PPLH Seloliman

Getting to the PPLH Environmental Education Center in Seloliman is fun - or at least the last part where you take a motorcycle taxi (an ojek) from the town of Trawas. Zipping through the backcountry of Eastern Java, we fly past villages and people caring for their fields. We breeze down hills with hair flying, sorry to say no helmets around here, and after an exhilarating 20 minutes ride we reach the PPLH Center. The center is located on the slopes of Mount Penanggungan, and they can also arrange pickups for those not as keen on motorcycle riding.

(Scenery on the ride to the PPLH – and I did take this pic ;)

At the center I was greeted by Purjoko, coordinator for the education programs. Well, first I was greeted by two visitors to the center that wanted a picture taken with the newly arrived “white girl” before I can even set down my bags. Later on this would become the theme of the evening ;) Due to poor planning on my part, there is no dorm vacancy at the center, but Purjoko is happy to set up a stay in the nearby village. As he tells me, if you’re arriving on the weekend it is best to email: pplh@indo.net.id a week in advance, or if you’re coming on a holiday weekend even a month in advance.

I continue talking with Purjoko in the restaurant area of the center, and he tells me about the place’s history. PPLH Seloliman was first established in 1990 with funding from the WWF, but since then it has developed into a self-supporting NGO to educate the public about the environment. The center here focuses mainly on agricultural learning, but other branches of PPLH operate around Indonesia and focus on other topics, such as marine life rehabilitation. The PPLH Seloliman center really sees a wide range of visitors. When I arrive a group of kindergarteners from Surabaya are playing an educational game in the nearby woods, but primary, secondary, graduate, and post graduate students also visit, as do full-fledged adults. We go on a tour of the area, and Purjoko shows me the storeroom for planning the programs oriented for young kids. As he tells me, “most kids are only used to coloring with crayons and other manufactured products, but here we teach kids about natural products.” He shows me a root and the bright yellow streaks it produces. Kids here can also use flowers and charcoal to color their printouts of local wildlife. He also tells me about some other fun projects for the kids including educational hikes, visits to the organic garden, seeing the local animals that reside at the center, learning how to boil down paper to reuse it, and even a game to teach kids how to sort out products to recycle.

We continue our tour to see the other components of the PPLH center. The goal of the center is to be very nearly self-sustaining, so he shows me where waste is naturally composted and broken down under the earth. A nearby PPLH run hydro-electric power station generates electricity for the center, surrounding villages, and even enough energy to then sell to the government. We pass a resource library that holds a collection of Indonesian and English books on environmental conservation, wildlife, development programs, etc. There is also a seminar room, spiritual house for prayer, bungalows, a guest house, and a 60 person dormitory. Again, these spots fill up quickly on the weekends. As we pass the organic garden, Purjoko explains that programs are also arranged with the local community to help develop awareness on how to manage the forest’s resources. The center holds education classes for local kids, as well as working with farmers to plant crops that include those that enrich the soil and prevent erosion. At first, he explains, there was some tension between the locals wishing to use the surrounding forest for its resources and to meet their daily needs, while the center hoped to conserve and manage the natural resources of the area. In addition, government regulations and enforcement on logging had changed, so since 2001 PPLH witnessed an increase in illegal logging. At that time, as I’m told, the center stepped up its efforts to help villagers find other ways of gaining income from the forest that didn’t include cutting down the trees, like harvesting non-timber related assets like fruit. Meetings have also been held with local farmers from the surrounding communities on how to help damaged forest recover and about managing a community forest near the main one with short term and long term crop strategies. The center also promotes organic farming in the area, and has been working to find long lasting business partners in Surabaya to buy the goods. As we walk by a display case, he shows me some of the products for sale made by home industries in the local village, like herbal medicines. Over the past 17 years the center has reached a comfortable level of interconnectivity with the locals in the area, as around 70% of the staff, over 40 people, comes directly from the surrounding countryside and those who don’t come from the area rent rooms in the villages.

