Hello mister

I get stared at a lot in Ruteng. Although it is the main town (or perhaps city… it has two cathedrals) of the Maggarai province it is well off the tourist track, so the staring is just curiosity although it can make one feel a tad paranoid!

People will often practise a little English on me, if I’m lucky I get ‘hello miss’, more commonly it is ‘hello mister’ and occasionally (and most disconcertingly) it is ‘hello beautiful’! If I am feeling confident – usually in the morning – I reply with a Bahasa greeting, but as the day wears on I become increasing overwhelmed by my new surroundings and keep my head down (quite a sensible move as the pavement is often uneven if not full of deep holes)!

I have started work now. The research project I am ‘leading’ was already well underway before my arrival (in fact the fieldwork is almost completed) so I am in the delicate position of taking over the lead from a well co-ordinated and experienced group of researchers. For the time being, I am adopting an approach similar to the ‘hello misters’: just keeping my head down!

First impressions of Flores

After a slightly ill advised all-nighter in Kuta on Friday I boarded a small plane to Labuanbajo (tourist resort in the west of Flores and ‘gateway’ to Komodo Island). The plane only had about two dozen passengers and only stopped at Labuanbajo to let me off!

Me & other VSO vols on Friday night...

by early Saturday morning it was only Zoe & I still going strong!

In Labuanbajo I chatted to some locals (more or less in Bahasa!) and had a great dinner at the hotel – fresh snapper (definitely Michelin quality DT). As opposed to Bali (or maybe because of events in Bali) the tourism industry here is growing and I saw more Western tourists than I had in my whole two weeks in Bali.

Dinner in Labuanbajo

Travelling in developing countries I’ve always found that the material that local houses are made of are a great identifier of local resources and culture. My room in Labuanbajo was made of wicker – literally like a wicker chair stretched into a box shape and a bed inserted inside. On the bus to Ruteng the following day I saw some amazing ‘wicker’ architecture, unfortunately though, in most cases the traditional thatch roof has been replaced by corrugated metal roofs (easier to maintain I guess).

my hotel 'room' in Labuanbajo

My first impression of Flores is that it is very beautiful. It has an amazingly rugged landscape of mountains & hills that remind me of a child’s drawing. As Rutang is a mountain town it is much cooler (still shorts & t-shirt weather, although unfortunately shorts are not really acceptable) I am looking forward to exploring the beautiful countryside on foot over the coming weeks/months/year!

How to say 'no'

It's tricky saying 'no' in Bahasa Indonesian. Technically 'tidak' means 'no'. It is also used to put words in the negative: saya tidak mau (I don't want to). But culturally, Indonesians don't like negative responses, so when someone asks if you are married (as they frequently do) the polite answer is not 'tidak', but 'belum' (not yet).

I've been told that eating dog is a delicacy in Flores... How do I say no to that?!?

What's in a blog?

I've been receiving comments, both on the blog & off about the content & style of my writing (and it's frequency). I'm trying to achieve a delicate balance between reporting the personal - e.g. what I have for breakfast or how many times I go to the loo - and the profound - e.g. the different cultural mores of south eastern Asia. Obviously these are exaggerated extremes, but some people are requesting more personal stuff, others more profound... As this is my penultimate night in Bali I'm afraid those of you looking for the profound should probably skip this post.

As I say, I depart for Flores on Saturday. Over the past couple of weeks I've been talking to lots of people about what to expect, but everyone has a different view. On the plus side, most seem to agree that the climate of Reutang is very favorable (although they can't agree on how often it rains) and the people very friendly. On the negative (and I'm afraid this list is a little longer, perhaps giving some insight into my current frame of mind) hardly anyone speaks English, the people can be quite aggressive, there is no transport infastructre (i.e. no taxi from the airport to the hotel), but there are giant rats, and lizards with giant suckers that fall on you and can't be removed!

Guess I'm back to the question of am I ready? Physically yes - I've had the last of my jabs and my bags are packed. On most other levels, no - my bahasa Indonesian is poor and Bali has not really prepared me for living in a developing country. Guess I just need to get on with it and see... It's driving me crazy trying to guess what it'll be like!

In the meantime I have one last night in Bali. It is Zoe's (fellow volunteer going to Reutang) 30th so we are off clubbing in Kuta and with or without police raids I am determined to have a good time!

Everyone here's talking about...

Everyone here is talking about President Bush’s planned visit to Indonesia on Monday. He’s only coming for a couple of hours, but it still fills the newspapers. The Jakarta Post reports that in other parts of the country there have been large protests, but here in Bali there is a slightly more relaxed attitude. Protesters in Denpassar marched with a banner that read ‘Welcome to Indonesia, Mr Bush. You may come, just don’t dictate (to us)’… a sentiment I agree with. Also in Bali a ‘man claming magic powers drank freshly slaughtered animal & snake blood as part of a ritual he said would jinx the upcoming visit… “I don’t hate Americans but I don’t like bush” said Pamungkas… he believed the ritual would cause Secret Service agents guarding Bush to fall into a trance and believe the US leader was under attack causing chaos’.

Bush is here to talk to the Indonesian president and one of the topics of discussion may well include terrorism and the continuing tsunami relief effort. Both terrorism and the tsunami have had a profound affect on Bali, the bombings in 2002 and the tsunami in 2004 all but destroyed tourism on the island. For the peaceful Hindu community of Bali the bombs were shocking but instead of reprisals against Muslim & Javanese immigrants working in Bali leaders of various faiths prayed side-by-side during purification ceremonies. The police were also swift in identifying the perpetrators and brought in a number of security measures across the island.

