North Sulawesi : Nature - Scuba Diving - Adventure
PARADISE BETWEEN BUNAKEN AND LEMBEH STRAIT
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North Sulawesi : Nature - Scuba Diving - Adventure
PARADISE BETWEEN BUNAKEN AND LEMBEH STRAIT
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Pulisan Rundbrief - Weihnachten 2009 - [Thursday, January 21 2010]
"Inspection" holiday - [Monday, September 14 2009]
Mellegard family from Sweden visits the kindergarten donated the previous yearThey made it a family hangout - Else & Jan-Olov, Mia and her partner John, only Sophie who had married Finn in June 2008 - a marriage which resulted in our kindergarten at Kinunang - had to do without her beloved husband who had stayed home. Although busily diving almost on all days during their stay Mia and John took the opportunity to announce their engagement ….. (who knows will flourish into another kindergarten ;-) Of course they didn't come with empty bags - and our seven kindergarten kids could test their new toys on the day before departure back home to Sweden. As the pictures show, all parties fully enjoyed the occasion.
"Ibu Duta masuk hutan!" (Ambassador enters the jungle) - [Tuesday, June 09 2009]
Just before the international event World Ocean Conference (WOC) took place in Manado from May 11 - 15th, 2009 and made the whole city fall into "Manado mania" or "WOC madness" we had a surprise visit of the German ambassador for the dialog between the cultures, Mrs Heidrun Tempel, and an accompanying team from the German embassy in Jakarta staying for two nights at Pulisan Jungle Beach Resort. According to Mrs Tempel it was her first time to enter jungle at night time but soon became a habit that added up to four times during her stay! Mrs Tempel and her host from the German embassy Jakarta, Mr Wolfgang Freiherr von Erffa together with an accompanying journalist during their stay enjoyed a performance of the traditional Buluh tada music in the Kinunang village church KGPM performed by the local Sangihese inhabitants. Now it is hoped that the traditional orchestra will be invited one day by the embassy to perform in the national capital Jakarta...
A visitor once in a time - [Tuesday, June 09 2009]
Ever since Pulisan Jungle Beach Resort opened up back in 1999 we have a green turtle visiting and leaving behind its nests. It happened three times over the years, once we witnessed her laying eggs and twice we witnessed baby turtles leaving their nest and heading towards the sea.This year February 8th was the happy moment when a guest came up to me reporting that he saw a little baby turtle on the beach in front of our cottage Cengkih. Once we arrived there to have a look, baby no 1 had already been followed by babies no 2 - 11, and within half an hour no 12 - 108 made their way up to the beach surface. We collected, counted and released the whole lot into the sea just after sunset, so the little ones couldn't become a prey for sea birds and birds of prey. They just had to escape mackerels and other fishy hunters…. 1 - 2 will grow up finally and then come back to their beach of birth...hopefully.
Photos by Rainer Stang, Justin Lee & Frank Meyer
Info: green turtles (chelonia mydas) lay their eggs in the season between May and November with a peak from July to September. Each turtle lays between 80 - 120 eggs in a single effort which takes around three hours, usually at nighttime after 19.30, but sometimes also in the very early morning hours. Each turtle digs up to three nests in a period of several days to follow, mainly in the seven days after full moon.
The new kindergarten building "Kasih Ibu" in Kinunang village is finally finished! - [Tuesday, June 09 2009]
After six month of temporary kindergarten hosting in a village grandmother's house finally our ten Kinunang kids and their two teachers proudly moved into their new building in February 2009.The original donation for this project (USD 3920) came from Swedish Sofie Mellegard's and Norwegian Finn Guttormsen's wedding party back in Sweden in June 2008 and was added onto by Harald & Susie Jaissle from Germany who collected funds among colleagues at work and friends twice (Euro 1600). Recently the Mellegard clan topped its donation with another 450 USD which will be used to acquire outdoor playing elements. Our charity chairlady Sabine Bierderbeck (D) and several guests like Vera Gerlich (D), Manuela Geske (D), Petra Post (NL) and Sabine Feichtenhofer (A), contributed toys and learning materials. The building's roofing is elephant grass (alang-alang) which is abundant in the surroundings of the village and hadn't been utilized at all in the past. The kindergarten roof is meant as a pilot project to generate job opportunities in the village and it is hoped that soon orders from hotels and restaurants in the area will arrive.
