Pesta

30 October 2009

Rote might not have any pubs, night clubs or actually anywhere that opens much after 20:30 but it makes up for this with parties. I have lost count of the number I have attended. A birthday, confirmation, wedding, funeral are all an excuse to hold a party. The invitation for a wedding will generally arrive just a couple of days in advance – well your diary will not have filled up yet will it?

During the day the extended family will have been very busy. Tarpaulins will have been erected in an open area outside the house – often in the road; causing it to be closed. Plastic chairs are put out in rows. An elaborate dias erected with lots of plastic flowers and flashing lights. There will be at least one large sound system erected. These will often be over 6 feet tall and almost as wide and have probably been removed from a bemo for the evening – at least at the party you are not in the confined space of a bemo so the booming base is not quite so invasive. Hugh amounts of food will also have had to be cooked.

For me the evening start by gathering with the other staff who are going to the party about 15 - 30 minutes after it was due to start. We then all pile into an ambulance and set out for which ever part of Baa the party is being held at.

On arrival at the party you give a very limp handshake to the hosts who are waiting at the gate then place an envelope of money into a box and more to sit in one of the rows of chairs. The speeches will be in full swing but eventually they will draw to a close and we get invited up to have some food – this is done in a very orderly way with each row directed, in turn, to a table of food. After the food everyone goes up to shake hands with all the important family members and then there are two options – go home or stay for the dancing and drinking.

Dances are generally quite formulated and many of them are along the Western line dancing style. However unlike in the West there are often more men dancing than women. There is also no problem with a group of men dancing together. There will be a quite dark place somewhere with a group of men drinking the local spirit - sopi. The party can easily go onto 03:00 and sometimes later than that.

Money

The local currency is Rupiah (Rp). The conversion rate whilst I have been here has varied between about 15,500 and 17,500 Rp to the pound. There are several notes in circulation - 100,000, 50,000, 20,000, 10,000, 5,000, 1,000 and a new one 2,000 that as yet I have only been given in Kupang. There are coins of 100, 200, 500 but these are rarely used. In shops if you owe less than 1,000 Rp then you are likely to get your change in sweets.

On Rote and across a lot of NTT it is very difficult to use 100,000 Rp note. The most expensive things I buy on a regular basis are a tray of 30 eggs – 31,000 Rp and pulsa – phone credit – 27,000 Rp. Text messages within Indonesia to the same network are only 110 Rp so 25,000 Rp credit goes a long way. My evening meal costs about 12,000 Rp and consists of a protein source, rice and vegetables. Fish is generally 10,000 Rp, this will either be several small fish, one medium fish or a steak from a large fish. Green vegetables will be 1,000 Rp and depending on the time of year how much you get for that money. One kg rice is 6,5000 Rp. Bensin – petrol varies markedly in price, 5,500 Rp / litre in central Baa, 6,000 Rp in rest of Baa and on main roads, up to 7,500 Rp in more remote areas. In Kupang from a petrol station it was only 4,000 Rp. Although things are generally more expensive in NTT than Bali there are far less luxury items to be tempted by so money does seem to go so much further here.

My monthly allowance from VSO is just in excess of 2,000,000 Rp – yes I have been a millionaire for over a year now! This is well in excess of the local basic wage for civil servants – although they have all sorts of schemes that add to their basic wage. Farmers and fisherman have much lower incomes. As part of the monitoring of children with malnutrition a family survey is undertaken and one family of farmers last week declared a monthly income of less than 500,000 Rp per month – they had three children.

Soe

7 – 19 October 2009

October has been a month of disappointments. The latest is that John has been told the motorbike he borrowed had to be returned to Soe – on Timor. I gallantly volunteered to take it back – well it gave me an opportunity to explore Timor that I had not yet had.

After work on Friday I set off for Panti Baru – the natural harbour where the slow ferry docks and which is used by the fast ferry when the sea is too rough to use the jetty in Baa. Panti Baru is about an hours ride from Baa along a hilly, windy but good quality road. I had always thought I should use the slow ferry at least once whilst on the island but with the ports being further out of town at both ends this was not really practical without my own transport and the savings on cost of tickets is partially offset by the extra bemo costs involved; so this was the idea opportunity. The fast ferry costs 104,000 Rp per person economy and 100,000 Rp per motorbike; the slow ferry was 110,000 Rp for motorbike and rider. The ferry is due at 13:00 but did not actually arrive until 14:45. I will admit when I saw it my heart sank – it was a rusting ex cross channel type ferry. The loading was very quick as all the motorbikes just drove on about 8 abreast and then the lorries and cars reversed on whilst we parked up. Foot passengers took their chance amongst the traffic. In the economy passenger area people stood sat and lay wherever they could find a space – although much more crowded that the fast ferry it actually felt safer as the cabin was open so in an emergency there was a good chance of getting out – which there is not out of the lower section of the fast ferry where the inadequate exits are blocked by luggage. I had been warned that the journey would take 4 hours but it actually took 4 hours 45 minutes. Once off the boat I then had to find my way to Sam’s house in the dark – I decided to follow the majority of the traffic on the basis that most people would be heading for Kupang and eventually reached a road that I knew. At Sam’s I met an ex volunteer who was back in Indonesia on holiday and discovered he lives in Stourbridge.

