This is my first time to experience being a volunteer in a place far far away from home. I’ve been motivated to be a conservationist and accepted as a volunteer here was a big opportunity to step up. The first day I have arrived in Green House, I was welcomed well with a cup of warm tea. People here are a lovely person.

The first day of volunteering, I have to do newsletter (distribute the calendars and newsletter to villagers around), explaining that coffee from Cipaganti has been certified with as Wildlife Friendly so it can be exported as well.

Doing lorises observation in the dark of the night is quite difficult for me. The first kukang I observed was UA (Uncollared Adult then called as Zippy). The weather is not really good, it is foggy, rainy, and cold but we still observeing. It’s hard to see kukang climbing up in a tree and seeing them eating or doing anything else for the first time. When I was observing Xena, the wind is really crazy. I and bang Andri was hiding under the album and it leaves moving up and down like a wave. I was so scared.

When I am observing LN, it is really exciting because she is really really close to me. I am observing her in about 10 meters away near the Labu and suddenly she travelling then bridging trough the Labu about 5 meters away I can’t keep my voices quite when I see that cutie walking. When we are observing wild animal we should obey the ethics so we have to be quiet, trying to be unseen and pretend that we are not there to keep the animal feels unthreatened.

Well, the next day I am doing observation with Katey (research coordinator) and that was a great experience to have a conversation with her. I am asking about why did every collared loris here have a unique name like, Loopi, Lupak, Lucu, they have the same initial which means they are blood-related and Dindi, that was from Adin and Dendi, the lorises’ tracker.

Other than doing observation I also get a chance to follow the capture team. During capture, we are doing medical check-up to the lorises and also change the radio collar if needed. I also get trying to use antenna and receiver to catch the frequency of every loris. When you are not the real tracker it’s gonna be difficult to find which bamboo that used for sleep site except following the strongest signal from zero spots, moving and moving, trying to find and gotcha, the places that used to be sleep site gonna give you the strongest sound like “pip, pip, pip.” and the lorises sleeping there. Sometimes they are sleeping with their mates and baby, they are a lovely family.

I am also following kak Esther and bang Nabil, Hilman and bang Rahmat to change the battery of camera traps and I also follow Hilman to get vegetation data. It was really fun and I get knowledge on how to set up the camera, change the batteries and vegetation methods. It’s difficult for me to identify Salamandar tree, Afrika tree, Suren tree and any other unfamiliar plants.

I was afraid of dogs because when they are barking it is like they want to bite me. That barking always happens when I am home after observation time at 11 pm. But Lusy is the first doggo I’ve touched and fed. She is really smart and cute, I am taking a picture with her.

It’s not volunteering time, it’s like coming home when I meet people that treat me like family. Meet a great mentor, sister and friend who has to listen to every word that I’ve told her and answer every question that I want to know, patiently. Kak Tungga was from Jogja and it’s like meet my childhood friend when we are in Javanese language conversation. Meet my similar character team and it was really really fun to spend a crazy time with them. Abang trackers are also really fun! I’ve playing riddles with bang Andri, bang Rahmat, Bang Yiyi, Bang Adin and we sharing about the story of our lives, hobby, family and I got a lot of lessons.

Besides having a new skill of describing whatever lorises doing in behaviour data sheets according to ethogram, how to use binocular, being on time, knowledge on how to use antenna and receiver to find out lorises, analyzing vegetation, camera trap, marking new GPS location, I also got a new game skill like Kabu and JS (Jungle Speed). I’ll show it to my campus friend then!!