Shhhhhh.......

As I've written before, Indonesia is anything but a homogenous country - one of the ways in which this is very evident is religion. Although Indonesia boasts the world's largest Muslim population, there are relatively few Muslims on Flores, where the population is predominately Roman Catholic.The figures from the 2000 census show the following breakdown :  86% Muslim, 6% Protestant, 3% Roman Catholic, 2% Hindu, 3% Buddhist and other. The geographical distribution of these different religious groups is quite marked,as this map from Wikipedia shows :

As you can see, Flores (the pink island towards the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago), and Bali (the red one a few islands further west) are almost the only centres of their respective religions.

  

This week (tomorrow, in fact) is a national holiday as the Hindu population marks Nyepi, which they usually translate as the Day of Silence. In Flores, we just get a day off work but in Bali, the whole island will be completely silent - with the force of law behind it to make sure. From 6 am on Tuesday until 6 am on Wednesday, the streets, beaches, restaurants, shops and bars will be deserted. Even the normally bustling international airport at Denpasar closes for the day. Everyone will stay at home with minimal use of fires, lighting and entertainment. There's an article describing the whole day on Wikipedia, to read more click HERE.

The Bali Times also has an editorial extolling the virtues of a day or reflection forall, regardless of religious beliefs.  

Terima kasih banyak !

THANK YOU !!

This post is just to say a big THANKS to all those who supported the fund raising event in Bray Sailing Club just over a week ago ! I received a SMS on the night (well, the morning after for me) reporting that the target of €2,000 had been exceeded and since then, the figure has continued to rise with many very generous donations. As I write, the figure is close to €3,000 which is a staggering result.

I have passed on the good news to dr. Asep, the hospital director, who is absolutely delighted and has asked me to thank everyone involved for their exceptional generosity. As you know, the money will be used to clean, decorate and renovate the rather gloomy surroundings of the children's ward in the hospital but the work will have to wait a while longer as the ward is still full to overflowing.

So, thanks are due to :

Rosemary & Helmut who arranged the whole event (but especially Helmut who did the lion's share)

Sing Chooi who provided free labour and an excellent meal at cost price to the club so you could pay over the odds for it !

All who came to the meal, provided raffle prizes, bought raffle tickets

All who sent donations - some very generous ones indeed were received.

Terima kasih banyak !

 

Food, ikat etc...

Ok, to make amends for the recent dearth of posts, here's a random collection of bits and pieces prompted by having to delete some photos from my camera as the memory card was getting full...

One of the delights of a living in a tropical country is the variety of fruit available. As well as having eaten more bananas in the last year than in the previous 48 combined, I've also had lots of mango, papaya and nangka (jackfruit). Another fruit available here (as in many other tropical countries) is durian. If you've never come across this one before, this is one hell of a weird fruit. It comes in various sizes, usually about football sized, it is rock hard and covered with extremely sharp spikes. When you open it, it breaks into large segments, in between which can be found large stones. What you eat is only the fleshy pulpy covering of these large stones, so maybe 85% of the fruit is inedible. The durian's main feature is, however, its overpowering smell which I've seen described variously as fragrant (eh, no), pungent (that's a bit more like it) and offensive (now we're getting there). I remember seeing signs in Singapore prohibiting the carrying of durian on public transport due to its "fragrance". Despite its lack of edible parts, the difficulty in getting at them, and the horrendous smell, this fruit is seen as a real delicacy and is much prized.

   

 

 

Ok, moving on....one of the most well known souvenirs from Indonesia in general, and especially this part is ikat or traditional woven fabrics. The normal traditional dress here is a sarong, made from a piece of fabric about 2 metres long and 1 metre wide stitched into a tube or cylinder. Women wear this over one shoulder, while men usually wear it around the waist. Most traditional villages have many women who weave and the patterns vary from one region to another. I've just become the proud owner of my first piece of ikat, given to me as a present in return for helping out a friend who was in hospital recently. This is one long piece at the moment and hasn't been made into a sarong so I might keep it as it is or it could be made into a shirt, a throw or pretty much anything you like. This pattern (mostly black and white) is typical of parts of Sikka District (where I live).

