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……