By: Rosa Aulya (Fish Observer, Fisheries Diving Club IPB)

Entering the second day of diving on the Kei Kecil Expedition with WWF-Indonesia. I am Ocha from FDC-IPB, coincidentally on this small kei xpdc I am a fish observer. This diving activity is divided into 2 teams, namely team A and team B. I'm in team B, and today I was given the trust as team leader with its members me and Ican as fish observer, Ical as roll master, mas Farhan as benthic observer, mas Bima as photographer, then there is mbak Tiela and bang Nuy as seagrass observer.

Today we observed at 3 points, namely Ur Island, Warbal Island, and Ohoiwa Island. The first point we departed for Ur Island. Upon arrival at Ur Island we dropped off the seagrass team, then we left them and went to the dive site. After an hour of diving, we returned to the starting location where we dropped off the seagrass team. But the beach was deserted with no sound at all.

Half an hour passed, we never found the source of the sound, finally we decided to go to the village. We were greeted with a spoiled greeting typical of eastern people, hard and unpretentious. At first I was fine, but slowly the voices began to sound strange coupled with sharp stares as if they wanted to fight. My heart began to fret, my heart beating fast, sweat pouring down and cold.< br />

"What's going on can, how come it's so crowded?" I asked Ican in surprise.

"Oh, it's probably nothing. Relax, take it easy" he replied soothingly.

My body began to tremble. My heart stopped for a moment when I saw a long iron-tipped stick in front of my eyes. "Come on, come down here, if you want to come here, you have to ask permission first, don't just come in" greeted the man, obviously I didn't know him. None of us spoke up, we just followed what they said.

I couldn't stop praying in my heart that we would all remain in the protection of the Almighty. We were herded and watched by everyone as if there was a parade on August 17. Suddenly a 15-year-old boy came up to me, held my hand tightly, and said "Sister, it's okay, don't be afraid e" he said trying to calm me down.

Still greeted by the crowd, we arrived at a house belonging to the village elder of Ur Pulau. The village elder asked about our intentions and purpose for coming here. I can still hear the crowd from outside the house. Restless, that's what everyone felt, not just us but the community seemed to feel it too. After 2 hours, we were finally received by the people of Ur Pulau. We were served with various kinds of food and drinks.

In contrast to before, after the village elders confirmed our presence. The people of Ur Pulau were actually happy with our visit, even saying that they already loved us. Finally, our team was escorted back to the dock and waved goodbye to each other with a happy and emotional look. It turns out that the saying 'don't know, don't love' is not just a joke, but also a reminder that we should always respect everyone.