Two weeks with Manengkel Solidaritas

by Amie Kenneth, volunteer from the UK.

The children of Desa Teep village.

Week 2 

Another Monday planning meeting with all the team, and after our jam packed safari weekend, we welcomed the role of creating more mangrove tags with open arms. The rest of the volunteers went to the recycling centre to finish up the panels ahead of our trip to install them tomorrow. 

We made a little HQ production line and managed to get 1,300 tags made for the mangrove trees tomorrow - with our efforts being spurred on with pizza that Sella had bought us as a midday treat. We then spent the evening planning our overnight trip; booking a vehicle, ordering tents and discussing the practicalities of the work. 

Early Tuesday morning we received messages to say that the pick up truck for the panels had arrived early to the recycling centre and we needed to go and help load them up. Robin, Denise, Julia and I took a taxi to Novitas and started the loading up process with Elis. It was here that we realised a few of the panels were coming apart but we loaded them up (with the heatguns for any patching up needed) and sent them on their way to the village. The team followed shortly after and we started our 2 hour journey to Desa Teep village. We arrived in our funky blue rain covers and were greeted with big smiles, banana fitters and a shelter from the storm from the local elders and lots of sweet, curious looks from the children. We rested for a while whilst the tide lowered (and whilst we recovered from our condensed-milk-banana-fritter comas) and then got to work geotagging the baby mangrove trees before we lost the light. The local kids danced around us and peered over our shoulders to oversee what we were doing in their playground. We finished up at about 6pm and all sat on the sea-front rocks to watch the sunset - here we shared names, whistling skills and charade-like conversations with the kids before sharing a dinner kindly prepared by the village. 

Geotagging the mangroves.

We awoke early on Wednesday to Jorley preparing a condensed milk coffee station for us and enjoyed the sun starting to peak out of the clouds with our coffees before a nasi goreng breakfast. Fuelled up and ready to go, we started to section the panels into ‘sturdy’ and ‘needs repairing’ and attempted to patch the holes and melt them back together (although we had issues with electricity cutting out, we used duct tape instead). The men of Desa Teep village had created a bamboo structure upon which the plastic panels would be sitting - so after the panels had been through quality control we helped the locals to install them as a roof. The structure of the roof went up quickly and we all decided that an added tarpaulin on top would be key to ensuring that the structure be watertight.

One of the locals helping with the bamboo structure before the panel installation.

The community of Desa Teep were extremely grateful for our help (although it was their men that helped a huge amount in providing their builder skillsets!), and after the hard work was done we all got ice creams from the ice-cream scooter and celebrated Deli’s birthday (one of the local children) with dancing, singing and games on the beach. After another delicious meal, the lower tide started to reveal the mangroves again so we could get to work. We used the geotagging app to take photos and log the mangroves one by one in each group of stems. We continued this (again under the watchful eyes of the kids who wanted to help) until we started to hear huge rumbles of thunder. Louis and I decided that as we were on a scooter it would be best to be on our way back before the roads and visibility got dangerous. We said a lot of heart-felt goodbyes and gave lots of hugs, and as we drove home we discussed how much of an impact that village had on us both (it’s still one of my favourite days in our 8 months of travel). 

Quick sketch break!

Thursday and for our final day at Manengkel we got to go back to Lansa village and continue creating a fruit and vegetable patch for the malnourished babies and mothers of the community. I was so excited when we got there because you could see how much the seeds we’d planted had started to sprout and the bean plants were already wanting to climb! We had even more hands on deck this time, more volunteers and more folks from the community so we started with clearing, then making the mounds (the rain really helped this time) and planting more seeds. There is something extremely heartwarming and satisfying about seeing a garden of purple aubergines blooming, along with papaya, cassava and little seedlings that you know will soon be able to feed those who really need it. Again, as we left we thanked the community team (and Vianna & Omega from Manengkel) for all of their hard work, dedication, initiative and empathy in putting this project together. 

And just like that our two weeks at Managkel had come to an end. I spoke with Sella before leaving and from our conversation, it was obvious that the lack of government funding paired with the US foreign aid cuts have hit charities across Northern Sulawesi hard, including Manengkel. Difficult decisions had to be made by Sella and their workforce had to be massively cut down in size. This is why they rely so heavily on the generosity of volunteers, donations and grants. The care that Sella and the team have for their community and their island’s environment is clear to see, but unfortunately, it’s not possible for them to do this tough work without the generosity of others. Volunteering here wasn’t initially in our plans, but we are so glad that we made the trip to Northern Sulawesi; yes we've been blown away by the beauty of the place, but more importantly the kindness of the people who live here has left a lasting impression on us. To know that we could help in giving back with our time in a small way and help towards cultivating a healthy ecosystem on their island that allows them to thrive, is something we would absolutely (and will) encourage others to do. 

Photos: Louis Marlowe.