Travel to Panglan Bun, Borneo, Indonesia with Bob & Wilma

In March of 2009, Dr. Birute Galdikas, the world's foremost authority on orangutans, came to NMSU and spoke.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were fortunate enough to hear her and I off handily asked her if OFI had a volunteer program, which they did. We interviewed for it in May and were in Borneo at the Orangutan Care Center in July.

 

 

 

 

 

The mission of the Care Center is to care for confiscated and orphaned orangutans and to facilitate the rehabilitation of them into the wild. Our mission, the pilot team of 12, was to build walkways over the swamp to aid the orangutan workers in facilitating that effort.

Little did the team know it but we were in for the adventure of a lifetime. Part of the team had come through an infected area of the "bird flu" and part of them wound up in the hospital. This brought the team to the attention of the Indonesian authorities.

 

 

We were given masks and removed from the area of the orangutans as they, sharing 96% DNA with humans, were also susceptible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because of the media coverage, the local brothel, minus the LADIES, was the only hotel that would take us in, even at a steep price. We only spent one night there then we were secreted away and sequestered in a neglected and dilapidated zoo that had recently been purchased by OFI out of concern for the remaining animals.

 

 

 

 

In the zoo, we were billeted in a lovely ironwood house built by an Indonesian government official. The team was productive there also cleaning up, digging a crocodile pit and tearing down unsafe walkways until it was deemed safe to resume our work at the Care Center. It was a very interesting experience.