Village in the Forest

I just returned from Guntur Macan, which is the village that I can easily say has been the best village experience thus far. After we got permission from the village office to be there Tony, Agus and I met the Mandor, which is the Indonesian version of a community forest monitor. We followed him to his house, which was 400 meters straight uphill. Tony and I got stuck a couple of times on the hills because the weight of him, my backpack and I was too much for the poor little motorcycle. Although the first time trying to get to the Mandor’s house was difficult, it was magnificently beautiful. When you ride up the first hill you come to a plateau of sorts where you can see a lush valley of forest beneath you. It was refreshing to see after being in villages dedicated to agriculture or that are in general deforested. Another thing that I immediately noticed was that it was much cooler in this village than anywhere else I had been on the island. I almost forgot what the sensation of cold was like aside from taking cold showers since my house does not have hot water in Mataram. It was refreshing in the afternoon, but I was not prepared for it at night. Either way, it was nice to be less then hot and humid for a few days.

The home we stayed at was surrounded by trees, and really big trees, which I have seen few of in the villages we have been in despite being in a tropical forest. People use the trees for food, fuelwood, to make palm sugar, and to support their livelihoods in a variety of ways. However, it is easy to see that the forest is in better condition here than anywhere else I have been. I can also tell that the government gas stove program has been more effective here then other villages. Whether that has mitigated forest degradation is something I have not concluded yet, but this village seems to use the forest very differently.

Another great thing about this village was that tourists never go to the village. This was great because they did not have any preconceived ideas about how I was to behave and they were curious to learn about me. An elderly woman was very happy and fascinated by me. She wanted to look at me, and touch me. She was impressed by how tall I am. In some ways I feel like I was being examined. She had never met a tourist before and she was happy to see how friendly I was. She gave me a gift of a huge bunch of bananas and had me over to her house to let me see her stove and her ducks. Everyone was much more excited to talk to me, and many people worked on practicing their English. They were really proud to use it for the first time after learning it in school. It was fun to see their faces light up when they talked to me.

I also was able to befriend a lot of the children in this village, which was fun. I chased around the Mandor’s son and neighbor until they started beating me with sticks. The game was less fun after that so I ran and hid. They were small so it did not hurt, but they won, and they were proud of themselves. The older son of the Mandor also was very fun. He took us to a waterfall with his friends, helped me catch and feed kittens that were wandering around the house, and he bought fireworks, which happened to be on the 4^th of July. So I was able to see fireworks after all. They were small sparklers and popping things, not actual fireworks, but it did the job and they were fun. I am excited to see what the last village has in store for us.