South by Southeast part 2

Wonuahua, our second village on the list of Southeast sites, is part of Lambuya sub-district. From Unaaha, it takes about 30-40 minutes drive.

The village is divided into several sub-villages, spreading across the terrain.

We met Mr. Ibrahim, the leader of farmers’ group at his stilt house that is located amongst cacao trees.

Mr. Ibrahim lives at sub-village 3, which is miles away from the main road, that it takes another 15-20 minutes passing thru slopes and bunches of cacao farms.


Along the grubby soil path toward sub-village 3, plots of cacao trees with owner’s house usually sited at the back are the only thing that is apparent. In this sub-village, each residential is distant between one to another.

Sub-village 3 is also dominated by migrants from South Sulawesi. Most of local Tolaki people lives in the other side of the sub-village that is closer to the main road.

Originally from Pinrang, South Sulawesi, Mr. Ibrahim came to Wonuahua in 2004. Back in his hometown, he grew rice field, which didn’t really make fortune for him. He then decided to migrate to the Southeast, in attempt to improve his livelihood by opening lands and planting cacao after hearing the promising future for the commodity. He’s been cultivating cacao ever since, with additional bunch of pepper trees mixed in his garden.

Mr. Ibrahim treated us with delicious lunch, where he specifically asked his wife to butcher an ‘ayam kampung’ (free range chicken) and cooked it for us. In here, ‘ayam kampung’ only cooked on special occasion, usually to value guest and during celebration.

In the afternoon, plates of traditional South Sulawesi dessert slash thirst quencher, ‘es pisang ijo’ (banana battered served with crushed ice) were handed out by the lady of the house.  It was perfect to tame the burning sun, that I would say I was so well-fed that day, my tummy wished this could happen everyday.

We managed to finish the survey in Wonuahua earlier than predicted, that on the second day, we went with Mr. Ibrahim’s son, Ashar to see waterfalls nearby. Ashar took his little brothers, and his three best friends to join our spree. A white canine belongs to the boys also voluntary participated to accompany us on our little venture.

The waterfalls is located in the middle of logged-over forest. We walked for 1.5 hours (or was it 2 hours?) through cacao farms, big bunch of sago trees, bushes of unattended pathcoulies shrubs, wild coffee  trees, tens of small rivers, and broken branches before reaching the spot.

It was a work out for me who’s been absent from treadmill and the pool for the past couple of weeks.

As soon as we arrived, the kids quickly  jumped into the water. Miss Endri and I just sat there, enjoying the view, taking pictures and watching pretty butterflies.

In the afternoon, we continued our trip to Ladongi, a district in Kolaka regency which is about an hour from Unaaha. In Ladongi, we stayed at the office of our local partner, Operation Wallace Trust (OWT) and planned to visit other three villages which all located in the vicinity.

We went to Tasahea first, a village in Tirawuta district the next morning. Tasahea is a village inhabited by local Tolaki, South Sulawesi migrants, and also transmigrants. The transmigrants mainly departed from East Java and Bali in the 70s following an official program and self-spontaneous transmigration. 

I chatted with Mr. Wayan Suanjo, a Bali descendant who happens to be the head of sub-district. He explained that his parents left Bali in 1979. They sailed to Ladongi, and during the first years, they planted vegetables, cassava, and corn to support their lives, before changing into long-term commodities such as cacao, coconuts and peppers.

He also described how the village still preserves the Balinese tradition, that it owns community pura (temple) and traditional processions leads by custom priest are still frequently held. Four of my respondents were Balinese, who still posses the strong, particular Balinese accent. At home, the Balinese language is still used  as first language for communication. The fact that they still hold on into their cultural tradition to conserve the identity even after being away for decades, somehow fascinates me.

In Tasahea, I also went to sub-village 5 which was merely reachable couple of months earlier, after one of the governor’s candidate agreed to solidify the muddy surface in hope of winning the ballot for the upcoming regent election.  

Some of the South Sulawesi migrants live in this sub-village, where each house is distant from one to another, separated by cacao and pepper farms. Similar as other isolated regions in every part of the world, the distance and difficult accessibility from the main road limit the information access and availability. This condition is made worse by the electricity deficiency that limits the use of communication media.

The next day, we moved to Taosu, a village mixed of local Tolaki and migrants from the south. In here, my interviews were focused mostly on local Tolaki people. Generally, most of the villagers in Taosu depend their living from cacao farms. Some, plant pepper that is profitable but at the same time facing challenge from the pest and disease attack in the recent years which its cause remain unknown up until now.

