Right Side Up Again - Kentar Island, Indonesia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Wed 3 Nov 2010 15:37
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00:03.387N 104:45.734E
Aha! Everything looks so different here. Brighter,
clearer, more....right-side-up.
Ok, not really. Everything looks exactly the same on
this side of the equator as it did on the other. We keep looking
for differences, but so far, there are none. Our toilets don't really
swirl when they flush, so we can't test the swirl direction
change theory. We keep trying to convince ourselves that
the sun now hangs in the sky slightly to the south, but really, it
mostly just hangs straight above us and pounds down on our heads, causing us to
swelter and drip sweat puddles around our feet. It was a
huge effort on our part, but we did sail across the equator. A rain squall
came through just in time to push us over the line. Of course we
couldn't see the line because the clouds were blocking the sun making that
big, bold, thick, blue line blend in with the sea, but we know we went over
it because our GPS said we did. We crossed it at exactly 13:38 (1:38pm) on
October 16; 2 years, 8 months and 3 days after we crossed it the first
time off the coast of Ecuador (which was one day after we were boarded by
the Colombian Coast Guard on that dark and oh so fateful
night).
Five hours and 30 miles after leaving Lingga Island, we
arrived here at Kentar Island, scene of many an equator party. We added
one more party to that list of many, and joined the crews of Priscilla and Anima
on Storyteller for champagne, wine and a marvelous three course dinner.
Martin and Sebastian, the crew from Austrian boat Anima, brought their guitars,
and Tom from Priscilla brought his didgeridoo and we spent the evening toasting
ourselves and singing badly to all the classic songs of the '60's and
'70's. There were people on two other boats in the bay who
didn't attend Storyteller's party. We can only hope they enjoyed our
singing as much as we did.
 Proof that we crossed the equator. Ok so I took the
picture about 1 millisecond too soon and we were at 0 degrees, 00.001
minutes south latitude instead of 0 degrees, 00.000, but who's
counting? Note that the screen on our GPS is about to go kaput with all
those lines missing. It's been like that for more than a year now, so
we're hoping it'll hold out for just a little while
longer.
 Two seconds after we arrived in the Kentar Island anchorage,
we were visited by not one, or two, or three, but four putt-putts full of kids
(and sometimes parents too), asking for things. It reminded
us of Kilo on Sumbawa Island. Kentar Island and Kilo are
the only two places in Indonesia where the local villagers blatantly
begged. We are happy to trade with the locals, but aren't
fond of giving without receiving something in return. The trouble
with the one-sided giving scenario is then the local community becomes somewhat
dependant on the boaters, essentially creating a welfare state. In
Vanuatu, where the people have less than most Indonesians, we always received
something in return for what we gave (a bag of grapefruit for a bag of clothes,
or something similar).
We arrived in Kentar completely unprepared as we had given the
remaining clothes, toys and school supplies we had on board to an orphanage in
Belitung. We literally had nothing to give the four boats that visited us,
so we improvised. The first boat had three small children and two older
kids. We handed over one Post-it pad, one freebie carry case we
received from the internet modem guys in Wakatobi and one stuffed penguin
(came with the order of yogurt mix we bought in Australia). We were
nervous about handing over one stuffed animal to a boat with three little kids
in it, but we should have known better. This is Indonesia. There was
no fighting, no squabbling, no grabbing. One little girl latched onto the
penguin and the other two kids sat quietly and watched. At home, we're
sure the same scenario would have caused a ruckus. The second boat
(pictured above) was full of older boys, so we didn't give them anything.
They asked for cigarettes and a few other things, none of which we had. As
a consolation prize, we took their picture, and they seemed happy enough with
that. The third boat contained a family of seven. We gave them the
free t-shirts we received from the government in Belitung. We figured it
was appropriate - what the Indonesian government gave to us, we gave back to the
Indonesian people. The fourth boat arrived with a baby, a four year-old
and their young parents. They proceeded to go through a litany of
requests: Coke-a-Cola, school books, pens/pencils, clothes, cookies,
t-shirts, etc. We had none of the above, and unusually for us, nothing
sweet for the kids to eat. As a last ditch effort, I pulled out some
crystallized ginger from Australia (an acquired taste, but we quite like
it). I offered it to the four-year-old. He took it, inspected it,
touched it with his tongue and tasted the sugar coating, then he bit into
it. His face puckered. He looked at his mom, hoping for
guidance. Receiving none, he politely folded the uneaten pieces of ginger
into the paper napkin I had given him and squirreled it away under his
seat. Shortly thereafter they paddled off and probably warned other
putt-putts not to visit the boat called Harmonie because the sweets they give
out are nothing less than repulsive. Got to give the little guy credit for
his manners though.
Updates on our last two Indonesian stops and
our dash across the Singapore Strait coming soon.
Anne
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