Kuala Cenaku, Sumatra
A group of children sits perched on the rickety little wharf and watch the loading of boats. The engines must be revised, and the sun 'already' when you give up the high peaks. The river continues to flow against the current with its load of water hyacinths, slowly. It seems that time flows according to ancient rhythms. Sometimes you come in half an hour, sometimes two hours. Sometimes when it happens. Once docked
begin downloading the equipment brought by Kalimantan, and immediately begin to test the soil. Kitz handle instruments carefully. Simple sturdy pieces of iron, but ingeniously combined. The rig for drilling is not 'that kind of a big knife that is screwed to a handle of iron. The result is a kind of halberd, which is stuck firmly in the ground, until and 'completely sunk in the peat. If not sink 'cause it encounters a stem change point and start over. If you reach the bottom, unscrew and add an extension cord, then back to push. Meter by meter, the drill continues to sink, until it reaches the mineral soil. At this point, the drill is turned on if 'itself, and one face of the "knife" as you browse the page of a book, capturing the perfect carrot to the ground. At that point just pull up everything and measure.
In each hole in the ground by planting a plastic tube stuck on the bottom and punched every ten centimeters with a hot nail. The water that soaks the peat into the tube by small holes, and fills the tube making it easy to measure the water level in the soil.
Every five hundred meters, a new hole. At the edge of the plantation record nearly five feet of peat, much more 'than allowed by law. As you go towards the center of the plantation, the thickness of the peat increases up to be more 'deep drilling rig with all the extensions in place: eight feet. We are a mud mask black and slimy, just long One flew from the rain that has now begun to soak. But the depth
'water does not exceed five feet. Peat and 'wet. But the channel at a pace that we continue to drag by water. "If the drainage is stopped immediately, there is still time - says Kits - But if we wait five years will be 'too late. As the' we, in Kalimantan." The forest 'has now been demolished, at least on this side, but the soil and' still alive. At our feet a lively stream of black water and foaming goes down to the river with the water drained from the channels. This time we can still do something. It is worth groped, even though some will be angry '.
On the way back the rain continues to beat the River. The air and 'cold facts, and the water still warm mist form balls. A magical and surreal landscape, which seems to come from other worlds.
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