Taosu was finished in two days, and afterwards we moved to Tinondo village

Similar as Taosu, in Tinondo, I gathered information mostly from local Tolaki. However, different with other villages I visited in Southeast, the residents in Tinondo make a living out of cultivating rice, instead of cacao. Nevertheless, cacao is still planted in the garden as source of additional income.

After meeting tens of local Tolaki in several villages, I have to admit that some of them resemble the Vietnamese. Some (yes, some, because the rest look just like Melayu ethnic) bear slanted eyes and rather fair skin akin to the Indochinese peninsula, that Miss Endri and I wonder if both ethnicities were perhaps related in the past.

Following the continuous trip to 3Ts (Tasahea, Taosu and Tinondo), we (particularly me) started to show the symptoms of fatigue. I caught a terrible flu and runny nose, having to bring tissues wherever I go. We then decided to take a day off and drove back to Unaaha. We stayed in a hotel in there and prepared ourselves for the last village on the list, yet the most difficult one to access; Ambondiaa.

Ambondiaa is located in Asinua Jaya, a district that is part of the Konawe regency.

Our driver Wawan, told me that the distance is average, but the road condition is dreadful especially after raining. He said there were stories when vehicles got trapped on the puddle of muds for days. Not only that, the rest of the vicinity is principally a forest, and there’s no transmitter tower built around, which without doubt, has turned one’s trip into such great endeavor.

Two days before our visit to Ambondiaa, rain fell heavily in the area. We were so worried of not being able to pass. But luckily, in the following days sun overpowered the thick black clouds. Alhamdulillah.

We drove from Unaaha at 7.30 and reached Ambondiaa around 10 o’clock. We stayed in Kepala Dusun’s house for a night.

The village is dominated by local Tolaki. They plant cacao, pepper, and fruit trees in the garden, while twice a year go to the forest to collect honey. Lots of villagers in the Ambondiaa depend on honey as additional source of income. For them, honey-collecting tradition has been part of their lives for over than three decades, and is usually done by men. 

Typically, the honey-collecting season happens during October–November and February–March. In those periods, tons of organic honey are harvested from the forest by smoking the hives. In this process, usually one person would lit up a set of bamboo twigs and sago leaves, and the other would climb  the tree where the beehives are hanging, while fetching the smoking set.

The smoke produces by the twigs and leaves would scare the bee away, allowing the honey hunter to take the hives apart and crushed it to extract the honey. The pure honey then is placed in a plastic container and taken down to the village. Harvest from one tree can generate around 20–30 litres of the golden liquid. During the season, traders and middle men from Unaaha visit Ambondiaa to buy honey from the hunters. 500 ml of pure organic honey can cost around Rp 25.000 to 30.000, and will rise as high as Rp 50.000 to 70.000 when it reaches Unaaha.

My survey  in Ambondiaa was successfully finished in one day, and in the afternoon, we spent the time sitting on the porch, drinking coffee, munching on biscuits, and gazing at the sky. The moon came early that day, and I sat there to witness how Ambondia slowly swallowed by darkness.

The distance and the poor road infrastructure has prevent the village from having one of the most essential service: electricity.  People in Ambondiaa rely on generator to power their houses. However, just like other struggling villages, generator is only available several times a week, owing to their budget limitation to buy gasoline.

We slept early that night, in a glasses-less windowed room. A long, white mosquito net was hanging above our bed, even though as far as I recalled, mosquitoes are no where to be found. 

The next morning, we said goodbye to our host.We left the village at 9.30 am. 

On our way back home, we paid a visit to a transmigration village we passed. One of the man that I talked with mentioned that they were originally from Central Java. They lived in Magelang, in a village that was wrecked badly when Mount Merapi erupted. There was nothing left in the village worth staying, so they immediately took the opportunity when the government offered transmigration program. 

It’s been a year since they arrived in Asinua. Now they’re all busy cultivating their farms with vegetables.

We continued our trip back to Unaaha for another 1.5 hours. We stopped by for lunch at a restaurant in Unaaha, and drove directly to Kendari.

As I sat in my hotel room in Kendari, I realize that I couldn’t be more grateful for this whole experience. The village-hopping trip had given me opportunity to work with one of the brightest yet humble research partner, involved in a research for the first time, visited remote villages that may don’t exist on google map, met lots of kind-hearted farmers, gained insights and new perspectives, learnt to adapt to different culture and conditions, and most of all, it gave me chance to know my self better. Because I believe nothing is more fulfilling than being able to reflect on yourself: admitting your flaws, working on your gifts and accepting your weaknesses gracefully. 

Pretty ceiling

House of Balinese descendant in Tasahea

I caught the moon