Tsunami 'information' sign on Sanur beach

These security measures are still evident. Many western organisations have strict security; cars and bags are searched before entering places like the language schools, nightclubs and McDonalds. I went out in Kuta (the main tourist resort where the bombing occurred) on Saturday night and saw all this first hand. I also witnessed the force of the police when the club I was in was raided for drugs. The music went off, the lights came on & everyone in the place was (thoroughly) searched. Everyone co-operated ­– no illegal substances were found and no arrests were made – and everyone cheered when the police announced this.

I don’t think Bali is really like the rest of Indonesia – the benign approach to Bush’s visit, the ‘cleansing’ after the bombing – I look forward to seeing another side of the country when I leave for Flores next week.

I’m just here to do a job (aren’t I?)

This week my training began in earnest. In the mornings (8-12) I have language school. For me this is hard going. I am not a linguist by any stretch of the imagination (although developing language skills is one of my motivations for working abroad)… with a bit of effort I can remember individual words, but I struggle to string them together into coherent sentences. I am in class (at a primary school!) with two other volunteers & already I am the bottom of the class. Luckily I get a week more than they do & I’m working hard in the evenings so hopefully I’ll have mastered the basics before I leave for Flores. My favourite words so far are:

Teman (friend);
Keren (cool); and
Maaf, saya tidak tahu (sorry, I don’t know).

Me, Pak Gunewan, Mavis & Christine in class

In the afternoons (1-6) I receive various briefings on the work of VSO in Indonesia. Yesterday we covered monitoring and evaluation. I went into the session feeling a little cocky, after all it’s what I do for a living (kinda). But I was asked to think about what impact I will see during my placement on individuals, on the organisation I am working for & on the wider community. My answer was that I am there to do a specific job, I will see little direct impact at a local level, that I am conducting research & will report the findings to the project sponsor. Apparently this was not satisfactory.

Impact is a discussion that was frequently had at NFER and I know that some of my colleagues there felt very strongly about their work having a direct impact on children’s education. However I often struggled to feel that direct connection, now here I am 1000s of miles away struggling with that same dilemma – am I just here to do a job, or am I working for some kind of greater good? Obviously I want to do ‘good’ (I would never feel happy working for some big capitalist corporation), but maybe I’m just a little cynical about the measurable impact of that ‘good’ and my input into it. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

It’s not paradise but it smell’s nice

Bali has a bit of a reputation, in my mind at least, of being a tropical paradise. Having thought on this over the past couple of days I’ve concluded that my idea of paradise would have better transport (I’ll cover bemaks & bemos in a later post), less people, and definitely less people trying to sell you stuff. Over the weekend I visited a number of temples (Bali is predominantly Hindu) and even in these beautiful & sacred sites there are hawkers – people wanting to guide you; sell you postcards, drinks or sarongs; or most depressingly children of 3 or 4 years old trying to sell you frangipani flowers (which I have to fish out of the pool at the hotel on a daily basis in order to swim a length unobstructed!).

The temple at Besakih

However my paradise may smell like Bali. The streets are pungent with the smell of incense which is left as offerings to the Gods all along the pavement. This mixes pleasantly with the smell of food cooking over hot coals and the aforementioned frangipani. So yes, Bali may not be my paradise in many ways, but it sure does smell like it!

An offering to the Gods on the pavement outside my hotel

BTW I now have an Indonesian mobile sorted, email me at my normal work address & I’ll send you the number

1st post from Indonesia

Well I'm here! It was a long journey starting at about 7am Wednesday (UK time) and ending 4pm Thursday (Indo time). I got through Heathrow's rigorous security measures with only one small incident - the snazzy pens NFER produced to celebrate its 60th anniversary create xray blackspots, so I had to have my whole bag investigated! The rest of the journey was relatively uneventful, I had a bit of a crap seat on the flight to Bangkok (right next to the kitchen, but there was the advantage of getting served first!), but the highlight of the journey was being presented with an orchid for flying with Thai Air :-)



At Denpasar Airport I met the other two volunteers that I'll be training with and we traveled to the hotel together. It's all a bit nice here (swimming pool, air-conditioned rooms, hot showers) think I should take advantage while it lasts! Training starts 8:30 tomorrow...

Ready, steady, GO!

I leave tomorrow. I have had the leaving party & the leaving presents... all that is left to do now is leave.


(Ekua, me & Sulochini at my leaving party)

The fear/excitement/panic I woke up with on Sunday morning and has sat in the pit of my stomach ever since.

I think I am ready - I've got my bags packed, I've had my jabs, I've done the PIP course - but does any of this mean I'm ready? Will I every be ready? Probably not - the changes I am making are not really the type you can prepare for, the best you can do is the practical stuff & I think I'm there with that, so I guess this is as good as it's gonna get.

My next post will be from Bali, where I have two weeks training before departing for Flores. Hopefully by then I will know how ready I am, at least for the start of my adventure!

Final count down

This time next week I'll have completed the first leg of my journey to a new (if temporary) life. True panic has yet to kick in, I'm still focused on getting everything ready - both mentally & physically.

But each day I achieve a little task that takes me one step closer to Indonesia - today it was starting my antimalarial tablets. Choosing an antimalarial is a case of choosing the lesser evil... malarone the most effective drug with the least side affects is not licensed for longer than a month so is immediately ruled out. Malaria in many countries is resistant to paludrine & chloroquine, so that's another definite 'no'. So that leaves a choice of two: lariam, where you risk nightmares, hallucinations & general madness or doxycycline where you risk sensitivity to strong sunlight and an increased risk of thrush. I went for the sunburn & thrush option, ho hum!