‘Tim Fireface’ – Meet Pak Acong!

We study the Javan slow loris in Cipaganti village in Garut District Java with an international  team. But perhaps the most important team members are our local rangers, who PhD student Johanna Rode has trained over the last several months. They are learning to follow the lorises via radio tracking and to collect behavioural and ecological data. Despite living beside the lorises their whole lives, this is the first time they are really seeing what the lorises are doing! Read below the impression of our Junior Ranger Pak Dede ‘Acong’ Ahmad’s impression of working on “Projek Muka Geni”.

1. Tell me about your background staying in the Cipaganti village?

My great-grand mother was a local person from Cipaganti and stayed in Cipaganti for her whole life, so I was born and raised here.

2. What do you like about living in Cipaganti village?

I love the clean air, the positive and strong eastern culture, mutual cooperation working within the society, the solidarity among the village people, a strategic place for having plantations (his background is the son of a carrot dealer) and we have a rare history.

3. What’s your impression on working for “Little Fireface Project”?

I found that working in this project is so fun because I have learned a lot of new things this project and from this work.

4. What is your favourite thing and the hardest thing from the project?

My favourite is I can know the behaviours of Javan slow loris and come to learn new things from a lot of ‘bule’ (foreign people) who come here. The hardest part of the project is to stay awake during the night especially during the cold breeze of the field conditions!

5. Tell me the what you think the impact to yourself has been before and after you joined the project?

Before, I didn’t know anything about kukang earlier and only had activities in the day. I also didn’t realize the importance of sleeping arrangement in my life. After, I now know various behaviours of kukang, have day and night activities and am able to manage both my sleeping and activities time better than before.