How to save endangered animals in Indonesia

I had heard a lot about saving animal. From a whale in river Thames, elephants in Chiang Mai, Panda in China, Polar bears in the Poles, some frogs species in Costa Rica, until a rare Tazmanian butterfly in wherever Tazmanian butterfly lives, because it's very rare. Saving animal never came across my mind for I grew up in a world of human chauvinist. If I gave a bit my lunch to a lost, thin, starving, dirty cat meowing under a rubbish bin, my parents would yell at me, "No meat for you tonight. You'd better share your food with your siblings next time!" For the sake of 'adequate nutritional intake' in my childhood, I had to feed lost animals very, very secretly since then.

But now since being an environmentalist becomes an emerging trend, I decided to take part in saving my world (from annual flood, daily air pollution, all times rubbish. Not so far until global warming and walrus. They're too far away. And not included earthquakes. They're part of fate). Saving animals is included. Regarding my unsuccessful experiences in my younger days, I started developing new methods in saving animals. I made an attempt to explain that animals are part of the nature, balance of the food chains, have important role in ecosystem and heritage for our children and so on and so forth and bla bla but to no avail. Sadly the word "greenpeace" only means a bunch of people, claiming themselves conservationists but the mere thing they do is standing in a shopping mall, explaining about their project in a language that hardly understood by normal people-but you have to pretend to follow them unless you want to look ignorant- and eventually: asking for our credit card number. Not to mention that they will send a membership card saying you have participated in Greenpeace movement. Yeah, that's so cool. I'll call them if my greenpeace membership card gets drifted in the flood.

This new technique I want to show you, works better. To save an endangered animals in Indonesia, you'd rather:

1. Claim the animal as a magical being, not a real animal, but actually another shape of human with supranatural power who seeks for something mystical. By calling it binatang jadi-jadian or ngepet, the poor animal will obtain another chance to live, because nobody dare to harm it. The drawback is, if there's someone claim himself/herself having paranormal power and decide to kill it for the sake of paranormal hierarchy, then the animal is now more endangered than before. It's a bit tricky to deal with occultism, in fact. Still, it's more promising than greenpeace in the shopping malls.
2. Spread the issue that the animal brings a good luck. Like arwana or lohan fish. Suddenly everybody loves them and in every corner of fish stall, everybody sells the fish with a high price. No wonder a lot of people try to breed the fish. Conclusion: the fish saved from extinction.
3. Say that an animal has a curative effect, when alive. It's common to say that some animals bring health or enhance well-being, but when eaten. This, of course, doesn't work. Say that they bring more health and enhance more well-being (we can add improve sexual ability here) when they live happily, healthily and in a good shape (means not dead or cooked in a ginger sauce).
4. Claim that the animal is good for feng-shui, business or anything to do with prosperity. Same reason as number two.
5. Make saving animal a trend. If we can make a good-rating television program about how a cool dude rescuing an orang utan baby (without becoming Tarzan. Tarzan is so out of date) and then give it a free life in its habitat, perhaps some people will give their credit card number to support greenpeace saving orang utan in Kalimantan forest.

I'm glad that now Indonesia has conserved komodo dragon in komodo island although some said they had prey on human beings. Apart from the human slaughtered part, for sure. Yet they're thousands of birds, fishes, reptiles, mamals and big mamals get endangered in Indonesia. Deforestation, pollutions, and irresponsible huntings have threatened the land that is very rich of biodiversity. For how long should we rely on the greenpeace agency selling projects in the shopping malls?

An unpublished piece of writing

I want to share this writing in my blog because otherwise it will be hidden somewhere in the corner of my messy desk. I attempted submitting it for travel writing competition but I am still far from the short list. At the very least, I would like to hear something from my blogger mates.

I did my first work as a fresh graduate physician in Papua. It was an incredible experience and I always love writing about it. One day I wish to write a full version on Papua, its people and other issues. Wish me luck on this, guys!

Oh, I haven't got any title for this. I'm opened for suggestions.

I couldn’t help myself from feeling heroic. I’m in a twin-otter aircraft gliding amidst mountains in Baliem Valley, Papua, Indonesia. As a medical trainee, I am to provide health service to the native Yali tribe in a village called Ninia.

I poke my head out the window to look. The undulating landscape below is idyllic: lush green pyramids with a few bald patches like heads shaved with broken electric razors. Decorating cliff walls are minuscule terraced waterfalls, hazy with fleecy clouds. The aeroplane rounds sharply and its machines roar beneath my strapped seat, the propellers whirling tenaciously. We are about to land.

My modest expectation is to be greeted warmly by the people, although some folk-dancing by half-naked women in jute skirt and nude men with noses pierced by pig’s bones and penises wrapped in gourds wouldn’t do any harm. Instead, everybody is busy taking squealing pigs out of the plane’s hold. I‘m Indonesian, yet foreign. Other passengers are being hugged and kissed; I’m left alone. It’s significantly disappointing to see everyone wearing clothes with pictures of grinning politicians.

The mantri, someone responsible for the small clinic I am working at, takes me to my so-called house. It isn’t old, just badly made. The handle disconnects when turned; the door has to be lifted to open it. Cracks are gaping here and there, and mice are running through them as a biting wind repeatedly enters the house. Lying on creaky bedframe is a filthy mattress with a centimetre-thick layer of dust. It will be hard to spend the night here.

