Let me check my diary...

Another week half over and I am beginning to feel as if I'm settling into some sort of routine now. Many days start with a visit to the market at about 6.15 am – this morning I bought two huge bunches of bananas (about 30 in total) and four enormous avocadoes for a total of Rp15,000. The bananas are one of our staples here as we still have no cooking facilities other than hot water from a dispenser for tea & coffee. The avocadoes are great in a salad with diced cucumber and tomato and are also used in one of the most popular drinks here – take the flesh of an avocado (or two smaller ones), add a glass of water and a good dollop of Indomilk (sweetened condensed milk, the thought of taking an unsweetened drink is anathema to Indonesians) and whizz in a blender with some ice. Decorate the inside of the glass with some drizzled chocolate condensed milk and there you have it....jus alpukat !

After breakfast (banana sandwich and coffee) it's off to Appel for 7.30 a.m. and then into a meeting room which has wireless access to pick up my emails (when it's working). After that, the day trundles along slowly although I am starting to be little busier now. I have started meeting with some of the hospital managers to explore their areas of responsibility and their most important challenges but translation is still a major difficulty. Some days I sit through staff meetings and try to catch the gist of what is going on and I also have plenty of reading material to wade through. I usually head back to our house at about 10.30 am for a cup of coffee (one advantage of living in the hospital) and the working day then sort of fizzles out at about 1.30 – 2 p.m.

After work, many people have lunch and then retire to bed for an hour or two which is a fantastically civilised way of spending the hottest part of the day. Most of the shops in the town close at about 2pm and reopen for about two hours at about 4pm so there's not much to do then anyway.

The evenings are generally quiet but last week was unusually busy. I'm not going to let this blog thing turn into a daily diary which would make for very dull and tedious reading but (a statement like that is always followed by a but) last week's social diary contained the following :

On Wednesday I was invited to attend a mass for a girl who had died in an accident the previous week – I didn't go as I wasn't quite sure where it was and my motorbike was ill equipped at that stage for night driving on the roads around here (I have since got the headlight fixed and now I can actually see the holes just before I hit them).

On Thursday I was invited out for a birthday dinner by Yani, one of the people with whom I have worked most closely since arriving here and whose office I am sharing. Four of us had a great meal (ikan bakar/grilled fish) at a restaurant at the harbour.

On Friday afternoon, our programme support officer from the VSO office in Bali arrived for the weekend. The main purpose of Dany's visit was not to visit existing volunteers (my first formal placement review takes place about six months after the start of my placement) but to conduct a workshop with a local HIV/AIDS support group who are interested in having a new volunteer appointed to work with them later this year or next year. This occupied him for the day on Saturday but we easily managed to fill the rest of Dany's time !

On Friday evening, we headed off to a wedding reception in a village about one hour's drive away – the bride was the head pharmacist at the hospital and many of the staff had been invited to attend. The first speech at the reception was by Dr. Asep, the hospital director, who was later prevailed upon to take the microphone and sing a song !

On Saturday night a local band, Sparky, was launching their new album at a gig in the car park of Maumere's one and only department store. This was a great night out with a huge crowd and three support acts, including a three man rap group of the skinniest rappers I have ever seen (not that I have much experience of rappers).

Sunday afternoon was spent (again) at the local beach resort of Gading, which is fast becoming our regular Sunday afternoon chill out location.

Then on Monday it was back to work........

The "work" begins....

Well, it's now exactly two weeks since I arrived in Maumere to start my placement and I have to confess that I don't have a lot to report. Having got over the initial shock of being back "at work" for the first time since my life sentence with Smith & Nephew was cut short at the end of June last year, the time since then has been taken up with reading myself into my new job. This is much slower process than normal as it requires looking up almost every second word in the dictionary. Our language course was rather short on "management speak" and jargon and matters are even further complicated by the Indonesians' constant desire to make up new words which don't appear in any dictionary. These are usually formed by taking a few letters from one word, a few more from another and using them to make a brand new word. Some examples :

Department of Health = Dinas kesehatan = DINKES

Working group = kelompok kerja = POKJA

Strategic plan = rencana strategis = RENSTRA

I ask you, how on earth are you expected to figure these out on your own ?