 

And so, back to food. Last week I was in the hospital kitchen and took a few photographs. I can tell you, this is not like a hospital kitchen I have seen at home. Remember that this kitchen is currently producing about 210 meals three times a day. Fried chicken was on the menu when I visited, being cooked on one of the three paraffin stoves.  

 As well as the paraffin stoves, they also use gas for the larger pots (imagine the amount of rice that's required !).  This is pretty grubby to put it mildly...

 

          

Then there's a production line assembling the individual portions for delivery to the wards.

 

 I wonder what the HSE would say..

And finally, still on food : last Tuesday, I came home from work at 2pm to find that some friends had taken it on themselves to provide some fish and corn, had lit a fire beside my house and were just ready to serve lunch as I arrived. Ikan bakar (grilled fish) and jagung bakar (grilled corn) - delicious !

My contribution was a bottle of moke (local arak)....an essential accompaniment to ikan bakar !

 

Selamat makan !

Life in Maumere has been very quiet recently. The hospital is still full to overflowing (211 patients this morning filling 196 beds !) which has meant that the whole system is creaking at the seams and things such as what I do here have been sidelined to a certain extent as everyone tries to cope from day to day.

We haven't had too much rain here either recently which means that it's been getting HOTTER again too....

Tonight (Saturday) sees the fund raising dinner in Bray Sailing Club for the redecoration of Ruang Melati (the children's ward in the hospital). I believe that there's pretty much a full house booked in and that many generous donations have already been received so I'd like to thank everyone involved in advance and wish all you diners "selamat makan !". Remember, if you'd like to help out but can't make it to the dinner, please contact my sister Rosemary at or text her on 087 686 4322.

I hope you have a great dinner- selamat makan everyone !

Thanks again !

Back in action !

Back in action again, thanks to Bambang at Comtel in Maumere. I am now the proud possessor of a brand new multi adaptor laptop charger for the exorbitant cost or RP200.000 (about €15). Phew !

Thanks to all of you who sent good wishes to my laptop !

Hors de combat

My little laptop has suffered a charger failure (again) so I'm kind of incommunicado at the moment until I can get it fixed.... more anon....

and worse....

Today's Bed Occupancy Rate (BOR) is up again to 115% (225 patients in 196 beds). Of this number, 105 are children, 65 of whom have dengue. The children's ward has 37 beds so you can imagine the problems this is causing...

The provincial Department of Health have just declared the situation in Sikka Regency to be a KLB (Kejadian Luar Biasa) - literally an "extraordinary situation", and the Department of Health in Maumere are starting a widespread "fogging" programme to reduce msoquito numbers.

It just gets worse...

Today's BOR (Bed Occupancy Rate) in the hospital is 112% (220 patients for 196 beds). There are now 89 children in the hospital (the children's ward has 37 beds), 53 of whom are suffering from dengue fever. Yesterday morning (Sunday) I was awakened by the sound of wailing and crying which means that a patient has just died - I found out later that it was a four year old child who had died (dengue again).

Still on the subject of sick children, I am delighted to hear that my friends in Bray Sailing Club have offered to support my presence here by having a fund raising dinner to pay for the redecoration of Ruang Melati (the children's ward) in the hospital. Although far from being the worst part of the hospital, it's a pretty grim environment for the children and this money will go a long way towards brightening it up. The event takes place on Saturday 27th February and you are guaranteed to have an excellent meal and lots of fun, all for €30. Bookings to my sister Rosemary or call or SMS her on 087-6864322. Thanks to everyone in advance for your support !

Naturally, donations will be gratefully accepted if you would like to help but can't attend the dinner. Rosemary will accept these also !  

What's for dinner ?

As the rainy season continues (although last week we had hardly any rain at all here), the number of children in the hospital continues to cause great concern. As of this morning, 72 out of a total of 170 patients were children, more than half of them suffering from Dengue fever (see previous posts). The children's ward has 37 beds so you can imagine the difficulties that this is causing. Unfortunately, almost every day also brings more news of childhood deaths in the hospital, and last week two of these also suffered from "gizi buruk" or malnutrition.