Photos by Peter Schneider Pulisan Rundbrief - Weihnachten 2008 - [Wednesday, December 17 2008]
First Kindergarten Day ! - [Monday, September 1 2008]
 The Pulisan Kindergarten is hosted in the community center which we built from donations a couple of years ago, whereas the Kinunang building still waits to be finished – it will be built from a donation made by Mellegard family from Sweden. Thus kids and teachers temporarily meet in a blind grandmother's house who is most happy to be the host. In co-operation with the village chief two skilled young women with minimum high school degree were picked in each sub-village to train the kids every morning from 8 to 10 am from Mondays to Fridays. The voluntary teachers are paid a small salary which is financed from donations guests contributed over the past few months. Toys are still minim at the moment, as there's not much choice to shop educational toys in Manado, as Katrin sadly had to notice, but will be completed over the weeks to come.   On their first day each child most happily received a kindergarten uniform, a school bag, and a drinking bottle, together with an individual drawing book each. This kindergarten program is meant to be sustainable and help to lever children's education level from the very beginning in these remote villages where parents - in many cases being illiterate - can not contribute much. A great wedding party - A great family - Great friends - For a great purpose - [Thursday, June 19 2008]
 The villagers responded enthusiastically to the news and already started to sow the roofing material which will be paid for. This is a unique chance to socialize roofing from elephant grass (alang-alang) which is abundant in the surroundings of the village and hasn't been utilized at all. Every dry season there are large grass fires which even endanger the forest, the village and fields. Now the villagers start to cut it and produce roofing units which creates income in this remote area where job opportunities are scarce. The kindergarten roof is meant as a pilot project and it is hoped that soon orders from hotels and restaurants in the area will arrive.   The kindergarten floor, this is the plan, will be tiled from natural stone which the villagers find in their surroundings. Thus more people having the chance to raise income. The building will be half-open, so the children can play inside and outside and it will not get too hot. The grass roof will maintain a nice atmosphere inside and – different from corrugated iron which is the usual roof - won't be noisy during heavy tropical rainfall.     Having learnt about this new project, German couple Harald and Susie Jaissle from Nuertingen, collected children’s clothes and toys among their friends and raised some money among their colleagues at work in order to purchase learning toys and pedagogical materials. 1100 Euro were collected – amazing! During an activity afternoon on June 12th ten village children got a taste of what the kindergarten will be and straight away enrolled. Thank you for your help! Thank you everyone who contributed to this project!!!!!!!! Neuer Tauchbericht - [Tuesday, January 22 2008]
Thomas Blumenstock und Gaby Baer, die bereits zweimal in Pulisan waren, haben einen Tauchbericht verfasst. Ihr koennt ihn hier lesenhttp://community.unterwasser.de/community/tauchberichte/show.php?id=3134 Pulisan News 2007 - [Thursday, December 27 2007]
News aus Pulisan - [Tuesday, October 16 2007]
Fortsetzung der Förderung der Grundschule Marinsow (PDF Datei, 108 kb)
Treibgutsammlung und Spielnachmittag Juni 2007 (PDF Datei, 114 kb) Zeichenwettbewerb in der Grundschule Marinsow (PDF Datei, 136 kb) Gesundheitsposten und Wasserprojekt in Kinunang - [Wednesday, September 12 2007]
Ausbau des Wasserprojektes in Kinunang: Bitte hier klicken (PDF Datei, 110 kb).
