Kamar Mandi

20 January 2010

It has been relatively cool recently as we have had a lot of rain – 5 days with hardly a break in the rain of more than an hour and significant winds. This has made the process of washing a little less pleasant than normal. This made me realise I had not described the kamar mandi (washing room) on my blog. Basically by kamar mandi consists of a small tiled room where most of the tiles assist the water to drain towards the drainage hole, unfortunately there are a few tiles that defy the system and part of the floor is always wet. There is a squat toilet and a bak mandi (a large trough which is filled with water from the tap). The bak has to be drained and cleaned every three days before the mosquito larvae grow big enough to turn into mosquitoes. Every time I am going away I have to remember to empty the bak and all other stores of water to prevent the house being full of mosquitoes on my return. Unfortunately there is a reserve of water in the toilet so there is always a small rise in mosquito numbers when I have been away.

To mandi (wash) you scoop cold water out of the bak mandi using a gayung (see photo) and throw it over yourself. Sadly I did not record the noise emitted by Chris the first time he did this – I think Sonya did very well to remain smiling for the camera.

Malaria

12 January 2010

I had been suffering with a headache for a couple of days but so had John so had not really thought anything of it. However as the day progressed I began to feel really lousy and my temperature went up so I wandered along to UGD (the A&E department) to ask for a blood test. They knew exactly where to find the lab technician as her friends work on maternity so rang her there and arranged for her to meet me at the lab. There were no patients on maternity so the two midwives came along as well. I had my blood smear taken then we all wandered into the lab and sat around on the benches talking whilst the slide was processed. As I had unfortunately suspected it came back positive for malaria falciparum. VSO provides us with a self treatment pack so I went straight back to the house and after reading the instructions started my 60 hours of treatment.

I do feel slightly hard done by as I have been taking my malaria prophylaxis every day, I use lotion containing 50% DEET every evening, wear long trousers and sleep under a net yet still get malaria. At least it was fairly mild.

Exchange of Presents

All the wards have a gathering sometime around Christmas to exchange gifts. Last year I was invited to the events but not invited to participate in the exchange. This year all the areas where I had been based asked me to participate. Gifts had to be to the value of 25,000Rp and wrapped, they were then allocated a number and then after prayers we all picked a piece of paper from a bowl and took the appropriate numbered gift away. After this there was some form of meal provided. Purchasing the gifts was a little challenging as none of the shops have any prices displayed so I was having to take intelligent guesses as to the value of things, in the end I asked the shop keeper in one shop I used early on for most of my household equipment for ideas at that price and had a good selection to choose from. I really did not need the clock and bowls I acquired but was delighted to be invited so had decided to take part.

Abdurrahman Wahid

Sometime over New Year Abdurrahman Wahid died aged 69 years. Wahid, or Gus Dur as he was also known, was part of a prominent and politically active Muslim family. He initially worked as a teacher and rose to be a headmaster before receiving a scholarship to study in Cairo then later studied in Baghdad and Holland. He returned to Indonesia in 1971 and worked as a journalist. In the late 1970s he became actively involved in Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation that his grandfather had founded becoming chairman in 1984. Following the fall of President Suharto in 1998 he formed the National Awakening Party (PKB) and was officially declared a presidential candidate in February 1999; being declared president in October of that year; even though his party had lost the parliamentary elections. He was seen as a reformer and democrat but the transition to democracy was not easy. He did curb the influence of the military, released political prisoners and liberalisation of Chinese culture an religious expression. The coalition began to turn against him and ultimately his presidency collapsed following unproved allegations of corruption. He was impeached in July 2001 and replaced by his deputy, Magawati Sukarnoputri.

All public buildings were flying flags at half mast for many days and several private residencies erected flag poles specifically for this.

Natural Resources

Rote has some of the most beautiful and peaceful beaches I have ever been on but they are under treat from sand extraction. My travels over the holiday period lead me to realise how much this is happening. I had been aware of a sign in Nembrala saying that sand extraction was prohibited and had seen occasional evidence of extraction before but as I toured around it was a frequesnt occurrence. On one beach I discovered the level had been reduced by almost 2 meters and piles of sand were waiting collection.

