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 !