Unfortunately, it looks like things are going to get worse instead of better. Recent reports in the Pos Kupang (newspaper for this region) have highlighted price increases in the last few weeks for basic foodstuffs such as corn (increased from RP5.000 for 7 ears to RP5.000 for 5 ears), sugar (increased from RP10.000/kg to RP12.000/kg) and rice and there have been warnings from the Vice-President that the some parts of the country are likely to face food shortages in the coming months. It almost goes without saying that the province in which I live (NTT) will be one of the worst affected. Rice is the staple food for about 230 million people here, many of whom live in an almost cashless environment so increases such as those that have been seen recently cause major difficulties in poor areas. For this reason, the government intervenes in pricing and supply arrangements to make sure that supplies are available at affordable prices to the poorest sections of the community. One of these programmes is called Beras Miskin (given the Indonesian penchant for contractions, more commonly know as RASKIN). However, the programme has lots of problems, as can be seen in this interesting 2005 paper from the World Bank, ranging from poor administration to corruption, which means that much of the help does not reach those in greatest need. The latest available WHO data reports that 20% of under 5s in Indonesia are underweight for their age.

So, the next time you are dithering about what to have for dinner and thinking "Oh, I had that last night", spare a thought for those who struggle on a daily basis to buy just rice for their family and who are worried that they may not even be able to afford that soon.....

   

Lost in translation ?

One of my friends in Maumere has left his guitar in my house for the last couple of weeks. Last night I noticed that there was a sticker on the inside visible through the soundhole so I picked it up, thinking I could practice my Indonesian reading.

This is what I read (and I quote exactly) :

"Since 1887 yahamas has making musicrhonical if its teache quality beauty yahamas guitars is a proted of thorogui musical kontage. Alla goodme empty salectif endoge under roundist untermental countri. Them this fones materials are supally crafted to become a yahamas guitar."

It's hard to disagree, really.

Where have all the eggs gone ?

Shopping in a town like Maumere is qute easy.

There are two traditional markets for fruit, vegetables, fish and meat  - for meat, read chicken, although there is occasionally daging babi (pig meat) available if you go very early in the morning. (By the way, if you want a chicken you usually choose it on the hoof as it were. Most people then tie their purchase to their motorbike upside down by the feet and despatch it to the next world when they get home. However, the chicken seller will also do this messy business for you at the market if you want, thank goodness.)

And then there are the kios. As in most Asian countries, these are literally everywhere and are usually small bamboo structures in front of people's homes selling such staples as pulsa (phone credit), cigarettes, paraffin (for cooking stoves), washing powder, hair oil, sweets, superglue, motorbike cleaning products, instant noodles, sugar and of course, eggs. Every shop sells eggs, you see stacks of egg trays everywhere (your purchases are put into a plastic bag for you to carry home and one egg costs RP1.000). My egg consumption has soared while I've been here, they come with rice dishes, noodle dishes (i.e. almost everything), and are usually either fried or hardboiled.

Until this week, that is. On Saturday I went to the small kios near my house to buy some eggs for Sunday breakfast. No eggs.... oh well, I thought, that's strange. The next day I tried two other kios- no eggs. Very odd... On Monday, no eggs anywhere... Yesterday I went to the market where there are (usually) dozens of places to buy eggs. Guess what ? (Well, there were quails' eggs but they're not the same.) Eventually I asked why there were suddenly no eggs anywhere - the answer was the title of my last post - musim hujan, rainy season. Apparently all the eggs sold on Flores are imported (another surprise) and the egg boat hasn't been able to come because of the stormy weather....

Every day you learn something new I guess.

Musim Hujan

It's been a while since my last post, the reason for which is that there doesn't really seem to have been much to write about. Life has changed a bit in Maumere since the New Year as the rainy season (musim hujan) has arrived in earnest. What this means is prolonged periods confined to barracks listening to the torrential rain on the tin roof. Most days the rain starts at about 2pm (coincidentally and unfortunately the same time as I finish work) and it usually then continues well into the night with a few brief pauses. As my only means of transport is a motorbike, and the roads are awash with lakes and rivers everywhere, going out in the rain is really to be avoided if possible. Shopping has to be done at great speed in between the downpours – the market turns into a sea of mud in the rain – so I stock up on tomatoes and cucumbers when I can and often now my evening meal is the ever popular, but rather monotonous, mie telur (instant noodles with an egg to you). At least it's cheap, a packet of mie costs RP1.500 and an egg is RP1.000 so the whole exciting dish costs less than €0.20. Pineapples are still in abundance and two nice ripe ones can be had for RP5.000.

