Sukunan, desa wisata lingkungan

Thursday was Hari Waisak, a national Buddhist holiday, so I decided to spend the day off visiting Sukunan, a small village of about 300 families that has become quite famous for their community waste management program. It was initiated by a villager named Pak Iswanto in early 2000s but has since grown in scope and participation. In addition to separating trash for recyclables, and reusing where possible, the community also composts and treats household wastewater. Several organizations, including YDD, have also worked with Sukunan to develop the technologies in ways that are useful and appropriate for the community.

Of course, in order to ensure sustainability, it requires the participation of all people in the village. This means good leadership and education is needed, especially for children. It's this socialization effort, activated by the whole community, that I found to be really unique and impressive.

When I visited Sukunan today with my friend Matt, we were hosted by Pak Haryadi, a villager who spoke to us in Indonesian the whole time. We managed to pick up the most important parts, but I definitely want to go back once my Indonesian vocabulary on waste management systems has improved...

Bins set up around the village that separate plastic, paper, and bottles. The far left is hazardous waste.
Every household has their own system to separate trash, but they can go to any one of these public stations to deposit. 

An underground waste water treatment system, which was installed in partnership with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Yayasan Dian Desa (YDD) and Asian People's Exchange (APEX).

A diagram explaining the wastewater treatment system underneath all the houses.
Wastewaster is collected from 25-30 houses and is then passed through sedimentation and
multiple-stage biofilters before storage and eventual use for the rice plantations.  

A public composting station.
The entrance door is on the right-hand side (not pictured) and compost is collected from the rectangular hole at the bottom.

various composting bins

a beautiful kamar mandi!!

a urine-collecting station.
Urine, which is rich in Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) can be used as fertilizer.

A central storage facility for the community's separated trash.
These piles will be collected and purchased by waste collectors and recyclable waste facilities.

Students often come to Sukunan to participate in projects and try out new things.
This charcoal briquette, made by a Papuan student, can be used as biomass fuel for cooking.
Unfortunately, I accidentally dropped and destroyed this briquette right after this photo was taken :(

a composting site. this pile is almost ready!

The community also reuses coffee sachets and makes them into fashionable bags!

A ceramic pot-in-pot refrigerator. According to Pak Haryadi, it can keep vegetables crisp for up to four days.

They also promote the use of reusable pembalut (pads) for women.

Reusing paper to make the frame of a mirror.

Day 8-9: From Flores To Bali

As we approached the plane on foot at Maumere's tiny airport, I turned to Pak Kam with a grin and said, "Saya bawa alpukat, Pak, lima buah!" (I brought avocados, sir, five of them!) On the road back from Laratuka, I had made Pak Mat stop by a small market so I could buy some avocados for Bali. They were 10,000 Rp for five, that is, a little less than a dollar.

He laughed and replied, "Saya juga! Tas ini, isinya alpukat! Berat, soalnya..." (Me too! This bag here is filled with avocado. Problem is, it's heavy...)  I took a look at his backpack. It could easily be carrying about 20 pieces of fruit. "Bagus, bagus!"(Good, good!) I said, laughing also.

We'd just spent the last hour in the airport talking in depth about the sanitation program in Flores. Guy knows his stuff, and has a particular interest in ensuring that local people have the means to achieve their needs after the program is over. "If the workshop gets at least 50% of these tukang to begin making and selling toilets locally, we'll consider it a success."

Out of all the bapak-bapak I met this past week, Pak Kam is one of my favorites. He's about 70 years old, wears a kopiah wherever he goes, and smiles with laughter and wrinkles in his eyes.

* * *

And then I'm in Bali, riding in the back bed of a pickup truck with my friend Toku, watching an eve-of-Nyepi procession pass by on a narrow road. There are old and young walking together, crowding the area for several hundred meters. Some people are singing and cheering, carrying banners for their community, and others are waving batons of fire. Each group lifts a bamboo platform with an ogoh-ogoh statue in the center, representing a unique evil spirit. The fanciest and most expensive are decorated with lights and jewels, symbolizing their hedonistic personalities. 

The community will soon destroy these figures by dismemberment or by setting them on fire. Because of this, there's excitement in the air. The children are happy, and the adults are likely drunk. It's a parade, except this is unlike any parade I've ever been to. Eve-of-Nyepi is an island-wide party -- the storm before a full day of quiet reflection. On the day of Nyepi, food, fire, work, and electricity are all forbidden. The streets will be empty in a few hours.

When we finally pass the crowded streets, everything becomes dark except for the cars and motorbikes. Our truck's headlights illuminate the windy road and the jungle we are passing through. The crisp mountain air takes over my senses. Ari slows down a bit, allowing other vehicles to pass so that Toku and I can soak it in. We stand there, holding on to the roof of the truck as the trees whip by on the narrow road. I tilt my head back and look up. Above us, the stars are vibrant.

Tofu and Social Entrepreneurs

I am the biggest n00b ever. Earlier tonight I cooked lemongrass chili tofu for my PIA friend, Julianne, and now my fingers are tingling in a very uncomfortable way. Not sure if it's from slicing and touching chili with my bare hands (silly), or if my hands actually got burned by convection above the sizzling tofu. In all honesty, it's probably a combination of both. 

But to the point of this entry... tonight I am inspired :) and I want to tell you why.

There are two people -- one I've met, one I haven't -- both women, both very young, striving for the empowerment of people and the improvement of lives. These two women work and think in a very humble and creative way, and they embody the kind of social and technical entrepreneurship I really admire.

Both stories are related to light.

First, there's Angela, a hard-working and ambitious social entrepreneur -- the co-founder and director of Nusantara Development Initiatives. She's probably the youngest person I've met to have started an NGO. Their biggest project right now, Project Light, is an initiative to train women entrepreneurs in rural Indonesia to sell solar lamps (these nifty things) within their communities. The effort seeks to empower women while also tackling health concerns related to indoor air pollution from kerosene lamps.

Back in August last year, after getting e-introduced through a mutual friend, we met over brunch in Singapore, where I was staying a couple weeks for a VISA run. Angela shared a lot of stories with me about her experiences with NDI, many of which are reflected in this published interview. I won't go through everything here, but I want to share one of her responses that demonstrates her dedication and wisdom, even when she was a freshman in college, to a cause that impacts lives in a positive way.

"It was very difficult [to juggle school and NDI], because it’s only when I finished with schoolwork, at maybe about 12 AM, that I can focus more on NDI. The good thing is that we do things by email, so I’d do that until about 3 to 4 AM in the morning. It was very intensive. We make sure that this is a serious project, and not a “fun” project where we just touch and go. When what you do impacts people’s lives, it’s something serious. We have to carefully think through our ideas, bounce them to experts.

At the same time there’s opportunity cost. When you spend more time doing something else and less on schoolwork, of course your GPA drops. But that’s something that I’m willing to take, because I feel I learned a lot more doing NDI. It’s a lot more meaningful for me."

The second inspiring story: Teen Invents Flashlight That Could Change the World. Spoiler: it works on body heat. Inspiration behind the project?

Two years ago, Ann, who is half-Filipino, was corresponding with a friend of hers in the Philippines who didn’t have electricity. According to Ann, her friend couldn’t complete her homework and was failing in school. 

“That was the inspiration for my project.” said Ann, “I just wanted to help my friend in the Philippines and my flashlight was a possible solution.” 

Ann got to work. She remembered hearing human beings described as walking 100-volt light bulbs: “I thought, why not body heat? We have so much heat radiating out of us and it’s being wasted.”