Life can be hard on Cengkeh: a few years ago, the couple almost died of thirst after a delivery of fresh water did not arrive. Yet Abu's sightless eyes glistened as he remembered the reef. “It's unbelievably wonderful and perfect,” he enthused. “There's black, blue, yellow, green, red.... so many colours!”
I watched their loving, patient teamwork, the steady routine of a long marriage, as Maida guided her husband down the well-trodden paths to their solid wooden house. An Indonesian NGO, Dompet Dhuafa, built it for them a few years ago in honour of Abu's environmental work.