22 weeks later

Not that I'm counting of course, but it is quite amazing how time flies (or maybe not flies, but passes anyway). It's hard to believe that I arrived in Indonesia not able to speak a single word of Bahasa Indonesia this day 22 weeks ago and here I am, five months later, not able to speak a single word of.... I jest of course ! Language is still a problem, especially in staff meetings at the hospital but normal conversation is becoming easier and easier, especially when the person you are talking to makes some allowances ! Anyway, another week dawns in Maumere and I am STILL waiting for the wheels of bureaucracy to grind their way towards issuing my KITAS visa with no sign of an imminent result.

Last week, we had a day off on Wednesday for the presidential election. This was only Indonesia's second ever democratic presidential election (the first was in 2004) but it didn't seem to raise much excitement here at any rate (apart from the novelty of having a day off !). Next week we have another day off on Monday (for the ascension of the Prophet Mohammed) so a few of us are thinking of using the rare opportunity of having two consecutive days to visit Moni again.

Some of my readers (both of them, in fact) have asked me to write a little more about the hospital and my work. The hospital is a 200 bed unit which serves a district with a population of about 300,000 people. The current hospital opened in about 1996 as far as I can work out and replaced one which was destroyed in the earthquake and resulting tsunami of 1992. About 1500 people died in Maumere in that earthquake and many of the town's buildings were destroyed, with a total of 90,000 being left homeless in the region. According to the US Geographical Survey, the wave ran inland for about 300 metres with a height of 25 metres. The hospital has two operating theatres and carries out procedures such as hernia repairs, appendectomies, and many Caesarean sections (between 1500 and 2000 babies are born in the hospital every year). The pace of work is generally much much slower than at home – some of this is due to the language problem but even if I were completely fluent, I would still not be working at the same pace as home. A lot of time is spent on social chatting here and meetings are really something else – the discipline (or lack of it) about use of mobile phones would have any meeting chairman in the west tearing their hair out. It is seen as quite normal to sit in a meeting, and not only send and receive text messages but also to receive calls and chat away while the meeting proceeds around you. Frequently, the meeting stalls while the chairperson answers their phone too... Recently, I have been helping out with a complaints survey. About 5,000 questionnaires have been distributed to wards, outpatient departments, local health centres, etc. seeking feedback from the local community about the hospital's facilities. While the methodology is maybe a little flawed (there is a preset list of complaints and participants are asked to say "yes" or "no" to each one), the results are proving to be quite predictable. The only problem with this is that someone has to summarise all of the returned forms - anyway, I guess it's good practice for my counting in Indonesian as we enter the results on a spreadsheet. Other tasks on hand for this week are an email appeal to a number of five star hotels in Bali to ask for cast-off bedsheets and blankets and to complete my first quarterly report for VSO. This is in preparation for my first placement visit which will take place after about six months in placement but it provides a useful opportunity to have a formal discussion about how the placement has been going and maybe adjust priorities and objectives.

Appeals : as mentioned above, mobile phone usage here is very high and everybody has a HP (hand phone). However, unlike at home, these are all personally owned rather than being provided by employers and are a significant investment for their owners. Also, there is no system of upgrades after a year or two and as they are a relatively recent phenomenon, there is no big pool of old phones available. This means that when a phone gets lost or broken, buying a replacement is a very big deal indeed. I know of some people whose phones have died and they now carry around a SIM card in their wallet and use their friends' phones to send and receive messages. So, if anyone has any old phones at home (with charger) I could do with a couple of them. They will need to be unlocked from the network at home before sending but this usually can be done quite easily. If anyone can help, send me an email.

While I'm at it - another appeal, this one for me. If anyone has any old paperbacks that they don't want, pass them on to my mother and she will make up a parcel and send them out to me. There are enough English speaking volunteers here to arrange a book exchange, we just need a few more books ! I'm not too fussy about what I read so long as it's well written – just avoid ones with pink covers !

In other news – the hospital yesterday admitted its first patient with suspected swine flu. The patient is a Dutch citizen who arrived here very recently but the diagnosis is not yet confirmed.

And finally, happy birthday to my parents today (yes, they share the same birthday) !