going out, or the wild card option of accepting a ride from whatever contraption passes your way.
When I came out last time I guess I was feeling inspired and a little reckless. Usually when random guys in random trucks offer me rides and try to chat me up as I walk towards the village (Way Heni) and bus stop, I only pause long enough to respond with minimalist "ke sana"s (roughly - I am going that way). But this time when a guy driving a banana ("pisang" whence title for post) truck seemed to take a pity on a clearly vulnerable massive, white woman walking alone out of the forest, I thought "What the hell, why not? Take the banana truck Alice and save yourself $3 and the discomforts of the bus." So, I hopped aboard and, after they finished loading up, we started off down the mountain. Of course as it turned out they were eventually going to Kota Agung, but not until later that night, so I would have to take a different bus once we got to the bottom of the mountain (more like a range of ridges but mountain sounds better). But still I would only have to pay $1 and it wold probably be faster, right. Well, not so much seeing as we first had to make a couple more banana-loading stops (Of course I was determined to help - there is a sort of tossing motion required for getting the giant stalks of bananas on top of the load in case you are interested or if anyone ever puts a gun to your head and says "load the bananas or die," which must have made for an interesting scene for the neighbors). After finally loading up two trucks, a larger one carrying up to 17 tons and our smaller one carrying about 5 tons, we started off. Due to steep inclines and tricky turns, it ended up being a slow procession. Often we would have to stop and wait behind while the larger truck made a pondorous climb and then signaled a honk some way ahead to give the all-clear. I also found myself getting curiously sleepy whenever we were driving close behind the 17-tons of bananas. While it is not uncommon for me to get tired during long drives, this seemed odd, more like uncontrollable passing out. I finally connected this sudden tiredness with the billows of pollution the larger truck was giving off in regular intervals. I was being semi-asphixiated by the carbon-monoxide and then releaved each time we got a little distance between the two trucks. I am sure that my brain cells are still thanking me for this. Still it may have been worth the adventure, free bananas, and (don't forget) $1 I saved. I also got to Kota Agung at least an hour later than the normal, crappy bus would have deposited me.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
An angry little rant from the forest
So I have had a rough couple of weeks due to near abandonment by my assistants (1 quit, 1 never showed up for work, 1 has a sick wife - ok I can understand this because I am not a total bitch, and 1 kind of sucks in the forest - I mean even I am faster than him and have to teach him the local plant names). The other day drove me to such a frustrated state that I stopped mid-trail to write an angry composistion because I had no one to rant to except myself and my data book. Well, thanks to the beauty of today's technology and my ability to read even my crappiest and most emotionally-driven handwriting, I can now share this word-for-word with all of my friends and family, and anyone else who might stumble upon my blog from the general human populous.
“There is nothing better than starting your day at -200, -100 m (i.e., “Hell”), finding the gibbons, cutting trails up hills of rattan and impenetrable lianas with mini Swiss Army Knife scissors, knowing that there is no trail at the top, losing the gibbons as soon as they see you and run like hell, and then losing yourself and having to compass you way out to finally realize that your absentee assistant is following the wrong group after conveniently forgetting the plan you made the day before!” (July 2, 2008 roughly 9:30 am)
P.s. I am going to buy my very own "parang" (traditional machete) before returning to the forest, so that I can cut trails like a professional.
“There is nothing better than starting your day at -200, -100 m (i.e., “Hell”), finding the gibbons, cutting trails up hills of rattan and impenetrable lianas with mini Swiss Army Knife scissors, knowing that there is no trail at the top, losing the gibbons as soon as they see you and run like hell, and then losing yourself and having to compass you way out to finally realize that your absentee assistant is following the wrong group after conveniently forgetting the plan you made the day before!” (July 2, 2008 roughly 9:30 am)
P.s. I am going to buy my very own "parang" (traditional machete) before returning to the forest, so that I can cut trails like a professional.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
More night visitors
After some more fascinating and at times intimidating night visitors to the station I thought I should share some photographic evidence with my friends and family. See below.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
More new pictures posted
Hi all,
I just posted a few more new pictures from the forest, including couple commemorating my minor disasters (i.e., falling in a pool of water before 7 am and surviving a tree limb that fell 40 plus meters into my metal-roofed house at 3 am and almost convinced me that I was about to die). There is also one with three of my five assistants.
I just posted a few more new pictures from the forest, including couple commemorating my minor disasters (i.e., falling in a pool of water before 7 am and surviving a tree limb that fell 40 plus meters into my metal-roofed house at 3 am and almost convinced me that I was about to die). There is also one with three of my five assistants.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
New pictures posted
I finally bought a new computer yesterday, so I can both get back to work on report writing and post some new pictures from the field. Now everyone can get a good look at all the fun inhabitants of my room and the lovely bastard gibbons that have been making my life difficult over the last few months. Enjoy.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
In Kota Agung: April 12, 2008 (Rat diagnostics)
Concerning the computer, I ran every diagnostic I could find yesterday (It took hours.) and nothing failed. But I am still having trouble switching the computer on. I think that the problem may be the power button itself. If the contact is a bit off or something that could explain the problem. I may open up the top of my computer once I get back to the forest. It should be fun. Maybe a really tiny rat crawled under there and died.
You know the rats in my room actually stole one of my sarongs one night. I made the mistake of turning off the lights when I went down to eat and in that very brief window they had dragged it across the floor and very tightly pulled it into the bottom of the only piece of furniture (other than my bed) in the room. I already no that they nest in there and run in and out of the bottom of it, which is really convenient since I cannot use it to store anything. I do use the top surface, but have fully abandoned the rest (and now the sarong too) to them. I also have managed to avoid opening the bottom doors, lest I have to see what is inside. I am pretty sure that my sarong may result in new rat progeny. They later tried to steal a shirt to add to the nest's comfort, but I decided to draw a line and take it back. I do have a giant plastic box to keep all of my stuff, but I may have to request a new cabinet or repairs on the old one. You know you are living in the forest when this is all normal. When the generator went down for a few days and the rats got a few hours in the dark alone they really tried to take over. I actually tripped over one on its desperate way out when I came back to get something from my room.
