All good things come to an end...

And that was certainly true this week.....

1. My placement : last Saturday (5th June) was my last day working at RSUD dr. TC HILLERS, Maumere.As one reader pointed out to me in an email last week, I haven't said much about the work part of my placement on here. That's true, for a number of reasons : firstly, I'm not sure how much of it would be of any interest to anyone; secondly, much of the time there wasn't a lot to write about and thirdly, you never know who's reading these things ! However, the wrap up process got under way a couple of weeks ago with a formal meeting between VSO, the hospital and me so there were few formalities left to complete, just the usual rush of completing half done tasks, copying things on to a CD (no fancy shared drives here) and leaving a list of things that needed to be followed up.

2. My camera : my little camera, which has given sterling service while I've been here decided to stop recognising the memory card as a group of us posed for the very last photo before I left the house for the airport on Tuessday. Timing, eh ? The problem is that the same memory card still contains lots of photos which I haven't yet copied to my laptop so I'm hoping that it can be salvaged. So this post will be photoless I'm afraid.

3. My run of good health : my leg injury (remember my leg ?) suddenly flared up again last Sunday and it transpired that, despite looking good on the surface, an infection had been lurking beneath. This has necessitated daily hospital visits this week, with the insertion of a drain for a few days and now (in Bali) daily dressing changes). Fortunately the surgeon I have been seeing in Bali is happy for me to fly which is a relief but I may need some further treatment on arrival in London tomorrow (Saturday). At least the pain I experienced last Sunday has subsided and I can walk now...

4. My time in Maumere : I can honestly say that I never thought it would be so hard to leave and say goodbye and it's not until the last couple of days that you realise the attachments that you have developed to the people, the place and the way of life. I'm sure that it's going to be equally hard to settle back in at home.

Anyway, that's enough misery - I'm now in Bali on a sunny Friday afternoon,. having completed my exit interview with VSO, sorted out my finances with the finance manager, (almost) finished packing, and am almost ready to head to the hospital in an hour or so. From there it's straight to the airport for a departure at 10.30 pm or thereabouts.

I'll be in touch !       

     

Bali and back....

I’ve been away from Maumere for over a week so here’s a bit of a catch up...

 Every year VSO Indonesia holds an Annual Volunteer Conference (AVC), a gathering of all the volunteers in Indonesia. The objectives are to get together, have some fun, share some skills and catch up with friends that we may not have seen for twelve months. By definition, one of the strange things about volunteering is the rather transient nature of these contacts – you are thrown together with fellow volunteers from all over the place but most of us go home after two years so, apart from the initial seven weeks orientation course, our face to face contact is pretty limited. This year’s event was held in Bali, an added attraction and was my first time off Flores since last September. This year’s AVC also gave us a chance to meet the recently arrived new volunteers, the first arrivals since my own group just over a year ago (normally there would be three groups per year but the visa problems of last year meant no further arrivals until recently).

As part of the three day event, the custom is to include a “community day” which is pretty self descriptive. Last year in Kupang, we helped 5 local villages to plant a small vegetable garden beside their local health centre and gave some training to young mothers on nutrition and food groups. This year, we teamed up with a local community group to do two activities – a cleanup of their area followed by coral planting in the afternoon. As I have blogged before, there is no shortage of litter in Indonesia, partly due to lack of infrastructure such as bins, garbage collection facilities, etc. so this is a bout seemingly impossible task. However, the greater value probably lies not in what we managed to pick up but the small example that was set to the local community by a group of about 25 foreigners descending on their sleepy community armed with rubbish bags and picking up their rubbish !

 

In the afternoon, we helped the local group with one of their principal activities – coral planting. The objective is to provide additional habitats for fish, thereby increasing the capacity of local fishermen to feed their families and earn an income. I won’t give you the full blow by blow account but a brief summary is as follows: The coral is first harvested from an existing “coral garden” and taken (in a hurry) to a nearby beach. (This stage is usually carried out on the boat but some of our volunteers were looking a bit green !) Then the harvested branches are carefully cut into smaller sprigs, each of which is then cemented into a small holder. These holders are then placed into holes in a concrete frame (ours had been made in the letters VSO) which has previously been placed on the sea bed. This all sounds nice and easy - the problem was that the concrete frame was under about 3 metres of rather murky water and there was a big swell as it was a very windy day ! Anyway, we eventually succeeded in planting all the stems (125 of them) and they are now happily growing at the bottom of the sea at Pulau Serangan in Bali.

