The week following canyoneering was one of the busiest I’ve had since coming here. I shepherded around two visitors from Rome who had come to talk about a project we were arranging together. The 24-hour Starbuck’s – the ONLY place to get coffee at a reasonable hour of the morning (more on that later) – was my savior. Although I was always on the go to get to meeting after meeting after meeting, it was an exhilarating change after being chained to my desk for so long. I met Darren Collins at the Wildlife Conservation Society office in Bogor, who is on leave as head of Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. It just so happened that he had known, and lived right around the corner from, my grandmother. He also knew some of my vet school classmates. A small world, indeed. We visited two live bird markets early in the morning, chatted with folks at a somewhat furtive U.S. Navy laboratory, met with a Jakarta higher-up, and spent loads of time in the car and in traffic. A busy, but successful, week.
By Friday, I was tired and ready to let loose. Cue Armin Van Buren, DJ Magazine’s “World’s #1 DJ.” At Thanksgiving, we had all decided that the next get-together was to see / hear him mix, DJ, perform, or whatever you want to call it. So, off to The Stadium we went. Fortunately, our dear expat friends are experienced club-goers and, thus, excellent guides to the scene in Jakarta. Armin started at 2am and continued until just after 6am. A long but very, very fun night. The most fun I’d had in far too long.
I spent the rest of the weekend recovering before heading off to Bandung for yet another meeting. I find it amazing that Indonesians continued a meeting until 11pm on a Sunday night, but, unfortunately, I was there to witness it. I was without the requisite batik shirt, so, naturally, I received a lecture on dressing appropriately. That meeting couldn’t end soon enough, because I was to head out into the field from there. A quick change of plans had me delaying my field visit by a day to travel to Tangerang, the site of 2 recent – and several prior – human cases of avian influenza. The government veterinary lab was going to collect samples and had, for the first time, offered FAO a chance to tag along. Off I went. We went out to collect samples from around the homes and workplaces of two suspected cases, one of whom had already died. While out in the field, a text message came through confirming disease in the second case. He died later that week. Then it was a mad rush for me to get 5 hours to the site of my field visit for the next day. The rest of the week was spent madly getting from field visit site to field visit site. But, ah, the field is a vastly better place to be than behind my desk.
In Bandung, we were informed that they wanted to take us to a site 4 hours from the office. Lucky field officers would get to ride with us instead of doubled up on the motorbikes. As we climbed our way through lovely hillsides planted with strawberries, I was informed that our visit site was on a tea plantation. Hallelujah! God smiled upon me that day. I have always wanted to visit a tea plantation. I had never dreamed my job as a veterinarian would take me there. The drive turned out to be only 2.5 hours. The dense darkness of the jungle was sliced open to reveal misty hillsides reflecting light from the tops of tea plants. The plantations were certainly a bit sterile in comparison to the richness of the jungle. Yet still beautiful, as the ridges dropped away from us and the clouds swirled. I was told that on a clear day the view stretches all the way to the ocean. Maybe to the north coast of Java? Anyway, the workers on the plantation had been raising chickens when an outbreak of AI struck last spring. All the birds were culled, and we were to see if they were raising chickens again. We discussed with the plantation manager, over a wonderful cup of tea (without sugar!), who said the plantation had banned the workers from raising chickens and was encouraging them to raise rabbits for consumption. On our way out, he sent us with oleh-oleh – plunder from our visit away - in the form of exquisite tea, which is only sold to the export market.
Our next stop after the tea plantation was a crater, Kawah Putih, or White Crater, filled with the same bluish waters I saw in Kawah Ijen. This crater is much more accessible and very popular, due to its appearance in an Indonesian movie. We walked up from the parking lot along the trail into the crater, and I kept seeing these mature Indonesian women, all dressed to the nines. It seemed an odd place for these ladies to be so dressed up. Turns out they were taking photos for a wedding. I got my photo with them, too, in all their glamour. After the crater we stopped for lunch at a pleasant little warung, just before a downpour hit. It was there I tasted my new favorite Indonesian food – ayam pepes. Pepes is a style of slow cooking where the food is wrapped in a banana leaf and cooked with leaves, I’m told, of laurel and some other seasonings, for hours. I couldn’t believe I’d been missing out on pepes this whole time. It is amazing! [I have since tried mushrooms and 2 kinds of fish (ikan) cooked pepes style. They were tasty, yes, but not quite as good as that first taste of chicken…] On our way back to the dinas office, to drop the officers off, we continued through a good downpour. That part of Bandung has many more carriage horses than I see in most places. Their drivers have fashioned raincoats for the horses to wear in the rain. It was a bit of a trick to get a photo of them, but I finally did. Will try to get it posted soon. All in all, a fantastic day in the field. Certainly no comparison to being chained to my desk in Jakarta!
Since Bandung is known for outlet shopping, my translator and I made sure to do our share before heading back to Jakarta. What else? Shoes and bags. Oh, and dress shirts that aren’t batik. The weekend after my field visit was time to finish my Christmas shopping.
Christmas stories and tales of my return to come…
Love and hugs to all! E
No comments:
Post a Comment