Exciting and sad

This is just a quick and hasty update. I just found a link of a YouTube video which really upset me.

I am going back to Sumatra, you know... I just have to. It is the most wonderful place in the world with the most wonderful people. When I was standing on this terrace above the river something really weird happened to me; I must have fallen in love, it's the only explanation. 

Riha giving a cooking class in the very spot I saw MY Tangkahan for the first time.

Have a look at the pictures on my Picasa Web, there is no explanation needed to see which ones are from our way through plantations to Tangkahan, the jungle trips and the moment when we came out of the jungle on our elephants to reach Bukit Lawang and the ground was barren and red. We all had tears in our eyes. And there they had logged down a rubber plantation to make place for palm oil. At least in this area they leave the rainforest alone. I now go back to learn more about their lives, their dreams and what I can do to help them come true.

And then this happens just across the park at the other side:

I knew that things were not quite right in this region, but I did not think that it was that bad.

See, this National Park - it is a park for crying out loud, the meaning of it being that it IS protected land... just to think of it to make it into a plantation...

Grrr... sorry...

... this park is one of the remaining lungs of the world. If that goes down, there will not a lot be left as the other ones are going down at the same rate. If one can be stopped, it shows the others can be saved too. To stop this, the world needs the local people to stand up and fight, but they cannot do that alone. They need to at least see that the world is behind them. With publicity all of a sudden politicians get involved and things get moving. Silence is the killer!

I will go back to my wonderful Tangkahan, and I will do my bit to help them to get into a sustainable future without destroying their forest and their land. I just believe with the whole of my heart that it is possible to keep the cake and eat it. We have the technology to help create clean jobs so that they can maintain their culture and their environment. But it needs a bit of patience and trust. In the meantime the people who are after the quick money have to be kept at bay as otherwise there is nothing that can be done anymore.

Please share this video on your networking sites, tell people about it. Let the people of Tripa know that they are not alone in this.

Thanks,

and always yours

Rika

Sumatra, Sport and a bit of Suffering

This all of a sudden has become a rather good ILP week. Since I am not doing regular updates on Wednesdays anymore my rhythm has changed quite a bit. Sometimes I am a bit stunned how coincidences compliment each other. The freeing up of my Wednesdays happened just in time to accommodate the changes in my day job. Now I have a main meeting on Wednesdays for which I need the time to prepare on Mondays and Tuesdays. So now my writing days have become work days while the last half of the week becomes IL time. One has to be careful though, to not get distracted by running errands or general fuzziness.

Well this week started in good shape, skipped walking on Monday but had a good workout on Tuesday, meeting on Wednesday went all well, and on Thursday I attended another MySecretKitchen food tasting party. It was lovely to catch up with Lyna the friend who was the consultant at my own party back in May, and to meet with the neighbours.

... and then I had a weird night. Friday morning I woke up with a sore back which then got better throughout the day. Thus I had another great workout that evening, no pain, feeling great, went to bed and woke in the middle of the night as if a bulldozer had hit my right rib cage. I had to skip my leg training on Saturday morning... grrr, especially leg training! I like my Saturday morning sessions; they are efficient and they usually inspire me to update the blog... sigh!

Well, and then it turned out that the pain got less when sitting nice and upright... like at a computer! Well, one has to take what is given and so I eventually started to fill the travel blog with my Sumatra diary. And because Michelle Desilets from Orangutan Land Trust started the whole thing with a tweet, I had to go circles and added the respective articles on the charity blog and the story blog as well.

Now the only blog that hasn't been touched yet is 'Nutrition', but so far I am rather happy with the new style. Updates are done so easily... well, and I even got some comments :o))

Have a great week and don't forget to once in a while to remember your dreams

Love