The sun was searing early this morning; the fan was on full speed but we managed to have a bit of sleep this morning after the exhausting day yesterday.
It was my turn to go and find some food today – Dr Lulu had gone to the local kitchen down the road the previous day and had a hilarious time ordering food from a little old woman who had probably never seen a buleh (western foreigner) before, and certainly didn’t speak any English! She came home eventually with a ‘surprise’ meal which ended up being chicken livers. Surprisingly tasty!
After a few unsuccessful attempts at Charades, I gave up, though I managed to find something small before I left. Turns out the little old lady doesn’t cook that early on a sunday. Figures!
We had a fair bit to do before the days end so we packed in the morning. The next morning we would up up at the turn of dawn for a ride in the truck (at full speed again) to Balikpapan. From Balikpapan, we would catch our plane to Jakarta.
Once packed and fed, we headed off to KRUS to find a very busy zoo. There were people everywhere, with all the small makeshift shop huts open and motorbikes parked all over the show. We headed towards the clinic where we conducted our first interview of the day with an lovely woman known as Indah.
Indah is part of a group known as ‘Orangufriends’, set up by COP (Centre for Orangutan Protection) to teach interested university students about the importance of protecting orangutan, wildlife and their habitat. Indah immediately took to us with her warm smile and upbeat disposition. As we filmed the interview I could tell that all three of us were in awe of this inspiring young woman. She is currently studying Communications at her local university, and the direction of her study is dedicated to wildlife conservation. This was excellent news to us. For someone who is incredibly passionate and dedicated to give up her free time to do something like this is reassuring as well as inspirational! She is a woman to be admired. Wait for the documentary and you will see why!
Throughout our time at KRUS today, we were incessantly followed around by ‘Celebrity Dr Lulu‘ fans. Lots of smiling faces were on offer as snaps were taken of us as we walked around with cameras, tripods, and other film equipment. It all started when we were doing a piece to camera in front of the beautiful Orangutan Abmom. Ambom is the eldest of all orangutans kept at KRUS, and is one of the reasons COP would like to build the island for him, and his girlfriend Debbie (Read this post for more information about building a home for Ambom!). We proceeded to the next orangutan enclosure where we did another piece to camera where Dr Lulu worked her magic again, with even more enquiring faces peeking and peering to see what was going on!
We had one more interview to do, and it was significant too; we wanted to talk to Ape Defender Captain, and our captain of the household where we have stayed the last week. To do this interview we had to escape the fans and find somewhere in the jungle that was away from the bustle of the zoo. It was a relief to only walk a short distance and find a spot that was shady, where the only sounds we heard were of animals and insects, and a cool breeze blowing lightly in the tree tops above us. This interview was a bit of fun, and very informative. It was also tinged with sadness though, as we knew it was one of the final interviews from this COP camp.
We said our goodbyes to KRUS. By now we could see the amazing work being carried out by COP and felt happy and confident this zoo – while illegal – could only go from strength to strength under the watchful eyes of the COP team.
To show our respect and appreciation for what these guys do, and obviously what they have done for us, we decided we should celebrate. It was our last night, and as new members of the COP family it was only natural!
We all jumped into the truck, but we weren’t sitting inside! We decided to live a little, (because its legal over here!) and Dr Lulu, Courtney and I got into the back trailer of the truck and sat in the open air as we drove to a restaurant. Before getting to the restaurant we made a little detour to a department store to pick up T-Shirts for screen printing.
As explained previously the COP guys create these awesome images and print them on T-shirts. They only sold a few here and there but we saw an opportunity to help raise funds for these guys! As soon as we know, we will have them up for sale! In a variety of colours and sizes. We’ve already got a few for ourselves and they are very cool! Such a small cost and you get to wear something out of it – while contributing to an amazing cause.
It was at the restaurant when things became a little emotional. Dr Lulu became teary eyed again as she got up and gave a beautiful speech thanking the COP team and their friends for treating us all like family, and promised that this was the first small step in a long future together, protecting the rain forests and its animals together. She presented Dr Imam with the funds raised from our fundraiser at the Brisbane Hotel (once again, if you were there or weren’t but supported – THANK YOU!) – AUD $350 cash. In Indonesian rupiah this amounts to 3,468,277.53, which is more thantwo months wages. This cash donation will be used to buy medical supplies; to say the COP guys were thrilled would be an understatement!
We finally returned home, not before stopping to buy some (warm) bin tang beer. The guys haven’t enjoyed beer in two months, mostly because they can’t really afford it. As we were filming last interviews and laughing at yet another power outage in the area, we were entertained by the guys music; a mix of cover songs and some beautiful original songs. They’re very talented on the guitar, and their vocals just awesome. You could tell they love their music. It was the perfect end to a beautiful night.
We would just like to mention another heartfelt thank you to all members of the COP team we were lucky enough to meet and those we didn’t. We can’t thank you guys enough and you’ll be sure to see us in the near future!
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Liam
