Bill and Ian at the Grand Canyon
My Dad also had another first as this was the first photo of him ever to make it on facebook. It currently has 104 likes. Not many people can say every photo of them on facebook has over 100 likes!
After a wonderful, and very cold, visit to Canada I arrived in Indonesia and very quickly encountered my old nemesis. . . jet lag. In my experience jet lag is not simply just being very tired, or having trouble sleeping but it is the feeling of opening your eyes when you wake up and you've never felt more awake. Your body has decided that it is morning time and there is nothing you could do to go back to sleep, regardless of what time it is. When I first came to Indonesia in June my "jet lag it is now morning" time was around 4:30am. This was manageable. This time around my body had decided my mornings would begin at midnight. For the first few days my typical day would start at midnight, by about 6am as the sun was rising I'd be ready for some lunch, and at around 5pm I would collapse for the night. Fortunately this only lasted for 3 days.
Global Youth Summit in Singapore:
Very little time was wasted getting back into another adventure as after one day of teaching, and a one day national holiday I departed to Singapore for five days to supervise a field trip. Some people would find waking up at 4 in the morning to be unbearable. Most people would find supervising 31 children unbearable. Everyone finds airports unbearable. But what I find most unbearable is supervising 31 children at an airport at 4 in the morning. Its a wonder I didn't lose a passport, or a student in the mayhem that ensued.
Checking everyone in for the trip to Singapore
In my own words, I would describe the Global Youth Summit as an environmental conference with over 350 students from 12 different countries. 10 of the countries were Asian nations (Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, China, Laos, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar and Brunei) but one school from Australia participated and one school joined us all the way from Oman.
Two students from Oman dressed in their traditional attire
The GYS consisted of several very educational and interesting day trips to:
A landfill, on top of Islands that had been built using incinerated and compacted waste,
A landfill, on top of Islands that had been built using incinerated and compacted waste,
The Singaporean NewWater plant where recycled water from industry, household drains, and even toilets is processed and made into "New water", which currently meets 30% of Singapore's water needs.
An incineration plant, which I didn't go to, and the marina barrage which provides water storage, flood control and recreation.
A model of the marina barrage
In addition to the field trips there were lots of opportunities for students to make new friends and discuss environmental issues with students from other countries.
A photo of all of the Indonesian students in attendance
There were also many, many talks/presentations from various environmental experts.
I snapped a photo of me catching one of my students taking a nap during one of the presentations
Then I snapped a photo of one of my students catching me snapping a photo of me catching him taking a nap during one of the presentations
This very innocent looking expression on my face is how I was always able to stay out of trouble as a kid. He clearly suspects nothing.
There was a lot of media coverage of the event. Magazines and TV stations from several different countries were in attendance to film parts of the conference, and interview some of the participants. Several of my students became instant celebrities being asked to participate in several interviews.
Answering questions for a magazine from Indonesia
And a magazine from Singapore
The conference was not just about education, but was also about taking action. All schools were required to design projects to address the major environmental issues in their home countries. The projects must be something they could launch in their local community, be sustainable, and have a large, positive impact on the environment. Students then had to present their ideas in front of a panel of judges and an audience of around 500 people. The top 3 teams from the junior and senior categories were then given funding (a total of around $8000 was awarded) to launch their projects.
Students from my school bravely spoke in front of this large audience (something that makes me nervous to think about doing) and presented their ideas.
The Junior students presented their idea called "Go Green Bina Bangsa" of making tissue boxes out of 100% recycled material.
And the Senior team presented their project called "Dream Green Indonesia" of collecting used water bottles and bringing these to a recycling plant which can use the plastic to melt down and make into blankets. These blankets would then be donated to those in need.
Very proud of my students for their great public speaking skills, and excellent ideas in their recycling initiatives.
Some additional highlights for me included meeting a teacher from Malaysia who studied for four year at my University, Queen's University in Canada. It was interesting that we lived in the same city for 4 years in Canada, then she went home to Malaysia and I moved to Indonesia, and it was at a conference in Singapore that we met.
In order to charge my phone I needed to convert to the electricity of several different countries. . .
During the first day of the conference the mc asked me my name, where I was from and in front of 500 people told me I look like hercules. Its not every day someone tells you that you look like a Greek god but I am always willing to accept a compliment.
Several weeks later at the movies I had the unfortunately realization that he didn't think a looked like a Greek god at all, rather that I looked similar to the actor in the new movie The Legend of Hercules.
An interesting experience
Do you remember what a bank book is? That little booklet that you use to have to take to the bank to record your bank balance before the ages of debit cards and online banking? Think hard, it was probably 15 years ago that you last saw one.
