Sukabumi

Wauw it took me 3 days to remember to write something again, the time goes by so much faster here.
Saturday I arrived on the airport, knowing that I have to eat rice for the next 4 weeks (without a possibility to eat some western food at a local cafe like on Bali) I grabbed a Big Mac. The departure lounge had a beautiful view of the sea, but also of the crappy planes waiting outside. I heard from a girl here that the company I was about to fly with had a bad record do crashes... So I didn't feel to safe about flying with them anymore. Then we had to board the plane. Normally you just walk down a long hallway and end up I the plane, I had to walk over the pavement next to the plane and get up with a ladder. It was so cool to see the plane from so up close (the noise was killing though). The flight went by pretty fast, just when we were about to land we flew through a thunderstorm. Creepiest flight I've ever experienced! But seeing Jakarta from the sky was incredibly beautiful! Jakarta has almost 10 million citizens, so more than half of the whole Netherlands!
After arriving at the airport (1 hour time difference) I met my drivers ( who barely spoke English but we're very friendly) and we drove through Jakarta, again an amazing view. I've never seen a city this big by night, all the huge lit up commercial boards and the skyscrapers and the busy crazy roads. It was a really bizarre sight for someone living in a small village.
After a 7 hour drive (of which I slept most luckily) we arrived at Cikanaga (it is quite in the middle of nowhere, the next bigger city is a 1,5 hour drive from here). It was dark and another this time non English speaking guy showed me my room. (Asking for the bathroom was impossible he even didn't understand my attempt to ask it in Indonesian)
The next day I woke up alone in the room. Everyone was gone for their daily tasks at the centre. Arriving in the night wasn't a great thing. (But I did find the bathroom by myself) Luckily after a few hours the people who are sleeping in my room came in. They told me were having lunch at one of the locals houses because his son got circumcised. (Which is a reason for celebration here) When we came to his house we were allowed to go inside and look at his son. We shook hands with a few family members (I felt very naked since all the local woman here are always covered. (Only the face is visible) but the coordinators and other female volunteers wore long pants and a T-shirt like me so it was fine. Then we got some Indonesian food there which actually tasted really good. They have this peanut butter cookie that tastes amazing! I had a talk with the other volunteers and there are 5 boys and two girls (including me). I share my room with the couple (they are married) and the boys sleep in the other dorm.
Really weird since I only met a few boys on Bali who were volunteering. They're also all Dutch here, which is so such a transition since I spoke almost solely English for the last month.
The dorms are really nice since they're lifted from the ground, so no rats, cockroaches or even geckos wander around in the dorms (Just spiders and mosquitoes). The bathrooms are outside and traditional Indonesian style (so a squat toilet that you have to flush with a bucket and a sperate room with a small tank of water and a bucket.) Very primitive but I took a shower today and it was OK (just make sure they're no insects in your bucket and get used to the cold water). The weather here is so nice! It's pretty cool during the night so sleeping is not a problem and you don't need a fan or air con! (You even need a blanket!) Then during the day it gets a little hotter but since I'm used to Bali temperature it's almost nothing to me. And then in the afternoon: rain. It still seems to be rainseason on Java.
So every morning I wake up at 6 am and at 7 we go to the wildlife centre. There we prepare food and then it depends on which keeper (who takes care of a certain species of animal) you're paired up with, which cages you're cleaning. The keepers don't speak English very well but they're so nice and friendly and really funny actually!
The we take a break from 11 to 1 and go back for a different job (depending on de schedule).
So yesterday I cleaned the cages of the monkeys (which tried to grab me through the bars) and in the afternoon we all cleaned the cages of the mice with Inge.(a Dutch, actually a Limburger, keeper) Today I cleaned the cages of the slow loris with Joko and in the afternoon I made enrichments (a toy or something with hidden food to give the animals something to do).
There are so many different animals here, from the house cats& Dogs to all the animals in the centre. Ok I'm going to try to name them all (there are over 200) tortoise, eagles, peacocks, Paradise birds, otters, bears, leopards, slow Loris, many species of monkeys, mice(for the eagles), deer, walibi, crocodiles and so many more. I will take pictures of all of them!
I especially like 'Captain Morgan' a baby leopard which is the cutest little thing I've ever seen in my life! He was really curious when he saw us humans walking in front of his cage (that was on my intro tour of the park). I reaaaally hope I will see him again! But I'm of to eat a real Indonesian lunch, I'll write again soon!
Sampai Jumpa!