Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Neopan 1600

Posted on August 23, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Kodak Portra 400VC
Reaching this clearing after about 30 minutes of walking through the forest gets you a little Indy Jones vibe.

Posted on August 21, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Kodak Portra 400VC
We walked through this rice plantation to get to the final megalith in Tadulako. Beautiful but an unpleasant walk for someone as klutzy as me. The elevated ridge between paddies is about 5" wide and very slippery, and I nearly fell off dozens of times. It looks wider because of the overgrown grass, but the solid walking surface is narrow. I wore calf-length pants and that overgrown wet grass (rained every day in Sulawesi, hard) cut my shins to bits.

But hey, cows.

Posted on August 21, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Kodak Portra 400VC
Thousands of years old, discovered by farmers, and still today people are unsure of their purpose.

Posted on August 21, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji 400H
Suspicious kids crack me up. Can't help wondering what's on his mind.

Posted on August 21, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus Trip 35 | Fuji 400H
Front office staffer Dewi had three names, which she explained meant goddess, comes in the morning (because she was born in the morning) and something about being clean. I definitely got a kick out of the fact that Dewi was a gorgeous girl whose first task when she arrived at the school in the mornings was to start sweeping. Prophetic.

Posted on August 20, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus Trip 35 | Fuji 400H
This high school's administrators had decided they wanted the school to be rated on some international scale I wasn't familiar with. The standards apparently meant a certain number of classes needed to be taught in English. These were biology teachers who now had to learn to explain their subject in a foreign language, and somehow make their students understand the complexities as well. It made absolutely no sense to me.

The school had posted these "inspirational" signs around the corridors, so for my first class with Easy English, Jimmy had me explain what was grammatically incorrect about each one.

Posted on August 20, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji 160S

Posted on August 20, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Fuji 160S

Posted on August 20, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Olympus OM-2N | Ilford Delta 3200 | Agfa MCC
There was a sick baby so this doctor was brought in to dance for 9 days while the men of Tanjung Isuy drummed. The women and children stayed as long as they could, but dropped out faster than the men. The ceremony went on until 1AM every morning. I wasn't aware of that when they offered me coffee, and as a non-coffee drinker I demurred, "oh, I shouldn't, it's already 8PM."

The ceremony was definitely not intended for tourists. I was the only one in town and no one had thought to mention it to me previously--the day I saw it was already the 8th day of dancing. Shorni was the one who'd found out about it. Not Dayak himself, he didn't feel comfortable observing, so he simply walked me to the ceremony and left.

Posted on August 18, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)