Gesundheitsposten in Kinunang: Bitte hier klicken (PDF Datei, 69 kb). Pulisan News 2006 - [Thursday, December 28 2006]
Gesundheitsposten in Marinsow fertiggestellt - [Saturday, July 1 2006]
Bitte hier klicken (PDF Datei, 117 kb).Ein Dorfgemeinschaftshaus für Pulisan - [Monday, March 20 2006]
Bitte hier klicken (PDF Datei, 110 kb).Pulisan im Fernsehen - [Wednesday, March 15 2006]
Nein, keine Seifenoper, sondern ein Film von Martin Niessen (Redakteur), Ute Kerstingjoahenner (Kamera) und Jean-Baptiste Hoeppner (Assistent), der sich mit Potential und Missbrauch der einzigartigen Natur Nordsulawesis beschaeftigt. Martin und Ute waren schon mehrmals in Pulisan zu Gast und sind auch Paten eines Schulkindes im Foerderprogramm, so dass ein fundierter Beitrag zu erwarten ist... Unter dem Titel "Armes reiches Land" wird der Film am 2. April um 18.00 auf 3sat ausgestrahlt.Pulisan on Television - [Wednesday, March 15 2006]
A documentary cast in and around Pulisan past November by German Television team Martin Niessen (director), Ute Kerstingjohaenner (camera) and Jean-Baptiste Hoeppner (assistant)will be broadcasted on 3 sat soon. The title is "Armes reiches Land", April 2nd at 18.00.Pulisan Newsletter 2005 - [Sunday, January 29 2006]
Swimming lessons at Pulisan - [Saturday, June 11 2005]
 Do you still remember Hans-Martin Koecher? Last year in September he conducted a garbage collection session with the village kids. Each participant receiving shorts and school materials besides having lots of fun. Now he is back with a bag full of goggles. Participants in the swimming lessons he conducts receive the much hunted for goggles.  Recent bomb terror in Central Sulawesi - [Monday, May 30 2005]
Past Saturday Tentena on the shore of Poso lake in Central Sulawesi saw another terrible bomb attack in a public market place. This is part of a series of terror which has been going on now in Central Sulawesi for over three years and killed several hundred of people. For long also there has already been a travel warning for Central Sulawesi and I always recommended guests to avoid the area between Mamasa and Poso. New is the big attention the media this time give to the recent attack. And it seems that a new paranoia develops not to travel to Sulawesi any more. Here we want to assure you that North Sulawesi is as safe as it ever was during the past few years. Sulawesi is not Singapore, it's 2200 km from Manado in the North to Makassar in the South. Poso is 1300 km away. The conflict is strictly local. You can safely travel in North Sulawesi and also Toraja, South Sulawesi. But please keep away from Central Sulawesi.SeTeam visit at Pulisan Jungle Beach Resort - [Thursday, May 26 2005]
 From April 13th - 23rd Pulisan Jungle Beach Resort was the experimental ground and retreat for the international group SeTeam to find and try out new inspirations in the nature around Pulisan. The initiators of the retreat were Arie van Duijn, Netherlands, and Ellin Krinsly, New York, both living in Australia, accompanied by Alejandro Rolandi from Argentine, and a dance team from Makassar, South Sulawesi: Simon Abdul Murad, Hamrin Samad, Faisyal Yunus, Satriani. The last evening of their stay they said good-bye to the village people by performing a ritual inspired dance on the beach. At least the children were scared (and maybe some of the grown-ups too) as the spirits started to rise... thanks SeTeam! Taiwanese impressions of Pulisan - [Thursday, May 12 2005]
Please take a look at this site: myweb.hinet.net/home10/manado/.
