Week 19

As I post this, it is exactly nineteen weeks since I arrived in Indonesia, the longest period in my life that I have lived outside Ireland. One of my colleagues asked me last week was I "sudah bosan" (already bored) with Maumere and seemed very surprised that the ten weeks I have spent here was not long enough already. My placement is due to end on 8^th June 2010 (exactly 50 weeks from tomorrow) but there is always the possibility of an extension (however, that's talk for another day !). Most VSO placements are for a two year period - I have never understood quite why mine is only for fourteen months (or sixteen including the in country training in Bali) but I assume that it has something to do with the fact that I replaced a volunteer who had to return home early during his placement. Apparently about one-third of volunteers expend their placements, up to a maximum of three years in total.

I mentioned recently that there has been a great deal of uncertainty about the position of many volunteers in Indonesia due to changes in VSO's relationship with the Indonesian government. These changes have meant that the previous system of volunteers holding a "social and cultural" visa which is renewed in Jakarta every month could no longer continue, and VSO is seeking to have a more formal relationship with the Department of Manpower, which will mean that volunteers will instead apply for a KITAS (Kartu Izin Tinggal Sementara – Temporary Residence Permit). However, until this agreement is finalised with the Department (which could take months), employers such as the hospital in which I am working are being asked to sponsor their volunteers for their KITAS. This appears to be working OK for volunteers who are working with government bodies – however it seems to be impossible to arrange for the many volunteers who are working for Non Government Organisations (NGOs). As a result, many of these volunteers are having their placements end earlier than planned or are being sent home until the new agreement is signed (in some cases for up to three months). You can imagine the disruption that this upheaval and uncertainty is causing. Last Friday, I received the good news that my KITAS (supported by the hospital) has been issued in Jakarta. However, the bureaucracy doesn't end there - to change from my current social and cultural visa to a KITAS I must leave Indonesia and re-enter. This will involve leaving Maumere next Saturday morning, flying to Denpasar, then flying to Singapore on Sunday night, staying one night and returning to Denpasar on Monday and finally arriving back in Maumere on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to a big fillet steak and some good red wine in Singapore, two luxuries which are not available in Maumere !

For the last two Fridays, I have stood in for a volunteer friend who has been away on holiday (and a visa trip to Singapore) and presented the weekly English language programme "English Make Over" on SONIA FM, Maumere's very own radio station. The programme is a phone in discussion show and on my first week the topic was belis (bride price or dowry). This was an interesting opportunity for me to learn a little about this local custom and I was surprised that all of the callers to the programme were unanimous in their opinion that this was a tradition which should be ended. The amounts involved are quite staggering, and usually are counted in animals rather than money but often have the effect of saddling the groom's (extended) family with a huge debt which can take many years to pay off. As a timely example of this, I was privileged to be invited to a wedding last week by a friend at work whose sister was being married. This involved two functions – the first, two days before the wedding was similar to an "at home" where friends were invited to visit at any time after 3pm, and food and drink were provided. The second was on the day of the wedding. Non-family guests do not usually attend the church wedding but that evening, about 700 guests (yes, seven hundred !) were invited to the reception. There were a few speeches (but unusually for Indonesia, not too many and not for too long) followed by a marathon hand shaking session - platform party of 8 x 700 guests = 5600 handshakes. Then we hit the buffet. The food at this wedding was probably the best I have tasted in Indonesia and was produced by the family on fires behind the house.

Earlier in the week, they had slain two cows outside the house and these were the special treat but there were about five different meat dishes (plus rice of course !).

After eating, the moke was produced and we settled into a rather fast session behind the house with some of the bride's uncles. They explained that the belis or dowry in this case had been 20 horses, with a price tag of RP2,000,000 per horse. Now, converting this Rp40,000,000 into euros seems steep enough (about €2800) but consider this : a nurse earns about Rp600,000 per month and an elementary school teacher about Rp300,000 a month. This bride's belis was about five and a half years pay for a teacher ! This really put into perspective for me the comments on the previous week's radio show about what a burden this system was for families.

On my second week hosting the radio show, the topic was cheating – I was surprised to receive SMS requests from a native Maumerian who was listening online in the Netherlands so if you want to listen in to Sonia FM live from Maumere, click HERE and follow the link that you will find down a bit on the right hand side.