Last week, I was based in a meeting room which had two major advantages - it was air-conditioned and it had wireless internet access so anytime I needed a break from trying to untangle more home-made words I was able to catch up on the latest doom and gloom in the Irish Times (I can't say that I'm terribly sorry to be missing all that). This week, however, I have moved to a small shared office with my own desk. There is still air-con but unfortunately no internet so I usually go to the meeting room and log on and download emails first thing in the morning after Appel and then return there just before finishing work for the day to send any mails I've written. As most of my emails come from Europe, there is rarely anything to receive at lunchtime here.

On Friday (when we normally finish work at 11 am) I was invited, along with two other volunteers, to attend a debate at the Universitas Nusa Nipa in Maumere at which the governor's wife, a very important guest, was to deliver the keynote address on the role of women in politics in the province of NTT. [A quick geography lesson – Indonesia is divided into 34 provinces, each headed by a governor. Each province is then sub-divided into Districts or Regencies (we are in Sikka District), each headed by a Regent or Bupati who is elected every five years. The capital of NTT province is Kupang, on the island of West Timor.] This proved to be most entertaining, despite not understanding about 85% of the proceedings – student debates have certain constant elements the world over. Where this one differed, however, was in the ceremony. An important personage like the governor's wife required a few speeches and a welcoming song from the college choir before proceedings got underway (only 90 minutes late which wasn't bad). After the debate, we had more speeches and more singing (including a great rendition of Cliff Richards' "Congratulations !") after which the governor's wife took the microphone and sang a song herself !

As well as not understanding much of that debate, other things that I have not understood since arriving include three very long (and hot – no air-con in that room) staff meetings, the director's address at nine morning Appels, and many other conversations. This morning, however, I had the relief of attending a briefing held in English for my benefit which made a pleasant change!

We had some housing "news" this week –we were told on Monday that the handyman who will be working on our house would start work within three days and that the work would take one week to complete. I guess we'll see........ The other good news is that I managed to get a repair of sorts carried out on my broken bed and am now sleeping (with the aid of a number of cushions) on the bed rather than on the floor beside it – what luxury !

On the road !

On Wednesday afternoon, I received an SMS from the VSO office in Bali (this is how most communications take place in Indonesia) to tell me that my motorbike had left Bajawa (another town on Flores) that morning strapped to the back of a bus and that it would be with me on Friday of this week. I was therefore rather surprised to get a phone call that same night to tell me that a motorbike had been delivered to the UGD (A&E Department) in the hospital - just eight hours after leaving Bajawa ! I went up to claim it and eventually got it started (it's some time since it has been used).
Yesterday, I took it to a local bengkel (motorbike repair place) with a pre-translated list and had the following jobs carried out :

• Tyres pumped
• Rear brake pads replaced
• Electric starter switch replaced
• Battery topped up
• Clutch adjusted
• Horn fixed
• Oil changed

Total time involved : about an hour and a half - total cost (including parts and labour) Rp72,500 (less than €5). On the way home I purchased two new rear view mirrors for a total of Rp40,000 for the pair.

I am used to the idea of labour being cheap but it is hard to understand how a pair of rear view mirrors can be made, packaged, shipped, wholesaled and retailed for less than €3 and still allow a margin to be made at each stage ! How much would they cost at home, anybody ?

Flores at last !