 

 

 

 After the three days of our AVC, we were joined by employers from all over Indonesia for the Annual Sector Workshops. This is an opportunity for volunteers and employers to review VSO’s programmes, discuss future plans, meet with programme office staff (and also have a bit of fun of course). The last night of this workshop was a cultural night where volunteers and employers all provided some entertainment from their own country or region (with volunteers also joining in their employers’ display). Now there are a few more Indonesians who know a little more details about Molly Malone’s (alleged) sideline....

  After the sector workshops, most people headed home last Thursday and Friday. However, I decided to treat myself and had booked myself into a nice hotel in Sanur (south east coast of Bali) for three nights. This was a great break – a nice hotel, western food, two swimming pools, on the beach.... My stay cost about €230 - however, it was difficult not to feel more than a little guilty. This is about three months’ pay for a qualified blood transfusion technician in the hospital (and the return flight to Bali would cost another two months’ pay).

So, on Sunday I made my way back to Maumere and home. Strangely, i was looking forward to a meal in a local warung that night and spent just a fraction of what my meals during the previous days had cost. I have about ten or eleven weeks to go here but time seems to be speeding up a lot now and I have Rosemary & Helmut’s visit to look forward to in four weeks’ time so that will be another week off work as we travel from Labuanbajo (at the western end of Flores) to Maumere.

This is Philip, who is going to be our guide and driver :

Pesta in Ruteng !

As the number of VSO volunteers in Indonesia continues to dwindle (see earlier posts about the long running saga of visa negotiations that has led to the suspension of VSO's health programme), this weekend sees another departure as Festus, a Kenyan water engineer, comes to the end of his two year placement and heads home to seek paid employment in Africa. Of course, no departure would be complete without a pesta (you can guess the translation !) so I'm heading westwards on Friday to bid farewell and also visit two Dutch friends who were in the same intake group as me all the way back in February.

Mark & Anouk (and also Festus) live in Ruteng which is about 400 kms west of Maumere. I plan to make this marathon journey by motorbike with an overnight stay in Bajawa about 280 kms from here en route (that 280kms should take about 10 hours to accomplish). This will be my first time travelling past Ende (which is about 150km from Maumere) so I'm very much looking forward to the opportunity to see more of Flores and hoping that the rain will hold off.

Bajawa is near the site of the 2003 discovery of the Flores "Hobbit" which still divides the scientific community as to whether it is really a separate species or not.

I've been told that the party preparations are well underway and that 40 litres of moke (as the local hooch arrack is known here) have been prepared and that a suitable goat has been identified for our dining pleasure.

On the return journey,leaving on Monday morning, I'll try to make it from Ruteng to Ende on the first day, and then the final 150km from Ende to Maumere on Tuesday.

 

Shutting down and spitting

Back from Kupang yesterday after a great weekend with 16 other volunteers from Sumba, West Timor and Flores. The weekend was a long one, with two full days interchange of experiences, skills, and some internal VSO stuff as well. 

One of the sessions was very educational, if a little disgusting and educated us about the widespread practice of chewing betel nut (areca). As usual Wikipedia has lots of info, so click HERE to read more. I won't go into details here except to say that this is a very widepsread habit (on Flores usually among older women) which leads to bright red discolouration of teeth and gums and also to high incidences of mouth and gum cancer (in many cases, the parcel in the mouth (usually containing pieces of fruit, nut, and lime wrapped in a leaf) also contains tobacco. Naturally, in the interests of science, I had to try this out for myself and all I can say is that I will be hoping not to have to repeat the experience anytime soon. However, the cultural significance of sirih pinang (as it is known in these parts) is so strong that it will probably be hard to avoid.

The weekend was also an opportunity to wish bon voyage to four volunteers whose placements will end in the next three months so I am unlikely to see some of them again. However, two of them (Stephen and Festus) are on Flores so we will have (another) farewell before they finally depart.

