We are back in Mangkok after a lapse of 10 days to celebrate the lunar new year. While we were having our late dinner in the kitchen, Fong and I talked about how strange it seemed that we both felt like we were home. I think this must be where a part of our hearts are now. Fong has been very much with us in getting this place a little more fit for living.
We cleaned up the mess made by mice to our Styrofoam box of terrapin eggs (chronicled in detail in our TCC website). There was a sense of familiarity as we prepared for bed.
The next morning I went to the beach as soon as day broke. It was a grey morning, but the vista of breaking waves in front of me as I sat trying to meditate was magical. I met Pak Cik Hamzah as I walked down the beach. We chatted. The fishermen did not go out to sea this morning, he told me, due to the rough sea. He has 8 grandchildren living in his house at the beach. Many turtles nested along this beach in the past, he said. I spotted a part of a wreck washed ashore in front of us. It looks like good wood. He agreed and told me its all cengal, a hardwood used for building boats and resistant to termites. We both walked to the wreck to inspect it. All good wood still, but not easy to recover. I have visions of using the wood for making shelves in our place.
As I was sitting by my computer later in the morning, Arbi went by in his motorcycle and called out to me. I leaned over the window and had a nice brief chat with him. He sort of promised that he will come by in the evening to finish his job of fixing the latches in the windows.
We cleaned up our place. The mice must have been having a party in our absence, with so much of their droppings to get rid of. We needed to get rid of them, especially since they have attempted to burrow into our terrapin eggs.
Ropi had helped us purchase two clutches of eggs deposited in the Banggol/Permaisuri area. We drove up to his house in Banggol to reimburse him for the eggs. He was babysitting his two month old baby girl as his wife, a teacher was at work. He joined us later when we were having a drink and lempeng (local pancake) at Malek’s stall. We chatted by the river and talked about the possibility of Fong and myself following them in their boats when they go fishing. It was kind of nice.
As we were driving back to Mangkok, we stopped by the nesting bank at Penarik and talked to a few of the villagers who were there, watching out for gravid terrapins. Most of them seem to know us by now and us them.
Our friends dropped by in the evening and some of them ended up helping us to assemble turtle shells for exhibition. And we caught two of the mice that had tried to steal our eggs.
Two month old baby of Ropi
Assembling terrapin shells
Arbi and Azhar hard at work
