YA LEUM.30– 5km, 40 minutes by motorbike in the forest
The morning after was soft. The soil was still wet from the night before, the day was clear, and the day smelt like countryside.
We were finally in Pamah Semelir. A little village, in a cold area and clean air. Sometimes, some people would pass by walking or in their simple motorbikes. Always, someone would greet the Rangers because they are highly respected in the area since they protect the naturel reserve that surrounds the village. There was only a small stand selling candies, chips and coffee packs. The stillness reigned, people easily opened their smiles, they would move with ease and a calmness I have not known before.
It was Tuesday, the day the children wait for the rangers to teach them English. Mathieu and I prepared fun activities and the English class. At 3pm sharp, the children and the parents arrived at the Ranger’s station for the class. When the children saw the two white strangers, they laughed, talked, and observed with the curiosity that lives inside of any the children.
It was not our first time, we have done it many times, but arriving in this remote place and being able to share a skill the entire world needs, it connected me with those kids. They already could speak a little bit; Indra has been doing an amazing job. They could understand our sentences and that gave me such a feeling of hope for the future.
After the class, we played outside. Everything from hiding to running, we did it all. I get tired soon, but Mathieu gets more excited than the children all together. He got so enthusiastic in the games, he even fell on the floor… Funny to watch, everybody laughed.
The day was filled with the children and some locals. At the end of the day, we arranged and cleaned the Ranger’s station and then spent time with them and got to know them better.
The next day, Indra asked us if we wanted to visit a bamboo house on top of the hill, and we could have a grill fish there and maybe sleepover. That sounded as exciting as writing this sentence.
Indra asked someone, who asked someone to get fish from another village. Naturally, we are talking about river fish. So, at 3pm all the Rangers and us picked up the fish and started the small road trip to the bamboo house.
We did not exactly know the nature of the house, but to get to the unknown has been something so common so far, we did not think too much.
The motorbikes rides are never too soft, the way is always through the dirt paths. Almost arriving at the final destination , we started going up the hill, with a very steep slope, challenging for the drivers. In my mind that would also mean a nice view…
After that, we found a magical bamboo house on top of a 10-meter-high tower. It was already dark when we arrived, the house was beautifully illuminated with white curtains flowing around the house.
We looked up and there was some movement…it seemed people were having a good time.
We had arrived at the holiday house of a wealthy Indonesian man who splits his time between Indonesia and Malaysia. He offers the place to the rangers to spend some time there sometimes.
He welcomed us nicely with a drink, food, and his friends. We were not expecting for such an event and we still had the fish to grill…
Well, mingling may be our favorite activity. So, we did not miss the opportunity! We got to know this man and his family. We shared our travel experiences and what we were doing with the children in the village, so he asked us if we could play his children so they could learn some English. Naturally, we said yes.
That night, we still did a barbeque, drank, and sang with the Rangers. It was fun our small party.
When we woke up in our tent, the house’s owner unexpectedly offered us a full breakfast with so many different fruits, pancakes, eggs, and other small treats. We spent all morning with his family, Indra and the Rangers.
The morning was so well spent, we had so much fun with this family. They told us about their life, their dreams and the wishes they had for the forest.
However, we had to leave at some point because the children in Pamah Semelir were waiting for us for the classes! So, we said goodbye to everyone, took pictures and returned quickly to the motorbikes to be back on the road.
When we arrived, we surprised the children the school, and the teachers let them leave earlier for the English class…and of course, to play.
They were so many, about 50 kids. It was a small but nice challenge. We gathered them all outside, and with the help of the teachers and Indra, we played and practiced English together. They laughed and ran so much.
I hope we created a good memory in their hearts.
Later that day, the Ranger’s chief, John, arrived for the patrolling. We were looking forward to meeting him! That night, we talked about the state of the forest, the needs of the community, the challenges of the Rangers and mostly the challenges of the surrounding area.
I was touched how these strong men are truly engaged with their community. Working hard, under hardship to assure everyone is safe and the place is prosperous. They know more about sustainability, environment perseverance, community development, resources protection and children education than many books, teachers, and sustainable specialists out there.
We do not need to tell them that, they are the ones raising the topics. They have been working for it even before we started splitting plastic. John shared his ideas to develop the area, and we showed our availability to help and build something together…
Then John invited Mathieu to patrol the forest with them for ten days. Mathieu was overjoyed! He loves these challenges and as you know by now, he always says yes for everything.
The day after, more Rangers arrived, and after the normal English class, everybody played with the kids!