Pulisan Newsletter 2004 - [Sunday, December 12 2004]
2004…. The much waited for newsletter for PULISAN friends, addicts and those who still want to become suchThe year, dear friends, is almost over, and we, the Pulisan team, wish you A MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR 2004 May many of your hopes come true! Peace for all of us in a world that enables us to travel around freely. The school sponsorship programs Thank you to all of you who eagerly supported our development programs. Thanks to your continuous help - there are 22 village children whose school education is currently financed by Pulisan Jungle Beach resort guests. Nine children attend the primary school in Pulisan village, one in Manado, seven the lower secondary school in Marinsow, four the vocational school for tourism and one the vocational school for marine professions, both in Airmadidi. Five boys whose 3 year education to become sailors was successfuly finished earlier the year, express their sincere thanks to their sponsors:  Christoph & Martina Stehle, Moenchengladbach, Germany (Karel Mudami) Inge & Jürgen Gerloff, Jutta Wuerfel und Benno Spieler, Berlin, Germany (Roy Sahante) Lernzentrum Hansen, Bremen, Germany (Immanuel Hari, Like Dalope, Gayus Takumansang)  7 school sponsorships were newly taken up during 2004: Herman Ambat, SLTP I lower secondary school, 1st class Gerda & Ernst Brack, Swiss Nansi Togelang, SLTP I lower secondary school, 2nd class Markus (Moise) Seiler, Mirja Luethi, Swiss Agnes Pontoh, SLTP I lower secondary school, 1st class Kurt Nuessli & Lisa Buergler, Swiss Anita Pontoh, SLTP I lower secondary school, 1st class Maddelon Jebbink, Pieter Dykstra, NL Lesman Tompoh, SLTP I lower secondary school, 3rd class Sofie & Mia Mellegard, Sweden Surni Irala, primary school Pulisan Michael & Erika Wittmann, Austria Oktavia Papente, SLTP I lower secondary school, 1st class Martin Niessen & Ute Kerstingjohaenner, Germany   Surni, a refugee child from the Moluccas, unfortunately discontinued the program when her family unannouncedly moved out of the village; Michael and Erika though will support another child in need.   The development projects In January Dr. phil. Anja Leist-Villis & Carl Villis from Germany donated their wedding party's presents which amounted to 1450,- Euro.  The money is being spent to build a multifunction village community center accommodating a preschool and infothek room. The ceremonial opening party was attended by our district chief in May and ever since work is organized and coordinated by the village development committee, usually small workers' groups of village people doing communal work every Monday. Progress is slow but steady as you can see from the pictures. Thank you Anja & Carl! Our sincere thanks to the Kurt Nuessli and Lisa Buergler and the Swiss Club Singapore who contributed 1890 Sin$ collected during a farewell party for leaving families in June to renovate our village primary school. Kurt and Lisa also took on a school sponsorship.  In August matching the independence day (which is the 17th 1945) Maria Gmeiner-Spallek and August Gmeiner from German Bruehl,both working as hospital health workers and both having been five times to Pulisan Jungle Beach resort, surprised us with a generous donation of 1000,- Euro to establish a health fund in the village in order to pay for emergencies. So far three people profited from this help: Yuliana Bayau, 50 years old who suffers from liver zirrhosis and had to receive many blood transfusions to save her life; Adrianus Lahampa, 12 years old, who was bitten by a rabies dog and had to have vaccinations administered; Feidy Latuang, 20 years old, who suffered from a liver infection and needed medical treatment. More donations were made by: Groenendijk family, Jakarta from the NL Gerda & Ernst brack, Swiss Gerd Kroder, Germany Irene & Walter Wolf, Belgium from Austria Michael Floris, Ineke Hartman, NL Aimee van Ahee & Zandee, NL Jan Bartak & Paul Beschorner, Germany Kaneko Yoshiaki & Keiko Nishi-Kaneko, Japan Frans & Marion Lagaij, NL Geert Claeys, Belgium Kerstin & Ute de Vries, Friesland Renate & Peter Teichmann, Germany Jeanette Leinders-Lantermans, NL Aalt van Huissteden, Louise Vonck, NL Sabine Escher, Germany Jose Peters' birthday party guests, NL Joensson family, Sweden Leobert & Joke DeBoer, NL Esther Zuiderwijk, NL All your contributions are used for the community center and the school renovation – many sincere thanks! Nature protection Twice this year we were able to save bear kuskus marsupials which were caught by locals in order to slaughter and eat them; a little male in January and a larger female in October – both could be released.  