On Saturday morning I set off to ride to Soe about 130km. I had been assured that the way was easy to find and I was relieved to discover that this was in fact the case; with signage at almost all the junctions. The ride started off through very flat area, with a combination of lush fields and dry barren areas. It was soon possible to see the hills in the distance. The road was good quality both in terms of maintenance and visibility and I was able to do a constant 70 – 80 kph. It then proceeded up into the hills, generally the road surface remained good with occasional undulating areas, three areas there the surface had been washed away – including a bridge where the road was diverted into the dry river bed; I hope they mend it soon otherwise the road will be impassable once the rains start – and a few areas with pot holes. However the riding was not as easy as the road climbed up with steep bends. The views were magnificent and there were a lot of traditional houses and grain stores. The thatched roofs on some were quite ornate. After a rest in a hotel and lunch I set off further north on the road towards Kefa. I then headed off towards Oinlasi the road deteriorated here with lots of pot holes and stretches of unmade road but the scenery and villages were spectacular. I over took an icecream seller and when I next stopped to take a photograph a guy came past eating one. I asked him if it was enak – tasty and he said yes and stopped and chatted; he is a fish seller from Kupang who makes the trip to remote villages three or four times as week. Later on her overtook me again whilst I was stopping to drink and again chatted for a while. I did not quite make it to Oinlasi about 5 km short but my shoulders were beginning to ache and I knew I had to retrace my steps. When I got back to the main road I went on past Niki-Niki for several km. I returned to Soe just before dusk. That evening I handed the bike over to the NGO who now own it and returned by bus the next morning. I stood waiting for the bus with a group of young ojek drivers, as they were in the only spot of shade. We talked quite a bit and then they flagged down a bus for me and then evicted a passenger from the front seat so that I could sit there. It was quite unnerving as I was sat in front of the front wheels so on several hairpin bends I was over the sheer drop.

Jalan-Jalan

11 October 2009

I decided to try to explore the north of the island today – so far I have only gone south and west on the bike. I loaded up with water and food and set off on the bike. The first thing was to get some fuel. There is not a petrol station on the island but lots of kiosks and stalls sell it beside the road. The larger kiosks buy in barrels and decant the contents into various bottles and containers of 1, 2, 4 and 6 litre capacity. The smaller stalls buy the 6 litre containers and decant these to 1 and 2 litre containers. The fuel is poured into your tank via a funnel which is covered by cloth to filter out any large particles – if you are lucky the proprietor will not be smoking.

Although riding around the island much of the land is arid there are a few areas of green with crops growing. The first hour of riding was on a good quality tarmac road – by this I mean that the surface was generally in tact and that the areas of subsidence were not to extreme so that a steady 30 - 35 mph could be maintained. After that the surface deteriorated – initially with areas where the surface was broken or very bumpy but soon the tarmac ran out and I was on unpaved road but initially it had been graded so was relatively easy going but even this deteriorated and I was soon bouncing up and down and the wheels skidding around on loose stones. Progress became much slower and my shoulders began to let me know they were feeling abused. The unpleasantness of the ride was rewarded by finding an area of traditional housing.

Is this the end of my dream?

30 September 2009

 

VSO used to work under the auspices of the British Council but for at least the last twelve months VSO has been in discussions with the Indonesian Government to establish a Memorandum of Understanding to manage it’s own work within Indonesia. The status of VSO will be strengthened as it will be a legal entity in Indonesia and the position of volunteers in relation to visas will be much easier. The negotiations have already had a big impact in the volunteer community (from more then 40 colleagues down to 20) as volunteers who work for Non Government Organisations (NGO) have had to finish placements early or leave the Country on a temporary basis as their previous visas expired as it is almost impossible for NGOs to comply with the requirements to sponsor a volunteer on a KITAS (stay visa). Negotiations are now in the final stages which has involved clarification of the scope of the agreement. The scope of work should cover the following objectives

1.    To improve local/regional capacity to support creating job opportunities

2.    To improve the capacity of disable human resources

3.    To support Indonesian (national) volunteers and volunteering institutions

Unfortunately it is now certain that VSO cannot have clinical health placements and possibly have to scale down the Health programme. Even though Depnaker (Ministry of Manpower) are also supportive of our work in health, as their mandate does not include support for clinical work (which falls under Ministry of Health) Depnaker suggested that once VSO are a legal entity with a signed MOU, they can start exploring additional agreement with the Ministery of Health. The provincial Health department in NTT is very supportive of this and is willing to give recommendation or any other support for this additional MoU.

 

In response to this news, VSO had to cancel three new clinical placements in hospital or clinical training in health colleges that were originally planned for January 2010 intake.

There are also some restrictions for new non-clinical placements in hospitals. Most of the current health volunteers will not be affected and can finish the placements as planned, however those of us currently in clinical placements in hospitals will not be able to continue (although not immediately). At present it is not clear if I will have to leave when the MOU is signed or if I can work until the expiry of my KITAS in early March 2010. Either way I will leave a lot of work unfinished.

 

I have asked VSO to explore other options for me. This is unlikely to be within Indonesia given the current restrictions that the MOU are putting on health work – so watch this space.