Lewa-Lewa!

Long boats

Just got back last night from another field visit to a few villages near the Indonesian border. What an experience! We have to say that we think we have got ourselves the best EWB placement going! Had to take a 3hour 4x4 journey south then a long boat down the river towards Indonesia from where the road ended. Because it had rained loads the night before the river was huge and whole trees were being washed downstream. At points it was like white-water rafting as the rapids knocked the little boat around and sprayed water all over us! A bit scary but really thrilling. By the time we got to the village we were soaked!

Kampung Inakaak

We visited 4 villages in total: Inakaak; Bantul; Saliman and Babalitan. There are already  micro-hydro in place in the first 3 which we were just checking over. A few improvements needed to be made including removing the dry-season nozzle from the turbine intake at Inakaak and installing a more suitable nozzle for the wet season. The final village, Babalitan, we were originally heading to, to carry out a feasibility study of a river for a potential MHP site. However the watershed of the river is owned by another village who are being a bit difficult and refusing to allow the use of there river even though our boss, Banie is offering to install a small solar power scheme in return. So there was not much we could do there until the problem is settled between the villages. We did however have a look around Babalitan and inspected the ill-fitted solar panels at the school there. Not sure what the contractors were thinking when they put it up but its facing away from the sun and is shaded by the schoolhouse for most of the day! The batteries are also all wired wrong and not charging- so the panels are only supplying a little bit of power from the small amount of sun they get during the day and no power is available throughout the rest of the day or night. Our hope is that we can construct a micro-hydro/ solar hybrid scheme there to provide enough power for the village but if the neighbouring village are unwilling to co-operate then another river will have to be sourced. 

Bathtime at the reservoir in Inakaak

Patrick doing a bit of maintenance to the turbine

Spot the problem with the solar panels

Dinner for 4 in Saliman

The Murut people (indigenous group that live in the villages in that area of Sabah) are so incredibly friendly! Each village follows similar traditions to welcome visitors to their village: each household will bring some food and drink for the visitors. So when we arrived in Inakaak (we think there were maybe 10 households) the 4 of us were meet with 10 jugs of coffee, tea and hot chocolate and enough biscuits to feed an army! Then at dinner time we were presented again with food that would have been enough for maybe 20 people! Custom is to try a bit of each so as to not show favoritism. There was some interesting dishes including fermented fish (tastes a bit like stilton), fermented pork and lots of fresh fish and wild boar that were hunted that afternoon when they heard we were coming. It was the same in all the villages we visited and we feel now literally ready to burst. So much food over the last few days! 

Headman in Bantul

The Murut people traditionally live in long houses. The only equivalent we can think of is a cross between terraced housing and student dorms: the house is one very long wooden hut on stilts with a row of living quarters for each family along the length all connected by a walkway. In the centre of the house there is open area for socialising and entertaining (basically the village hall). Some of these long houses have a "traditional trampoline" in the "village hall"  which they jump about and dance whilst drinking rice wine during special occasions. Unfortunately we never slept in the long house itself but stayed with the head of the village in his family's house (which in Bantul there was almost as many living in his house as the long house: both his wives, lots of children and childrens' children. 

Discovered that micro-hydro has a few other uses than powering the villages: as the water supply was temperamental in all the villages we stayed in the only way we could bath was in the reservoir or in Andy's case he jumped straight into a 300gal forebay tank!

        

Banie held meetings with each community in the evenings to teach them a bit about micro hydro. The aim of the meetings were to make the micro-hydro schemes more sustainable by giving the villagers the opportunity to run and maintain there own schemes. 

Banie holding workshop with Bantul community

Villagers getting involved in workshop in Saliman

After that beer or rice wine were passed around with more food! Struggled to keep up with them. Lauren wasnt even half way through a can of beer before the next was put in front of her! On our last night we were staying in Saliman and when the beer ran out instead of everyone heading off to bed and calling it a night someone was sent off down the river rapids to Inakaak to borrow some more beer!

                                                                                                            Tasting Tapei (rice wine)


It was evident that the villages weren't very used to seeing "Orang Putih" (white people) and were a bit wary of us but when the tapei (rice wine) started flowing they went out their way to entertain us. We met an old guy of about 90 in Saliman who was a bit hard of hearing and only spoke the tribal language. He rambled on and on and didn't quite understand that we didn't understand a word he was saying! Banie later mentioned that he had been telling us about the orang putih he had met during the wars and the conflict between Borneo and Japan. His stories were getting all mixed up and he would be telling a story about how friendly the Orang Putih had been when he was a 10year old boy, giving them tins of food and biscuits etc then his story would suddenly change to how he, as a young man would shoot down planes! Was such an interesting guy: wish we could have understood what he was saying!

Our boss, Banie

Chilling out in the long boat on the way to another village

The crew at Saliman

Patrick having a break at the Bantul Powerhouse

Heading back up

In other news....

Headed to Kuala Lumpur last weekend to see what Penisular Malaysia was like. Made the most of our two days and one night there and visited the National mosque, Hindu temples, Chinese temples Chinatown, the markets in Little India and of course headed to the golden triangle to see the KL tower and the Petronas towers. We also took a trip to Batu Caves just outside the city which is a pilgrimage site for Hindus. The huge cave is at the top of over 200 steps and protected by a huge gold statue of a Hindu god. Inside the cave itself there are lots of Hindu shrines and decorations. Really liked KL and are hoping to have another flying visit when we head to Peninsular to visit a few potential MHP sites next month. 
             
                                                        A few snaps from our sightseeing in KL

Headed out to the workshop last week to hand over the designs for the intake and powerhouse at Laban Rata (Mount Kinabalu base camp) They are being made as we speak and will be all ready to go up the mountain to begin installation in the next few weeks. As it turns out we will be helping with the installation and so will have the chance to head up the mountain via ferrata (an alternative route to the summit fixed with cables, ladders and bridges).

Also, after a bit of research we have come up with a few ideas to get the gasifier in the workshop up and running and will hopefully be getting that sorted when we get a chance. Think it will be a case of doing a few adjustments here and there until we can get it just right and produce bio-gas clean enough to use in an internal combustion engine.

Heading back to one of the first villages we visited, Kg. Tiku on Wednesday to present our feasibility report to the community and get some feedback as well as getting the community involved in the project as much as possible. After all, they will be involved in the construction and once its completed they will take ownership and have the responsibility to maintain it. 

That's all for now, will post again soon. 

Lauren and Andy