Sport on TV

25 - 26 July 2009

Both John and I have had many obstacles put in our path in our quest to watch sport on TV. The 7 or 8 hour time difference between the UK and Central Indonesia time gives John particular problems watching football with evening kick offs. There is a limited number of fixtures shown on cable TV and nowhere in Kupang that would stay open late enough for him to watch a satellite broadcast. My interest is F1 grand prix. This is broadcast on cable TV which I can receive. The pre and post race discussions are in Bahasa Indonesian and revolve around competitions to promote the programmes sponsor Kapal Api and coffee. As well as taking up a large proportion of the adverts they also feature on a screen behind the presenters. The race commentary is the BBC feed so is good quality. The big problem is the adverts; which appear every 10 minutes irrespective of what is happening in qualifying or in the race. This week there was an advert break just towards the end of second qualifying as Massa crashed. This was a particularly long break so I totally missed the results of this session. At least when ITV had the rights there was some flexibility with advert breaks and the commentators filled you in with what had happened and there were replays if something special had happened – here I am left guessing. At least this weekend I did get to see all the broadcast. Some weeks I have been watching only to have the power fail – not normally a problem with day to day activities at night as the hospital generator is swiftly switched on and power restored. The problem is it does not power the cable companies equipment so although my TV is working quickly ther is no broadcast to watch. The cable company provides 10 channels but these are not always the same 10 channels and I missed the British GP because they had switched channels to a children’s network for the weekend. Whilst in Bali I went to a Sports Bar to watch the race and the one week had to contend with a table of drunken English football fans who wanted the main screen to be switched from F1 to football and who eventually won as the local F1 enthusiasts walked out in disgust. My father is now kindly recording the BBC coverage and I get a batch when ever anyone comes to visit so I can belatedly catch up with what is actually happening in the sport.

NB My motorbike a Honda GL 125 finally arrived on Rote on 26 July. My thanks to Ega an ojek driver in Kupang who collected it from the post office, took it to a benkel to get it working correctly and then put it on the ferry for me; keeping me fully informed at every stage of the journey.

Tangga Tiga Ratus

20 July 2009

Well today was another public holiday – I have lost count of how many there have been since my arrival in Indonesia. In preparation for today’s trip I had again borrowed John’s bike – mine has still not arrived, over a month from Bali so far! I had managed to get a puncture on the relatively good local road going to the market and had to take the bike to a benkel (local motorbike maintenance shop) where it took 6 men over an hour to mend the puncture, everyone seemed to have a specific part to play in the process. Today Yarni – a friend from church – who works for World Vision and two of her colleagues went with me to Tangga Tiga Ratus (300 steps); as you may gather this is a high vantage point. It is towards the south of the island and is reached over some very challenging unmade roads. Then the climb up 350 steps of very variable height and depth. We were fortunate that it was a cloudy day so the climb was not dreadfully hot but arduous enough all the same. The views certainly made the climb worthwhile but I am not sure how long it will take for my body to recover from being shaken over all the bumps. We had a picnic of rice, fish and pizza before heading back home.

Work

14 July 2009

It has occurred to me that even though work is the reason for me being in Indonesia it has actually hardly figured in my blog. This is partly because there are so many interesting things going on each week and partly because with my time off sick I have actually only been at the hospital for 4 months. For long term volunteers the first six months is about adaptation and learning about the culture of our partner organisation and assessing what we have to offer; then there is a review meeting with the partner that VSO facilitates to agree the objectives for the next 18 months and a work plan to achieve these. Today was my review meeting. My colleagues were very complimentary about how well I had adapted to life on Rote and fitted into the community and integrated well at work, they also were more complimentary about my Bahasa Indonesian that I was. There was a view – that I share that there is still a lot I need to learn about the organisation and that I need to continue to gather information to be able to be fully effective in my role. I now have four slightly more specific objectives to work on:-

1. To assist the hospital in participatory development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in nursing – I want to highlight the need for improved infection control and privacy and dignity in all these
2. To improve nursing skills through formal and on the job trainings and implementation of SOPs
3. To improve the nutrition of patients diet
4. To assist in making health promotion a part of patients routine intervention

The hospital already had a few SOPs which I had been updating whilst in Bali – this is a very arduous task as I have to translate them into English – work out what is missing, outdated practice etc, think about what can be done to improve practice; within the limitations of the available resources and then translate this into Bahasa Indonesian. I have been very grateful for the help I have had from my colleagues at Worcestershire Royal Hospitals NHS Trust for all the information they have sent me in response to specific questions I have had.