One of the volunteers going home is an English nurse called Jo, who has been a VSO volunteer in Indonesia for just over five years (yes, five - that's not a misprint!).
In one of the sessions entitled "A graceful shutdown", Jo shared some of the things that she will miss and not miss about Indonesia and talked about her "exit" strategy. Top of the list of things she won't miss was spitting, a practice widespread in Indonesia among men and women and usually preceded by violent hawking noises. In many cases, the spit is bright red form sirih pinang. Yuk. (Other items on her list were rice and public transport.) Jo is going back home to retire which she's a little nervous about - she left England as a volunteer immediately after retiring five years ago so has never lived "at home" as a retired person and quite understandably is a little nervous about how this will work out !

Good luck, Jo !

Mission accomplished...

I can now report that Mission Larantuka has eventually been accomplished but not without incident. I set off at 12.30 pm on Saturday after work, stopped for a coffee break at Boru (about 100kms from Maumere) and was looking forward to the last climb and descent to arrive by 5.30pm or so, just before dark. However, about 15kms past Boru I heard a strange noise from my motorbike which I first thought was a branch caught underneath. I stopped but the noise didn't and I quickly realised that the electric starter was engaged as if I was pressing the switch (and before you ask, no I wasn't). I tried turning off the ignition but the motor kept turning the engine over, I tried removing some of the fuses around the battery (obviously not the right ones though) but no luck. Eventually, I put the engine into a high gear, let out the clutch and let it bump forward until everything finally stopped. Unfortunately, I really mean everything – the bike was now completely dead – no electrics, no engine. I tried kick starting but it was obvious that something crucial in the ignition circuit had given up the ghost. It was now about one hour before dark, I was at the side of the road about 35kms from my destination so there was nothing to do but wait and hope for a lift. Public transport here is quite plentiful but completely disorganised, there is no bus company with schedules and timetables, just plenty of people making a living by using their motorbike, car or truck to ferry others around. One of these (a small pickup) arrived on the scene after about twenty minutes (going the wrong way with about ten people in the back) and we flagged him down and asked him if he could bring us and the bike to Larantuka. He said yes of course, after he had dropped off his passengers. We waited for another while and about twenty minutes later he reappeared again, this time going the right way but with even more people and goods in the back. We waited yet again and eventually he reappeared and started reorganising the back of the pickup to fit the bike. We then started the discussion about price. His opening bid was Rp400,000 which is an extortionate sum and equivalent to about €27.50. I countered with Rp100,000 which he said was impossible. After coming down to 300,000 and then 200,000 we finally settled on Rp150,000 which is still a great price for him. However, at this stage it was almost dark, we had an hour's journey still to go and then had to try and get the bike fixed and find somewhere to stay so I was getting just a little desperate !

We arrived in Larantuka at about 7.15 pm to find the two main bengkels (workshops) closed so unloaded outside one of the hotels, found a room (Rp85,000 per night for two people for a room with fan). The hotel had two cold beers in the fridge (but only two) so we quickly relieved them of those and then headed out for a meal.

On Saturday morning, we pushed the dead bike to the nearest bengkel and I left Frid to explain the problem and wait for the repair while I explored Larantuka. I was finished before he was as there ain't much to explore and he arrived back in the hotel twenty minutes later with a functioning bike (but a disabled starter motor) and a bill for Rp20,000. We quickly decided to take another day and return to Maumere on Monday instead to give us some time to look around.

The rest of the day was spent touring the area around Larantuka – this busy town is at the eastern end of Flores and boasts a busy harbour (well, two actually) with services to the Solor & Alor Islands and also to Kupang, the provincial capital in West Timor. Apart from that, there isn't a lot to say about the place although it has an interesting history – it was dominated by Portuguese influences up to the mid-19^th century as it was on one of the important sea routes used by them while removing sandalwood from Timor. Apparently at Easter the town is jammed with visitors and all accommodation is booked up as there is a strong tradition of huge Easter cross bearing processions. There are good views of the islands and straits as you approach the town.

 

 

On the way back to Maumere on Monday, I stopped to take a few photos for you. Just outside Boru, in an area called Hokeng, there are coffee plantations beside the road. Last week on my first attempt to get to the end of Flores, I took these two pictures of the coffee plants.

This time (just one week later) the whole landscape had changed completely and this is what I saw as the plants have all suddenly burst into flower.

