The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.
– St Augustine, Catholic bishop of Hippo in northern Africa from AD396 to 430
Our return journey from the Basap settlement at Teluk Sumbang was by a sea-cargo vessel named Anugerah Indah (God’s Beautiful Gift).
Owned by Bugis ‘trans-migrasi’ immigrant Yunos Padui, I chartered the vessel for 160,000 rupiah (approx RM200) for the eight-hour journey back to Batu Putih.
I had no choice but to hire the ship because it was the only vessel leaving the village within the next few days.
Also on board were Pendita Yohanis Sakai and one of his Lun Dayah pastors, Rostam Thomas, and a malaria-stricken teenager Susanti Rahayu.
The night before leaving, we had stayed at Pastor Rostam’s house and I volunteered to bring Santy along with us because she was having a serious bout of Malaria.
She had been sick for several days but her father could not afford to send his daughter to the nearest clinic at Biduk Biduk.
Rostam said: “All rural evangelical Indonesian pastors are paid the barest minimum, I get a monthly sum of 40,000 rupiah (about RM40).”
Early that morning, we boarded the 30-foot-long Dutch schooner type vessel which was berthed on a tributary next to the village.
It was going to be an eight-hour journey on Anugrah Indah to get to our next stop near the village of Biduk Biduk which had the nearest government clinic.
After dropping off Pastor Rostam and his family near the coast, our vessel headed for Tembudan, home of a group of Punan nomads
Batu Putih, with its navigator having to skilfully manoeuvre through the coral reefs, where inexperienced sea-farers often get stuck in the coral reefs.
French anthropologist and historian Bernard Selatto, who has written a book on nomadic Punan, said the Punan of Indonesia are mainly found in East Kalimantan.
At 5pm, we disembarked near the coast by using a small sampan, then took a 30-minute ride by Land Rover to Tembudan, 20km away.
It was a special visit for Yohanis because he was the first missionary to open up the Talisayan area, covering the Cape of Mangkalihat in 1974.
By the time we arrived it was almost 6pm and getting dark so we spent the night with village chief Pak Lurah Adinti Tongsun.
Adinti, 48, who is of Chinese-Bajau parentage, married Lukah, the daughter of Tembudan nomadic chief Ibol.
Tembudan Punans are the predominant race in the vicinity.
However, in recent years, ‘trans-migrasi’ immigrants such as the Bugis, Toraja from Tator in Central Sulawesi, Javanese and Timorese, have joined them.
Adinti said when he first arrived, there were only four Punan families living in flimsy huts made from bark while the rest of the nomads lived in the jungle.
“The majority of the Punans were sick and were covered with sores, boils and lice because we had no knowledge of good health and hygiene. The mortality rate among the young in the interior was very high.
“But all that has changed since. Now the community has 150 houses, several suraus for the Muslims and chapels for Catholics and members of the Gereja Khemah Injil Indonesia (GHII) which is the equivalent of the Sidang Injil Borneo (Borneo Evangelical Mission) in Sarawak.
“Our arrival was somewhat timely as it gave Pak Yohanis an opportunity to pray for the family of nine-year-old Marcus Nusi who had died three days earlier,” said Adinti.
Some said he had died of malaria while others claimed it was hepatitis. No one was sure.
Added Adinti: “I believe he died of tipes (typhus). It was too late to take him to the hospital which was a day’s journey away.”
In the old days, the Punans at Tembudan practised black magic.
Pastor Penias Lasung, the GKII pastor in Tembudan said: “Even our missionaries succumbed to their black magic.
“One preacher was charmed after he had reproved a member of his congregation for smoking in the chapel. Parts of his genitals seemed to have disappeared.”
Penias said his whole family had malaria and that he had been infected at least 20 times.
The great explorer H. F. Tillema, who came across numerous cases of malaria in Kalimantan during the 1930s in his book ‘Journey Among the Peoples of Central Borneo’ called malaria the “most troublesome and dangerous creatures of the forest.”
In the old days, malaria was spread by wild pigs which dug up holes, causing them to fill up with rainwater and provide breeding places for mosquitoes.
With stories of black magic and diseases, it was not difficult to feel squeamish in the lush green surroundings.
“What about the rate of fatalities in Kalimantan?” I asked
Hospital authorities told me no statistics are available but that Kalimantan is a hyper-endemic region and the big killer is the plasmodium falciparum strain which the Swiss environmentalist Bruno Manser contracted in East Kalimantan.
But I felt safe because it had been a practice to consume chloroquine tablets whenever I go into unknown territory.
However, after returning, you must continue taking the tablets for at least a month,” a senior Sarawak medical officer told me.
But I was not perturbed, I even bathed in the sparkling clear stream in Tembudan with all the others despite being informed there had been a cholera outbreak in the area two years ago.
During our two days in Tembudan, we discovered that logging is the main industry while farming is a subsistence activity.
Loggers can earn between 250,000 rupiahs to a million rupiahs (RM300 to RM1,200).
Some families have worked for several years and saved enough to become full-time farmers.
Most Punan families had basic amenities; many own TV sets and generators and some even have parabolic satellite dishes. Two of three families own motorcycles.
There are several shops selling clothes, drugs including pain-killers and various types of anti-malaria tablets such as the ‘fansidar’ brand.
In Tembudan, there is a primary school, post office and a health clinic in the area.
People are tolerant religiously, abiding by the first principle of the Pancasila — Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa (Belief in One Supreme God).
Wildlife is abundant and for the two days we subsisted on wild boar which is only hunted with the spear, as guns are prohibited.
People are jailed even for a small offence — Pastor Rostam was jailed for six months (he was released only in March) for carrying a home-made shotgun in Teluk Sumbang.
Sleeping without a mosquito net with mosquito-repellent smeared all over the body is not the kind of holiday even the most adventurous would expect, but this is something a visitor to Kalimantan must do for his or her own safety.
At one of the church gatherings, many charismatic Indonesian songs of praise were sung, one to the tune of Nearer My God to Thee — the song played by the ship’s band as the Titanic went down.
It went:
Lebih Dekat, Tuhan, Kepada mu
Walau Melintasi, Susah Keluh.
Inilah Doa ku, Lebih Dekat Yahu,
Lebih Dekat Tuhan, Kepada Mu.
I felt the song was appropriate for me because we did not experience any mishap in our sea-going vessel.
Indeed, the reception by people of Tembudan was most warming as we were offered as many as six meals a day.
Certainly, no one was going to die of starvation here.
It was time to leave. As scheduled, our American pilot Larry Whiting arrived on time and we were back in Tarakan.
It was a long-haul home to Sarawak, on the western half-way around the world’s third largest island!
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
