mishmash: South by Southeast part 1

Village hopping. That's what I’ve been doing lately and what’s going to occupy me for the next couple of weeks.

Back in the July, my fellow Miss Endri came to my table during a workshop. She put out her idea of conducting village-level communication system research and asked me to co-work with her. I said yes straight away even though I was also a bit nervous, knowing that it’s going to be one tough task.

The research covers 12 villages; 6 in South Sulawesi and 6 in Southeast Sulawesi where my office’s project operates.

Long story short, everything was set, and the pre-test was completed in mid October.

By the fourth week of October we started our voyage by visiting three villages in Bantaeng regency. They were Bonto Bulaeng, Kayu Loe, and Pattaneteang.

Both Bonto Bulaeng and Pattaneteang were accessible from Bantaeng, hence we didn’t stay at the village. We only went there in the morning then went back to the city in the afternoon. I stayed in Ahriani hotel, Bantaeng, where I got pretty much bored with the tedious breakfast menu but was pleased with the internet speed that enabled me to skype.

While Kayu Loe, is stretched up on the hill passing through curvy road and clusters of cacao, coffee and candle nut trees. It takes about 1.5 hours to reach the village, and to safe some energy, we decided to spend the night at a local’s house. We stayed at Mr. Basso’s house, the leader of farmers’ group who works in the farm during the day and together with his wife, teaches kids reading Koran in the afternoon.

The three villages in the Bantaeng are dominated by Bugis ethnic. We found lots of them are still illiterate and do not speak Bahasa Indonesia. Languange has become the biggest barrier for Miss Endri and I who barely speak Konjo (local language, which is mixed of Bugis and Makassar), but fortunately we were helped by translator (slash enumerator) who did their job very well or we both would experience major headache caused by the verbal lunacy.

After only resting for a day, we continued to three villages in Bulukumba which all are distant from Bantaeng. Bulukumba is the neighboring regency of Bantaeng. It is famed for the pristine beach of Tanjung Bira in Bonto Bahari sub-district.

From Bantaeng, it takes about an hour to reach the city of Bulukumba. Yet, the three villages we’re about to visit are spread across the area. Knowing this at the first place, we packed our sacks with supplies that will suffice a week stay. On top of that, we figured out that some of the villages are not served with electricity, thus we packed ourselves with particular basic survival preparations such as headlamp, flashlight, and extra batteries.

In the first village, Tugondeng, we stayed at Kepala Dusun’s house where the signal quality was unexpectedly good (it was a constant 3G), that sometimes I couldn’t believe that I was having a top-notch signal in a place that is inscrutable in the map, while boyfriend in the capital J barely had a single bar. Tugondeng gleams with light as well, as the village is well-powered by the state electricity company since the 80ish.

The next day, we moved to Tana Towa at Kajang sub-district, and crashed at Kepala Desa’s house. The condition is totally different in here. Signal is non-existent and electricity is only available on several houses. Tana Towa (means The Old Land) consists of two areas; the inner and the outer. The inner is a sacred sphere ruled by custom leader called ‘Ammatoa’. There, technology is forbidden and only black attire is permitted to be worn by inhabitants and visitors from the outside. In general, it resembles the Baduy in Banten.

The house of Kepala Desa where we stayed in, was located in the outer area, therefore wearing dark colored outfit isn’t really an obligation. However, to respect the custom, Miss. Endri & I wore simply black and dark blue shirts during the two days stay.

From Tana Towa, we went further to the coastal part, and settled at Sekretaris Desa’s house in Ara village. Ara in Bonto Bahari sub-district is the home of skillful traditional phinisi boat makers. The tradition has been going for years, but the global economic fall have decreased the demand, people has gradually shifted to work in other crafting industry or go overseas to Kalimantan and Malaysia working as labour.

Ara is one distinct place which according my experience, has the hottest temperature. The great striking sun combined with humidity is a combo that equals to all-day sweating. It is so hot in there, even the residents would avoid going out during mid day.

But despite the scorching heat, Ara offers you such beauty. I remember I was sitting on the second floor porch outside our room with Miss Endri. It was about 7pm, and we were having our usual chats. When we looked up, the sky has turned into one giant canvas embellished with hundreds of glimmering stars. It was one magic moment, that I wish I could witness every day.

Ara wrapped up our trip in South Sulawesi. Everything went on schedule, and after several working weekends, I at last had the chance for one Sunday off.

I went back to Makassar early in the morning, and spent my afternoon doing nothing at the kosan. I didn’t have much time for leisure owing to the reason that I had to pack again, since we’re departing to Kendari (Southeast Sulawesi) the next day.

I overslept that night, waking up at six in the morning only to realize that I haven’t packed, and I have a flight waiting at 10 o’clock. I quickly grabbed all things that I need and exchanged stocks of clean clothes.

I ordered a taxi, and arrived at the airport on time. Unfortunately there was a delay, Miss Endri and I had to wait for 30 minutes before leaving for Southeast.

The flight, oh the flight, was one of the worst I’ve ever had. The wind was strong and we experienced turbulences up in the sky. To make it worse, the landing was rough that we jumped few seconds after the plane touched the ground. Good god, was it the rookie pilot was it the horrible weather, I couldn’t tell.

Heat stroke greeted us as soon as we got out of the airport building. The sun was burning. It hasn’t been raining for almost two months. If I may say, the heat is almost the same as in Palu, Central Sulawesi. I guess both Kendari and Palu have a similar temperature characteristic that would drench people up.

We were picked by Wawan, our driver for this whole Southeast trip, and were driven to Swiss Bel Hotel. We stayed there, and spent the rest of the day at our Kendari office to have a meeting with some colleagues.

The next day we visited the first village, Lawonua at Konawe Regency, which can be reached by 40 minutes of driving from Kendari. We didn’t stay overnight in there because the distance was relatively bearable.

As we went through the road to Lawonua, we witnessed that lots of land in there have been turned into palm oil plantations. This new growing opportunity is seen by the young dwellers to work in the company, which for them is more promising rather than being farmers.

Mr. Mustaqim, the leader of farmers’ group welcomed us with hospitality and generosity. He accompanied us touring the village to meet the farmers. Lawonua is dominated by migrants from South Sulawesi. Some of the them came in the 90s, some arrived a decade later, all to plant cacao.

The two days survey at Lawonua went well, and I really had a good time talking with Mr. Mustaqim and his fellow farmers. It was a lovely time and I wish I could stay a little longer.

The next morning, we left Kendari and drove to Unaaha. Unaaha, the capital of Konawe regency is reached by 1.5 hours driving. It is a small town where everything is quiet, it is difficult to find people wandering around during the day. We stayed in a hotel there and planned to visit Wonuahua village nearby.

As I’m writing this post, I’m currently sipping my canned coffee in a hotel room in Unaaha.

I still have five villages on the list and will be constantly on the move until next week.

In the time like this, I started to realize what home really means.

Traditional party decoration I found in the vilages in South Sulawesi

Little girls of Kayu Loe

School girls of Tana Towa. They wear black skirt instead of red (the color which represents elementary school level), because bright colors, specifically red, is prohibited inside the sacred area