Later on, I passed through an area which has many kapok trees. Now, I already knew that this stuff is used as a filling for mattresses and pillows but I have to confess that, until I got to Indonesia, I did not know that it just grew on trees ! The pods are all bursting open and the trees look as if they have been decorated with cotton wool balls.

 

 

Last bit of the biology lesson for today – at the VSO Annual Volunteer Conference every year, the activities include a Community Day, when the volunteers attending the conference spend a day doing some work for the community in the area where the conference is held. Two years ago (long before my arrival here) the AVC was in Maumere and the Community Day involved planting mangroves in a tidal swamp to prevent or slow coastal erosion. I was pleased to be able to stop off and take some photos of the flourishing mangroves to send to Jo Marie, the volunteer whose initiative this was.

Six months already !

Apologies for the lack of input this week, it seems as if not a lot happens on a day to day basis but when I think back, it wasn't all bad...
I had a favourable response this week from one of the hotels I've been chasing in Bali who have very generously offered to let us have a few hundred bed sheets and blankets that they no longer require - all I have to do now is somehow arrange to get them collected and delivered to Flores ! (another challenge...)

I started work this week on a project connected with the HR aspects of the hospital. Initially, this will involve job descriptions and will move on to include some HR policies, a simple performance management system and hopefully eventually some agreement on competencies. (To any HR pros reading this, I know that this seems like the wrong way around but, believe me, anything will be an improvement and we need to start with some very small steps...)





My radio career continues unabated, it's now Saturday morning and I'm on the air again at 12 noon for another hour of waffle in English.

This week sadly we said goodbye to another volunteer from Maumere. Jess has unfortunately had to return home to the US early for personal reasons. When I arrived in Maumere, there were seven VSO volunteers here - now there are three. Two left when their placements ended in the normal course of events, one has had to return home temporarily due to the continuing visa problems, and this week saw Jess's departure. Of the group of ten of us who arrived in Denpasar on 9th February (six months ago exactly), there are now two left in Indonesia. (Two are temporarily at home due to family illnesses but are expected to return.) The visa situation has still not been resolved and this week VSO informed us that they have reluctantly had to cancel the (already delayed) group of new volunteers due to arrive in September. This means that the next intake will be in January, almost a year after my arrival. Normally, there are three intakes a year so you can imagine what effect this ongoing disruption is having on VSO's volunteer numbers and work here.

Tomorrow (Sunday) promises to be an interesting one : I have been invited to a party which is part of the pre-wedding formalities for a friend who works in the hospital. There is a strong tradition of belis (brideprice or dowry) here and (as far as I can understand) tomorrow's event is the formal exchange between the families of the belis. More to follow...

What happened this week ?

Well, not much really to be honest. I've set myself the objective of putting up at least one post a week here but I have to confess that it is sometimes a struggle to stop lapsing into a daily diary which would make for spectacularly uninteresting reading and have my already tiny hit statistics falling off a cliff faster than I could stop them.

Almost as interesting as Anne Frank's diary (with apologies in advance....)

For example :

Monday :

6.30 .am Got up, .took my doxycycline antimalarial, had some bananas, bread and coffee for breakfast. Washed.

7.25 am Went to work. Slow morning, internet wasn't working very well so not able to do much.

11.00 am Coffee break

2.00 pm Home, change and out for lunch to one of three of four regular places.

2.45 pm Back home, read or snooze for an hour.

4.00 pm Maybe go out for a drive on the bike

6.00 pm Darkness, usually back home by now. Spend the next four hours sitting on the front porch with one or more of our friends, some of whom are very keen to improve their English. One of my new friends, Frid, has become my new Indonesian teacher so it's a good mutual exchange.

Tuesday :

See Monday

Wednesday :