The initial reason of this trip was to visit the orangutans and the forest of Gunung Leuser, but at this point I barely thought about it. Still, in one of the days, Indra took us to the forest from a Ranger perspective.
We walked in a forest that is not used to see outsiders. Indra could recognize birds by their sound and know exactly in which tree they would stop; he shouted something back and that bird flew high in the sky, on top of our heads.
I was amazed by his interaction with that immense forest.
We walked paths that were not yet walked, trees were so high we could not find the end, sometimes Indra would talk about the fruits and monkeys that quickly run away from us…
Although the hike was challenging, but even in flip flops, Indra made me always feel safe so I enjoyed even more this place of heaven.
We had to cross rivers, jump from stones, climb down muddy slopes, and climb up everything again.
Our direction was a waterfall, an astonishing waterfall used only by locals of Pamah Semelir to date their lovers or to take their families in a sunny day. We walked about three hours…
When we finally arrived, we found a superb waterfall inside of a row of hills with a panoramic view of Mount Semelir. The mountain is 1.743 meter high. From far, we could feel the splashes of fresh water and hear the sound of the immense piece of nature.
We are so small. Nature is the beginning; it is where everything starts, and we are just their guests.
We had to rush the way back because we had one more class waiting for us. We arrived just on time and half of the school was waiting for us with a smile on their faces.
Pamah Semelir, a forgotten village by few, but still so alive and with so much to offer to the world.
Indra told us about the stories of the people and the tragic Bukit Lawang’s flooding in 2003 who destroyed 90% of the houses, killing many people. They were never able to recover completely, leaving the region highly underdeveloped.
All our experience with Indra was an eye opener on so many levels. I started comprehending things better, understanding more about natural disasters, the role of education and the size of nature, and just becoming slowly a different person.
When we trust someone, we never known how much we can learn.
Almost a week has passed, it was time to continue our way.
By that time, all Rangers’ team met in Pamah Semelir because they had to go to a convention in the city of Sinabung. We were also going towards the same direction to visit a volcano.
They kindly offered us a lift on their motorbikes, so of course we accepted! We spent quite some time with them and they always treated us like family.
They warned us “you have to be ready for this trip. The first 5km are extremely hard because we need to cross a rock path. There’s an easier way to go, but takes almost double of the time.”
Well, one more adventure! Nonstop with these guys! It was the last one and I could not guess at all what they were talking about!
We said goodbye to everyone, prepared the backpacks, the 6 drivers checked the tires and the chains, organized when to stop and what to do if someone could not continue….and let’s go!
After 10 minutes, we were outside of the village, we arrived at a small coffee stall, stopped quickly to get a coffee and one by one, we started living.
The coffee stall was just outside of the beginning of the forest. Under my feet were enormous rocks, sometimes small ones but muddy, the way was bumpy and 150 meters ahead there was a very steep hill.
I looked at it shocked and said to myself “This is impossible! We will never do this road!”
I jumped on Indra’s motorbike and we started moving like a snail. Mathieu’s motorbike was going even slower because he is much heavier than me. The older Rangers, more experienced and lighter, passed by us faster. We took 20 minutes to do 2 km.
Everybody stop at 2 km to rest and check if everyone was doing fine. We waited a bit and then continued.
Three more kilometers to go. It was as difficult as before, Indra was so focused on the road and holding the motorbike so strongly. I tried to be as still as a stick to not bother, not even a bit. Behind us, was Mathieu and the other driver who fell at some point. Mathieu had to walk a bit and catch him up later because it was just so slippery and steep at some point.
We continued.
On 5 km, everybody stopped and met again, to rest, to drink, to smoke or whatever these guys needed. Indra was sweating like someone who just finished the marathon.
I felt so grateful for that moment and so happy for the accomplishment. Not mine, but from all these strong men!
We arrived at the end of the National Park of Gunung Leuser. The end was clear because after the border all the trees were shopped and there was no more green area. This was disturbing as well as clear as water about the importance the Rangers. Without them, Gunung Leuser Natural Reserve would be gone.
We were finally on the road, still crossing the forest and slowly people and houses would appear on our side. Six motorbikes lined up by seniority: leading the group was the Head of Ranger of the Gunung Leuser National Park and at last, the youngest of the pupils.
After the 5 kms stress, I immersed in a bubble of bliss and lightness.
This was the end of trusting someone who told us “I have something that you may be interested in”.
That night, we slept in the same guest house as the Rangers and said goodbye in the morning after.
September 2017,
Patricia Assis
