Study Tour to RSUD Johannes Kupang

7 – 11 December 2009

I managed to secure two grants from VSO to assist the hospital in the work I have been helping them with. The first 10million Rupiah has been spent to buy 95 books to provide a library for the use of all the professions at the hospital to supplement the 30ish medical books they already had.

The second grant allowed two of the ward managers and I to spend a week at the referral hospital in Kupang. We were looking primarily at the process for ratification and implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) but also much wider at all the nursing documentation that is required for a hospital to gain accreditation – something RSUD Baa is working towards. We looked through lots of documents and had discussions with many of the senior nursing staff. We came away with a mountain of documents to use as templates and had the time to put our own SOPs into the approved format.

Five days travelling for a party

1 – 6 December

The number of volunteers in Indonesia continues to fall with another group leaving before Christmas. There was at least good news this week in that the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has finally been signed between the Indonesian Government and VSO. This means that volunteers who have been temporarily at home pending visas should be able to return at the end of January and a new intake are due to arrive at the end of February.

Festus a Kenyan volunteer who has been based in Ruteng – Flores for the last two years sent out invitations a while ago to everyone for his leaving party on 5 December. This seemed an ideal time for me to catch up with many volunteers before I also have to leave Indonesia. Flights to Ruteng are rather expensive so I decided to fly into Maumere and then travel across Flores sightseeing on route. I had to fly out of Ruteng to get back to Kupang as I was leading a study tour starting 09:00 on 7 December so there was not time to travel anywhere else for a cheaper flight.

This was a week of early starts:-

Tuesday 1 December – To Kupang

I was up early to finish packing and shutting up the house to be away 2 weeks – this includes making sure all the water reserves are emptied so I do not return to a house teaming with mosquitoes. I travelled as far as Kupang today, where I stayed with Sam.

Wednesday 2 December – To Maumere

I had to get up at 04:30 to get to the airport for my flight to Maumere. I was staying with Teresa another VSO volunteer and arrived at her house before she had eaten breakfast! I took the opportunity of a rainy day to visit RSUD Maumere and was able to talk to their head nurse and have a tour of the hospital – much bigger than Baa. In the evening four of us met up to eat and chat.

Thursday 3 December – To Moni

This was a very civilised start not waking until 06:45. A friend of Teresa’s was travelling to Bajawa in a hire car so I joined him as far as Moni. The road was generally good but very steep and winding with a few places where it was narrow due to landslides. The views were amazing. My sightseeing in Moni was also curtailed by the rain but at least I had time to do some of my studying.

Friday 4 December – To Kalimutu and Bajawa

I had arrangedto be collected from the homestay at 04:00 – yes totally insane. I had hired an ojek to take me up Kalimutu to see the three coloured crater lakes at dawn. When I had flown over these in April they had been three different colours, unfortunately at the moment two are

virtually the same colour but still fairly spectacular. There was a distinct lack of tourists and initially there were more guides, coffee and ikat sellers up at the summit than tourists. It was a clear morning and I had a good view of the sunrise. I eventually got back to the homestay in tim

e to have some breakfast before getting a bus for the next stage of my journey to Bajawa. This was about 4 hours away but we did get astop in Ende for lunch. I was to stay with friends of Teresa’s in a small village just outside Bajawa. Philip is a local our guide and in the afternoon took me round his ancestral village. The villages have two ancestor spirit homes per tribe in the cent

re of the village. The parasol – ngadhu – is the home of the male ancestor’s spirits and the miniature house – bhaga – is the home of the female ancestor’s spirits. There are also large stone slabs near the center of the village – which are used for sacrifice. The houses are arranged in two rows either side of the central

courtyard. There are high roofed thatched houses on stilts, that

have various symbols on the roofs to indicate the status of the head of the household (woman) in the government of the village. The houses with ordinary roofs are for other families.

Saturday 5 December – To Ruteng

A very civilised start at 06:00 today – Festus had made quite a lot of friends in Bajawa through water projects he had done there and two car loads of us set out on the 4 hour drive to Ruteng. Just outside Ruteng one of the party phoned a relative of his there and invited us all (10) to lunch. The meal was excellent and was served within 90 minutes of our arrival. When I complimented the wife on the food all she could do was apologise we had to wait so long for it. How many of us could prepare a meal for 15 in under two hours – which would have undoubtedly entailed a trip to the market as well? The sopi drinking started immediately after lunch with a litre swiftly disappearing. We then went to where the party was to be held as one of the group was responsible for BBQing the goat – we had to try to local Ruteng ‘gin’. We also had to deliver 25 litres of sopi which had been flavoured with cinnamon. The rest of us went to the homestay we were booked into and the drinking continued with a mixture of beer and sopi flavoured with vanilla. We did eventually go to the party to start the serious drinking and dancing.. Part way through the evening the goat was ‘served’. It was placed in a large dish with a sharp knife and you just went and hacked off what you wanted – it was excellent.

