Bright Green Future in Silimalombu

Samosir Island on Lake Toba in north Sumatra is a popular destination for any backpacker heading through Indonesia’s biggest island, and for good reason- it is a beautiful volcanic crater lake with clear waters and tranquil atmosphere.  The Batak people that comprise most of Samosir Island’s population are affable and always smiling, the food is fantastic, and the list could go on.  We got all these benefits in our time there but that’s not at all why we went there- for us it was to work on a farm.  Working and collaborating with farms has treated us very well, and nowhere more so than in Silimalombu, a small village which our host Ratna Gultom is attempting to transform into an “Ecovillage”.  Ratna herself is an inspiration in the way she thinks and acts- a great role model coming from within the community that is working to make a difference for future generations.  She frequently sponsors trash pick-ups along the lakeshore and bottom, has planted hundreds of trees, teaches the 3-5 year olds of the village, and is changing the way people think about their interactions with the environment.

Our main activities outside of the usual harvesting food for sale or for us to eat, weeding, mulching, or cooking were twofold: building a demonstration composting area and building a solar dehydrator.  While Silimalombu is blesses with extremely nice good soil, there are already signs of the slash and burn methods, chemical use of fertilizer and pesticides rapidly deteriorating the land.  Rich organic mass grows everywhere but is seen more as a nuisance than as an asset for growing wonderful soil.  Most of this project involved a lot of shoveling manure amongst other things as part of it was to clean out a out-of-use biogas unit that was full of probably 300 buckets of liquidy buffalo manure.  Most people don’t travel the world to shovel shit, but it seems we do!  And even more surprising; we love it!

The dehydrator was a really great project in so many ways.  The people of Samosir dry many things, particularly fish from the lake, but also cacao (chocolate beans), nuts, water reeds for weaving, and a host of other things.  But it’s the tropics and when rainy season attacks there is always a mad scampering of people out to the nets of things drying in the sun to cover or collect.  Bugs and animals often spoil the drying meat or run off with it for a nice afternoon snack.  With the dehydrator not only will the drying be more efficient, but it also saves space (stacking 11 trays vertically instead of having everything laid out side by side) and means you can just let things sit through the rain storm unhindered.

Traveling and meeting the people is great, but when you get to help them and have a positive impact on their lives, it is fantastic! The enthusiasm of the community for what we were doing was great!  Like every great technology, it starts with just one but I wouldn’t be surprised if a future visit to Silimalombu we would see one in every yard!  Although the entire community will not be using this initial prototype, it didn’t deter the many people who came out to work with us on it (including curious kids that sometimes made the work a bit more difficult!).  We also give a special thanks to Lena, another volunteer from Germany who was also indispensable- especially as a source of good conversation and fun.

Loveable Redheads!

 

Wild, rare orangutans swinging in the trees above our heads, that was the highlight of our time in Ketambe.  One day hiking up a stream bed we stopped to eat our picnic of avocadoes we mashed into guacamole with crackers, and a fruit you can only really eat where orangutans live since it’s up so high on forest trees you just have to wait for them to take a bite and hopefully not be too hungry so they’ll throw it down to you with a lot left!  As we ate, all of a sudden it sounded like a car crash behind us! We spun around to see an enormous limb just before it smashed against the ground.  Up above sat two orangutans staring straight at us with a look on their faces like, “Yeah, we’ve been sitting up here for like twenty minutes, you could at least look up and pretend to take a picture or something!”  In hopes that the next limb didn’t come down on our heads, we watched them swinging from limb (sometimes with their hands, sometimes with their feet) to limb like acrobats, or just sitting and munching on food, occasionally throwing us their scraps at us.  One highlight was seeing and entire family- mom, dad, and little red baby who we watched with delight as they played around the jungle gym of tree limbs.

Plenty of other monkeys and wildlife around to continue the amusement when the orangutans left.  For an authentic jungle experience I would certainly recommend a visit to Gunung Leuser National Park to anyone visiting Sumatra!

Paradise!

Paradise is no longer lost.  We found it!  Pulau Weh, Indonesia it truly perfect!  Normally we say a place is great if it has great people, or delicious food, or amazing wildlife and scenery, or is inexpensive and a good place to get some GROW work done.  Well, the small, northern most island of Indonesia has it ALL!

Great People:  Everyone says hello, good conversations, gives you that extra little helping of food because they see you like their cooking, tells you (good) directions to their competitors if they think it will better fit your needs, and are genuinely interested in you, not your wallet.








Delicious Food:  Coconut Curries, new fruits and nuts, and fresh homemade donuts every morning.  What else do I have to say!