One unfortunate consequence of the arrival of the rainy season is that the number of mosquitoes has increased dramatically, with a big increase in the incidence of mosquito-borne diseases. At today's morning report in the hospital, I heard that there are 190 patients in the hospital (95% bed occupancy rate), of whom 61 are children. Of these, 33 are ill with DHF (Dengue Haemmorrhagic Fever) and 16 have malaria. [One very sad story - on Christmas Day, the 7 month old daughter of one of the managers in the hospital died in the private ward. She had been admitted with malaria but apparently died of anaphylactic shock following an injection. She was their first child.]

My reading has accelerated again as a result of this enforced imprisonment and so I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of a long overdue book parcel sent by Ruth from Canada (posted in early November). The delivery time seems to have lengthened recently, I received a few parcels last year that arrived within about two weeks but my last one took over six weeks to turn up.

And finally, in other news - I now have just twenty more weeks to go in Maumere.

Any teachers out there ?

Going fishing at Ipir

Yesterday afternoon I took a trip to Ipir with Daniel, who works in the Blood Transfusion Unit in the hospital. Ipir is a small fishing village about 30kms away from Maumere on the south coast. There's a beautiful unspoilt beach there and two small fishing boats were preparing to launch and set their nets.

More photos to be found on Facebook by clicking HERE.

Selamat Tahun Baru !! Happy New Year !!

It's New Year's Eve in Indonesia already so I'll be seeing in the New Year a little earlier than many of you - hope you have a good one !

There'll be more waffle on here next year - thanks for dropping by !

Roadside views

Just a short video clip taken from the bus window as we climbed and plunged along from Labuanbajo to Ruteng last Monday.

Back from the Dragons’ Den !

I hope you all had a great Christmas in whatever part of the world you are reading this. It's now Tuesday morning and I'm back in Maumere after a week away at the western end of Flores – I won't bore you with a blow by blow account but here's a quick rundown....

On Tuesday (22^nd) I travelled by bus to Ruteng, where I was just three weeks ago for Festus's party. This is a twelve hour journey with just one meal stop at about 2 pm and so I was very glad indeed to arrive and have a wash and something to eat. The next morning the journey resumed at 7 am, arriving in Labuanbajo, the port at the western end of Flores at about 11 am. I had already booked a room in the Golo Hilltop Hotel on the recommendation of Anouk in Ruteng so made my way there and found a very nice Dutch-run place with a great view of the bay slightly to the north of Labuanbajo.

Labuanbajo itself is very tourist oriented (I saw at least 8 different dive shops) and has more English language restaurants and bars than all the rest of Flores put together so is certainly the place to come if you are craving some kentang goreng (chips), sizzling hotplate dishes (local speciality) and menus in English.

On Thursday, I set off on a boat trip to Rinca (about two hours away) to visit the Komodo dragons. The boat journey was about two hours long and we passed some of the multitude of islands that dot the sea to the west of Flores, it is surprising to see how many of even the smallest of these are inhabited and it's hard to imagine what sort of existence is eked out here as most of these islands are volcanic with no fresh water.

There are about 1100 Komodo Dragons on Rinca, with more on Komodo Island itself. They normally live to about 50 years old and apparently their saliva contains about 50 different types of bacteria – if one catches up with you, you are more likely to die from septicaemia than from being eaten, especially as the nearest hospital is at least two hours away and is not up to much anyway. They can run at about 15 kms/hr but when I was there they were all snoozing in the midday sun, their most active times are early morning and late afternoon (outside visiting hours !). They are carnivorous creatures and a group of three or four komodos will make a buffalo last about four days.

However, they are also cannibalistic so their young very sensibly take to the trees as soon as they hatch from their eggs after nine months (I wonder if I got that right, that seems very long ?) until they are three or four years old. There are some safety precautions in place to prevent tourists being eaten : you can only wander around with a guide (who is armed with a long forked stick !), visitors are only allowed in the middle of the day when the dragons are laziest and - well, that's it really.

