The first day, we went on a tour of another village in Sumatra. I got to see what everyday people there did and what some of the different jobs were.
We started the tour in at the local market. We saw many different things for sale from fishing nets to large goldfish (which they eat) to vegetables.
Indonesia is the 2nd largest natural rubber producer in the world (Thailand is the biggest).
In the village, what I saw on the rubber tree was carved marks down the tree and the rubber would slide down and be collected in a bowl. The farmers then would harvest the rubber from the bowls and put it into the bundles which were sold in the market.
Rubber prices have dropped down since 2011 and are expected to stay low. This means that the people in the village will make less and less money from their rubber and they might have trouble supporting their families.
There are only 14,000 orangutans in the wild according to a March 2016 survey. It is considered critically endangered. The reason that most orangutans are being killed is that the palm oil companies are cutting down their homes and food sources.
On our 2nd day in Bukit Lawang, we went on a trek in the Gunung Leuser National Park to look for orangutans. We were lucky to see 8 orangutans. Some people when they go on the treks do not see any orangutans. One scary thing was seeing a huge female orangutan with her child. She was the same orangutan who bit our guide earlier. She was in the path and we could not get passed her. You do not want to mess with orangutans as they could rip your arms off. We retreated and waited until the orangutan went away but it never did. She finally moved a little so we had a chance to get past her.