I recently misplaced my Indonesian bank book, which is the only way I can access the money in my Indonesian account. The way I saw it I had two options. I could either A) wait for the technology to catch up and for bank books to become moot (couldn't be more than a few months away), or B) get a new one. I chose option B, but now I think option A may have been the better choice.
Contrary to popular belief that if you lose your bank book you need to go to the bank to get a new one, I was shocked to find out that if you lose your bank book you need to go to the police station. Instead of trying to explain the procedure, which I can't, I'll just describe what I had to do.
I drove my motorcycle, with one of the members of the school's support staff on the back, to the police station. I needed this man to speak Bahasa Indonesian for me at the police station. As soon as I saw the police station I pulled over and we switched who was driving. Why you might ask? I don't exactly have a license to be driving my motorcycle, so driving it into the parking lot of the police station didn't seem like a very good idea. (If you think this is bad, then I won't tell you how many of my students drive without a license or have bribed their way into a license as they are not yet old enough to have a driver's license.) We then went into the police station to report my bank book lost.
The officer chain smoked throughout our chat. His computer was manufactured in 2001. It is the closest computer I've ever seen to having lived through the Y2K scare. Before he would grant me permission to have lost my bank book and get a new one I had to slip him an envelope with cash in it. He opened the envelope and slipped the money into his breast pocket, which I could see already had quite a large collection of money in it. It must have been a good day of taking bribes for him so far. The second reason that I brought a local to the police station with me was that the size of the bribe would have been significantly larger had a foreigner shown up alone with the request.
With the officer's written permission, and his personal phone number in case the bank had any questions, I was able to leave this rather interesting experience with a new bank book.
Chinese New Year
The end of January marked Chinese New Year which for me meant a celebration at the school filled with traditional Chinese clothing, student and guest performances, and at the end of the festivities - a 4 and a half day weekend!
Some lions (dragons?) came to our school to do some cool dance moves
Students dressed in their Chinese apparel.
My Canada Olympic apparel was the best I could come up with.
Our staff of Chinese language teachers helped organize a pretty cool day for the teachers and kids. Unfortunately most of it took place in Chinese, which meant I spent most of the time very confused.
Borneo - Tanjung Puting National Park
After the Chinese New Year celebration it was time to fly to the Island of Bornea for the long weekend. Borneo is the third largest island in the world, and the largest in Asia. Three quarters of it is part of Indonesia, one quarter is part of Malaysia and about 1% of it is part of Brunei. It is the only place in the world where the endangered proboscis monkey is found (photos to come) and is one of only two places in the world (the other being another Indonesian island) where orangutans live (also photos to come). Zoos don't count.
The world's most famous orangutan researcher Birute Galdikas (yes, that is a person's name) spent 30 years on this island researching orangutans. She is what Jane Goodall is to chimpanzee research, and what Diane Fossey is to gorilla research. Infact, the three of these ladies are nicknamed "The Trimates" and all three of them shared the same mentor. She was born in Germany but grew up in Toronto, Canada! Consider the fact that orangutans are found on only two islands in the whole world yet almost everyone in the world knows what they are. This is in part thanks to her research, conservation efforts and making globally aware the fact that this species is endangered due to deforestation causing habitat destruction. In particular Birute would rescue captive orangutans, raise them, and re-release them into the jungle in Borneo. She has been on the cover of National Geographic magazine twice. Genetically, orangutans are our third closest living relative and they are magnificent creatures.
Check out this trailer of a documentary Warner Brothers and Imax made, narrated by Morgan Freeman, about orangutans and largely following Birute's life work of trying to save this species.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chDeyAHI4ck
This amazing experience began with chartering our own boat (I went with Jeremy and Kassandra, a couple living/teaching in Jakarta who I have travelled to Bali with). The three of us had a whole boat to ourselves which would be our home for the next three days. The only time we left the boat was to venture into the jungle to see primates. Our ship came with a captain, a guide to take us into the jungle, a chef, and a 4th crew member whose duties we never figured out.
Neither of these yachts were our boat. . .
We stayed on a more modest ship but it was comfortable and perfect for navigating the narrow rivers in the jungle.
At night time mattresses were brought up from below deck and mosquito nets were set up to protect us from mosquitos and who knows what else.
Recognizing how much a cold beer would add to the relaxing environment we were heading into we inquired about bringing some beer out with us. The owner of the boat informed us that alcohol had been banned on this island recently due to too much trouble resulting from the consumption of alcohol. Bummer. . .
