August 25, 2010

Local transport | Rantepao, Sulawesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Reala

At the buffalowash, yeah | Rantepao, Sulawesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Reala

Rice barns | Ke'tu Kesu, Sulawesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Reala
The traditional boat-shaped house of Toraja is called tongkonan. Each tongkonan has a rice barn (alang) directly across from it, which has the same boat-shaped roof. Families who cannot afford to build a new tongkonan will build regular modern homes, but they will stlil have traditional rice barns.

Graves | Ke'tu Kesu, Sulawesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Reala

Cave graves and tau-tau | Londa, Sulawesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Reala

August 23, 2010

From Makassar to Rantepao | Sulawesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Neopan 1600

Dewi & Rara | Palu, Sulwesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Neopan 1600

Students, Easy English | Palu, Sulawesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Neopan 1600

August 21, 2010

Megalith | Tokalaea, Sulawesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Kodak Portra 400VC
Reaching this clearing after about 30 minutes of walking through the forest gets you a little Indy Jones vibe.

Searching for megaliths | Tadulako, Sulawesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Kodak Portra 400VC
We walked through this rice plantation to get to the final megalith in Tadulako. Beautiful but an unpleasant walk for someone as klutzy as me. The elevated ridge between paddies is about 5" wide and very slippery, and I nearly fell off dozens of times. It looks wider because of the overgrown grass, but the solid walking surface is narrow. I wore calf-length pants and that overgrown wet grass (rained every day in Sulawesi, hard) cut my shins to bits.

But hey, cows.

Pokekea megaliths | Hanggira, Sulawesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Kodak Portra 400VC
Thousands of years old, discovered by farmers, and still today people are unsure of their purpose.

Guesthouse kids | Doda, Sulawesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Fuji 400H
Suspicious kids crack me up. Can't help wondering what's on his mind.

August 20, 2010

Dewi | Palu, Sulawesi

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Olympus Trip 35 | Fuji 400H
Front office staffer Dewi had three names, which she explained meant goddess, comes in the morning (because she was born in the morning) and something about being clean. I definitely got a kick out of the fact that Dewi was a gorgeous girl whose first task when she arrived at the school in the mornings was to start sweeping. Prophetic.

International standards | Palu, Sulawesi

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Olympus Trip 35 | Fuji 400H
This high school's administrators had decided they wanted the school to be rated on some international scale I wasn't familiar with. The standards apparently meant a certain number of classes needed to be taught in English. These were biology teachers who now had to learn to explain their subject in a foreign language, and somehow make their students understand the complexities as well. It made absolutely no sense to me.

The school had posted these "inspirational" signs around the corridors, so for my first class with Easy English, Jimmy had me explain what was grammatically incorrect about each one.

Isolation | Tanjung Karang, Sulawesi

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Olympus OM-2N | Fuji 160S

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