Sad news 1: Polly the ratufa

Ratufa is the scientific name of the giant squirrel, a rather beautiful, colorful, cat-sized squirrel with a bushy tail longer than the body. During a thunderstorm Alice (the other researcher in here) found a baby ratufa on the ground, probably fallen from her nest. She had still closed eyes and was screaming for help, and she took her home. In the next 2 days we took her where she was found, hoping her mother could take her back. After unsuccessfully trying to find her mother, we decided to adopt her. Finding some food that could suit her was harder than I expected: milk was categorically rejected, egg yolk was even worse. Water with cane sugar was accepted but not a viable long-term solution. Grated apple mixed with ground peanuts was found to be the optimal meal (thanks to the “expert” friends who provided advice through instant messages). She loved it though at first was not particularly skilled in eating it. And here I could go on with a hundred stories on peculiar behaviors that she did, so lovely, so special, just as a stereotypical proud and boring parent. I will restrain myself to just a few: she stood on my shoulder when traveling, on the head if walking fast, and inside my hair bun if raining; she responded to my “calls”, climbing frantically all the way to my mouth and stood there, concentrated, “duetting”; she would curl into a ball to sleep (my hand the favorite spot by far), and be completely trusting (I could then walk around without disturbing her sleep). But this is a very sad story: we left for 3 days, and when we came back she had lost weight, didn’t want to eat, spent most of the time sleeping and being inactive, and in two days rapidly faded. A vet that was following a study on small cats was no help, disappointingly. It particularly hit me because when I try to do something I really want it to succeed, and I really tried hard to raise her, and had become very, very attached to her.

New baby (siamang)

Aming, very successful female, gave birth to a healthy baby. To know if it is a male or female we'll have to wait about another year. It is difficult to take good shots because when they are so young (here it is about a week old), mothers keep their legs bent for fear of them letting go and falling.

Medical bulletin #3 – fish

We carry lunchboxes in the forest. As I ate my fish (alone, with radio), I felt this funny unpleasant numbness on tongue lips, then gums and all the mouth area. It lasted a while, then was gone. I wondered about the strange spice they must have used. When back to camp, Alice (the other researcher) arrived, sporting a uniform red color (even the pupils!), heart pounding, fearing a heart failure, which luckily didn’t occur. The others had an assortment of headaches, dizziness, pains. It was the fish. Trying to interpret the information we were given, first there was “yes, some people are allergic to that” (uh, at least it is cool, mysterious tropical fish..), then “well, it was just rotten fish” (no! come on, not even the charm of the exotic fish), finally a combination of the two: it is a type of fish which, if not cooked right away, produce a toxin which stays even if you then cook it (killing the bacteria that activated the toxin). Apparently the blood of the fish is used as poison for arrows (somewhere, as usual information is not the most accurate).

Medical bulletin #2 – wasps

Well, having realized I didn’t mention a few other exotic problems I had, eheh, and having lost all inhibitions about boring people with health issues, here they go.

I was attacked by wasps. Of course, aggressive highly painful tropical ones. I am told that if you are stung many times, what initially was only the pain of the sting, may become an allergic reaction. Well, I can confirm that. This was the third time, and I received about 6-8 stings. After I ran away from the bloody tree, I felt, besides the pain, slightly dizzy, heart pounding uncomfortably fast (130/min), sweating, weakness and a dozen more symptoms. I decided that in spite of the importance of following that group, I “would have to let them go”. In the end I lied down for about two hours, waiting for things to improve (was alone, didn’t have a radio, of course). After that, I was able to slowly make it back to camp.

Heart of wood

There are these pieces of wood, scattered on the forest floor. They are usually large, sleek, abnormally heavy and resistant to cutting. At first I thought they were termite nests, since when I managed to break open one, the wood had been replaced by earth, and inhabited by termites. But if you went beyond the superficial layer, you find wood, pure wood, exceptionally compact and smooth. I am not sure how these pieces came to be. Some theories (absolutely speculative) suggest that they were tempered by forest fires, or the wearing of time and rain (and other organisms). I decided to take a large one to carve a box. It is amazing how hard it is to cut through it. The saw gets stuck every little while, I need to put oil to ease its way, and still, it gets hot [I know wood, and I am used to cutting..]. Fascinating.

Rant 2: shipments & packages

Next rant is about supplies. Some of them need to be shipped from the USA. The first shipment was ordered in Jul 07 and reached me in Jan 08, which is the sole reason why I am still here instead of celebrating the end of the data collection. Shipments arrive to the airport, where one has to go, clear customs and pick them up. For the first shipment, I arrived and was asked 1,200$ of custom taxes to release it! It took me a whole day and a half to reduce that to 600$, the third day to get to 200$ and the fourth to convince them to get it for free. The best was the first guy, who filled out the fake form saying I had to pay 1,200$: after it became obvious that he had tried to cheat me, he still wanted to be paid 35$ for the form, which he had to fill out using resources, computer, internet connection!

