Snails, whales, and fishermen's tales

Louis Armstrong predicted years ago what would happen if I moped around too much: the monsoon. I should have listened more attentively, because sure enough after all the grumping and bitterness I reported in my last post, the past few days have been mighty rainy. Then again, I have actually been enjoying the change of pace to mostly cloudy, somewhat cooler, off-and-on rainy weather. And at night there is a loud chorus of frogs that I did not notice before.

The ever-generous Pelf has been hosting me in KT at her place for the past week and a half or so, and I am trying to be helpful. TCC conducts Turtle Camp at schools in the region that serve communities near rivers. I have had the pleasure of attending the final three for this year. We spend two to three hours at each school with one grade, teaching them about turtles and how and why to protect them. Since my Malay is very limited, I mostly play a supporting role, but I have gotten to guide groups of kids in making origami turtles, which does not require too much talking, and is really quite fun! Here are some kids at the end of the penultimate camp.















Yesterday, after the last camp, we also conducted one River Survey in which TCC staff and volunteers meet with river fishermen from a village to interview them about their fishing habits, their encounters with turtles, and their consumption of turtle eggs. As it was just Pelf and me yesterday and I am not proficient enough in Malay to conduct interviews, she did the real work, but it was fun and inspiring to sit in a roadside food stall (more like an open-air restaurant) and talk to these fellows that fish the rivers.

Here they are, pretty tickled, I think, to take a picture with this orang putih (white person). The stall owner (second from left) asked us to come back and bring him a print.

















Oh yeah, I also gave myself a haircut a few days ago. Thanks for noticing ;) There I am in my official TCC shirt and new hairdo--yippee.

It came in handy to know the word for "white" when one of the fishermen was telling us how he once saw a turtle that was putih all over--an albino! Quite rare. They were all so welcoming and friendly to us and the village headman (above, far right) would not let us pay for our own drinks. Pelf says the headmen in general are very cooperative in arranging the meetings, and fishermen are almost always very open and forthcoming in the interviews. On the way home, she and I were discussing how in some ways, being friendly young women may be an advantage in this case, since we are less intimidating to the fishermen than would be people who are older, fiercer, or more...male.

The owner of the food stall had this GIANT fish in a tank at the back of his place. He said it came from the river. I estimate its length at about 0.5 meters. Anyone know what kind it is?











In between the school camp and the survey with the fishermen, we had time to check out the exhibits at two nearby government-run information centres: one on turtles and one on aquatic biodiversity in general. They had some pretty nice specimens, and it was a good escape from a couple of rather sudden and quite torrential downpours. The whale skeletons at the Galeri Biodiversity Akuatik put me in mind of childhood days in the NC Museum of Natural Sciences with Dad.








Most of the drive back to KT was along the coast, and Pelf agreed to stopping at a giant rock outcrop so we could take some photos. A huge snail was there to greet us when we headed down toward the water. Estimated length: 12 centimeters. Estimated speed: 6 meters per hour.













The coast is gorgeous, and there were also lots of wetlands and mangroves along the drive that I would have loved to explore, but that will probably have to wait until I have my own car and some good rubber boots--soon I hope!



Meg's Music Library Trivia No.2
To what line from what song does the first sentence of this post refer? (First correct answer gets a complimentary giant snail. You know you want one.)