See Tuesday

Etc. etc

So, you will be pleased to hear that I am going to spare you this ordeal. Last weekend, we had a visit from a very good friend Nick, who is a VSO volunteer who has spent the last year and a half working in Yogjakarta with some deaf groups helping them to develop training programmes. Nick was one of the welcome party when we arrived in Bali all those months ago and so was one of the very first VSO volunteers I met in Indonesia. He has just returned to Indonesia after a holiday at home and is spending his last three months before his placement ends on some roving assignments, the first of which is a two week visit to Bajawa in western Flores. Instead of going out for dinner on Saturday we ate at home and my housemate and resident chef Peter excelled himself with pizza and apple tart. Pizza may not sound that difficult to make but consider some of the challenges : tomato sauce made from scratch, dough from scatch, chicken bought in a restaurant and shredded at home, mozzarella brought from Bali by Nick, the oven is a tin box on top of a paraffin stove.... and what a spread it was, as good as you could get ! Frid, my ojek friend, had made the arrangements for Nick to travel onwards from Maumere to Bajawa on Sunday (better pricing always available to locals !) and joined us for dinner that night also. The next day I went with Frid to visit his cousin in the hospital where I work and met his aunt. Frid told her that he had had dinner in our house the previous night and explained what we had eaten. I could see the puzzled look on her face as he described what a pizza was and when he had finished she asked : "What about the rice, was it fried or boiled ?"

Above : Indra & Dewa (you don't smile for photographs in Indonesia !)

Above : from left,Kristo, Daniel, Indra and Hartadi relaxing on our porch.

Nick departs for Bajawa with Frid (with apologies for a rushed and badly composed photo !)

Surveys, snorkels and spuds

It seems like a while since I've updated here so greetings to all of you in recession land. At the level I am working at, Indonesia is fairly recession proof – as one person said to me last weekend "when you don't have very much, you have little to lose". People here, as in most developing countries, generally live a hand to mouth existence with little by way of luxury or treats.

Since my last post, I spent two days (last Friday & Saturday) attending a workshop in the hospital which focused on complaints from the local community. This was quite a progressive idea and is a good example of the proactive style of the hospital director. The workshop, which was facilitated by GTZ, the German aid agency, had about 80 participants representing various stakeholders – former patients and their families, outpatient clinic clients, clients of the laboratory and blood transfusion service, etc. One of the activities of the workshop was an exercise in actual gathering complaints from those attending and the principal outcome was the compilation of a draft survey for monitoring future satisfaction levels.

It was very interesting to see the very genuine complaints and concerns that former patients and their families raised – here are some examples :

• Lack of personnel available – no doctor or nurse in attendance in various clinics and departments.
  
• Punctuality – late arrival of doctors for clinics
  
• Corruption – security guards seeking bribes of money or cigarettes for allowing visitors in outside official visiting hours
  
• Poor hygiene – smelly beds, dirty toilets, mosquitoes
  
• Lack of communication to patients
  
• Nursing staff busy texting on their mobile phones instead of looking after patients
  

Does any of this sound familiar ?

After the mental strain involved in trying to keep up with this for two days (and believe me, it was a struggle) it was great to have day off on Sunday. As I've mentioned before, Maumere is the home for a number of volunteers working in various different VSO programmes so there is a good social network available. Last weekend was the occasion of Jo Marie's last weekend in Maumere as her placement ends this week. Jo Marie has been here for three years (most placements are for two years but she extended for a further year so is almost a native now) and she is returning home to the Philippines for a month's holiday before starting work with GTZ in East Timor. To mark her departure, she arranged a day trip to Pulau Babi (Pig Island) so early on Sunday morning, we saddled up and rode about 60kms north east of Maumere to Darat Pantai, near Talibura where Pak Karno, a colleague from Jo's workplace lives. Karno had arranged for a local boatman to take us to the beach on the island where we enjoyed some fine snorkelling and a great BBQ on the beach with some fish Jo bought en route. On the way back home after our day in the sun, there was the most amazing pink sunset. This volunteering in developing countries really is a tough life, you know....

After the weekend, Peter (my housemate) and I decided that the lack of any visible progress on the housing front was no reason to put off embarking on some self catering forever and we took the plunge and purchased a stove (cost about Rp180,000 = €13). Household kitchens here are generally basic in the extreme with a stove (usually kerosene but sometimes gas if you can afford it), a rice cooker (if the household is fortunate enough to have electricity) and a collection of bowls, buckets and utensils (usually no sink). We bought an oil stove, oil and some bowls and tonight (Tuesday) had our first home cooked meal at home. We decided to mark the occasion by going western (lunch had been gado-gado) and so the menu for the first meal was sautéd potatoes and fried eggs... not exactly a typical Indonesian evening meal.