I’m saved by a heaven-sent honai (hut), which also serves as a kitchen. Made and covered mostly by hay, this incredible two-floored traditional house is warm enough to sleep in. It has four pillars in the middle surrounding a fireplace with a rack above for drying the firewood.
Olince is asked to guide and assist me. She is one of a few schoolgirls who understands Indonesian. She brings her little brother along. The day’s spent on endless patients who aren’t actually ill, just coming merely out of curiosity. At noon, Olince shows me how to get water. We walk over stiles and walls made of stones. Pigs are wandering around. She teaches me how to make fire and pick edible roots. After sunset, we lay down to rest. It’s raining. The small sweet potato field outside is wet and muddy. Nobody wants to go out although the smoke from fire hangs thickly under the thatch like cobwebs.

Midnight. I desperately need to empty my bladder. Stepping out, I squat and urinate. It’s remarkably peaceful, only the sound of a distant river flowing in the background. The pale silver moon has made every shadow look purplish. Back in the hut, I glance at Olince’s face lit up by the dancing light of the fire’s embers, so at her brother’s. In repose, they look almost serene.

I am not the hero I thought I was. They have been taking care of me.

How do you learn English?

In Indonesia, being an English teacher is considerably a good job. Somehow people in my country think that learning English is dutifully important, either if we are looking for a job or further education. Perhaps it's because we are too lazy to change all computer commands to our language, or we don't bother to translate all devices, manual books, books, songs, even signs of emergency exits in imported trains or planes we have. Very likely so. For teenagers, it sounds like they're on MTV. It makes even a dork look so cool.

Anyway, let's share how we learn English. I know there are methods: from joining an expensive private class by a native English speaker from Oxford/Cambridge to reading a second-hand English dictionary out loud. It depends on how serious, how much time you have, how desperate you are (or how desperate your parents are) and what you can afford. The last one is actually the least, I'm going to tell you why.

In my home village, there was an English teacher who opened a class for free in the evening. Why did she do that? She actually wanted the children to sing Christmas carols in church on Christmas day in English. So she taught us English. This is my first exposure to English and I wasn't very young either (I know some parents nowadays try to talk English to their toddlers and put them to English nursing class or ask the babysitter to speak English etc.). I was 14 years old and never before in my life had I got any English lesson. I have to say that I enjoyed the lesson very much. I remembered those cards with pictures saying: banana, tomato, ear, nose, ball, and so forth.

A year later, because my Mom is a bit advanced in mind regarding my education (in her opinion, if my grandpa a.k.a her Dad sings a very good English song while he is in the toilet, why not her daughter?), I was forced -well, at that time I still considered watching a full episode of Knight Rider was more important than anything- to join a local English course. I was lucky. This place, although is in a small town of Pekalongan, has a very good quality of language teaching. Most students from this course have no difficulty at all to any English exams at school. If not to say that they are very much in advance to normal school's curriculum. This course basically was a foundation of my English. It wasn't a famous language school by all means, no native speaker or anything foreign, no international standard whatsoever. It's so down to earth that it's easy for a native Indonesian (especially from the countryside) to grasp the lessons.

It's very common for Indonesians to know English but have little confidence to speak it. I suggest that working abroad and traveling will sort this problem out. If you're on your own in a foreign place, you have to talk to survive. If we work, we'll earn something and we don't have to pay a class. These are examples where I learnt English:

• from British advertisement. Once, when asked, "How was the food?" I would just nod or say "good," Since I heard some commercial breaks on TV, now I can say, "Oh, it's very tasty and nourishing, definitely scrumptious!"
• from a second-hand book stores. They usually have some collections of Adrian Mole series by Sue Towsend. In this book I found the words "barmy", "mongrel", "stick insect", "plonker", "berk", "prat", "daft" and "dork". They're quite useful sometimes.
• from the signposts. I learnt the meaning of: "cycle dismount" "humps in 30 meters" "cul-de-sac" "pedestrian crossing" "public pathway" "car boot sale" and so on.
• from the cookery books I used for cooking at work. I learnt some words like saute, roast, grill, simmer, sizzle, stew, toast, steam, thaw, etc and also the difference between fold and mix, oven and microwave (this is serious!), frying pan and saucepan, kettle and casserole. Oh, not to forget many names of the cooking gizmos: colander, apple corer, baster, egg timer, potato peeler, sieve, spatula, whisk, wok, mortar and pestle, etc.
  
• from the garden. I've learnt the names of some vegetables: aubergine, swiss chards, squash, white pumpkin, white radish, horseradish, beetroot, etc. And also some herbs: coriander, dill, fenugreek, rosemary, fennel, nutmeg, oregano, star anise, turmeric, and so on.
• from the road/supermarket: "Are you alright, love?", "Cheers, love!" instead of "How are you?" and "Thank you!"
  
• from the table : "Could you pass me the salt please?" and if someone offer me anything I should response "Yes, please" or "No, thank you," instead of merely saying yes or no. It's more polite, they said.
  
• from everyday conversation: Instead of saying: help! Now I know I should say: "Do you mind?" or "Would you mind?" and if you want to help, the answer is "No" not "Yes".

So, I think now I'm speaking English. It's not quite a standard English, but understandable. At least by myself. Now I'm improving my English by doing crossword puzzle. What is the answer for untouched-smaller version of the harpsichord (8 letters)?