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.