My last week in Sumatra has been a busy one!
Laura managed to make it over from China, so there was lots of catching up to do after 3 years apart. We spent our days exploring bukit lawang and the surroundings, swimming, washing in the river and getting stuck places due to rain, despite it supposedly being dry season!
The day after Laura arrived we headed into the jungle for a trek. It was so exciting to be back in the noisy greenery and knowing that no one has seen Mina (the aggressive orangutan) since covid made the experience a bit calmer than last time I was there! We saw quite a few orangutan’s , including a male in the distance which I’ve never seen before!
The Friday following the trek was of course market day, where we tried a traditional Indonesian drink which mainly consisted of brown sugar and coconut milk. I also got the undercut in my hair reshaved for 5,000, which was a pretty good deal! At the market we had been desperately hunting for lemons to make a pasta sauce, but gave up and bought tomatoes. As we were leaving the market we found multiple stalls selling lemons! But we headed back to Fitris and made her and her sister pasta with tomato sauce and green beans. It was nice to cook for Fitri for a change, although I think she would have preferred a bit more chilli than we added!
Saturday night involved Laura being roped into singing on the stage at Thomas’s, we were however up early (ish) Sunday morning to head to Landak river market for the day. The market is a lot less popular now than it used to be as a serious flood at Landak about a year ago has put a lot of people off, but for us it was lovely to be there with it being a bit quieter than before. Laura nearly lost a shoe to the river but as always Fitri came to the rescue.
On our penultimate day we did at ATM run (on my old bike – it’s so fun to be driving again) and popped by Ibu Erna’s to say goodbye to her. This time round I wasn’t roped into holding a worm to show to school children as I was the week before when I visited her! Then we headed up to Tri’s house as she was having a celebration of her teaching business being open a year. Initially this involved some party games with her tutoring students, but following this about 20 orphaned children came to her house and prayed with her. Tri had decided when she was still studying that if she was given a permanent contract at the government school then she would donate 3 months of her salary to orphans in the village. In addition to this, she had made food for 100 people (neighbours, friends, students, orphans etc) to give thanks for her successes at work. I’m have such remarkable friends!!
After the children went home we all sat outside Tris house singing karaoke and dancing – this is something I’ve really missed! Although I’m always a bit irritated that ALL Indonesian people seem to be able to sing amazingly!
Tuesday was a day of goodbyes and being able to do them properly this time without the spectre of covid!! I finished off the trip with a bbq at indah and my friends bought me a very green cake!!
Next stop – Nias!
Rosie Roams 