Amazing Wildlife and Scenery:  I am writing this from the porch hammock of our bungalow which is directly above one of the most amazing marine life habitats we have ever seen.  In the first thirty seconds of entering the water we saw over 20 varieties of brightly colored tropical fish.  After only a short time more in the water we had identified multiple kinds of lion fish, spotted sting rays, huge octopi, giant moray eels (swimming!), beautiful anemones with clown fish (Nemos), lots of bright blue Dori (blue tangs) as well, huge trigger fish, stone fish (amazing camouflage), parrot fish (enormous and all colors of the rainbow), scorpion fish, trumpet, barracuda, needlenose, lobsters, crabs, manta shrimp, banded coral shrimp, beautiful moorish idols, butterfly, flounder, grouper, jack, sea snakes, giant clams, nudibranch, pipefish, damsel, surgeon, hermit crabs, gobies, blennies, sweetlips, christmas tree worms, feather dusters, sea urchins, really cool sea cucumbers, star fish, and those are just the ones I can identify and then remember to write down.  While diving, add sharks, turtles, a school of devil rays, and some of the largest sea fans we've seen, to the list. WOW!  Also as I am writing this there are wild monkeys playing in a tree less than 10 feet away from me.  Loads of entertainment but no fun when they steal your coconuts or throw your water bottle off the porch.




Inexpensive and a good place to work:  The wonderful bungalow I mentioned above: $5.  The delicious food: we normally split a $1 meal.  The great diving is a little pricy for us at $25 so we only did it once, but the amazing snorkeling is 100% free!  When the power is working our porch is one of the best offices we have ever had.




If it wasn’t that we missed our friends and family and that there are no immediate GROW projects here, we would find a hard time coming up with reasons to leave.  Paradise has been certainly been found.

Another Country Full of Kindness

A year ago when we were “tentatively” planning this odyssey we talked about skipping Malaysia altogether.  After just one week here we are very glad we didn’t.  Whether it is the Southern Asia culture or the Muslim influence, the people of Malaysia, or a least of Penang (the only part we know), are incredibly nice, helpful and generous.  The couple at the farm we worked with was fantastic and the Iranian/Malaysian couchsurfers we stayed with were equally great.  You can’t beat getting great local advice while eating feta (yes, feta cheese! Iranian food is awesome!), olive spread and flatbread and then get the extra bonus of learning about Iranian history which is also incredibly interesting.  We also owe Adel, our CS host a special thanks for his premonition that our bus to the airport (that we had been waiting over and hour for) was not going to come and swooping in as our guardian angle to drive us to the airport just in time to catch our flight to Indonesia.  Amazing!

Did That Goat Just Pee on Me?

If we had one secret to tell travelers that would change not only there trip but possibly their lives, it would be to throw away the guide books and the checklists of places to see and work with the people in the area you are visiting.  Lots of tourists go to Penang, Malaysia but we never even took the time to find out why.   We were too busy getting our hands dirty, harvesting fruits and vegetables on Grassroots Organic Farm.  Our local hosts Meishy and Lee were a wealth of knowledge about Malay food, culture, and tropical farming and the fresh garden meals we cooked with them over discussions of Permaculture ideas were priceless.  And when Brooke looked up to see a waterfall of urine cascading down on her as we collected manure for the compost underneath a goat pen, we could only laugh.  What a vacation!  
 

Climbers' Mecca

Sikhs go to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India.  Muslims go to Mecca.  If there was a similar destination you had to pick for those that make sport climbing their way of life, you would choose Karbi, Thailand.  It only takes a first glimpse at the overhanging limestone stalactites jetting out of the clear aqua blue waters of the Andaman Sea to realize, this is truly a climbers paradise.  Four straight days of rain didn’t break our spirits and when the sun finally peeked its head out we joined the rest of the climbing community in celebrating its arrival.  The fear of not climbing for five years quickly subsided and the in the moment, meditative state while moving along these perfect rock faces was true wonderful.  For some they may be so lucky to actually start here- like Edward and Elise, our Russian Couchsurfing host, who we got to take out for their first time ever climbing- what naturals.  Or the real naturals, the monkeys who jump on tree limbs behind you or climb on the rocks right beside you in order to make fun that you need a rope, shoes, and harness.  A climbers paradise indeed!

Playing In The Mud

 

Phangan Earthworks is a beautiful and inspiring place on Koh Phangan.  We were able to visit Hubert who graciously gave us a tour of the houses and buildings they have created while discussing the benefits of using alternative building methods such as earthbags (bags of packed dirt) and bamboo.  Part of our focus in Asia is learning about these alternative agricultural and building methods, and we are excited we now have even more ideas and resources to build on.  Check out their website www.phanganearthworks.com and let the photos speak for themselves.  Now we just need to start playing in the mud, too, to create our own beautiful home!