Live on air

Apart from the BBC World Service, the other station that my radio is tuned into most often is Sonia FM, a local radio station in Maumere (very local, in fact – the station is about 5 minutes walk away from the hospital). I find that listening to the ramblings of callers to he various request programmes and the attempts of the DJs to decipher what they are saying is good practice for my Indonesian listening skills ! One hour of Sonia's weekly output is given over to the English language when Teresa, a fellow VSO volunteer who has been in Maumere for about a year, hosts a phone in programme called "English Makeover". Normally, she chooses a topic for discussion (litter, alcohol abuse, smoking, etc.) and invites callers to phone in with their views (and of course, requests for music). Last Friday night, she invited me to come along and join her for the programme but I was a little surprised when I turned up and asked what the topic for that night was. "Didn't I tell you – it's you !" was the reply.

The programme got under way at 8pm and I spent the next hour answering a selection of questions from the callers, most of whom seemed to be regulars as they were known to Teresa and her producer, Martin. Most of the questions were not about where I came from or my background but focused very much on what I thought of Maumere and the hospital. I think my honest answers went down OK. Not only were the callers well known, but the requests were all lined up in advance as the same listeners request the same songs each week - the top choices are Bryan Adams and Celine Dion.

This pic shows Martin (the show's producer) and me after the broadcast. Note the religious influence !

I am writing this post in the waiting room of BIMC, a private hospital in Denpasar, Bali. Although I have become used to being in a hospital all day, I did not really expect to be in this particular one (on a different island and two flights away) at 10 am this morning. Before my mother gets on the phone, I will explain quickly. Joseph, another VSO volunteer from the Philippines, who has been in Maumere since mid 2008 was admitted to Maumere hospital on Monday morning with a high fever and yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) the suspected diagnosis of malaria was confirmed. The decision was taken yesterday to evacuate him to Bali to the more advanced facilities available there, not so much due to an inability to deal with his current condition in Maumere but as a precaution in case he became even worse. I was asked to accompany him on the flight, along with a nurse from Maumere so we left the hospital in an ambulance at 6 am this morning and arrived at BIMC in Bali in another ambulance at 10 am. Joseph has now been admitted and I am awaiting further instructions from VSO about my return to Maumere – the first available seat is not until Saturday, three days away, but VSO will want to ship me back there sooner than that if at all possible. I'm glad I brought a change of clothes and my laptop with me just in case ! In the meantime, I'm holed up here using the wireless access in the cafe across the road from the Yulia homestay.

Pics at last !

Our first few days were spent in a simple hotel in the Sanur area of Denpasar - a traditional Balinese style house with an unprepossessing street presence (looked like a garage entrance) which then open up into a large area with lots of greenery, separate buildings, shady covered areas (when it rains here in the rainy season it really rains and when the suns shines it's really hot). This picture (above) is looking from our room along the passageway past the entrance to a few separate bedrooms which are to the right.
Indonesia is a predominately Muslim country, however Bali is mainly Hindu and the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur or NTT, where Flores is, is 95% Christian. Every Balinese home has a number of temples which symbolise the three way relationship that us mere mortals have with the gods, with our surroundings and with the earth. These temples are small, but very ornate, constructions of wood and stone and offerings are placed in front of them every day, usually with some incense. This is a small temple that was right outside our bedroom door at our first stay in Sanur.On Friday night, we moved into our family homestay (at least everyone else did, I am in a temporary house owned by my homestay owner until some other people move out of my room today, Saturday). My homestay is on Jalan Intaran (jalan = street) in the Sanur region, slightly east of the VSO office and Denpasar city centre. My host got things off to a good start by hiding all my luggage in a wardrobe and pretending that it hadn't been delivered - he knew about my baggage problems earlier this week and is a bit of a practical joker. This morning (Saturday) I am just wandering around trying to get my bearings and have already found a local internet shop, from where I am posting this.

This is the junction at the top of Jalan Intaran, at a very quiet time on Saturday morning.

Back from Bangers

It’s hard to believe that I’m writing this in Suvarnabuhmi Airport waiting for my flight home after ten weeks on the move during which I’ve been in the UK, Malaysia (for a couple of hours), Singapore, Australia and Thailand. Strangely enough, all countries where you drive on the left (more or less, in some cases).

