Blog 50. 23 August. Pasar Wajo. 05.31.32S 122.50.94E
Alcedo
David Batten
Sun 25 Aug 2019 22:34
Typical FAD. Entrance to the bay was littered with them and there were a fair few of odd double canoe types FADs in the anchorage.
Picking up litter our first morning after hearing about how they are educating the children on why not using and dumping plastic is important and what our experience, as sailors, was of litter in the oceans. Our local guides somewhat inappropriately dressed for the impromptu activity in traditional skirts and white blouses!
We did not join in with the afternoon event, a visit to an illicit Palm still, because the anchorage was so rough and the dinghy dock so vulnerable and difficult to use, we did not feel it sensible to leave the either dinghy or boat unattended.
Ship’s Boy and Bill hanging on on the dinghy dock in the rough weather, Skipper in dinghy in the background.
South Buton has been quite an education. We have had a presentation on how the head master of the language school is trying to teach the students about the importance of their culture and their treatment of all foreigners as family. His students learn English and good manners, but have fun with the traditional pastimes like dancing, singing, judo, skipping and generally having fun. They do love dancing, western type as well as Indonesian! Being treated as family or a favourite aunt or uncle of the children is indeed experience to date and it was heartening to hear that he is encouraging this and trying to discourage any religious radicalism. Most of the population are Muslim and many of them do have large families, so a benign attitude towards non Muslims
We have explored (a bit) with a car and a driver and visited a village where the women still weave the sarongs in the traditional way, a stilt village, a fort and an ATM that actually produced money on demand. Not always the case in Indonesia where cash is king!
Making one of the classic sarongs in South Buton in the shade under her house. It takes about 5 to 7 days to make one of these, which sell at Rp300,000, or about £17
The stilt” village. This one was very different to the one in North Buton, the main pathways through the village being coral stones and concrete and the houses being, for the most part, in good repair. The channel beside the path was apparently designed to collect rubbish, which, as you can see, it was. Not sure what happened to it then.
Very well restored gates to the fort, taken from the outside
But inside, a wilderness contained by a barely visible wall which our driver and Bill are walking round on in the background
No picture of the ATM, but it was quite fun, just an isolated, sentry box sized building outside the police station on the main road behind the village. We would never have found it without the driver and it reminded me of the one in Chaguaramus in Trinidad.
As usual, we have had a very full on program in Pasar Wajo, so more to come.
Alcedo
Sent from my iPad