Last Thursday afternoon we (three new volunteers and one accompanying partner) arrived in Maumere to begin our placements in earnest. Peter & I were fortunate enough to be met at the airport by one of our friends from the hospital and were brought to our “temporary” accommodation at the hospital. This consists of a small two bedroom house behind the hospital designed for use as doctors’ accommodation – the hospital, in common with many other district hospitals in Indonesia, has great difficulty in attracting and retaining medical staff due to the perceived unattractiveness of the location and lack of resources available to do anything and needs to provide accommodation to doctors working here. The house we are in is basic enough but is reasonably clean but needs a new bed in my room so I am currently sleeping on the floor.
Although Indonesia is predominately Muslim, the province of Nusa Tengara Timor (NTT) is mainly Christian. As I have mentioned before, when Indonesians do religion, they really do it properly, especially where observance of holidays is concerned. As a result, our arrival at the end of Holy Week meant that many of the shops were closed for Easter weekend and things only started moving again on Tuesday morning.
On Saturday we moved outside Maumere to a small hotel at Gading Beach, about 10kms along the coast to the west. This was a very relaxing weekend with a total of nine volunteers from Maumere, Mbay (also on Flores), Rote (another island south west of West Timor). The resort itself is a small hotel in the throes of a slow building project but offers nice food, peace and quiet, and good standard bedrooms.

On Monday morning we turned up for work at the appointed hour to find (not surprisingly) that we were among the first to appear. After morning Appel, we attended a regular Monday morning staff meeting with heads of department at which the main topic of discussion might as well have been the price of fish for all I was able to understand ! The rest of the day was spent meeting new colleagues, assembling some light reading material about my placement, and (finally) visiting our new house. This was a bit of an eye opener as it is in a pretty appalling state inside and needs a cleaning and painting blitz. We have been promised that this will happen as soon as a tukang (handyman) can be found and we have agreed with the hospital what they will be providing for us and what we will need to buy ourselves. (VSO has an agreement with employers about certain basic requirements for accommodation – bed, table, chair, stove, etc.) Most of the other stuff we will buy for ourselves out of a household equipment grant from VSO given to all new volunteers (equivalent to about €90). At the time of writing (Wednesday) we are waiting to hear news about how long this work might take but my expectations are that we will continue to live in the hospital accommodation for at least another two weeks. As the hospital is a little way out of the town, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my promised two wheeled motorised transport from Bajawa later this week. Until then, my involuntary enforced weight loss program will just have to continue – down 8 kgs (in nine weeks) at the last count !

Moving on...

Just a quick post as I prepare to leave Denpasar behind and move to Maumere on the next stage of this adventure (and the real beginning I guess !). Yesterday was our last day at language school when we said our farewells to our teacher for the last seven weeks, Pak Yudi, and received our final assessments and certificates of completion. Although I was happy with my final assessment and grading, I am still a long way from being competent enough to sit through a workplace meeting and understand everything that is being said. However, the conversations that I have had with other volunteers have all confirmed that, having had the foundation provided by the language school, they learned far more Bahasa Indonesia in the first six weeks in their placement than during any period - let’s hope that it’s true !

This morning, I said my farewells to Pak and Ibu Agung who have been my fabulous homestay hosts for the last seven weeks. Pak Agung takes a keen interest in his volunteers’ language progress (I am their twelfth VSO volunteer) and has invested much time in teaching me additional vocabulary and colloquialisms. Last weekend, they dressed me in traditional Balinese dress for a photo opportunity and this morning I presented them with a photo album of some of the photos of the family that I have taken during my stay here (the family does not seem to have a camera of their own). I also gave Ibu some souvenir Irish tea towels with the words of Molly Malone and a traditional Irish blessing and have promised to write from Maumere (it will have to be a traditional letter in an envelope !).

This morning (Thursday) is general election day so is yet another holiday here. Polling started at 7am and will finish at 12 noon, when counting will start immediately. Results will be available tomorrow. For a blog posting about the run up to the election, read my friend Dan Bryson’s recent post HERE.

We are due to arrive in Maumere at about 3.30 pm this afternoon – yesterday we heard that, although our house has been vacated, it is not yet ready for us to move into as it is being “renovated”. While it would have been great to move in to our “semi permanent” home today, I am taking this in a positive way as it sounds as if it might have a fresh coat of paint when we do eventually move in. I believe that we will be staying on the hospital campus for the time being (but not sure how long that will be…). It sounds like Maumere will be a busy place over the Easter weekend as, in addition to the three resident volunteers (7 including today’s new arrivals), I also know of an additional four other VSO visitors who are coming for the weekend.