Looking back on the trip and my first experience worth talking about of Asia, it has been a great success. The last three weeks in Thailand has really given me a liking for this wonderful country and I certainly look forward to returning here. As I mentioned earlier, the people are incredibly friendly and welcoming. I think that the strong influence of Buddhism here probably contributes to their placid nature and friendly smiles - for example, although the driving is a little haphazard at times, in three weeks I have seen only one minor traffic accident and have heard no raised voices and seen no signs of aggression. A few lessons there for other countries I think ! Even in central Bangkok, a congested and polluted city, there is a spirit of live and let live amongst all drivers which sees tuk-tuk drivers pausing to let limousines exit into the traffic. The traffic is never ending as this is a city which never sleeps - you can hire a tuk-tuk or jump on the back of a motorbike taxi at any hour of the day or night and while the streets and huge shopping malls are thronged during the day, there are also night markets for the insomniac shoppers.

Anyway, it’s now time to tidy up the photos, do the washing and prepare for what comes next…

After arriving home from Thailand (an 18 hour trip), I have exactly two weeks before leaving for Indonesia for my placement with VSO. During that time, I have to attend a five day SKWID (Skills for Working in Development) course at VSO’s residential centre in Birmingham, visit the dentist, get my anti-malarials, garage my car, apply for my visa, sort out my tax return for 2008 and generally tidy things up in preparation for a long absence so it’s going to be a busy fortnight !

My flight to Indonesia departs from Dublin on 8th February and takes me to Bali via London and Doha. In London, I hope to meet up with a Scottish volunteer who is going to work on the same placement as me on the island of Flores. When we arrive in Indonesia, our first eight weeks will be mostly taken up with a language and cultural training programme in Denpasar on the island of Bali before travelling to our individual placements on various islands. During this training period, most of the time will be spent living with a local family which should certainly force me to get on with learning Bahasa Indonesia ! I guess that Bali is probably also likely to give me the opportunity to buy any bits and pieces that I have forgotten to bring (including appropriate work clothes) as I believe that Maumere on Flores is rather limited in shopping opportunities so I‘m not too worried about forgetting things !

The final preparations

The last few days have been a bit hectic as I make the final preparations for departure on my big holiday trip. My tickets arrived this week and the travel agency has confirmed that my ship is on schedule to arrive in Thamesport early next week. I have now booked all my accommodation and transfers (I hope), researched how I am going to get from Tanjung Pelepas to Singapore, bought supplies of five different foreign currencies (which really makes you appreciate the convenience of living in the Eurozone), and completed most of the other things that need to be done before departure. However, there have also been some recent developments which have made the process even more rushed.

Some months ago, when it was apparent that I was going to be joining the ranks of the unemployed this summer, I started to consider what I was going to do next. I very quickly came to the conclusion that I didn't immediately want to start another job similar to the one I had just finished (especially in the multinational environment). One of the options that I considered was taking on some voluntary work and I went along one evening to an information evening run by VSO. VSO is an international development charity with a very high profile in the UK, but, due to the fact that they have only recently established an office in Ireland, have a lower profile here at the moment. Having attended the information evening and spoken to some friends who are returned volunteers from other agencies, I decided to go ahead and complete the long and detailed application form. Shortly afterwards, I was called to attend an interview and assessment day and a few days after that I was told that I had been selected and would be added to their database of available volunteers. Almost immediately (much to my surprise), I received a placement offer with a very thorough job brief, description of the workplace etc. which I had some time to consider before formally declaring my interest in accepting it. The challenging part is that the time between my return in January after my holiday trip and the start date of the placement is very short indeed, in fact much shorter than I had wanted so I will have only two weeks after getting home before departing again, this time probably for about 16 months (and during that two weeks I have to attend a five day pre-departure VSO training course). I will post more about the placement in due course but for the moment, you can do some homework on Wikipedia on the likely location by clicking here.

The prospect of this placement starting immediately after I returned meant that the bill for my vaccinations climbed substantially and my vaccination certificates now run well into two pages ! While I am now up to date on almost all my jabs, it appears that the vaccination for Japanese Encephalitis is currently unavailable in Ireland.

Last night I attended my last band rehearsal for some time (I have played in The Stedfast Band for many years) and was delighted to receive a most useful present of a Sony SSB radio from my friends in the band. Many thanks to all in Stedfast for their good wishes and generosity - keep practicing while I am away !