Dear Svitek Family,

My experience this summer, an experience I may never have had a chance to experience without you, changed my life in so many ways. I truly don’t know where to begin.

With your help I was able to stay 2 months in South East Sulawesi, Indonesia, working together with scientists researching terrestrial and marine organisms and their habitat for an international volunteer conservation organization called Operation Wallacea. Currently studying wildlife biology at the University of Vermont, I feel absolutely privileged to have had this once in a life time chance getting hands on experience working with animal data collection in a biodiversity hot spot: the Wallace line. Taking my studies outside the classroom and into the ocean or jungle gave me skills and knowledge I know will help me advance in my field of wildlife biology.

I also just had the most exciting, amazing time. I can now say that I have been chased out of a river by a python, scuba dived beside gliding gentle green turtles, caught and held giant fruit bats, and lived and dived on a boat for a week. I jumped from waterfalls, hiked deep into the jungle, and tested tree frogs for a dangerous virus (chytrid fungus) that has been killing frogs across the world. I sat in a giant, hollow strangler fig tree until the sun set and listened to endemic Tarsier monkey mating calls. I fell silent for days as I followed, studied, and tested my limits with a troop of Macaque monkeys that had been raiding local farms. I saw beautiful sunrises and sunsets from the forest I was helping to conserve. I saw the Milky Way for the first real time: a ribbon of bright light stretching in a great horseshoe across the night sky.

On top of all this I have been inspired. I have been inspired by this beautiful life I have seen and only described a small slice to you. More than this though, I have been inspired and deeply touched by the Indonesian people that I met on my adventure to the other side of the world. Going into this trip I felt a bit nervous as I prepared to live in an all-Muslim village. Now though, looking back, I can only smile and remember my peaceful melodic morning wake up call of chanting coming from the mosque and all the friends I have made. These happy smiling people have taught me that all people are just…people. Most are very kind and welcoming. Most will go out of their way if you do the same for them. These people are not trying to degrade their environment. They heavily depend on it to survive and know much more about it than the western scientists who get jetted in and claim to be the specialists. The Indonesians I stayed with showed me the power of community and that a simpler life does not mean a life of poverty and hunger: it means a life full of happiness.

I am striving now to live as the Indonesians do, putting community and family first and just being happy. It is this combination of people and nature that interests me now. My trip has inspired me to steer a bit away from wildlife data collection and instead to animal human relations. I want to help people harmoniously live with nature and all her organisms instead of destroying or exploiting them. This trip helped me discover my future plans, the world outside my little comfort zone, and myself. I thank you deeply for all of this. You have changed my life.

I write you this letter from a year abroad in New Zealand. Another adventure I am not sure I would be having if I had not learned so much about myself in Indonesia. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart.

Sincerely,
Sam Manetti