Fortunately for us we were in Indonesia and the words "illegal" or "banned" are synonyms for "it'll cost you a little bit extra". As the island is quite a popular tourist destination no time was wasted after the ban in setting up a black market where alcohol is shipped up from Bali and sold at an additional dollar a bottle. We were reassured by the owner of the boat that it was perfectly ok for us to be using the black market. If a police officer caught us, he would have no interest in getting us in trouble with the law, we would just have to make sure he makes a small profit from the crime as well.
Similarly we were bummed to find out that fishing in the river was illegal. This time "illegal" was code for "only fish at night time".
This trip was full of many firsts for me, particularly when it came to seeing wildlife. Before our boat even left we spotted a mudskipper.
Now, to travel for hours down a river, in crocodile, monitor lizard and snakehead fish infested water, surrounded on both sides by jungle filled with endangered species of monkeys, rare tropical birds and tropical plants, all in an effort to reach the end destination of Tanjung Puting National Park to see orangutans. . .
Let's do it!
Kassandra, Jeremy and myself in the jungle in Borneo
It was not long until we began to spot rustling in the trees and stopped the boat, grabbed our cameras and binoculars and held our breaths in hopes of what we might be about to see.
The proboscis monkey is very easy to identify, thanks to its very distinct nose. I'll let you decide for yourself what you think its nose looks like. These monkeys are endangered (again mostly because of habitat destruction through deforestation) but I wouldn't have guessed that to be true based on the hundreds that we saw.
Each group has one dominant male with a harem of females
We saw 3 additional species of primates that I was unable to photograph including macaques, short tailed macaques (which had a pig nose and are carnivorous, hunting animals ranging from rabbits to deer), and the maroon leaf monkey, the Presbytis rubicunda.
The only time we left our boat was when we arrived at the orangutan feeding stations and we walked through the jungle to get to them.
Our guide leading us to the first orangutan feeding station of our trip
When we got to the feeding station we were greeted by this pretty redheaded girl:
you can watch myself, and this orangutan at the 2014 Olympic games in Sochi competing in the newest olympic event, synchronized tree swinging
At the next feeding station we arrived before the food was put out, and this allowed us to spot the orangutans off in the distance and watch them move through the trees.
On our walk to the station I was able to see a plant I had never seen before, the pitcher plant.
This plant has modified leaves that allow it to trap insects such as ants in its "pitchers". The walls of the pitchers are slippery so the ants cannot escape, and the ant will drown in the water that has collected in the pitcher from rain. The ant will then be digested by the plant to help meet the mineral requirements of the plant.
Leave only footprints, take only "pitchers"
Before the orangutans arrive there is another animal that likes to steal a quick meal.
It turns out sneakiness is a universal trait for squirrels.
It was really cool watching how gracefully orangutans can move through the trees. They have such incredible control over their weight distribution, being able to balance perfectly on a branch or small tree one moment, then shifting their weight to cause the tree to bend in the direction of the next branch they want to swing to.
I suppose a long day of swinging through the trees can really work up an appetite
At night we ventured through the jungle in search of tarantulas. We didn't find any, but I guess that also means that the the tarantulas didn't find us. We were able to see one species of crocodile though, the false gharial, which is also classified as endangered.
Croc and I comparing our teeth
After a relaxing, very eventful first day and a half in the jungle seeing so many cool animals, it was impossible to believe that the best was still yet to come.
We had arrived at Tanjung Puting National Park, and the research station where Birute Galdikas had done her life work.
This is the house where Professer Galdikas lived for 30 years as she did her research
On the path to the feeding station a mother and her child were just hanging out offering directions to lost tourists for a small fee of one banana
Myself, Jeremy and orangutans
Some orangutans came close enough for a selfie
My favourite primate from the trip was definitely the gibbons, which is technically an ape although it looks just like a monkey to me which puts my biology expertise to the test. This animal has incredibly long arms and as a result must awkwardly hold them in the air when it runs so they don't drag on the ground, which is incredibly entertaining. Their long arms however make them incredibly fast swinging from branch to branch in the trees, which is also very entertaining to watch.
The gibbons and baby orangutans sharing the milk
With my quick wit and great sense of humour I pointed to this building and joked "did the orangutans paint that building?". To which our guide replied "yes".
Apparently they had painted it without permission though. My favourite story however was that since orangutans cannot swim they would steal the canoes and paddle themselves across the river. This was a problem because the orangutans would abandon the canoes downstream and the researchers would have trouble keeping track of their canoes. To prevent this from happening the researchers would sink the canoes in the shallow water with rocks so the orangutans couldn't use them. The orangutans were strong enough and smart enough to lift them out of the water, empty them, then proceed on their journey across the river.
My flights are booked to Thailand in March.
See you there Lucas and Cole
