Documenting a Project: An Experience in Sulawesi

The pretty landscape of Bantaeng

 Something I wrote for the project's blog. 

The project that I'm currently involved in, operates  in South and Southeast Sulawesi provinces in Indonesia. A few months ago, I was given the chance to revisit the project areas in both provinces. The objective of my trip was to document the accomplishments the project have made. In order to fulfill the task, I was accompanied by two videographers from Jakarta. Together, we drove from Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi for three hours to  Bantaeng, passing through the flat lands of Gowa and Jeneponto districts, traditional stilt houses, shrimp farmings and hectares of paddy fields. The plan was simple: to go to districts and interview first-hand sources such as farmers, representative of government agency and partner organization. Yet apparently, the simple mission may not be as simple as it seemed in the first place.

In Bantaeng we were scheduled to meet Mr. Syamsu Alam, the head of agricultural and livestock office. We supposed to conduct the interview at his official house, yet we found the paddy fields next to the house more profounding. As the videographers looked for ideal angles and prepared the microphone, Mr. Alam shared his thought. He spoke very softly that we had to ask him to raise the volume up to get a clear audio quality. Mr. Alam later explained that the AgFor Sulawesi project fits the district program to conserve and rehabilitate land very well. He also hoped that the project can be sustainable in the long term, and can synergize better with other local government programs.

On the same day, we also visited farmers group members who are being actively involved with the project. We talked to Amiruddin from Pucuk Mekar farmers’ group, who mentioned about the visit made by clove expert. “I’ve been planting cloves for years, yet turned out that the technique I’ve been practicing was incorrect,” he responded to our question on the  highlight of the visit. “The problem in here, that we (farmers) are lack of information, thus it was great to have the expert shared the knowledge and practiced the technique directly in the garden with us. This way, we become better-informed” he added.

For most of farmers in the village like Mr. Amiruddin, it was probably their first experience having camera around, documenting their activity. A lot of time, the videographers would received curious look from the passers-by and questions from kids on how the camera works.

Specifically  when it comes to talk in front of a camera, some farmers can be very natural –like Amiruddin–,  being confident and able to express themselves nicely and explicate effortlessly.  While the rest went completely blank as soon as they see camera pointed at them. In many cases, the presence of camera can make people feel uneasy, resulting in unnatural acts.  To manage the situation, it is crucial to make them feel relaxed by starting a small, casual talk. Giving positive encouragement is also recommended as this would make people feel good about themselves. Furthermore, it is important to provide extra time for people to adjust and rehearse.

Our discussion with Mr. Amirrudin was then disturbed by heavy raining.  Apparently according to him, weather has been unfriendly, that usually after mid day, rain would start to fall. We decided to press the pause button since the drizzle would affect the sound quality. It was during that waiting moment, the lady of the house brought out a serving tray with cups of delicious locally grown Arabica coffee and plates of scrumptious traditional homemade snacks. We were thrilled.

The next day we had another session with farmers, partner organization and representative of government agency of Bulukumba. We anticipated the weather by going out early in the morning to document footage of local ambience, spared extra time for each interview, shielded ourselves with umbrellas and rain coats, and brought along simple battery-powered lighting equipment to help with the in-door shoot.

After spending three days in Bantaeng and Bulukumba districts, we continued the trip to Southeast Sulawesi province to conduct more interviews. The initial plan was to visit three villages in Konawe district: Lawonua, Awua Jaya and Wonuahua. We excluded Kolaka district owing to distance from Kendari, the capital of Southeast Sulawesi. Same as South Sulawesi, the weather during the week has been awful, imposing us to be prepared for everything.

We drove to Lawonua village to meet Mr. Mustakim and Bersatu farmers’ group. There, we were shown the group’ nurseries that has been established with AgFor Sulawesi’s assistance. Both men and women worked together to maintain the nurseries which have been able to produce various seedlings such as clove, cacao, durian, pepper, mango, rubber, bitter bean, with some of the seedlings have already being sold to the local market.

Most of people in Lawonua village are migrants from South Sulawesi. Though they speak Bahasa Indonesia on daily basis, they sometimes still have difficulty in describing and elaborating a topic. Combined with the farmers’ unfamiliarity with camera, the situation has transformed into acute anxiety. As a result, supplementary time was required to complete the shooting process.

With Bersatu farmers group of Lawonua village 

Pak Mustakim (green cap) working at his nursery

Logged over landscape nearby Lawonua village

Awua Jaya, the second village on the list was visited the day after. Getting to the location was a challenge. The distance from Unaaha, the capital of Konawe district might not be far, but the infrastructure was appalling.  The road was bumpy and muddy. In fact the condition got worse as the rain has not stop pouring since daybreak.

We arrived in the village on mid day and was welcomed by Mr. Wahyuddin, the leader of farmers’ group who admitted that the distance and the poor infrastructure have become the main barrier  for the villagers to obtain agricultural information.  “From where we came from (East Java), it was easy to get information, unlike in here, that it is hard to get information from electronic or print media,” he exclaimed. “But thankfully, AgFor has provided us assistance, so now farmers know what agricultural systems they want to develop in the future,” added Mr. Wahyuddin while disclosing us the plan of Cahaya Gemilang farmers’ group to cultivate rubber. We finished Awua Jaya in the afternoon and returned to Unaaha.

The next morning, we were supposed to have our last coverage at Wonuahua village, but the situation didn’t allow us. According to the information we received, the road to the village has become innaccessible due to the rainfall.  We discussed with the field team and decided to call the plan off and return to Kendari instead.

Apparently the intense rain has caused some rivers to overflow its banks. Some areas that we passed along were badly affected. Roads and houses got flooded, bridges were swept away.  To make it worse, the roadway that supposed to lead us back to Kendari was covered in massive landslides. We rerouted to another alternative and managed to went through til we got stuck in Pohara –which was only few kilometers away from Kendari- because the road was terribly flooded. We waited for couple of hours, expecting the water level to drop so our car can pass through. Unfortunately the rain kept on falling, that in the end, we had to hire a car carrier truck to transport our vehicle.

On our way to Kendari that night, we witnessed the main road was blocked by fallen trees and covered in landslides. A local newspaper reported that during the three-day intense rain, 13 rivers overflowed, causing floods in 10 districts. Hundreds of houses were submerged, forcing thousands of households to flee. Tens of bridges were swept away with landslides shutting access to/from Kendari and its vicinity. A representative from the city’s government admitted the mishap as the worst flood incident that ever happened in the history of Kendari.

Relic of landslides nearby Kendari

We flew to Makassar the next day and on the way back we just could not help to think that despite the challenges we encountered during the shooting process, we were delighted to see farmers’ spirit and sparking hope to relentlessly participate in the project.

See the video that we've produced here.