Two weeks with Manengkel Solidaritas

by Amie Kenneth, volunteer from the UK.

Wife of the mayor of Lansa village showcasing the aubergines grown in the food garden.

Louis and I arrived at Manengkel on Sunday the 8th of June, immediately greeted with a big, warm welcome from Clara (a fellow volunteer) and Aphne (who had just woken from a well-deserved nap, seeing as she cooks 2 meals a day, 7 days a week for us volunteers). We got acquainted with our living quarters, explored the surrounding Manado area and settled in for the evening chatting to Clara and Sylvia, our co-volunteers for the next 2 weeks. 

Week 1 

We got given the news that Monday was a religious holiday for Manado and so were given a day off before we’d even started - we chose to spend it at Tunan waterfall and enjoyed spotting all the nutritious vegetation that Manado had to offer along the way (papaya trees, cassava plants & coconut trees, just to name a few). When we arrived back we got to meet more volunteers (Cecile, Laksh and Denise) and chatted the evening away getting to know one another (accompanied by Omega telling us scary stories of all the jungle wildlife, the worst of the lot being blood-hungry mosquitos). 

Day 1 & 2 of our volunteering journey was spent at the lovely Novita’s home and the base for the Manado recycling centre. This is where un-recyclable plastic is moulded into more durable panels which can then be melted together (using heat guns and irons) to create larger panels and even then even larger structures. Novita employs women from the local community, who would otherwise have no income, to collect the unusable plastic from the local landfill and begin the process of moulding the first stages of the plastic panelling. It was here that we could clearly see the devastating effects of our plastic waste - it was piled up in mounds at the landfill which is at the centre of the town and surrounded by Manado’s diverse and fragile ecosystem. Novita also explained that fires often start in the landfill that can’t be put out for days, weeks and sometimes months causing toxic plumes of smokes to linger. We worked away with lots of breaks insisted by Novita, and made 4 large panels by the end of the end of day 1 and by the end of day 2 we were able to finish over 10 panels with the help of lots of the volunteer team.

Melting plastic panels at Mando Recycling Centre / Novita's home.

Day 3 

After we were satisfied that the resident dogs and cats had obtained adequate petting for the morning, we made our way via scooter to Lansa village. Here it was our mission for the day to help with Sunni, Novita and Vianna‘s project to create a garden of fruits and vegetables for malnourished babies and mothers in the community. We quickly got to work clearing the area for crops, we planted aubergine, tomato, spinach and bean plant seeds and ploughed the ground for new soil beds to be made and for more crops to be sowed. It was thirsty work and we took plenty of breaks with the locals that were also helping out (+the mayor of the village) whilst their kids played in the stream nearby. Once we arrived back to HQ we beavered away with Omega to help with creating durable tags to be used for geotagging the mangrove trees (a project for next week). This geotagging process will be vital for tracking the new trees’ growth and how much CO2 they’ll be offsetting. 

The sustainable food garden that Lansa village are creating for local mothers and babies.

Ending our 1st week in Manado

As standard at Manankel, we were given the weekend off (3 day work week, don’t mind if we do!). So, we decided to spend it in Tangkoko national park - here we got to really see what Manankel’s projects work to protect. The wildlife was nothing we’ve ever seen before (we got to see hornbills, eagles, woodpeckers, couscous, tarsiers) and the natural world felt very rightly protected here with the local people and guides clearly passionate about preserving their land. It felt like a privilege to be able to witness and learn about this precious ecosystem and we came back on Sunday refreshed and raring to go for the week ahead’s projects.