Last week, a second package arrived. I alerted WCS office, but the shipping company instead of calling sent an email, which was kindly disregarded. So after a week that I expected the package, I went out of the forest and found that it had actually arrived a week ago. After asking if WCS could send somebody to take care of this, which was rudely refused, I took the bloody night-bus and started my fight in the cargo area at dawn. I thought I could make use of the broad experience I had gained, but not at all. I release the documents, go to the customs building, discover that there is another one, I make my way to the big boss in only five steps (last time it took me about 14), he says he will help, he cuts the taxes in half but that still leaves 300$ to pay. He says I should then talk to the other office (the bigger boss). They take me back there, I am directed to a creepy office with pictures of people arrested with illegal drugs (not the big boss, whom I met the previous time, surrounded by a godly aura, in a celestial blue office full of curtains and airplane models). I explain my case again, tailoring it to the new audience, they decide to help me, call the first boss, make me write an “autocertification letter”, and send me back with some hope. After another eight bureaucratic steps, they all go to pray and then lunch, except for a mother-like woman who keeps working on my application, and offers me water and “gorengan”, mixed fried foods. We then go inspect the stuff, with an overweight and frightened officer, then back to customs, other four steps and indeed I can go get the package without having paid anything. Having protested that I had not been properly warned of the arrival of the package, they waive the storage fee as well. The package of course is in the middle of nowhere, and I am on foot, eheh. But the nice girl who signs the last document offers to take me to the bus stop when she gets out of work, in 20 mins, at 5pm. This hardly an exciting tale, yet, sadly, in the state I am in, it takes the place of great adventures and accomplishments. To improve the post with some meaningful conclusive remarks, I can say that in the world there are people that are useful and helpful, and others who are not. And I am being fortunate enough to meet several of the first kind. In this instance, among dozens of idling useless burocrats, there were some that, only out of their good heart, went out of their way (and out of the law too) to help me. I must also stress the fact that I was never asked a bribe by any custom officer (because one must fight commonplaces).

Rant 1: permits & visas

This blog runs the risk of becoming a cross between a medical bulletin and a psychotherapeutic exercise. This is one reason why I have been reluctant to add new posts. But now I think I should just embrace its latter function and go ahead and vent, and friends will worry about my mental state and let me know when it is really enough..

So today’s rant is about the renewal of research permits and visas. Here is the procedure. Write a request (and provide lots of documentation) to the dept. of research and technology (RISTEK), in Jakarta. If successful, go and get the research permit extension. Take that to the Police central office (also in jkt) to get a travel permit, which you will need to then go to the ministry of internal affairs, to get another document, which you will need to take to the dept. of forestry, which will release a permit to enter the national park. This is already a complicated procedure, but, eheh, there is a catch: to get the travel permit from the police, you need another document, sort of a residence permit, which you can get, in the region where you work, i.e. Lampung, Sumatra. So you have to travel to jkt (a nice 10 hrs of night-bus), get document #1, then back to bloody Sumatra, get #2 and then back to jkt! Several of these steps don’t really require my presence, so I asked my ghostly counterpart (WCS) to help, by sending somebody to get these documents, but they were quite blunt in not helping. I asked RISTEK, and managed to get hold of a girl who said she would do the steps 3-5 for me. But then she said it would take approximately 8-14 days! So in the end I had to go and do all by myself.

Additional little frustrations and some gratifications:

- After two nights of no sleep, arriving to jkt at 5.30 a.m., waiting for the office to open, being admitted by the guard, going up to the right floor, finding nobody, going down and being told that well, of course nobody is there, since today is a national holiday..

- Telling WCS I need them to send a fax to Immigration, with large advance, and after one week still waiting for it, but

- The Immigration officer, at that point, having pity and giving me the visa even if that thing was not arrived.

- During the countless hours waiting in an office, being shown a piece of paper, hoping it is the document I so desperately need, but no, it is a job offer for his son, just graduated, in a plantation, in Sarawak or Kalimantan, what do I think of it?

- Or being introduced to two interns, who are supposed to practice their English, and talking to them for two hours about the state of tourism in Sumatra and the best ways to improve it.

- But, being driven to offices I must get to, by the officer who was on his way home with his son (on a very fancy SUV), or by the job-offer guy (on a ancient Vespa).

- Having to pay the usual 30$ bribe to the police to get the travel permit, but

- Managing to get a receipt for that!