Motorbikes

12 July 2009

John and I have arranged to borrow motorbikes from VSO until they are needed elsewhere – for volunteers who need transport to do their jobs. John’s motorbike arrived a couple of weeks ago. Mine was expected to be in Kupang for me to have brought back with me at the end of my holiday but had not arrived. This weekend as John was not feeling up to going far I borrowed the bike. It is a Honda Magapro 1600 and has manual gears and a petrol tank that you can use your knees to steer against – ie a real bike. On Saturday I used it to go to the market getting up at 05:30 – even though I had not left a wedding party until midnight the night before. On Sunday I set off to explore heading south along the road that leads past the airport – I had never been further along the road than that. The further away from Baa the worse the road became with many sections showing no signs of ever being surfaced. I was very pleased with how I was doing when I got to a bridge which was also unsurfaced, did not have all the planks present and no continuous side rail. I decided discretion was the better part of valour and dismounted and tried to walk across as I could not even bring myself to do this without the bike and would have needed to cross the bridge a second time to go home I decided to turn round and go back home.

John and I have arranged to borrow motorbikes from VSO until they are needed elsewhere – for volunteers who need transport to do their jobs. John’s motorbike arrived a couple of weeks ago. Mine was expected to be in Kupang for me to have brought back with me at the end of my holiday but had not arrived. This weekend as John was not feeling up to going far I borrowed the bike. It is a Honda Magapro 1600 and has manual gears and a petrol tank that you can use your knees to steer against – ie a real bike. On Saturday I used it to go to the market getting up at 05:30 – even though I had not left a wedding party until midnight the night before. On Sunday I set off to explore heading south along the road that leads past the airport – I had never been further along the road than that. The further away from Baa the worse the road became with many sections showing no signs of ever being surfaced. I was very pleased with how I was doing when I got to a bridge which was also unsurfaced, did not have all the planks present and no continuous side rail. I decided discretion was the better part of valour and dismounted and tried to walk across as I could not even bring myself to do this without the bike and would have needed to cross the bridge a second time to go home I decided to turn round and go back home.

Elections

8 July 2009

Today is the presidential elections – it is the third election that has been held since my arrival in Indonesia and each is accompanied by an extra days leave. The need for leave is because of the time involved in getting from place of residence to the village where you are registered to vote. I struggle to believe that amongst all the photographs I have taken in Indonesia I failed to take any of the campaign posters and flags which have been adorning the roadside every few meters but I seem to have skilfully taken views missing these advertisements for the various parties – there was nothing discrete about the size which makes it all the more remarkable that I did not get a photograph. I have just been going through the photographs my fatehr took and found one of posters for a candidate in the presidential elections. The other thing on a large scale was a ballot papers for the parliamentary elections these were A2 with photographs of the candidates. Each candidate had a number and this was displayed on all their promotional material along with photographs to ensure everyone would be able to cast their vote for the candidate of their choice.

Jogja and Solo

28 June – 4 July 2009

My father has come out to Indonesia to visit me and we met up in Jogjakarta for a weeks holiday. We had a remarkably comprehensive schedule but with time for daddy to have a rest at some time most days. There are two big temples near Jogja – Borobudur a Buddist temple with a lot of steps we had visited in the afternoon when it was a little cooler and with a very considerate guide who took his time Daddy made it all the way up much to his surprise. The other is Prambanan a Hindu temple. Both of these have been extensively renovated but work is still continuing to find the stones to restore more sections.

We also had a 24 hour trip to Solo by train where we visited another two temples much smaller but set in the mountains with a spectacular drive to reach them. The most striking of these was Candi Cedu a Hindu temple on the lines of those in Bali. It had a lot of steps but even to get as far as these there was a steep climb up a slope. Thankfully due to the altitude it was a little cooler there and there was a haze so by taking it gently Daddy made it to the top. There were two rates for all the temples one for locals and a considerably higher rate for tourists – up to 10 times the price! Because I have a KITAS visa – see previous entry about visas – I got in for the local rate.

As well as temples we visited the Sultan’s palace, a disused underground mosque, the local market and a good range of eating places and the Ramayana Ballet performed outside. It was also an opportunity for me to meet up with friends. We spent the day in Solo with Dan a volunteer from Canada and met up with Dr Meli (who used to work on Rote) and her family. On our last day we met up with Nick for lunch – he had been one of the first volunteers I met on arrival in Indonesia.