The hills are also being eroded for their stone and there are several quarries around the island.

The stone is then delivered to individual homes where people sit and with a hammer reduce large slabs to small stones.

Road Closed

31 December 2009

As I have already mentioned there have been a lot of road laying activities going on around the island in recent months and this has often involved road closures with diversions. This is signalled by a police motorbike across the road and if you are lucky the policeman will actually indicate which track you should take. It is then a bit pot luck if you get back to the man road in the correct place or not. However as I discovered today on rural roads a few branches are laid across the road. As I approached the diversion there were three palm tree branches scattered across the road, one or two is not unusual so I thought nothing of it. It was not until I had passed – with great difficulty the road works and came to another tangle of branches that I realised the significance of the branches. No wonder the workmen had been surprised to see me!

Christmas

24 December 2009

I went into Baa this afternoon and it was like Merry Hill on Christmas Eve – virtually impossible to find anywhere to park; I had never seen so many motorbikes in Baa. I spent a very enjoyable evening sat on my porch with neighbours. John had given me a Christmas cake which his parents had brought over when they visited and we shared some of this along with whiskey or Sprite. Chilpa was playing my guitar and we had a wide ranging discussion mostly in Bahasa Indonesian with occasional resort to the dictionary.

25 December 2009

After going to church I went down to Delha for my Christmas present from me – CHIPS. There is a rumah makan there that does the best chips I have had in Indonesia and I had been told they were open. When I arrived they were busy catering for a funeral and did not want to do chips but offered me rice. I declined and explained I had ridden down to treat myself as a Christmas present – I obviously did a very good sob story as I was told if I would wait then I could have chips. They were well worth the wait – enak. In the evening everyone who lives in the complex visited everyone else in the complex to wish then a Happy Christmas. I had phone calls from the family and lots of sms and email messages from home. There was also a party in a house just behind the complex which we had all been invited to which went on until about 03:00 with lots of dancing. All in all a very pleasant Christmas.

Motorbike Maintenance

On going sagas

John and I have experienced a number of problems with the bikes we have borrowed. I will describe here the latest couple of incidents that have lead us to visit the bengkel – local version of a garage. John had been riding up from town when the clutch cable broke. Thankfully in town there is a bengkel every few 100 yards so he did not have far to go to find help. A new cable was attached to the clutch lever and then quite literally just tied to the entrance to the gear box.

I took the bike in as the throttle was tending to stick open and the back break had a lot of play in it. The bike was almost stripped down completely to sort out the throttle but unfortunately they failed to reconnect the fuel hose and when I turned the fuel tap on to start got covered with benzin. Not quite as dire as when John had a puncture repaired and they forgot to tighten the back brake. The standards might not be as high as the UK but prices are much more reasonable 7,5000Rp for puncture, 15,000Rp for the throttle and break problem.

Christmas decorations

December 2009

At the moment I am based on the children’s ward and staff have been busy making decorations in the run up to Christmas – then it was necessary to get up to hang them. An assessment of the step ladder (see August entry on decorating) was made and decided this was not safe to use. Instead a plastic chair was placed on a desk which in turn had been placed on a bed – when the chair legs started to splay a second chair was stacked to give it some more rigidity. The bed was then wheeled along as Marlon secured the decorations.

New beds and other improvements

14 December 2009

Before I left for my holiday and the study tour new blue curtains were being put up throughout the hospital. On my return to work I discovered that a lot of new beds and other equipment had been delivered as well. The new beds were a very welcome arrival particularly in the children’s ward. The very poor condition of the cots had been compounded over the years by adult family members lying on them. Complete families come with patients bringing sleeping mats, cooking equipment etc but why sleep on the floor if there is an empty bed in the ward? The mattresses are therefore removed from beds and cots to make this a less attractive proposition. Besides the beds there was a ventilator, small steriliser, baby warmer and two incubators.