sumba

this island is amazing :D again, no tourists! and a coastline that is totally breathtaking!

on the boat to waikelo i had the company of 2 very nice men - an old man traveling with his nephew who was coming to sumba for the first time. when we arrived to waikelo we had coffee together and then each of us got an ojek (motorbike taxi) to waitabula. they paid for mine and helped me get a bus to pero, the westernmost point of sumba.

i got to pero and looked for the only official place to stay. the rooms were beautiful but the girl who worked there was not nice... and she wanted 150.000 rupiahs for the room, breakfast, lunch and dinner. i thought that of course i could afford the 10 euros... but it didn't feel nice and it didn't make sense that i would come to a village that feels like the end of the world and pay more then the double of the most expensive room of this trip do far... so i left. i knew there was no other guesthouse... but there's always a nice family ;) so i used my indonesian and told a nice man "saya perlu murah kamar" - i'm looking for a cheap room :) and that took me to a family house with a big courtyard and suddenly i had a cute baby on my arms and a little girl playing with my hair :) they didn't want me to stay because they thought their toilet wasn't good enough for me (i tried to say that was not a problem!) they insisted i'd stay with their cousin who soon arrived and we got on his motorbike to go to his house :) lovely place with mango trees and a monkey as a pet - kiki who was incredibly jealous of me...

the same day after a great shower and amazing fried noodles he took me to the 3 villages that make up the kodi district. on the first one i was invited by the chief of the village to go and live there and not go back to portugal as i should stay and live there. he said he'd offer me animals. i passed and we went on to the next village after watching the ocean for a while.

on the second village, my host's village, we took part in a celebration. someone had died so they were slaughtering one pig and one water buffalo on that person's honor. i had a rush of emotions going through me with the passing of the last minutes before they started to kill the animals. for the pig they got a big spear and they hit him a few times until the animal was contorting with pain and finally fell on the ground and went from very quiet moments to having crazy spasms and then quiet again and lots of blood coming out of his mouth... and making a strange noise. while this happened, just next to it they killed the buffalo. they used a big knife. a strong man went close to the animal and hit him on his big neck. blood came out. the animal shake his big face. the man went to the other side and hit him there twice. blood came out from the sides. the man hit him 5 or 6 more times. lots of blood came out. the animal fell down. and got up again. there was more blood. and the man hit him twice more. blood was coming out of the neck with bubbles, pouring out. the animal fell without any control of his legs making lots of noise. blood and more blood came out and it made a huge puddle of blood. the animal had big and strong spasms at the same time that the pig was moving and getting quiet and making noises. and they lay there dying. i was surrounded by about 30 children. i was greeted by the old people of the village. they were now waiting for the animals to die and each would take a piece of meat home to eat. we left. i sat in the motorbike thinking. mixed feelings. i closed my eyes and felt the curves and the bumps and the sun and the shadow and the air, the smell of papaya tress and coconut trees and a dragonfly hit me. and i felt the place where i am, so close to timor :)

we went on to the last village. i signed the visitors book, made a donation and we went on. this village had a group of people gambling. they were gambling quite a lot of money on a strange game with special dice being thrown by a young kid who was gathering up all the rupiahs that people lost... i had so many young kids around me there... something like what happens if you arrive alone to a little village in tibet :) we went on exploring a more quiet side of the village and we met a convoy of 5 men and 3 children taking a very fat pig and two water buffaloes across a stretch of water to get to another side of the village and offer the animals to the girl that one of their friends fancies :) the pig was lazy and wanted to rest after every 10 steps... so this took forever... we spent about 1 hour with them, the kids playing in the water, the buffaloes bathing, the adults talking under the HOT sun and the pig running back to rest under a shadow. the family of the girls wants 15 animals so it will take a while until the boy can get the girl - these were the first 3. the brother of the guy who offered the animals took my hand and he wouldn't let go. i needed help to get free from it. and we went on. back to the motorbike and on to visit a friend. lovely family.

so much had happened in a day. i went to the beach to watch the sunset. kilometers and kilometers of some of the most beautiful coastline i've ever seen. i hit my left big toe on some dry reef. a chunk of meat got separate from the rest of the toe and lots of blood came out. i went on walking and the blood made the sand light red. i washed it in the ocean and sat there looking at the waves and to the horizon behind the waves. there's no land after pero until you reach africa. the north of madagaskar or tanzania xx

now i'm in waikabubak just for the ATM, the post office and the internet. on my way to rua, on the southern coast of sumba :)

soon i'll be taking the ferry to timor!