Dengan kikuk, kami pun bergegas ke balai desa yang berada tepat di depan Gereja Eben Haezer. Kalau saya perhatikan, sepanjang perjalanan dari dermaga menuju balai desa, tak ada papan informasi COVID-19.

Sesampainya di Balai Desa Arborek, kami disambut oleh beberapa orang. Mereka mempersilahkan untuk melaksanakan dua agenda yang telah direncanakan, yakni sosialisasi COVID-19 kepada pemilik/pengelola homestay, pemeriksaan kesehatan, dan pemberian dinding daun nipah kepada anggota asosiasi homestay.

Kampung wisata Arborek/Istimewa

Sebelum pandemi, Kampung Wisata Arborek cukup ramai oleh wisatawan, baik mereka yang hanya singgah ataupun menginap di penginapan-penginapan di pulau. Dulu,wisatawan asing yang lalu-lalang di jalan-jalan kecil Arborek adalah pemandangan lazim.

Ketika kami berada di Arborek, kampung itu terlihat sepi. Tak banyak aktivitas di sana. Alhasil, tak banyak pula yang datang ketika kegiatan pemeriksaan kesehatan dilakukan. Menurut Dokter Nanda, pasien yang diperiksa tidak sampai 20 orang. Padahal, di desa-desa sebelumnya jumlah pasien bisa mencapai 30 orang sampai-sampai kami mesti membatasi kuota. Namun, meskipun kegiatan pemeriksaan itu sepi, masyarakat tetap saja tertib melaksanakan protokol kesehatan. Mereka benar-benar menjaga jarak.

Ketika melakukan penyuluhan COVID-19 kepada pemilik/pengelola homestay yang tergabung dalam Perjampat (Perkumpulan Penggerak Usaha dan Penghidupan Masyarakat Asli raja Ampat), kami juga mendapati bahwa warga sudah cukup sadar mengenai pandemi COVID-19. Mereka bahkan tak segan-segan menolak kunjungan wisatawan, meskipun dulu pernah keluar anjuran dari pemerintah daerah untuk membuka kembali pariwisata Raja Ampat. 

Rasa-rasanya tidak berlebihan untuk menyebut bahwa Arborek sudah sadar tentang COVID-19. Sebelum tim ekspedisi datang untuk sosialisasi COVID-19, mereka sudah menjalankan protokol kesehatan secara mandiri.

Kembali bercocok tanam

Menurut Naftali Mambrako, pemilik homestay Mawar, COVID-19 mengubah kondisi Arborek. Sebelum ini, hampir semua kegiatan yang mereka lakukan tak terpisahkan dari wisata. Bahkan, ketersediaan bahan makanan di kampung juga tergantung pada arus keluar-masuk wisatawan ke pulau. Jika hendak menjemput tamu, misalnya, mereka biasanya menyempatkan untuk membeli kebutuhan beras dan sayur di Sorong atau Waisai. Sejak bulan Februari, pariwisata tak lagi bisa menjadi sumber pendapatan utama. Homestay Mawar yang dahulu menjadi sumber pendapatan utama Naftali kini sepi.

“Kalau sudah begini, kami kembali lagi ke aktivitas sebelumnya, melaut dan berkebun,” ujar Naftali sambil menghela napas. 

Mereka berkebun di pulau seberang. Di sana, mereka menanam kasbi, betatas, dan sayuran. Karena jarak tempuh dari Arborek ke pulau seberang cukup jauh—perlu 20 liter bensin untuk perjalanan pulang-pergi—mereka membuat rumah-rumah sementara untuk ditinggali di sana dalam proses bercocok tanam.

“Pulau Arborek kecil dan berpasir, susah untuk menanam,” ungkap Naftali.

Mama Regina Sauyai, salah seorang warga senior Arborek, merasa ia tak terlalu merasakan dampak COVID-19, khususnya terkait terhambatnya proses distribusi makanan.

“Su biasa makan kasbi. Kasih ikan saja cukup,” ujarnya. Ia justru merasa kasihan pada anak-anak muda di pulau. Terbiasa menyantap beras dan makanan instan, mereka tentu perlu uang untuk mengisi perut.

Kenyataan bahwa masyarakat Arborek kembali berkebun dan melaut seperti sekarang, bagi Mama Regina, adalah bukti bahwa sebenarnya warga Arborek bisa hidup mandiri. Selama ini, kehidupan masyarakat Arborek seolah terlalu bergantung pada Sorong dan Waisai.

