Category: News From The Field

The road to Cibening is a rural dirt track. The only means of transportation are the occassional four wheel drive making deliveries and the brave Ojek drivers who help transport locals and visitors. An Ojek is basically a small motor bike in which the passenger or supplies sit on the back. We are in the midst of the rainy season and this can present some problems, as the road turns to mud. Goldteak employees and locals work diligently every year to maintain the road.

This year we are making a ‘gutter’ to provide run off from the road.

Suma’s wife is suffering from a tumor and was sent to the hospital. The local doctor advised her to remove the tumor, however, the locals are very reticent to modern medicine and the family has decided to follow the local traditional medicine.

Smoking is still very popular in rural Indonesia. Goldteak is trying to teach better health care practices and prevent fires on the plantation, so the Guardians (like many American and European workers) must go to a special place to smoke during their breaks. Most rural Indonesians smoke a special type of cigarette called Kretek – which is known as Clove cigarettes.

This is a time to socialize as well as relax.

To reach the Cibening plantation, we have to take motorbikes or a jeep. The road is not asphalted yet, so the guardians have to make a foot path for motorbike to reach the highest parts of the plantation.  It is very difficult to transport items as they are loaded onto motorbikes or carried by the guardians on foot.

Guardians build water gutters to drain water during  the rainy season.

The GoldTeak guardians have breakfast.  They start working very early, sometimes before the sun rises to avoid the heat.  Here they are sharing breakfast during an early morning break.

The weather has begun its annual change from the dry season to the rainy season.  Guardians do their regular activities like clearing grass, maintaining teak, acasia, mahogany and fruit trees.

This month, guardians prepare to re-plant acacia and mahogany trees that were lost in the recent fire.

The weather takes its toll on the local houses.  Every few years repairs need to be done not only on the homes but also in the front yard. Retaining walls are built to protect from erosion during the rainy season and septic tanks are changed.

The rainy season started end of October, this week rain has been falling several times but not yet regular. The trees are starting green again, and the grass look growing green. For the seagrass or weed, it must be cut or destroyed, because it will bother the trees. Some of the guardians do the cutting regularly, especially to a place where the seagrass or week grow higher.

The fruit trees survived from dry season and now they look good. Early next year, durian trees start fruiting but it is the first time fruiting, so the fruit is not good enough to be sold. The fruit will have different taste in one tree, some sweet and some plain or tasteless.

The four years teak trees are in good condition, they still have strong leaves left on the trees. The pruning time has been over, soon the trees will be green again.

The young trees have good maintaining, giving fertilizer, giving fungicide and insecticide, branches pruning and taking care of the wild grass.

Mr. Parid, one of the supervisor , has a big family. He has got eight children, the eldest son (Kusnadi) has got married and has one child, Mr. Parid himself still has young child. 
The house where Mr. parid and family live needs to be repaired. One part of the house which needs a repair is a toilet. Now it is being repaired and hopefully it will finish this week.

Mr. Ana resigned and live in Jakarta, the one who replace him is Mr. Kasa. He has a commitment to work hard and will work together with other guardians.

Today, all guardians received their salary and for pak Ana, it was the last time he received his salary, because starting November he will stay and work in Jakarta. He wants to try the city job like an office boy or a food vendor.

Living in a city and in a village is big different, the challenge is different, the problem is different, only the opportunity is the same. Some of the guardians believe when they can not reach their dream now, their children will make it someday in the future. What they need is to work hard.

Since SD Cibeureum has received a series of consultancy from Goldteak staff, teachers and principal have an agenda to discuss many things about the development of the school programs and the children themselves. To motivate school children who live in a small village like Cibening is not easy, the progress can not be expected high.

After 6 months giving a communicative approach to the school’s staff and the children now they start to be open and responsive. Teachers gave a regular report about everything they have in school, even now they have a list of school facilities that they need to support their activities. Goldteak has given the children many books, every time the book/s came they read together, no wonder the condition of the books are not proper to be read again although the books have been copied several pieces, but it is good, it means that the need of knowledge is becoming bigger now among the children. Probably Goldteak should find some partners to work together to supply the books (new or used ones).

Caterpillars are gone and the trees are safe now, the crushed leaves will dry and young leaves will grow. In some part of the plantation, weed is still growing although it has been destroyed and cut. We have to cut or destroyed it regularly, if nor it will take the soil nutrition.

Standing in front of the 6 meters teak tree, we feel short and small and we can see trunk and leaves are strong and green. The trees moved gently when the wind blew and it looks beautiful.

For the young trees which planted in February, they are seven months old now, and about 6 or 7 meters tall, but for the young trees which planted at the end of March they are about 2 or 3 meters tall. The shortest trees are the trees which replanted at the end of April, because they did not survived from teak decease or hot weather. In 2 or 3 years, the shortest trees will be as tall as the tallest ones. In a growing period the trunk will be bigger and taller and the root become stronger, especially for a “Solomon” type where the tree will grow high with less leaves. Small branches will disturb the growing of the trunk, so unnecessary branches should be cut.

It is necessary to look after the soil, it should be free from gulma or weed around the tree, this will give the tree and its root receive enough nutrition and sunrise.

All trees, teak, acacia, mahogany, durian, mango and durian will receive the same treatments, giving insecticide, fungicide or fertilizer if necessary. Water is also important, although teak is a strong tree but during the growing period it needs a lot of water.

