Hello, Indonesia!

I'm up with the chickens... I mean, with the Indonesians! It's 4 o'clock in the morning on Saturday, June 23rd, and my jet leg is speaking. Among a plethora of noises swimming through the cool night air, the most distinct yet far-off sound is a voice sounding a call to prayer. It must be a hundred miles off, but it managed to find its way through my window. It's a voice humming model melodies. Muslim prayers? There are Christians and Muslims here, but the majority in Indonesia are Muslim. Next, the voice sings what sounds like traditional Indonesian hymn tunes. Who art thou, voice in the night???

I'm sleeping in a little cabin in Tomohon mountain town of North Sulawesi, Indonesia. I never thought I'd make it to this end of the world, but two days ago I began a 21-day journey (25 including travel days) covering three of what might be a few of the remotest human-inhabitted places in the world. WOAH! I'm with LearnToLive, an organization based out of New Orleans (shout out!), and we are going to bring clean water and health clinics to the communities of Makalelon, Nazareth, Sapa, Bunaken, Nain, Likupang, Sangkilang, Wineru and Talise. The rest of our crew of 50 will arrive tomorrow. I mean, today.

Yesterday, I met up with Iben in the Singapore Airport, and we flew Silk Air to the Sam Ratulangi airport in Manado, the provincial capital of North Sulawesi. After sneaking (not really sneaking) a luggage filled with sunglasses, a scale, medical supplies and 20 tablets, we were picked up by Alex, Paul and Mike, the driver. On our hour-long drive up the windy road, many sections lined with a canopy of yellow and red campaign flags, Alex gave us a summary of the local referendum taking place in the city between the current president Jokowi's party and the more traditional/nationalist party of Indonesia. He is fluent in Indonesian, so he can get the inside scoop! The driving here is sink or swim - the cars are in a race to the front, and there are no distinctions of lanes. There were lots of mopeds and compact European-looking cars swarming through the city of about 87,000. I saw a truck carrying a whole load of live chickens cooped up together in a large cage as cargo. 

Side-of-the-road tire shops, junk yards of old jalopies, tin roofed fruit and vegetable stands, churches, mosques, and even a new shopping outlet that had an indoor-outdoor roller coaster lined the streets we drove. We saw a combination of residential types - some thatch roofed areas with musky dogs prowling in the dirt and other upscale spots reminiscent of the hood in Los Angeles with white stucco apartments. The landscape is mountainous, volcanic, floral, and thick, thick greenery - a thicket of millions of palm trees and dinosaur leaves (the kind that you see in Jurassic Park). What a jungle! As we arrived to our Mountain View Resort in Tomohon, almost on cue, a nice rain shower, along with Yanti and Rachel greeted us. 

The best word to describe the rest of the afternoon and evening is peaceful. I took a walk in the rain, settled into my cabin, took a shower, and hung out a bit before dinner. They cooked us rice, chicken and water spinach and pineapple for desert! I'm waiting to try Bintang, the local beer to see how it compares with Abita or Yuengling. If the similarity of Indonesia's and Costa Rica's climates mean anything, maybe the beer will be similar too - Bintang and Imperial! Hah

The Ring of Fire

The intensity of the love the lover feels in Johnny Cash's song is perfectly described by the major area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where the majority of the world's largest earthquakes and most active Volcanoes occur, aka The Ring of Fire. Among the 15 countries surrounding the Ring of Fire, its most active volcanoes are located in Indonesia!!!