Saka
Saka
A little about Saka
It is already pitch dark when I walk to the Aula of Nyaru Menteng, where I have my room. I carry a little over a one year old orangutan baby boy in a sling on my belly. He is still fairly awake and his eyes are everywhere. His head is moving around from one side to the other. His four little hands hold on to my shirt as tight as they can. I think he is a little bit afraid in the dark… The little one is Saka. Lone picked him up Wednesday last week in Kuala Kapuas. People from up the river reported him. He was separated from his mother only a few days before. His mother is now dead of course. Lone found him in a dreadful condition. The people putted him in a foam box with one red sarong filthier than you can imagine. Scared, scared and scared is what he was and skinny and dehydrated. Lone took him home the first night as I still had Asapa to take care of during the night. The next day the test results of Asapa turned out to be perfectly fine. Asapa could move to the smallest baby group. Saka would be my new room mate to take care of. We had to put him on IV twice since he arrived. He drank some milk by himself, but not enough to catch up. He was so weak and therefore constantly sleeping. His belly was blown, full with gas. He had cramps the whole day through and a full pamper every hour. The pour thing was exhausted. He is doing much better now. He drinks 500 ml a day and his diarrhea is almost gone. He starts to eat some fruit now too. Apple is his favorite at the moment. But his beautiful eyes, with eye lashes, amazingly long, so long as I have never seen, are still so sad. I hold him close to me, I give him all the love I can, but when I look in his eyes I feel so helpless. What nightmare do they hide? And here we walk; the two of us. The big trees, which are standing next to the road which lead to Nyaru Menteng; they surround us as if they embrace us; to feel safe. Saka’s eyes are wide open. They are as black as they can be as if they are two mirrors reflecting the dark night. But when I look up I see many stars sparkle in the dark sky. I miss these little twinkles in his eyes. Oh, do I see on over there? No, it is a firefly…