Pada September 2020, M. Syukron dari TelusuRI mengunjungi beberapa lokasi di Raja Ampat untuk melihat langsung dampak pandemi COVID-19 di wilayah tersebut dalam ekspedisi bersama EcoNusa. Tulisan ini merupakan bagian dari seri catatan perjalanan itu. Nantikan terus kelanjutannya di TelusuRI.id. 

The post Situasi di Arborek Tanpa Wisata, Mau Bikin Apa? appeared first on TelusuRI.

So when Syukron called me last month asking me to go along with him to Raja Ampat, I was really excited. I thought I had rights to be excited. And you couldn’t help being excited when you were about to go to one of the scuba diving Meccas in the world.

The shallow water around Arborek jetty/Fuji Adriza

Though he didn’t mention anything about diving, I was pretty much sure that life would give me a chance to see the underwater wonderland once again.

Long story short, we traveled a very long journey by plane from Jakarta to Sorong, via Makassar. One day transit in Sorong, we ventured to Waisai by a rather fancy speedboat and to Arborek by not-so-fancy-a-boat—on which I nearly broke my spine.

The two main roads in Arborek are connected by many small aisles/Fuji Adriza

We—five of us—stayed in a small room in a wooden bungalow. It was quite peaceful there and the view was somehow beautiful. There were hammocks and a hut where you could mingle with fellow travelers. The only flaw was the rain, which fell quite often. However, about the rain, there was none to blame though except for our ignorance.

The short history of Arborek Dive Shop

Although bestowed with countless abilities, the best skill Syukron had was making friends. Leave him in a traditional market for half an hour and he would befriend all of the hawkers—that was how skillful he was. So it was not surprising that he had a friend in such remote a place as Arborek.

A round bench circling a tree in Arborek/Fuji Adriza

Her name was Githa. Before actually meeting her, I thought she was a native. So I was startled knowing she’s a rambut lurus (straight hair, a term used by the native Papuan to address people from the western part of Indonesia).

She was born and raised in Bekasi, West Java. In 2012 she was awarded by The Marketeers for her commitment to sustainable tourism. One day, a friend challenged her to apply as a volunteer to an NGO in Raja Ampat. She, of course, accepted it. In late 2012, she stepped foot on the island of Kri where she worked for the NGO as a community manager. Later on, the NGO moved its base to Arborek. After several years she resigned.

Arborek Dive Shop/Fuji Adriza

Leaving the NGO, she thought about what she was going to do next. “I wanted to dive—like a lot,” said Githa when we were chatting on the beach. ”And when I met Marcel, he said ‘I want to dive, dive, dive…’”

Since 2016 she’d been running Arborek Dive Shop with her partner, Marcel. The dive shop was a wooden studio located on the main road between the jetty and the island’s only church. It was easy to spot as, during the days, there would always be scuba gears hanging on the veranda.

Githa had painted the small island of Arborek with a new color.

The refresher dive

In the morning on my fifth day staying in Raja Ampat, I successfully did a back roll entry in Sauwandarek from the starboard of Arborek Dive Shop’s boat.

Before boarding a boat/Fuji Adriza

Widhi was my buddy. Since he was a lot older than me, I addressed him Mas Widhi. He—as well as Syukron—was a PADI instructor. While we were on the boat, he’d given me a crash course about dive signs in case I’d forgotten. But the engine was too loud I could only dig some of the lectures.

Thumbs down. I deflated the BCD and off we went to the deep blue sea.

Descending/Githa

I got no problem in equalizing. But since it was my first diving after a long while, I had two “little” problems, namely conserving the oxygen and controlling the buoyancy.

I breathed as if I had just escaped from a pack of wolves. I also somersaulted once or twice for no apparent reason. If you asked me what I had seen on the first dive I would only be able to answer your question by erring; what I did was just minding my own breath.

A school of fish/Githa

Twenty minutes later the hand of my submersible pressure gauge had plummetted to 50 bars. I nearly giggled when five minutes later I sent a signal to Mas Widhi telling I only had 20 bars of air in my tank. Eventually, we did a four-minutes safety stop and emerged to the surface with only 10 bars of air left.

However, I made an improvement on the second dive near the pier of Yenbuba as I was able to dive for around 40 minutes. I also saw two sharks, a turtle, and a mobula.

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