Tuesday, 11 March 2014

Day 42 - Ketapang Borneo - back to being a common hoe




Today started like yesterday, various errands on the way to the centre. We were split into groups again and I got put with Kristi for the farming. It's the same as Matang but flat, the ditches were in place but far to shallow and close together so we were tasked with doubling up the mounds and increasing the trenches. Due to a lot of rainfall from the storm last night the ditches soon filled up with water, forfilling their purpose. 

It was nice to do a job I was used to in Matang so you can really appreciate the temperature difference. Even though the sun wasn't out the heat drains you so much quicker and you get through so much water. At about midday we headed to lunch, there is no wifi as it was cut off by the storm so lunch went pretty slowly.

We stayed in the same groups for the afternoon but opted for the varnishing again, it's just too hot to voluntarily work in the heat if your given the option of shade. Everything was going fine until Krisit asked for some help moving parts of a metal cage out of the water which had formed again from last nights storm, six of us struggled while the native men just watched us! 

Back to sanding and minding my own business when Vicky alerted us to an Orang in Kevin's avery (he is a Brominy Kite, native to Borneo and the only non orang at the centre). It had escaped from forest school and was seeing if Kevin wanted to play by grabbing it. Kevin doesn't like people close to his Avery and makes it known but the Orang didn't seem to care. Lisa went into rescue Kevin and to retrieve the runaway. A few minutes later she returned with an Orang backpack and off she went to return it to school.

No sooner had she got back and Katrina noticed a baby orang just outside logistics, while Lisa and Nigel (a vet) enticed her down with bananas I grabbed the camera and took a few shots. It is never going to get boring working along side these hairy little ginger people. It was a nice end to the day and just reintegrated why we do this work, for them. 

On the way home we stopped at the fruit market, it was amazing, every fruit and vegetable under the sun. I stocked up in the hope of some bowel movement as it's been a week. The apples I purchased tasted delicious, how they keep it fresh in this heat is a miracle. At home our dinner awaited us and I had a well deserved Mandy which took longer than expected as there was mud in odd places from the hoeing. A beer finished off the evening before a great nights sleep.

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