Arrogance

Every village has a different character. Some are curious, some are boring. This village is arrogant and dominant. We are staying with the Kepala Desa (head of village) and he is excited about helping us do our work. However, his help mostly comes in the form of telling us what to do (and what we are capable of doing!). He outright informed the women in our team that they were not able to hike long distances, and that they didn’t have the speaking skills to conduct interviews. Um, what?? We’ve been doing this work for a year. But I can’t be mad in this place – or even show discomfort. Instead I smile and say “Yes Sir – that’s right, they are women. But – haha! – they’re all we have and they are very smart – they’re just quiet right now because they are trying to be polite. And yes they might have short legs but – hehe – its no problem for them to walk 15 kilometers per day. In fact – crazy girls – they LOVE to walk 15 kilometers per day!”

I was both lucky and unfortunate today in my work. My guide was the kepala dusun (head of subvillage) a relatively young man who perfectly resembles the character of this village. When we first met he spent 10 minutes trying to figure out why I wasn’t married, and then he bragged about his own long and productive (3 children) marriage.

Our assignment was to map the border of the village area. This work involved some hiking, but mostly consisted of driving on oil palm roads and taking GPS points. I think my guide wanted to impress the foreigner, because he took me on a tour of the oil palm processing plant (something I’ve been wanting to do for a year, but have not been able to receive permission to do); introduced me to his friends eating pork and forest birds, and drinking arak, in the middle of an oil palm garden; took me to the old logging camp and let me take photos to my heart’s content; and offered me coffee in his hut in the middle of the oil palm plantation. So for the price of listening to bragging all day, I got some great information.