Sunday 6 December – Back to Kupang

It really was hardly worth having a room for the night as I had to be at the airport for 06:00 for my flight back to Kupang, so woken at 05:15. I did at least get breakfast three times – at homestay, on plane and at Sam’s. I then went to bed to catch up on all the sleep I had missed this week!

Police Certificate and Bureaucracy as only the Indonesians can do it

November and December 2009

As part of my clearance for another VSO placement I need to acquire a police letter of good behaviour – the nearest equivalent to the UK CRB check. I started this process at the end of October by requesting a letter from the hospital director, requesting the police letter. Once this was produced I went with one of the nurses to the main Kantor Polisi on the island to the Departmen Inteligensi where I had get every page of every identification document and immigration paper I owned copied four times along with the letter from the Direktor. I was then given three envelopes containing all this information along with copies of a letter to the Departmen Inteligensi, Kantor Polda, Kupang requesting they issue the letter of good behaviour.

This therefore involved me in an unscheduled trip to Kupang. I had hoped to go one day and return the next but no such luck. I arrived at the office about 15:00 and although the staff were still there (and due to be there until 17:00) they were not keen to process any documents that day; so after a long discussion I left to return the next morning at 09:00. All was going well, I was taken to another office and had two full sets of finger prints taken and two additional thumb prints. I then had to get 8 passport size photographs and got issues with another identification card. I then went back to the Departmen Inteligensi and as they checked through all my documents I was asked for my SKLD – a police registration card; unfortunately I had not got one. I was then told that without this I could not get the police letter and that as it was so long since I got my KITAS visa even if I had one issued there would probably be a problem in Jakarta and they would still not issue the letter. Initially I was given the blame and I felt things were turning a bit nasty. Then they put the RSUD for not taking me to be registered and for the local police for not having picked up the fact I did not have the document. They phoned both the Direktor and the local police. In the end I was told I would have to go back to Rote to get my SKLD processed. A Kupang agent that VSO use to help to facilitate the processing of our immigration papers offered to help me to sort this without a visit to Baa but that is a story that is not for publication – suffice it to say after 1.5 days of waiting I went back to Baa.

I then had to get more letters signed from the Direktor and a copy of the document permitting me to work. One of the letters had to have an official stamp costing 6,000 Rp on it. There was a delay in getting all this as Pak Suardi went to Flores for a meeting. Once I had everything I went to the Kantor Polisi again and filled out a form in duplicate – this meant hand writing it twice and had a general discussion with the staff, mostly around dancing at parties and my trips to Nembrala (both of which had been observed – well it is the Departmen Inteligensi! I was then told the person who needed to sign the SKLD letter was in a meeting and would be a long time so it was suggested I come back besok.

Besok was the day I was going to Kupang and had to leave the hospital at 10:30 to get the ferry so the driver arranged to take me to the Kantor Polisi at 08:00, he was down town at that time and had not returned at 09:00. The other driver was too busy to take me – he was washing the ambulance and then unable to take me in case the ambulance was needed. I was about to get an ojek (could not use our bike as John had gone down town on it to buy my ferry ticket) when the post delivery driver was dispatched to take me on the hospital bike. It would have to be the day that the road was shut for surfacing and we had to go on a long detour over unmade roads and fields. I had expected to be there for a long time as I knew the SKLD needed a photograph and I had not been asked for that yesterday; but I arrived and was given a letter and copies of all my documents. When I questioned it I discovered – in case you had not already guessed They just recommend to the Kantor Polda in Kupang that I am issued with an SKLD. I got back to the hospital with 15 minutes to spare before I had to go for the ferry.

When I reached Kupang I went straight to the Kantor Polda in the hope they would process the SKLD. The initial reaction was again come back besok; but when I explained I was flying to Maumere pagi-pagi besok Pak Made agreed to process the paperwork. I had a couple of very long forms to fill in the first did have an English translation but the second was in Bahasa Indonesian only. After a lot of discussion I think the upshot was that as I was leaving in February there really was not point in processing the SKLD and they would just send for my police clearance to Jakarta. I was told it could take 3 months and I was asked for a relatively high sum for postage but when I asked for a receipt the amount reduced.

Well all I have to do is wait – well so I thought! Two and a half weeks later I received a message that another letter was needed. The sponsor letter from the Direktor and to be reproduced with the address of the office in Jakarta as the too address! Now I wait again.

Photographs - or lack of them

I apologise that I have not added any photographs to the blog for a while. This time it is not due to poor internet access but due to a glitch with Blogger. I am unable to access the button to upload photographs so despite very good internet access in Maumere and Kupang several entries remain picture less. The further I get behind the harder it will be to catch up so please be patient.