Celebration with staff from Ruang Anak-Anak

14 June 2009

The staff of the children’s ward had invited me to a party to celebrate the confirmation of one of the staff’s younger sisters. Ibu Dewi the ward manager collected me on her moped at 14:00 and we headed into town. The confirmation candidate and her parents were sat in front of many rows of chairs and we went and greeted them and then sat down – after a while we were invited to go and eat. Soon four other members of the children’s ward came to join us. After most people had eaten the dancing started and I was encouraged to join in. Dancing is on the line dancing principle of everyone doing the same thing, sometimes in lines but also in circles. Once I had started to dance I hardly had a chance to rest as the dancers wanted me to try all the difference dances. They did extra repetitions to make sure I had grasped the principles of each one.

After a couple of hours Ibu Dewi suggested we sent to the beach so all six of us set off on three bikes. The first beach we got to was deemed too hot so we moved on to another surrounded by high rocks and climbed on of these to over look the bay. I was really pleased with the level of involvement I managed to have in the general conversation both at the party and on the top of the rock. On the way home we called into the house of Ibu Dewi’s husband’s family to see his grand-mother who has dementia and is almost bed ridden and doubly incontinent, with pressure sore. The daughters have to help to care for her we talked through a few strategies for caring for her including how to transfer her to a chair.

Contraception Clinic

10 June 2009

Today visiting naval medical personnel were running a free contraception service. Around 100 ladies turned up to the clinic. The women were registered and then three doctors were seeing them to assess them for their chosen contraception. As part of the assessment the doctors were taking the women’s blood pressure. I offered to do this prior to the women seeing the doctors to speed up the process for them. Once I had made myself understood I was set up with an assessment station in the waiting room and took over 70 blood pressures during the morning. It was impossible to maintain confidentiality with women reading over my shoulder and calling out the numbers as I wrote them. Later on once all the women had been registered one of the medical records staff came to help me by writing down the blood pressures, which meant I had to say the numbers to him – this meant not only did I have to remember the blood pressure but convert it to Bahasa Indonesian and then check what he had written down in case I had done the translation wrong. During the afternoon and evening twelve women had sterilisations performed by the team and many more had contraceptive implants or inter uterine devises fitted by our midwives.

House guests and other animals

1 – 7 June 2009

This has been a traumatic week for animal encounters. The first occurred on Monday when I had a very unwelcome visitation from a snake – it was only about 4 inches long but that was 4 inches too long – see previous entry re snakes. John was not around and I felt too much of a fool to go to get one of my male neighbours in the state I was in so eventually I plucked up the courage to chop it up – using my longest knife. Well I was determined it would not come back when it had grown up a bit more!

The next was just strange – I was taking Naomi down town on a borrowed motorbike when we stopped for petrol. I was just sat back on the bike when something hit my helmet, then fell onto my right foot. I looked down and discovered it was a bat – they are quite a size here. Not sure if had been alive when it left the tree but it certainly was not when it got as far as my foot – so at least it did not get a chance to bite me; I do not think I could have told VSO I needed to go for yet more rabies boosters!

I have had a continual influx of ants since coming back home. They flow through the house, congregating and them dispersing. They are so industrious but mean I cannot leave any food out for even a few minutes without their appearance.

There are lots of other insects that pay ‘flying’ visits to the house. One of my regulars is this praying mantis.

Cooking

25 – 31 May 2009

I started to use the oven that Jo had brought to Kupang for me back in February. I made a pizza for John and myself using cheese I had brought back from the UK and then some bread. I made bread pudding as all the bread from my freezer defrosted. I have also started to brew my own wine using papaya and ingredients and equipment from the UK. At last I have started my cooking lessons with Jude – it is just a shame that he is due to leave so soon. He is an excellent teacher making me do all the steps after explaining exactly what I needed to do. He is trying to cover what to do with commonly available ingredients.

Return to Rote and trip to Oeseli

22 May 2009



At last I have made it back to placement – so much has changed; including Ibu Nonpen’s husband setting up a breeze block making business just outside my house. The pile of bricks grew steadily each day. We have a new acting director - Pac Suadi. Dr Meli has left and her replacement decided not to stay so the hospital is short of one junior doctor.



24 May 2009

Several of the doctors were taking an ambulance down to Oeseli a beach on the South West coast and invited me to join them. This beautiful beach has two bays separated by a narrow strip of land with the left hand side particularly good for swimming. There were an amazing number of star fish in the shallows on both beaches. It is such a beautiful and tranquil spot. The more I see of Rote the luckier I realise I am to have been given a placement here.