You know the rats in my room actually stole one of my sarongs one night. I made the mistake of turning off the lights when I went down to eat and in that very brief window they had dragged it across the floor and very tightly pulled it into the bottom of the only piece of furniture (other than my bed) in the room. I already no that they nest in there and run in and out of the bottom of it, which is really convenient since I cannot use it to store anything. I do use the top surface, but have fully abandoned the rest (and now the sarong too) to them. I also have managed to avoid opening the bottom doors, lest I have to see what is inside. I am pretty sure that my sarong may result in new rat progeny. They later tried to steal a shirt to add to the nest's comfort, but I decided to draw a line and take it back. I do have a giant plastic box to keep all of my stuff, but I may have to request a new cabinet or repairs on the old one. You know you are living in the forest when this is all normal. When the generator went down for a few days and the rats got a few hours in the dark alone they really tried to take over. I actually tripped over one on its desperate way out when I came back to get something from my room.
In Bandar Lampung: April 11, 2008 (an Easter bunny in April)
So safe to say I did finally get to the forest after 3 weeks of buraucratic hell. As much as I hoped for some peace and quiet and hard work, the problems are still coming at me fast and furious.
To be brief, the agile gibbons still are not habituated, I am overwhelmed/bored by the leaf monkeys, and my friend Luca got seriously sick with Dengue fever. All very nice to kick off my fieldwork. Also, my dehydrator for drying food samples was zapped when the generator broke, so I will have to either fix it or construct some sort of drying device myself. Still working on this. Of course, I cannot really start my study until all of the groups are habituated so there is time. :/
I am afraid that I am going to be one of those people who is in the field for 3 years to get a good 11-12 months of data. I think my advisor will also kill me for this with some sort of Jedi/hyper-organized German mind trick. Of course there is also the problem of money, which I do not have (at the moment) to even cover 12 months right now. Even if I get the Leakey grant it is only another $ 9,500 or so. Oh, and did I mention that the assistants all approached Luca and me one evening to say they wanted a raise. Fantastic. I sure would like a raise too. Maybe I should just declare bankruptcy and stop paying my credit card bills. Any suggestions? I have already considered selling organs, but my giant ones would never fit in these tiny Indonesian bodies. There is of course also the option of charging for all of the "photos with white people" that people insist upon wherever I go. Last night Luca and I were eating dinner and first two guys insisted one taking pictures (on a camera phone) posed with each of us separately. Then after about 10 minutes they brought the super sweaty and possibly in need of a change baby. They just plopped the thing in my lap and I had to hold it for several photo attempts while they tried to get its attention to look at the camera. Am I Santa, the Easter bunny at the mall, or maybe this is Disney land? I mean seriously I might as well be wearing a giant fluffy costume.
Oh and for some more bad news, my computer completely died about a week ago. I was working on it one evening and it just went black with no warning, no blue-screened error message, no nothing. After that it could not even turn on. I think that this is an electrical problem caused by unstable power from the generator. I came out of the forest the other day and when I tried turning my computer on again in the hotel it started up like normal. I did not lose any data and everything seems to be working. This could also be related to humidity and or temperature, but I keep my computer in a dry box. I bought a 5 kg surge protector today in hopes of avoiding any further problems, but we will see. It should be fun carrying back into the forest.
To be brief, the agile gibbons still are not habituated, I am overwhelmed/bored by the leaf monkeys, and my friend Luca got seriously sick with Dengue fever. All very nice to kick off my fieldwork. Also, my dehydrator for drying food samples was zapped when the generator broke, so I will have to either fix it or construct some sort of drying device myself. Still working on this. Of course, I cannot really start my study until all of the groups are habituated so there is time. :/
I am afraid that I am going to be one of those people who is in the field for 3 years to get a good 11-12 months of data. I think my advisor will also kill me for this with some sort of Jedi/hyper-organized German mind trick. Of course there is also the problem of money, which I do not have (at the moment) to even cover 12 months right now. Even if I get the Leakey grant it is only another $ 9,500 or so. Oh, and did I mention that the assistants all approached Luca and me one evening to say they wanted a raise. Fantastic. I sure would like a raise too. Maybe I should just declare bankruptcy and stop paying my credit card bills. Any suggestions? I have already considered selling organs, but my giant ones would never fit in these tiny Indonesian bodies. There is of course also the option of charging for all of the "photos with white people" that people insist upon wherever I go. Last night Luca and I were eating dinner and first two guys insisted one taking pictures (on a camera phone) posed with each of us separately. Then after about 10 minutes they brought the super sweaty and possibly in need of a change baby. They just plopped the thing in my lap and I had to hold it for several photo attempts while they tried to get its attention to look at the camera. Am I Santa, the Easter bunny at the mall, or maybe this is Disney land? I mean seriously I might as well be wearing a giant fluffy costume.
Oh and for some more bad news, my computer completely died about a week ago. I was working on it one evening and it just went black with no warning, no blue-screened error message, no nothing. After that it could not even turn on. I think that this is an electrical problem caused by unstable power from the generator. I came out of the forest the other day and when I tried turning my computer on again in the hotel it started up like normal. I did not lose any data and everything seems to be working. This could also be related to humidity and or temperature, but I keep my computer in a dry box. I bought a 5 kg surge protector today in hopes of avoiding any further problems, but we will see. It should be fun carrying back into the forest.
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