The new incubator was put to
use for the first time today. A premature baby who had been born at home had been brought to the hospital as it was failing to drink and was being nursed in the incubator. I helped the staff to understand the instructions which although intensively were in English had been written in
This should have been my last working day at the hospital but due to the previous frequent cancellation of meetings I actually went into work each day for the next week as well.
Today is Ferlyn’s 25th birthday and again she is having a party at the mess. Nixon came over in the afternoon to clear the ground outside the mess and benches 
were borrowed for guests to sit on. The party started with a service of thanksgiving then food, drinking and dancing. The last of the guests crawled home around 03:00.
I had borrowed the motorbike to go to the market in the morning so took the opportunity it afforded me to explore a little further. I had planned to take another road from the north of the island heading south but was thwarted when I came to a ford that was quite full of muddy water so I could not tell how deep it was or what sort of surface was underneath. I waited quite a time to see if a local would appear to show me the best way through as I had learnt elsewhere straight through is often not the best way but when no one came I turned round and went to a beach for a couple of hours.
There are a lot of children who live in the complex and an increasing number have been coming to play on my porch or in the f
ront room. When I was first learning Bahasa Indonesian I had bought some children’s puzzle books and the children come to use my crayons to colour these in and the older ones do the puzzles. They would also come to play cards.
Often
when I was sat on the porch preparing vegetables I would get an army of helpers who would pinjam (borrow) a knife then peel and slice the vegetables. Sometimes they would also want to help with the cooking and at the end would try the result particularly if it had a Western basis to the cooking.
.JPG)
Busaalangga has a large market twice a week and I try to go at least once a week as the range of vegetables, fish and particularly fruit is much better than in Baa. Besides food.JPG)
items you can buy just about any portable item from nails and machete to huge woks and buckets in all sizes along with locally woven ikat (fabric) – which is mostly black with white and
red patterns of varying intricacy. There are certain things I buy each time including
John is still in Kupang – he had been there to do work with Sam on a database for medical records but had received the sad news of the unexpected and sudden death of his grandmother. He delayed his return to Rote whilst deciding with his family if he should return home for the funeral. As a consequence I still had use of the motorbike and went for a ride
to find a beach that John had visited and given me very vague directions to. Incredibly I managed to get directly there another magnificent white sand bay. Unfortunately I decided to take what looked like a better road back from the beach as the one I had arrived on was treacherous. Although a better road it ended up taking me away from Baa and it was almost dark before I got back.
Officialdom in
| Abbreviation | Full title | English meaning |
| Balita | Bawah Lima Tahun | The underfives (0-5 years old) |
| Batita | Bawah Tiga Tahun | The underthrees (0-3 years old) |
| Depkes | Departemen Kesehatan | Ministry of Health |
| Dinkes | Dinas Kesehatan | Local (provincial or district) Health Office |
| Dinkes Prop | Dinas Kesehatan Propinsi | Governor’s Health Agency |
| Dinkes Kab | Dinas Kesehatan Kabupaten | District Health Agency |
| Juklak | Petunjuk Pelaksanaan | Operational guideline/manual |
| Juknis | Petunjuk Teknis | Technical guideline/manual |
| Kesling | Kesehatan Lingkungan | Environmental Health |
| Posyandu | Post Pelayanan Terpadu | Monthly Mother and Baby Clinic |
| Puskesmas | Pusat Kesehatan Masyarakan | Public Health Clinic |
| Pustu | Puskesmas Pembantu | Sub-Health Clinic |
Besides the abbreviations in official life as my Bahasa Indonesian has improved and my friendship group extended I have I started sending and receiving a lot of text messages – the easiest and cheapest way to communicate out here. Like in English there are lots of abbreviations used and a tendency to drop prefixes and suffixes to make it just that bit harder.
| Abbreviation | Full word | English meaning |
| Mlm | Malam | Night |
| T4 | Tempat | Place |
| Jgn | Jangan | Don’t |
| Blg | Bilang | Say – colloquial; just to make it harder |
| Plg | Pulang | Return |
| Mat | Selamat | Greeting |
Like with Gr8 numbers can be used but not that not just the vowels are dropped. To begin with I often had to ask my neighbours or colleagues what the abbreviation represents but now I have got used to it I can normally work it our.