Return to Indonesia – motorbike training continues

20 May 2009


On my return to Bali I had a further days motorbike training to ensure I could cope with driving a bike in Indonesia. The challenges are the volume of traffic, the condition of many of the roads and rather different rules of the road – often at red traffic lights it is acceptable to turn left, islands can be passed round on the left of right side and undertaking is quite normal. I also took the opportunity of the training to ride a semi automatic motorbike as this is the most commonly available bike out here.

Trip to the UK

4 – 17 May 2009

The VSO medical unit decided that as my leg was still not quite healed they wanted me to have a second opinion in the UK. Despite my concern about the expense involved it was decided this was a prudent us of VSO resources. Once I knew I had to go I was keen to get back to attend a dear friends funeral; Asih in the VSO office made this possible for which I am very grateful. Therefore on 3 May after my trip to Ubud I set off for the UK. I also took the opportunity of my trip home to undertake the mandatory VSO motorbike five day training. My leg was healed within a week but I had to wait for medical clearance from VSO to return to placement. During this time I managed to catch up with a few family and friends. I returned to the vagaries of UK weather including hail but also the beauty of the spring flowers.

Ubud

2 - 3 May 2009

Dorothea again kindly agreed to take me on a trip as passenger on her borrowed moped. We set off on Saturday afternoon for Ubud to stay with Jenny, another volunteer who is living there. She took us to an organic restaurant set in the middle of rice terraces where we indulged ourselves in excellent pancakes and fruit juices whilst we watched the sunset. After spending a cosy night all staying in Jenny’s kos – a single room within a complex of several rooms.

In the morning we set off to visit the Ubud spirit festival which involved yoga, dance, meditation and much more. All week the entrance tickets had been prohibitive for locals and volunteers like us but today it was free. However the lack of signage meant we nearly did not get there was we went down several wrong routes. I am pleased we had not gone on a day when we had to pay but it was certainly an excellent day for people watching and again the venue was set in beautiful surroundings.

Sumba

18 – 20 April 2009

As I had a couple of days after Steve left before my next dressing was due I took the opportunity to return to Bali via Sumba. I went to the local bus terminal and managed to get a bus to Melolo at 09:15 however it did a couple of circuits of Waingapu picking up passengers before finally setting off at 09:55. The trip took 90 minutes, having many stops to pick up and put down passengers. If you wanted a bus you left some luggage/sack at the side of the road and then went and sat in some shade. When you were approaching where you wanted to get off you just called up the bus. Money for the trip 10,000 Rp was then passed up the bus to the driver. Stupidly I used a copy of The Lonely Planet that was about 12 years old so when I got to Melolo I discovered the losmen – a supplier of basic accommodation - had been closed for several years. There was a family in the village where the husband speaks some English and will take in visitors he was not at home but the family rang him and we agreed a price of 30,000 Rp a day for my stay, what I did not appreciate at the time was that this was for full board; an amazing bargain. I was very grateful for my Bahasa Indonesian – even though it was limited as it allowed me to communicate with the family.
The next day a neighbour and his motorbike were hired to take me to three local traditional ikat weaving villages. There are big communal houses with interesting front steps – buffalo skulls. The village elders are buried under very elaborate graves. I was advised to take sirih to give to the village heads. This is betel nut, a catkin and lime which is chewed. It causes the production of copious quantities of saliva which it stains red – the saliva is then spat out. It has a bitter taste and is very granular; apparently it has a stimulant effect. Long term use grinds the teeth away and older people can be seen grinding the ingredients in pestle and mortars before popping the mush into their mouths. In each village I was offered some to chew and managed to take without actually having to consume it in all but one of the villages. I found it as disgusting as it looks.

On my final morning in Melolo I was waiting for a bus on the main road when one of the stall holders engaged me in conversation and tried to get me to go by ojek as it might be a long wait for the next bus – I declined, an hour plus on the back of a bike with my rucksack was not appealing. Then one of her sons arrived in his lorry and she persuaded him to take me – little did I know he had his assistant in the cab and had already arranged to pick someone else up as well. It was rather cosy in the cab but at least it meant we were not thrown around as much. I thought the lorry would be quicker than the bus but in the same way it stopped to pick up passengers – but only those with a lot of luggage and they and the luggage got into the back.