A few weeks into the new school year, a spontaneous opportunity arose to accompany the children from the children’s home in Melaya on an outing. Our destination was Bedugul, a town nestled in the mountains of Bali. The church runs a holiday centre there. We set off at 7 o’clock in the morning in three buses. On the way, we stopped at the impressive Gitgit Waterfall. We then continued along winding roads up to Bedugul. It was surprisingly cold there. The combination of rain and wind made it feel even colder. Fortunately, the rain stopped towards evening and we lit a campfire and grilled bread on sticks. Because it is so cool in Bedugul, plants grow here that find the rest of Bali too hot. The area around the village is full of fields where cabbage, lettuce and strawberries are grown. The strawberries were particularly popular with the children.
The next day, we visited a landscape park with lots of tulips. The children eagerly used this opportunity to take as many photos of themselves as possible. After all, social media has a different significance here than in Germany. It is very important to send pictures to friends and relatives or to post them online. Afterwards, we set off back towards Melaya. On the way, we visited an amusement park. Everyone had great fun on the numerous rides or in the 4D cinema.
At the end of January, I headed to the island of Kalimantan – that’s what Borneo is called in Indonesia. The mid-term seminar took place there, as almost half the time has already passed. I flew to Palangkaraya in a plane designed more for Indonesian body sizes. The seminar was held together with volunteers from VEM, another organisation. It was very interesting to gain further insights and hear about the experiences of new people. As a group of volunteers, we are spread all over Indonesia, so we were able to discuss what is similar about our placement locations and where the Indonesian islands differ from one another. The seminar really motivated me to get to know even more of this country and its culture and to make good use of the time remaining.
In Palangkaraya, we were given a very warm welcome by the local GKE church. On the very first day, we visited the local university, where a traditional dance was performed for us. Alongside the seminar’s core programme, there was also time for an excursion into the Borneo jungle, as this is where the orangutans live. Orangutan literally translates as ‘forest man’, and indeed, when we spotted the first orange figure from afar from our boat, one might have thought it was a human, so similar were the movement patterns. On the one hand, this was fascinating, but also somewhat eerie, because one cannot quite place this creature, which behaves somewhat like a human but is obviously not one. The orangutan couldn’t have cared less. It sat down in the river and began to wash itself. Just around the next bend in the river, we then spotted a whole group. Two orangutans were wrestling and rolling about in the sand.
The mid-term seminar was over far too quickly, but I wasn’t heading straight back to Blimbingsari. I’d arranged with Emil that I’d come and visit him in Toraja. On the way there, we visited the floating market in Banjarmasin together with Karl, a VEM volunteer. As is typical for Indonesia, the market starts very early. If you arrive after six o’clock, you’re already late. The whole thing takes place on the river and the vendors row around in their boats, similar to canoes, laden with goods, in search of customers. Once a customer is found, the boats pull up alongside each other and the deal is done. It’s quite a hectic scene, as countless boats jostle for position and, as the sun rose, there were more and more of them. By 7 o’clock, however, it was all over again.
After this brief foray into the culture of Kalimantan, we headed to Sulawesi, the island where Emil is doing his voluntary service in the Toraja region. Upon arriving in the island’s capital, Makassar, we now faced a nine-hour bus journey. Toraja is very different from Bali; it is significantly cooler and, due to its high altitude in the mountains, completely different plants grow here. On top of that, the Toraja, the people living here, have a culture all of their own. In short, it might as well have been a completely different country.
Emil and I went on a few excursions and he showed me some interesting places. Typical of Toraja are the Tongkonan houses, whose roof shape is reminiscent of a ship. We also visited his place of work, the RBM, a school for children with disabilities. I don’t want to go into too much detail here, though. If you’re interested in Toraja and Emil’s work, I can recommend his blog.
Sampai Jumpa,
Micha
This text was automatically translated using an AI-powered translation system.