 

After my two hour very hot hike around the island it was time to board the boat and return to Labuanbajo - well, almost to Labuanbajo. A loud bang from the noisy engine, followed by total silence put paid to that plan but fortunately we were within mobile phone coverage and able to call for help so were towed in an hour or two later than planned. (And no, I didn't ask what we would have done if we had broken down thirty minutes earlier where there was no phone signal.)

 

The next day (Christmas Day) I boarded another boat to Pulau Seraya Kecil (Pulau = island, kecil = small or little) for two days of doing nothing. This is a fabulous place, a white sandy beach, about a dozen beachfront bungalows, a restaurant with a very limited menu (but plenty of cold beer), and a great coral reef for snorkelling. Electricity is provided by a generator which runs from about 6pm to 10pm every day and fresh water is brought to the island by tank and so is in very short supply and anyway is only available when the generator is running to power the pump. A very relaxing two days spent reading, swimming, snoozing and generally doing nothing .....

 

 

 

And then, THE BUS AGAIN..... Sunday started with the boat from Seraya to Labuanbajo, then the bus from LBJ to Ruteng.

Monday was another twelve hour marathon from Ruteng to Maumere, arriving home at 7 pm absolutely knackered. Today (Tuesday) I am relaxing at home, having just returned from the market with eggs, mangoes, bananas, a pineapple, tomatoes and cucumber so it will be French toast and pineapple for breakfast and tomato and cucumber salad for lunch. Tomorrow, back to work...

Christmas is coming..

But there isn't much sign of the geese (or anything else for that matter) getting fat here. Even though this won't be the first time I've spent Christmas in a hot country, it still feels really weird to hear Christmas carols in sweltering weather. Last night, I passed a house where a choir was rehearsing "Joy to the World" in good two part harmony (Indonesian men don't seem to be able to sing below tenor) and there are some Christmas decorations up in the shops, and a Christmas tree - with snow - in the hospital lobby.

There are two official "tanggal merah" (red days on the calendar) - 24th and 25th December - but I am assuming that nobody will turn up at work on Saturday 26th as every holiday I've experienced so far seems to gently and unofficially extend itself.

I've been asking about what happens at Christmas here - there is some special baking done (which is unusual in itself as baking generally does not feature largely here) and families will attend church, visit their neighbours and bring Christmas greetings. I asked "do you give gifts ?" and have been given different answers - one colleague answered me with "To whom ? Why ?" - apparently this was a rather weird notion ! Another told me that she will probably give her three children a small toy each but when I asked if she would be giving her husband a gift she thought this was hilarious ! It's certainly seen as a far less significant festival than Easter where everything closes up for a week or so - for instance, young people have no problem going away or visiting friends at Christmas but wouldn't dare be absent from home at Easter.

As for my own Christmas, I've more or less decided to take a bus trip (2 days travel) to Labuanbajo at the western end of Flores and from there visit Rinca Island. This is one of the places where the famous Komodo Dragons are to be found (but I'm not planning to get too close for reasons which will be become clear when you read the article I've linked to). As well as Rinca (which will be a day trip) I might visit one of the resort islands near Labuanbajo for a day or two chilling out without electricity before setting out for the two day trip back to Maumere. I haven't booked anything in advance but this is the low season for tourism here so I hope there won't be too many problems.I'll probably book my travel in advance though, as I expect many people will want to pulang kampung (return home to their village) for Christmas so buses may be busy.    

This will probably be my last post for a few days (I'm not sure what blogging chances I'll have during the holiday) so I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas wherever you may be. I've been rambling on here for just over one year now and it's extraordinary (to me anyway) to think that this waffle has been viewed over 10,000 times since I started posting. You can see the number of hits on the left hand side if you scroll down a bit. I thank you all for the comments you've left, the suggestions you've made and the support you've offered as I sweat quietly out here, so selamat natal, happy Christmas to you and yours and I wish you all every blessing !          

Seventeen years on..

