By: Muhammad Rais (Universitas Muhammadiyah Kendari)

This morning (15/11), the Southeast Sulawesi Expedition was officially opened with all expedition personnel on board the Menami Ship. Including me, who represented Universitas Muhammadiyah Kendari (UMK). Actually, there is a funny story before I finally got on this ship.

Here, no one knows the story of my somersault "looking" for Menami before the start of the expedition. It started less than a week ago, when the Dean of the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science (FPIK) UMK asked us, "Ladies and gentlemen, who here has a diving license? There is an invitation from WWF-Indonesia for a coral ecology monitoring expedition."

"Me, ma'am!" I rushed to answer her. Through a brief interview and an official recommendation from the dean, that very day we confirmed our attendance to the expedition committee. I had been dreaming of this kind of expedition for a long time, because it could increase my diving skills in ecological data collection.

As the day approached, I remembered what WWF-Indonesia had told me. "See you in Menami," it said. At that time, I had received a schedule of activities from the committee, which stated that the class material on October 15-16 would be located in Menami.

Since then, I spent the whole day "searching" for Menami. To cure my curiosity, I ventured to ask my fellow lecturers.

"Excuse me, ma'am, sir, does anyone know Menami Hotel in Kendari?"
They replied, "Hotel Menami? I've never heard of it, sir."

Hesitantly, I thought Menami might be a new hotel. Finally, I asked Google search engine by entering keyword "menami kendari". However, what came up was news from a local newspaper about the Kendari regional election.

Maybe you will say, "Why not ask the committee directly?" The answer is short. Shame.

As a Kendari person, I would be embarrassed if there was one place in Kendari city that we didn't know about. This is what the proverb, "Shame to ask, move on." might aptly refer to.

Menami's search did not stop. I re-entered the keyword "menami wwf" in the number one search engine. I was shocked and embarrassed when I saw the results.

Menami is a research vessel! Menami is WWF-Indonesia's 63GT research vessel with two auxiliary boats, Simba and Dinggi. Menami comes from Wakatobi language, which means Napoleon Fish.

The Menami boat is like a mini laboratory that is mobile and very well used in ecological surveys. I was instantly more excited. And that excitement, even more so today, meeting fellow researchers on the expedition.