In March, April and May we bought free green sea turtles which had been caught by local fishermen and set them free back into the sea; in August several guests and many locals witnessed the "birth" of baby sea turtles which made their way into the sea.Unfortunately the coastal management program NRM which was financed by US A.I.D and which our reef had become part of (see families and friends chapter of the Pulisan website http://www.pulisanresort-sulawesi.com/friends.html and 2003 newsletter) turned out to be a complete failure, being misorganised and corrupted; the program was suspended now. This of course is a big disappointment as the few months during which the reef had been protected showed a significant increase in amount and variety of fish. Guest activities and resort news  On January the 25th Simone Gerritsen, the manager of the new co-operation partner Thalassa to run our divecenter, being shit all over, brought us little King Kongwho ever since became either love or terror of guests. She is always accompanied by Scuby, one of Popo's offspring. The day after Popo gave birth again to another five, two of whom still stay at Pulisan. Followed by another five that she gave birth to on October 1st. Father of those is Penggoda (witnessed and photographed by Henk Budding, who together with his Indonesian partner Meithy just spent his 8th stay at Pulisan) the beloved village dog that was adopted by Ludwig and Maxi Luger and earlier this month caught rabies and disappeared, probably killed by villagers.  He and many other dogs became victims of a rabies epidemic that hit the area. Fortunately no humans were bitten except for one child in October but he had been administered the whole series of vaccination and is well.  In February Uli and Katrin renovated the restaurant's floor and shortly after Katrin fell sick with Malaria which struck also several of the guests this year. Strong recommendation for everyone to visit the area: administer a light prophylaxis, e.g. resochine paludrine, and take a standby-medication with you, e.g. Malarone. Due to this sickness Katrin and Annie had to postpone their journey to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos and finally went for three weeks from the end of February.As this was the first real holiday after the resort was opened in the end of 1999 it was highly appreciated. On several occasions since the end of March a large male macacqua nigra or black crested Sulawesi macacque came frequently down to the resort, obviously very interested in little King Kong who justed freaked out every time and sheltered in mummy Katrin's or mummy Lina's hair.  It was around that time also when we hosted rare guests, two families from Zimbabwe and South Africa! In April we were visited by six humorous Taiwanese ladies who bravely conquered the jungle and the sea during their 4 day stay.If you know Chinese you can visit their website in which they tell about their Pulisan adventure http://myweb.hinet.net/home10/manado/ On April the 26th August Gmeiner had his 50th birthday during August's and Maria's 5th stay at Pulisan and the same day we were able to release a turtle. Long life August!  Henk and Meithy, holding the frequency record with eight stays!  A month later it was Klaus Hecker from German Hilchenbach who was surprised by his wife Kerstin during their 3rd stay at Pulisan to have his 40 years birthday party with a special cake. Starting from May 1st 5*PADI divecenter Thalassa with its main base at Santika Hotel Manado operates our divecenter now. This ensures our guests high quality gear which is properly maintained and well trained dive guides and also the flexibility of combining diving around Pulisan and Lembeh Strait with diving around Bunaken or even going on a trip to the Sangihe islands on Simone's liveaboard Mimpi. May was the month of the Swiss at Pulisan, hosting the Nicole Ochsenbein group (Nicole, Luzia, Regina, Elisa) and Pedro Wettstein and also the whole year 2004, e.g. Ernst & Gerda Brack, the Nuessli – Buergler family, Mirja Luethi & Markus (Moise) Seiler.  