Pulau Medang - just the most special day

We woke to still seas and heavy rain. Glorious but it was also a bit eerie. As soon as it cleared we donned our snorkeling gear and explored under the water for a while. The snorkeling was much better than we’d seen so far this trip - better coral, more fish, and less damage. That done we jumped (at our age? More like awkwardly scrambled) into the dinghy and headed to the pier where a boy was quietly fishing, and a boat was being built. As we approached the workers all waved and called out. We moored on a little beach tucked into the mangroves, and soon a man appeared, keen to chat.
Anton is a 39 yr old local who works on boat building n the wet season, then on the liveaboard as in tourist season. He offered to guide us to the school.
We walked slowly along the road while Anton told us about life on the island. The boat building is concentrated in Bugis Medang (village) whereas Bajo Medang is where the fishermen and families reside.
He is (justly) very proud of the boat building work! Most of the large wooden boats we saw from Komodo to Lombok are built right here, with minimal infrastructure and precious few power tools.
The village consists of various styles of home - some more substantial (still tiny though) of rendered clay brick, and others with walls of woven bamboo or wood on stilts. Each had a garden fenced with wooden posts and a variety of materials - fishing net, branches, palm frond stems between to control the plentiful goats and occasional cow. Chickens - the most plentiful of all- respect no boundaries.
We could hear the school before we saw it. Lunch break! Anyone lead us in, and a throng of excited kids followed us, all the way to the staff room/office! They were all friendly, though the girls are shy, smiley and chatty.
Anton introduced us to Paul, the principal. Even he and the teachers were excited to have us visit! Paul and the others explained a lot about the education system in Indonesia (though we missed a lot of details as he as SO animated), and asked about the system in Australia.
I had a bag of education resources - just basic stuff we take for granted here - pencils, coloured pencils, erasers, exercise books, scissors, as well as a variety of craft stuff - printed papers & embellishments from scrapbooking, beads, diamantes etc that I thought would be a novelty for the kids. I also had a few pairs of novelty sunglasses and pink visors left from my daughter Laura’s Barbie themed hens party. Not only the kids, but the adults loved them!
We also had a bouncy kids ball with nodules (easy grip). Paul’s wife, the beautiful and vivacious Napsiah (also a teacher) was fascinated it it, so I showed her how it doubles as a massage ball. Well everyone tried that and loved it!
After our school visit, Anton, who had patiently waited for us, led us back towards the pier. Enroute he mentioned Adi (who guided us to a safe mooring when we first arrived) lived close by.
Adi was showering (clothed, outside under the garden hose) as we passed. He was delighted to see us and invited us in to meet his wife and sister-in-law. We chatted for a bit - it turns out that Adi also works in boat building in the wet season, and on the tour boats in the high season.
Adi invited us all to stay for lunch, and his wife went upstairs while Adi cleaned some fresh fish, lit a fire and began to barbecue them. His choice of fuel was coconut husks, and the fire was just on the ground. The fish had a lovely smoky flavour and the meat was sweet and delicate. Adi’s wife (neither of us could remember her name) made both steamed rice and a rice & corn dish, plus a spicy sauce to add.
They were friendly and chatty and it was very relaxed. We all sat on a low raised bamboo seating platform under the house. It was challenging negotiating the plentiful bones in the fish, without seeming too precious! I’d hope I’d learn a trick by watching the locals eat, but Adi and family didn’t eat with us. They prepared the food just for us!
After much Adi showed us the rest of his garden - he has a large block with extends to the shoreline, which has been in his family for generations. At the back were quite a lot of family graves, all clearly built by the family, and just marked with names scratched into the wet concrete. I noticed a few child sized, and one tiny baby sized one 😢😢.
On the way back, we passed a couple of women and a toddler with a large pot of sweet corn on a fire. Anton asked if we wanted to buy any. Why not? So for the princely sum of IDR5000 (about $4.70) we bought a bag of steaming corn ears, straight out of the pot. We were supposed to receive 5, but she added a couple of extra ones. The corn is very woody compared with ours here, but was very young and healthy, so it must just be the variety.
We also called into the village store, which sold the most amazing range of items - think hardware, motorbike stuff, food, gardening implements and more. Dale noticed a freezer selling ice creams, so we bought one for each of Adi’s family, for Anton, and ourselves. These were a real luxury it seems, and gratefully accepted. Each small iceblock cost twice the price of the family sized bag of cooked corn!
Our last detour before heading back to Thetis, was to motor past a beautiful big boat that was nearing completion.
We were asking about how the lower hulls were built and he explained that was done on land, then the jen all pull her into the water with ropes. He tried to convince us to stay an extra 3 days so we could witness this happening. Tempting as it was, other islands were calling.Read more