Next post from Flores……

Sudah mandi ?

I’ve just realised that I have been very remiss in not posting anything yet on the massively important subject of Indonesian bathrooms and bathing habits. As in most hot countries, personal hygiene is very important to Indonesians and bathrooms and bathing (called “mandi”) are an important part of daily activities. Most Indonesian bathrooms are really like the wet rooms found in many up market western homes – i.e. they have a tiled floor and are designed to have water poured everywhere, rather than into a tub or shower tray. The water escapes away through either a drain in the floor or a hole in the wall to the outside world. Bath tubs are a rarity usually confined to posh top range hotels (or so I’m told – volunteers’ allowances certainly don’t stretch to such places !). Showers are found occasionally but, if wall mounted, are usually too low for Westerners to stand under. The bathroom (kamar mandi) will almost always contain a tiled tub (bak mandi) which is too small to sit in and too high to climb into although there are lots of stories of the uninitiated trying to do both of these. This is the source of the water for your ablutions and is usually filled by a tap above it. In many urban areas the water pressure is so poor that this tub may take ages and ages to fill so the water is collected over many hours and kept for when it is needed. In rural areas of course, the water will often have to be carried from a well or river. The other essential element of a kamar mandi is the gayung – a large plastic scoop or ladle with which you pour the water (cold of course) over yourself. It’s an extremely refreshing and cooling system and may take place a couple of times a day if working outdoors. In my homestay in Bali I frequently hear the sounds of splashing water from neighbouring kamar mandis if I’m at home during the day.

You may wish to stop reading this post now.
Ok, you were warned……

The other item of sanitary ware in most kamar mandis (although sometimes housed in a separate room) is, of course, the eh, “WC”. The traditional Indonesian facility is the squat arrangement formerly favoured by the French and which is obviously designed to discourage lingering or reading. Another major difference is the almost universal lack of paper – again, the bak mandi and gayung are used instead, and also for flushing waste away afterwards as most facilities do not have a cistern or any sort of automated flush. This leads me on rather neatly to a quick cultural lesson – it’s considered very rude in Indonesian society to hand something to someone using your left hand as this is the hand that is used for …. well, you can work it out from the details given above ! Also, when eating, many Indonesians eschew (sorry) the use of cutlery (not that there is ever a knife anyway, only a fork and spoon) and eat with their fingers (but always only the fingers of the right hand – again, work it out…..). By the way, if you are using a fork and spoon, the fork is held in the left hand and the spoon in the right and only the spoon ever enters the mouth. It’s not seen as particularly rude to put the fork in your mouth; just weird. Watching some of my left-handed recently arrived friends trying to eat soup with a spoon held in their right hand is quite entertaining, as long as you’re not sitting too close ! The title of this post is a frequently asked question which means “have you washed or bathed ?”. Two of the most commonly used words in Bahasa Indonesia are belum (not yet) and sudah (already). These two rather literal translations don’t really do justice to the wide variety of uses that both of these words are put to – as Indonesian verbs don’t have tenses, “tense markers” like these are important signs to tell if we are talking about the past, present or future. Belum is used as a negative answer to a question about the past tense and implies that there is still a chance that the negative might turn into a positive (much gentler than a flat “no”, isn’t it ?). Sudah is used as a positive answer to many questions about the past and also as a question word, as in “have you bathed ?” (a polite enquiry which doesn’t carry the implication that the questioner feels you should if you haven’t !).

Housing update : The doctor in possession of our house in Maumere is apparently still in possession. As we are due to arrive in Maumere this day next week (Thursday- general election day), it is starting to look increasingly unlikely that we will be able to move in on arrival. Fingers crossed……

Lastly, a random photo I took outside a nearby bar/restaurant on the beach in Sanur last weekend. the restaurant is called the Bonsai (look at the background for a clue why) and this tray of sundried (or soon to be sundried) was just outside the kitchen door. They don't just come out of jars, you know !