Hello! Today, I want to tell you about my field assistants, Arfan and Eva. They are both 21 years of age. She just received her bachelor’s degree. He is aiming to graduate in January. Just as in the U.S., college in Indonesia is a four-year enterprise. Unlike the U.S. system, though, every student must write a senior thesis. After their advising professor signs off, the thesis is bound as a book and stored at their department library. Getting the thesis up to the quality to be approved can be a long process, though. One student I talked to had to resubmit three times over two semesters. She had to pay the 500,000 rupiah ($33) school registration each time. That is a significant expense in Indonesia, where a decent new college graduate’s opening salary is $100 a month.
Eva and Arfan are hometown buddies in many ways. They grew up on neighboring islands of Tasipi and Mandike (each with a population of a few hundred) and went to the same middle school. Arfan took a boat daily to get to school. Eva and Arfan both have family in the town of Puupi, 20 miles away on the mainland. This is how I met them, because I am trying to estimate total coral reef fish catch in Kolono Bay. Puupi (pronounced Pu-U-pi, not poopy….) sits on the northwest end of the bay.
