Somehow, this guy had to visit various volcano sites in Indonesia and i managed to catch 1 of the sites. It is known as the Kawah Ijen volcano according to what i've searched on the net.
It sure looks beautiful doesn't it? But underneath this beautiful site is a sad story. Not really as in a story, but the unfortunate life of the Indonesian people.Before i go onto that, let me roughly tell you what i saw over the show.
The host of the show apparently stopped by at a village called Sidoarjo and according to the people, it used to be a very lively village until somewhere around year 2006, some events led to a huge mud flow that eventually devoured the once-lively village.
Just look at that. According to the show, it is at least 30 feet of depth. Many fields, factories, houses etc. were all taken and buried underneath. It's not just that, the flood is still ongoing.In a way, this turned into tourist attraction and you would have to pay 60 cents Singapore currency (after converted) as a form of donation to the victims.
From there, i started to wonder. What if, i was the victim and i have became a tour guide in order to survive from the tourists' money. It will feel horrible. Going around what was once known as my home and just looking at it, helplessly and not able to do anything. It really feel sad for the people.
The host said something like this, "It's very different from things in Singapore. In Singapore, people are spoon-fed. However, in here, it's every man for themselves."
You can go online to find out more about the incident as well.
In any case, moving on to the volcano known as the Kawah Ijen.
It is actually a mining site for the residents. Only the men of the families will do the mining and children and women are not allowed up because it's far too dangerous. Yes, the men have to travel up to mine sulphur.
Every single trip (Up and down the mountain) takes about 2-3 hours. And the people normally make about 2-3 trips a day. Adding onto that, the basket along with sulphur weighs around 80 kg. Imagine that.
This is exactly what happens at the summit of the volcano. You can see the red hot substances are actually the first form of sulphur somewhat in molten form as it had just came out from the volcano. It then turns yellow only after cooling.You can tell that the people obviously have to endure the poisonous fumes and just get on with the job. Overtime and too much exposure to the fumes will be bad for the skin, eyes, and other parts of the body.
This is the injury on the worker's back. Day after day of doing the job, carrying 80 kg of sulphur up and down for 2-3 hours of walking. Sad to see right..The host even had issues going up the hill (Not even reaching the summit yet) because it was too much, physically, on his body and legs. Upon reaching the summit, he also had issues going into the smoke and coming out with large pieces of red hot sulphur. The poisonous gas was just too much. But yet he saw the people just doing the job with ease, as though it was a very common of everyday-thing for them. Apparently... it is.
After seeing so much on the show, it kind of reminded me of my days in secondary school.
Wait. Not no link. There is a link... somehow.
Anyway, it just reminded me of the days when i used to had geography lessons and my teacher, Ms Yap, would show the class photos she had taken whenever she went overseas. Mostly are related to the natural environment.
Whenever i saw those pictures, i would envy her or whoever had the luxury of traveling to those places. The natural features just look so nice and peaceful. Things like the coral reefs, like the mountains and cliffs by the ocean. For so many times i wanted to have the chance of traveling overseas just to experience the nature myself. Well, too bad i can't.
Then, there was this period of time (When i was sec 4) that a group of sec 3s from a certain Project work topic will be able to travel to somewhere which i seriously cannot recall. But its a huge issue regarding the dispute of the laos and another country which is either Laos or Myanmar. The refugees of Laos were caught in the middle of it. On top of that, there were many children among the refugees.
Actually if i can recall, the Laos were trying to get rid of the refugees and the refugees thus fled. However, for whichever country the refugees were trying to hide in, that country could not afford to keep them for long and they will have to be sent back to Laos and be.. you know what.
It was just damn sad to hear that and so my buddy and i went to our teacher to ask if we could tag along with the sec 3s just to help out. Sadly we couldn't. we had truncated and we can't afford to miss the lessons cause if was an important year for us ):
After the school holidays and when they had returned from the trip, ms yap showed the class the photos they had taken. It was nice to see the pictures. The children were actually held up in a orphange specially set up for them. The sec 3s helped out of course, to do things for them and also gave the children lots of presents. it was good just to see the smiles on the kids' faces.
Saying so much, i really miss the old days. Geography was one of my favourite subjects cause i just love seeing the different kinds of landforms and formations. Damn nice and calm sia.
Life in poly is so much different. It just feels so different.
In any case, i really feel that we are fortunate people to not have to face crisis like volcanic eruptions, floods etc. Just look at the things occuring around us.
The mud flood? Hurricane Katrina? Tsunami? SiChuan earthquake?
Theses things, we hardly experience, not that we want but we are just very fortunate people.
Perhaps if i can i want to be able to do things like helping those people. I can't guarantee but thoughts like that just appear in my head whenever i see sad events such as those. Haiz, dammit.
Okay, long enough post already. Time to ciao.
Cya peeps!