Today (12th December) is the anniversary of the earthquake which hit Maumere and nearby islands such as Pulau Babi in 1992, resulting in the loss of more than 2,500 lives and the destruction of most of the buildings in the town, including the hospital. The current hospital was opened on a new site in 1998.

I have found it quite odd how little I have heard about this event given how recent it is (only 17 years ago) and how destructive it was. The little I have heard has been fragments of stories from colleagues at work and has had to be dragged out of them. I think that this lack of information is probably due to a number of factors :

• People here die young anyway. As I've already mentioned, life expectancy in Indonesia is much lower than in Ireland (68 years compared to 80, according to the WHO) so there are fewer people around who remember what happened and also the death of people at a young age is accepted as more commonplace than in developed countries. This situation has improved significantly recently so life expectancy in 1992 must have been even lower.
  

• There is generally a reluctance to talk about "bad things". This is connected to the strong animist traditions that sit by side with the Christian (mainly Roman Catholic) ethos in Flores. I've noticed that there is a great reluctance to talk about these bad things and I frequently hear "Satan" being mentioned !

• I find it hard to imagine what life in Maumere and the surrounding areas must have been like seventeen years ago. Internet access here even today is limited and unreliable, and there was certainly no internet access here at the time of the earthquake. Today, almost nobody here has a camera so there were probably no photographic records of what happened and also the heat means that dead bodies have to be dealt with extremely quickly so the whole business of dealing with funerals was probably over within a day or so. It's still possible to see where some of the town has been rebuilt (but never quite finished !).

Billy the Kid at the party

I'm now back at work on Wednesday morning, having returned from Ruteng yesterday. On Thursday last, we had more or less constant rain for about six hours so I decided to leave the motorbike at home and let someone else do the driving instead (and of course, it hasn't rained since..). There are a number of options for inter-town travel on Flores ranging from a truck to buses to what is called a Travel (a seat in a shared 8 seater car). I opted for the latter and was collected from the hospital at 7.30 am on Friday morning. I then sat in the car for four hours waiting until we had enough passengers on board to justify departing and eventually arrived in Bajawa at 7.30 pm, exactly twelve hours later (driving time 8 hours). I won't describe the rather hair-raising journey but I now know that an 8 seater car can fit 12 people (plus luggage) if you push hard enough.

On Saturday morning I continued to Ruteng (another four hours) in the luxury of a private jeep owned by a friend from Bajawa and then the party started !

Festus has been in Ruteng as a volunteer for two years and is now returning to Kenya to look for a job (he is a water engineer and has been working with a local NGO here helping villages to arrange secure clean water supplies). In his time in Ruteng he has obviously amassed a large circle of friends who all turned out on Saturday to wish him farewell. Unusually for Indonesia, there were no speeches (they were being saved for a lunch on Monday) so there was just music, dancing and drink. Oh, and of course the food !

The goat (see here) had been seen nibbling the grass outside the office where the party was to take place on Saturday morning but by the time I arrived had been despatched and was on the fire behind the office.

The party got underway with plenty of dancing and drinking and stage one of the meal (Billy the kid wasn't scheduled to appear until later on in the evening).

 

At last, the special guest made his appearance and was unceremoniously dumped on the table with a knife for self service snacking - and it was delicious !

As well as saying goodbye to Festus, the weekend was a great opportunity to catch up with Mark and Anouk, two Dutch volunteers based in Ruteng who were in the same intake group as me all the way back in February. Ruteng struck me as a nice place to be based, smaller than Maumere but a good bit cleaner and a lot cooler (long trousers and sweater required, plus a blanket at night).

   

 

My return journey to Maumere started on Monday morning when I left Ruteng by bus and travelled to Ende (uneventfully except for a puncture and a dead dog). I spent the night in Ende and travelled on to Maumere on Tuesday, arriving at about 12.30 pm. The total distance from Maumere to Ruteng is about 400 kms.

Arriving back in Maumere, I was struck (literally) by the heat - there is a massive difference and I found it very difficult to sleep last night,even with my electric fan strategically aimed. Today it is very very humid (unusually so) and, to maker matters worse, a  team of auditors will be occupying the (air conditioned) office that I normally use for the next two weeks ! 

So, goodbye Festus and good luck with whatever comes next !