Kukang!

This week we had a fun visit at the local primary school.  The mission of this visit was to have the children make drawings of lorises to use as decorations for the vending booths we will use during our Loris Pride Days.  So for each classroom (4 total from 2 different schools) we had all the children draw a picture of a loris.  The other mission was to gather another baby name for our ever-expanding population of lorises.  For this we had each child write the name of their loris on their drawing paper. 

The arrival of foreigners always causes a stir in the village, but we were soon mobbed by curious (and very shy!) children at the entrance of the school.  I managed to get a few smiles and words of greeting from the shy mob before we headed toward our first classroom.  As soon as we walked into the classroom, the children were immediately silent but almost squirming in their seats from excitement.  After introductions and explanations from Iing (our part-time education correspondent) and Pak Dendi (our head tracker and manager-in-training) the children were starting their drawings.

Some of the children were very talented and confident in their drawing while others were more shy.  Of course, any time a foreigner got close enough to look at their progress they would stop drawing or cover their work from shyness.  Funnily enough, the girl who was the most shy about her drawing had the best picture!  It was amazing!  Done all in pencil but showing very advanced talent for her age (see below).

The next day we came back to the school to announce the winners of the drawing contest and hand out prizes.  We had first, second and third prize winners from each school.  The children were extremely enthusiastic and now have some very positive memories associated with the kukang (loris).  Finding a winner for the baby name contest will take a little more time and maybe some help from our fantastic LFP fans!  Stay tuned for that one.

I look forward to many more school visits in future and hopefully the children will learn to not be so shy around us!

P.S.  This week Jennifer managed to get up close and personal with actual lorises!  See the link to her blog for a personal account of her time in Cipaganti.