It's Monday and the clinic is busy, as usual. Our first case of malaria in a 13yo boy today -- from one of the islands. Story is one of fever daily for a month, some malaise. Exam reveals an enlarged spleen and pale conjunctiva. Hemoglobin is 9+ and platelets down to 88k. His thick smear shows lots of gametocytes (banana-shaped with the parasite inside --falciparum). Will, nurse and lab tech both, had not had a positive smear for three years!!.
The weekend was great, as we were picked-up by taxi at 5AM on Friday, taken to the airport in Ketapung for a 7:45 flight to south of there, near Kumai, where we again were met by our guide for the weekend at the airport and escorted to the harbor in Kumai. There, we boarded a klotok (long wooden boat with a crew of our guide, a captain, assistant captain, and cook -- all for the three of us from ASRI. (Ilana, the new resident from Stanford was third). The port of Kumai is actually fairly large and busy with ships carrying cars and people to Java and lots of commercial shipping as well. The crew is mostly not seen and in the lower deck, while we occupy the upper deck, which is outfitted with a table, three chairs, some padded mats on the floor and a few pillows as well. There is then a canopy over that upper space (which also serves as our bedroom at night). At night, the push the table to one side, collapse the chairs, and put-up mosquito nets, inside of which are our mats/beds. The stern of the boat has a "bathroom" with a sit toilet in one cubicle and a "shower" in the other -- actually, there was a shower head powered with a generator that we used once when the river water was relatively clean.(in the black river)
We then journeyed a short distance up the Kumai River and turned into the jungle with Tanjung Puting National Park on one side and private land on the other. Initially, the jungle was mostly palms of one or another sort and we did see one orangutan in that section, but soon, the arboreal forest began and the river narrowed. Shortly after noon, and our first great lunch, we reached the first feeding station and waited for the 3PM feeding time. Fortunately, Dr. Birute Galdikas, the president of Orangutan Foundation International and researcher for the last 40 years, was leading a group from US AID on a tour for the weekend and we intersected with them several times over the next couple of days. We have a picture of Lauri and her chatting at Camp Leaky. The orangutans at the various stations, especially Camp Leaky, think of her as their "mother" and will walk directed towards her before moving slightly away -- neat to watch. Apparently one of the females (she refers to her as demented), sat on Birute for an hour on one occasion. That same animal was at the station during this trip with her 4yo infant. I almost forgot to mention that our guide had family tree for each of the females and all the subsequent progeny are given names that start with the same letter, so keeping track of various families is easier. We were able to observe these beautiful animals at all three stations: they are considered semi-wild, but often do not visit the feeding areas for weeks at a time and there is actually an attendance book at each site where the rangers record which orangutans have visited each day. At times they would come within a few feet of us -- a bit unsettling -- and we were told not to carry food or even water bottles that they might be attracted to. Sometime soon, we will send a few photos.
Camp Leaky was the farthest away, up the "black river" which was much cleaner and along a narrow, jungle canal , really gave us a sense of jungle travel. So in addition to the "main attraction", we saw lots of probiscus monkeys, long tail macacs, silver leaf monkeys, lots of birds (hornbills, broadbills, kingfishers), one small crocodile. Probiscus monkeys actually swim, but will wait for a boat to pass (keeps the crocodiles away) before jumping into the water from great heights. Our guide was great, the food the best we have had, and sleeping on the boat really nice -- no falls overboard during the requisite potty trips at night. And....no ants in our beds or on our feet all weekend. Sunday morning, we arose at 4:30 and walked to a tower, built some years back to watch for fire, climbed to the top and watched and listened for the jungle to awaken -- no interesting sightings, but lots of bird and gibbon sounds.
So now, we are only three days from departure for Bali -- early Thursday AM -- with arrival around 4PM. After doing battle with ants again last night after returning and this morning, we are ready to be done with them. The cat seems to be doing well with her broken leg -- and no splint-- so guess we will leave well-enough alone.
I am sure I have forgotten some important details, but Lauri will add them, to be sure.
Jim
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