Unpacking Kalimantan
Feature Article - December 2009
In preparation for a volunteer assignment in Kalimantan plenty of information was given to a humble volunteer from friends and family about what items of survival would be needed. At the top of the things list were the usual paranoid supplements of sunscreen, malaria tablets and constipation pills. A pair of good walking boots, expensive camera, trendy jungle clothes, decent underpants, mosquito net, and a good hat would complete the kit and likely leave your bank account empty.
The advice from those advising was often tentatively received because most did not have a clue where Kalimantan was located, but all knew the big mysterious island called Borneo. For the honest ones who knew nothing about Kalimantan the suggestion was to buy a popular guidebook. Unfortunately, even the guidebook, which could easily be used as a dumbbell, made Kalimantan feel like a lonely island squashed by the prominence of pages about Java and Bali.
In need of clearer information, the best advice given to a humble volunteer was to make friends with a search engine called Google. Google is a smart beast that seems to show her friendship first by providing you all the information about expensive travel tours. The test to this friendship is to use a variety of creative questions until the right answer is provided. After 2 days of straight research that provided little in terms of real accounts about Kalimantan the friendship with Google was turned off.
When information is limited all a person can do is wonder. On a night time just before departure a humble volunteer spent a few hours gazing at the stars and wondering whether the island of Kalimantan did actually exist and whether the airline company would consider the valid reason that so much was packed because nothing was known about Kalimantan.
Forward 2 years a humble volunteer has discovered that in Kalimantan it's difficult to buy decent underpants, expensive walking boots hold no traction in the wet, sunscreen is no longer needed when your skin has turned dark and trendy jungle clothes just make you look silly. The most useful item was perhaps the mosquitoes net, but considering the mosquitoes are so giant a better item sold locally is an electronic mosquito tennis racquet that KO's any mosquitoes with a good swipe.
Over the course of the 2 years the humble volunteer learnt that to deal with the challenges of living in Kalimantan the way to survive was to always think of a substitute. Instead of decent underpants, try a leaf. Instead of decent walking boots, use thongs. Instead of delicious cereal, eat rice. And most importantly, but in another story in itself, instead of loneliness try happiness.
Contributed by Eliah Dean - Volunteer for Yayasan Tambuhak Sinta.