In May/June Katrin went home to Germany for a short 10 day visit. July saw two highlights. One was the visit of Pulisan's most active activist Sabine Escher who spent her fourth stay and came with even more ideas in her baggage than ever before.In the same month Pulisan was visited by one of Katrin's former students at the University of Goettingen Anthropology programme, Joerg Meier, who is also an activist for Indonesia, mainly former East Timor province which is now independent Timor Lorosai. Joerg currently serves for the German NGO Brot fuer die Welt in Afghanistan and came together with his Indonesian partner and a friend from Germany.   In August we could first welcome back Martina and dr. dent. Christoph Stehle from German Moenchengladbach who not only sponsor two schoolchildren (one of them, Karel, successfully finished in June) but also actively support village development. This year the group around Christoph held a dental examination session at Pulisan's primary school which will be followed by dental treatment.Their group were 'chased out' by French Ginette Allard divers' group of 13 hobby marine biologists who conducted a study about the state of corals in the area. Despite ferocious seas they never lost their enthusiasm between August 12 – 26th. See some of their photos at our website's photo gallery. We will be excited for the final results.    In September German Hans-Martin Koecher visited the resort and brought a lot of clothes and school materials with him which could be distributed during a tombola afternoon which was a lot of fun for everyone: kids, adults & guests. First the kids collected garbage to maintain a clean environment, later there were game competitions and finally the clothes distributed. Thank you Martin!  In October and November Martin Niessen and Ute Kerstingjohaenner tried to push themselves up from zero into the highest ranks of frequency visitors by returning three times during their four week stay in North Sulawesi. They were especially impressed by the rare varieties of marine life to be found in our housereef including a new species of the pygmee seahorse!On September 13th we had to fight a vast bush fire which threatened to swallow the resort, everyone helped to extinguish and make fire barriers – including the guests. In late September we started to take down Pepaya bungalow as part of a major renovation programme. Between October 2 – 6 Pulisan's first deluxe bungalow DURIAN was built to replace it. It was made in the Minahasa housebuilding village Woloan which many of you visited, disassembled, loaded and then re-assembled on the sport. For ten days to follow all staff including our famous cooks sanded, painted and furnitured it until it finally could receive its premiere guests in October still.    On December 3rd a new 12 meter boat which was built in the southern part of the province arrived after a journey of 15 hours on sea.   Due to a wave of guests in 2004 that started in April and still flooded us into November until complete exhaustion so that we probably will close with 450 guests throughout the year, Annie and Katrin decided to build themselves a nice little hill retreat which is called villa kusu-kusu. Not far from there we even get mobile phone signal now which makes communication and co-ordination with the Manado office a little easier. The new hilltop bungalow was built between December 8 and 11. All materials had to be brought in on cow cart from the end of the road. We plan to have it finished before Christmas… New divecenter building - [Monday, December 15 2003]
On November 1st 2003 we started to build our new divecenter building, all under supervision and careful hand of Uli. It has become a real beauty.
Communal bathrooms for Kinunang - [Monday, July 14 2003]
The 7th of July was a special date for the Pulisan subvillage people of Kinunang. Big trucks entered the village carrying all kinds of building materials. The 48 families of the village had been divided into seven
groups who will each build a communal bathroom with WC attached. They decide the location as well as organize the work within the group. So far there had been no bathrooms or toilets in the village nor clean water supply. We hope that the project will be finished by the end of August. All this has been made possible from YOUR, dear Pulisan Jungle Beach guests' donations! THANK YOU SO MUCH! Powered by Coranto |
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 Desa Pulisan, Kecamatan Likupang. North Sulawesi - INDONESIA Manado Office Phone: +62 431 838185 Fax: +62 811 430743 Mobile: +62 811 430744 Email: info@pulisanresort-sulawesi.com Photography courtesy of Michael Escher, Ludwig Luger and Thomas Blumenstock. © Pulisan Jungle Beach Resort. |
