Kuala Cenaku, November 2, 2007. The field is full of people today. The green shirts Selamarkan Hutan (protect forests) are a minority, dominated by the red jersey Pemadam Kebakaran Hutan (forest fires fighting).
are about sixty people, blacks eyes of kids, staring at you with an intense gaze and direct, but it 's hard to guess the age' of each. Some faces are wrinkled and sun-dried, pitted by other unknown diseases, others smooth and taut as just emerged from a beauty salon. They came from the city 'of Rengat and villages around here. They are university students' and peasants. They listen in silence to the explanations of the instructor, an expert on forest fires came from Jakarta. Tell them how to turn the pumps fishing for water from the canal, to wet the peat in the vicinity 'of the fires, and stop the tunnel of fire that moves below the surface, or how to dig wells to bring emergency water to the surface.
The boys listen to instructions, impaled and wrapped in suits, despite the blazing sun. Then one by one operating the instruments. It 's so that the brigade was established volunteer fire department in Kuala Cenaku. These people were accustomed to open fields with fire. A practice used for centuries in agriculture semi nomadic slash and burn without creating radical changes to the environment, at least until the tissue was limited to ground surrounded by natural forest. But with the arrival of large plantations and the practice 'has become lethal devastation of no return.
The first to pay the price of development are the villagers. The smoke that surrounds their homes for months without a trail of respiratory diseases, particularly among children. The increase in mortality 'is the only compensation for land stolen from communities' local.
working hard, a single ruthless, and when the spray pump delivers a yellow towards the sky, it seems holy water, as a new hope among the scorched earth.
The training and 'over. The boys returned to camp, where you ', rice and fried bananas are not lacking. And then the oath, a commitment to the community 'to continue training and protecting the forest. Then there is always
time to go. The speeches are over, sixty handshakes one hundred and twenty eyes that look at you inside, you feel close. Direct and open smiles that are not used. And you know that many of these faces shall never see them more '. But something inside you leave.
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