Who does all of those things? Off course Guardians, do they live as well as the trees do? Pak Parid is one of two supervisors in Goldteak plantation. He and his family have been living in plantation since Goldteak opened the first 20 ha teak plantation in Cibening more than 4 years ago. He is a role model of a good, active, diligent and responsible guardian, more than that he also started to be entrepreneur. When he moved to the plantation, he did not bring anything but his wife and 5 from 8 children they have. Goldteak provided him with a bamboo house and small yard around the house. Every day, when he has a break time of after finishing the job he takes care his goats, chicken and his yard, now he has 3 goat houses with more than 5 goats and lambs, he has more than 30 chicken and a yard full with fruit and vegetable. Two of his sons, Kusnadi and Dede P, have followed his step and become entrepreneurs too, they also have several goats. Before Lebaran, Dede P sold his goats and bought a second hand motor bike.

Some of the guardians have tried to follow pak Parid’s way, but will they be like pak Parid? We have to be optimist because all teachers at SD Cibeureum and Goldteak will help the guardians and all children in Cibening village to have a good future.

At the end of September, the weather is very hot with strong wind. It had been rained for 3 days and it has helped the land to get water. People in Cibening collected the rain water and put it in containers, the water resource has filled up with water. It is expected that the water can be used until the next rain falls.

For the trees, rain water can be good or bad. It is good because the trees get water and make them grow well, but it also creates problem, caterpillars come and attack the trees. Fortunately, we have prepared insecticide to kill the caterpillars, in 3 days the caterpillars has gone. In hot season, there is a teak decease attack the top of the trees and make them dry. We have to cut it as soon as possible to make the young leaf grow again. Rain makes the trees grow fast and young branches appear, to make the trunk big all braches should be cut.

Teak trees will still grow well without fertilizer but not maximal, for commercial trees they should be treated carefully, giving fertilizer, insecticide, fungicide and pruning branches regularly is necessary. The trees will grow faster and they will have better trunk and the quality of the wood will be the best, it means the price of the wood will be high.

The Earthquake happened in West Java on September 2nd, also damage several houses in Cibening village. Earthquake also damaged pak Oni’s house, the kitchen is damaged badly and the room has small damages. Now guardians try to help him by fixing the kitchen.

At the end of September, the weather was very hot, guardians work hard to give water to trees which start to dry. Guardians also still do regular activities like cutting small branches, and cut the grass or just cleaning the soil around the trees.

Durian trees start fruiting, normally durians will produce the fruit after they are 4-5 years old, but for durians from vegetative seed, they will start to produce fruit when they are 2-3 years old. Usually at the beginning they learnt to produce the first fruit and the fruit taste is not good enough, but after that the fruit will be good with soft meat, juicy, sweet and smell strong.

Some guardians fix the road which is from the village goes to the plantation. They also make terrace on the hill.

At the old trees, they start to prune. The land is not cool anymore but it means the teak trees grow wellbecause sunrise will help them to grow the trunk and the root as well.

Eid ul-Fitr was on September 20th, some of the guardians go to visit their family but the rest still stay at the plantation. They celebrate the Lebaran with their family, relatives and neighbors. This is a good time for the guardians to take arrest after fasting a month and hard work, they stay at home with their wives and their children.

Lebaran holiday was celebrated on Sunday 20th September 2009. All guardians were happy because they all received THR or “Lebaran Bonus” as much as one month salary.

“Holiday Bonus” is a bonus given to the workers who celebrate the Holidays like Eid ul- Fitr for Muslim, Christmas for Christians and Waisak for Budhis. The policy of “Holiday Bonus” was applied since 1994, it is an obligation for the company to pay their workers one month salary especially to the workers who already been working for the company more than half year.

Goldteak Guardians received “Lebaran Bonus” because all of them are Muslim, and this time “Lebaran Bonus” is paid on September 12th, so the guardians still have time to buy their Lebaran needs (clothes for the children and food for the Lebaran days). Traditionally Indonesian people celebrate Lebaran by visiting family or relatives and serve food and drink for the guests, sometimes they have to visit the family or relative in different village, so they need an extra expenditure for transportation. For people who have life stocks like cows, goats or chicken they will sell them to have an extra income, if they do not have cow or goat, they will cut their chicken for the Lebaran lunch. Pak Parid and pak Abah sold their roasters this year to make an extra income. Both of them have a big family and relatives and this year the children of pak Abah came to Cibening to celebrate the Lebaran together. This year Goldteak also gave a lebaran gift to SD Cibeureum, cookies for the school principal and 4 teachers, they were very happy and appreciated.

September and October will be very hot in Cibening, guardians still work during fasting month (Ramadan) and sometimes they prepare the fasting break together (they make a fruit juice or fruit coctails) pak Zaini bought the fruit and syrup for them.

All guardians were expecting the rain, because they have very little water for the trees and for their family. The fasting day without water was very hard. But they are lucky because after receiving the lebaran bonus it rained hard for several hours, they still hoped that it would rain for several days so they would have enough water until the hot season ends.

There was a land checking for acacia and mahagony which were burnt last August. From the picture we can see that the black area is large, it is because Goldteak land is side by side the neighbour’s land with 6 meter border, actually there is about 441 m2 for 46 acacia trees and 990 m2 for 113 mahogany trees.

There are some teak trees given the fertilizer and now they are about 6 meter tall with bigger trunk comparing with other trees without fertilizer. The ones with fertilizer grow faster, healthier, bigger and stronger.

There are some trees got a sprout deceases, the top should be cut and the new leaf will grow again.

One of pak Zaini son had been circumcised and the celebration will be held on November. In Indonesia circumcision is done more for religion recognition, usually baby girl will have circumcision before she is 1 year old but for a boy he will have circumcision when he is between 1 to 9 years old.

“ Happy Eid ul-Fitri 1430 H, May Allah bless us and our family, give us happiness, prosperity and good health today and in the future, Amiin…”