(Purjoko explaining water treatment)

In the evening a workshop is going on for a large group of science teachers from Surabaya. I sit in on the presentation. Though entirely in Indonesia, I can easily understand the general ideas of the presentation as they use some easily discernable pictures, like a little devil with horns burning garbage and an image of a sad looking globe with a thermometer in its mouth. After the presentation, I join the group for dinner in the main hall. As to be expected the food here is very healthy, grown locally and without additives or artificial ingredients. By the end of the evening I think I had my picture taken with the majority of the 70 plus group of science teachers. As they posed my in different positions, I couldn’t help but wonder how many random photo albums I’m in throughout Asia.



The next morning I could again observe the science teacher workshop. After a hike, the staff members of PPLH demonstrated nature related science activities, like making paper. The teachers were then given an opportunity to try their skills. Another activity was going down to the river with nets and microscopes to look at the creatures that live in the water. While the group gathered next to the river, I could see a grey haired woman from the village collecting firewood, creating an odd juxtaposition with the merriment of the science teachers.

My last activity around PPHL was to go with the Arief, from the Research and Development staff, to visit the nearby Jolotundo temple and a nearby community garden. Both places are about 1 km away from the center, but up a steep hill. Jolotundo is one of about 80 Hindu temples built into the sacred Penanggungan Mountain, and as one can see from the picture local kids enjoy playing in the water. In a large plot nearby is one of the community gardens that PPLH works to develop with local farmers. As we arrive a boy is just departing with two large baskets of leaves and other food for livestock, strung on a pole over his shoulders. For those who wish to stay longer Arief also conducts educational eco-hikes in the surrounding mountainside.

If you’re curious to find out more about the PPHL Center at Seloliman, they have a website – http://www.blogger.com/www.pplh.org. They also happily welcome volunteers, so if you’re interested contact pplh@indo.net.id.

The Blind Masseuses of Malang

From Yogyakarta I travelled briefly to Solo. The tourism industry here has declined severely as fewer tourists are visiting Indonesia and those who do usually just go to Yogya, which has most of the same tourist draws – a Sultan’s palace and local dance performances. It doesn’t help that many of the guest houses in Yogya encourage visitors to skip Solo and stay longer in their town. I’m afraid I didn’t stay long in Solo, just long enough for lunch before catching the next bus to Surabaya. After Jakarta this is the second biggest city. The city has a few highlights, like a fascinating China town and an old district full of crumbling Dutch buildings, but it is mostly business people who visit this city. At the inexpensive guest house I stayed at, I was surprised in the morning to find the courtyard full of men in suits sipping tea.

Again I did not stay long in Surabaya, but hopped a bus to Malang. I am now entrenched in East Java, the least populated of Java’s province. It is also home to several of Java’s finest parks and volcanoes, including the popular Mount Bromo. On the short 2 hour ride from Surabaya to Malang I could see acres of forest out the window. Malang itself is full of Dutch architecture, as its sometimes cool temperatures made it a favorite destination for European vacationers during colonial times. While many of the buildings date from the Dutch era, like most places one can still find McDonalds and a few other global chains.

Traditionally the tourism industry specializes in providing lodgings and transport to tourists, but a “linkage” is when the tourism industry encourages growth in supplementary industries as well. Throughout SEA massage industries have taken off as an accompanying industry in many tourist destinations. While sometimes these massage parlors bring unforeseen negative social impacts, they can also be used to positively impact a community. In Malang I discovered Nuansa Fajar, a massage place that trains and employs the blind. In the back of a store, several rooms are set up where masseuses give 1 hour massages. I visited Malang during the offseason, so at the time I visited there were few other tourists and I didn’t have to wait long for a masseuse. As the blind lady used strong fingers to get out all the kinks I’d developed during the last few days of travelling, I could hear a local band on the street strumming away. After the massage, it was at this place that I saw my first and only other Caucasian tourist in the town, and he too was getting a massage.