Sick, but Good, Days in Toraja

Friday, June 29, 2007--Rantepao

My cold has now shifted to the right side of my head and has loosened on the left. That means I am at least half way through it. It's keeping me rather weak, however, and I occasionally have a slight fever with it.

I washed laundry this morning. It's one of the less glamourous things that must be done when traveling. Since I am here for enough days for the things to dry, I thought I should. I washed a pair of shorts and 3 shirts. Later, I must wash the bottoms of my zip-off leg pants, because they have mud splatters on them. They dry fast, however, so I will wait until my last day so that they won't get messy again. Here, it tends to rain sometime each day.

I did too much today. I felt better, so I went walking. It was short for my usual length of a walk--only about 12 km (7 miles). I first went to a nearby native village called Buntu Pune. It actually was more like a family compound consisting of two rows of nice old Torajan houses with swooping roofs. Two children were in the space between the rows flying homemade kites. Then their mother came out and their grandparents came out. The mother talked to me in English and escorted me to their family gravesite where the coffins were just out in the open along a rock cliff. Some were rotting. Some were built in the style of the houses. One coffin had about 3-4 sculls and some bones on top. I enjoyed the visit and was there maybe 20-30 minutes. I felt like the family had gone out of their way to make it a good experience for me. That made me think they might expect something for having done so. I told the mother that I appreciated her being so kind to me and that I felt I should offer her some money for having done so. But she said, "No, no." And it seemed genuine, so I put the money back in my pocket. I said good-bye to all of them and left feeling that it had been a wonderful experience.

From there, I walked further to another larger village of traditional homes called Ke'te' Kesu'. It was more attractive with the homes less "organized." In other words, it seemed to have grown up naturally over time, whereas the other village seemed to have been planned and built all at once.

Between the two villages was a beautiful countryside with rice fields and mountains in the background. People were in the rice fields harvesting. I took lots of pictures of both the villages and the scenery.

On the way back to town, I detoured for another village, but I never came across it. When I got back to my hotel, I was totally exhausted and a fever had developed again with some aches. I took a nap. Then I took a long, hot shower. Finally, I felt a little better and went out for dinner. I had fried rice, fried egg, rice crackers, chile sauce, tamarind juice, and fruit salad. I was so tired that I returned home and went back to bed after reading for a while.

I finished The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell. I guess Nurse Grethe or Robert gave it to me, because it is a British publication about the Danish invasions of England in the 900s. I enjoyed the book, giving it 3 stars out of 4.

Saturday, June 30, 2007--Rantepao

I can tell I have been taking my mefloquine now for two weeks. That's my anti-malarial medication. It causes me to have vivid dreams. Last night, it was just one after another. It's kind of a nice side effect. Sometimes I get great ideas from those dreams.

My neighbors across the hall were an Indonesian family last night. I visited with them this morning. When they left, they were checking out and left their door open. I looked inside their room, and they had a stronger light bulb than I have in my room. I quickly switched bulbs. One problem I have had here is that it is not light enough in my room for me to read at night. With the new bulb, there is no problem. They use the florescent bulbs here. The one I replaced had only 2 tubes; the new one has 3 tubes.

They are having a motorcycle grand prix here this weekend. I was still not feeling well, so I decided to stay in town and go to the races this afternoon. There were many people there. I noticed, however, that they seems to be the poorer people who attended. I really couldn't see much of the race, but I spent most of my time watching the people. It was an interesting experience, but as far as races go I still have the same feeling I had the first time I went to the drag races with my family. There's a whole lot of waiting for a very short period of seeing vehicles move by quickly!

Again, I was totally exhausted when I returned from the races. I slept for 1 1/2 hours. This cold has really gotten me down. It's good, however, that I have had it while at such a good place for relaxing and taking it easy.

For dinner I had fried rice noodles filled with lots of shrimp and vegetables. I had ginger tea, but I really couldn't taste the ginger much, unfortunately. I had fruit salad for dessert.

After dinner, I went to the concert where Harry, the young man I met on the bus whose grandmother owns my guest house where I am staying, was performing. The concert was already going, but with an act prior to his. It was a small crowd at the time, and I moved among them. By the time Harry came on stage, it had grown to a rather large and excited crowd. That's when I learned the rest of the story he had not told me on the bus. He was introduced as being from Indonesian Idol. I had wondered on the bus how he did it when he told me that he made enough money from singing to live without taking an engineering job. Now I knew. I asked someone in the crowd about it. They said he had not won the competition, but he had been in the top 5. He's a good singer and the crowd loved him. They really came alive, jumping up and down and waving their hands in the air as he sang. They had been watching me and smiling at me when we made contact (indicating that they were happy I was there with them) during the evening. Well, after Harry's introduction, he came out and said hello in Indonesian. Then he looked at me and said, "Hello, Mr. Randell," and I waved to him. I think they were surprised and impressed that I knew him.

As the night progressed, a number of the local people around me were friendly and started making an effort to get me more involved. A boy and a girl held up my arm and started waving it. There were many more people making eye contact and saying things to me. It turned out to be a lot of fun. By the time I left, I had interacted with at least 10 people, I think. And, best of all, I felt good. My body was not tired and my nose not stuffy.