Daily Life

Water is playing a significant part in my life at present. This is just the very start of the rainy season. Already most days now we get 30 to 60 minutes of torrential rain. At present mostly at night. Because of the amount of rubbish on the streets the drains fill up rapidly and then everywhere floods. Outside my home the road turns into a river - which would be jumpable if only the gates were not locked.

Each morning and evening I have to grit my teeth and prepare to wash.

I have to fill a bucket with cold water and then throw this over me using a gayung (long handled small scoop). I struggle with the cold water for washing my hair but for a shower it is OK. It is the same to flush the toilet.

I have more buckets in which to do my washing. A lot of elbow grease is needed without hot water and a washing machine. I tend to wash twice a week to keep the loads managable. Also with the increased humidity clothes are taking longer to dry. Underwear has to be hung on the inside of the airer - so it is not visible.

Ibu Rini or one of her daughters join me as I eat breakfast and go over the things we covered in class the day before. When I first met Ibu Rini she asked what I liked for breakfast and I said fruit and then variety. There has hardly be a morning wher the breakfast has been repeated. Sometimes rice and local food, European breads and cakes, local cakes but always accompanied by fruit. It has been the mango season so this has featured highly on the menu, with several different varietes - excellent flavours.


Mopeds are the main form of transport for most families in Indonesia. I do not have my license so have to make do with a bicycle. It gives me a lot of freedom and having already cycled in Vietnam and Cambodia I quickly got used to the organised chaos which is Denpasar roads. The roads are so much better maintained than the footpaths as no body seems to walk anywhere. Lots of unevenness and big holes opening into the storm drains - definitely risky at night.

Field Trips

8 October 2008

Today we were taken to the central market to practice out Bahasa Indonesian and out bargaining powers to but fruit. I brought Manggis – a form of passion fruit for Rp 14,000 having bartered down from Rp 25,000. The market is large spread over three floors and with an outside section. You can get eveything from food to pots and pans with clothes and offerings available as well. The road outside is composed of fabric shops - we came back here to get cotton and linen to have trousers, shirts and blouses made up by local taylors.

12 October 2008

Sam and I took advantage of a trip to a local zoo to have further language training. The trip was for the English language students and they had a quiz to do in English - it really was quite tough. All the signs on the cages were in Bahasa Indonesian adn English so this was good for my reading.

Eid ul Fitr

Due to the Muslim holiday IALF was closed so we only had in Country training sessions at the VSO office to attend on two days this our third week in Indonesia. For me this was a good opportunity to consolidate all we had learnt the first week in language training. The big challengue this week was finding places to eat; many of the food stall proprieters are Muslim and had gone home to Java.

1 October 2009

We had all borrowed bicycles from VSO so we headed off to Kuta. Most of the day we lazed on the beach but the others did go surfing and all managed to stand on their boards during the hour session.

2 October 2009

Dorothea and Sam had stayed in Kuta over night and John was burnt and ached too much to go again so I cycled to Kuta alone. On the four journey I covered four different routes; not intentiaonally.

4 October 2009

Since I had been living in Denpasar with Ibu Rini the local university gamerlan orchestra had been practicing all hours of the day and evening. I went to the park this evening and it was full of families having picnic teas - either stuff they had brought or from the pedlars who wandered round the field - and they were listening to what I think was the gamerlan competition. As well as several orchestras with

different ranges of instruments there were two sets of dancers. There was a lot of Hindu ceremony involved with the giving of offerings and sprinkling of oil and water both on a temporary temple and on the players and their instruments. I was engaged in conversation by a couple of locals including one man who really did not speak any English which was quite challenging and we had to give up when it got too dark for me to read the dictionary. The only downside to the evening was that I had to walk over grass and despite the insect repellent got badly bitten.

Language Training

IALF
22 September 2009
We have to attend IALF from 08:00 to 13:00, Monday to Friday for language training. The pace of the classes is very fast with a large amount of vocabulay covered each day. Each day we play some form of game in two teams to revise what we had learnt the day before. My team normaly wins but this is becasue I am paired with Sam who is brilliant rather than any language skills of mine.

The school has an excellent resource centre that I use most of the afternoon. There are computers with internet access and langauge resources on line. There is an audio visual room with more learning material and then an extensive lending library. We get given a large amount of material each day but I am making the most of everything I can lay my hands on to help to reinforce the classwork and to help with the homework.

I seem to be putting in a lot more hours than the others and barely keeping pace but at least I am learning something.

The First Week

During out first week we have been cosseted as we were shown around Sanur by established volunteers and then taken too and from the VSO office by Ujang the driver. We have had a series of briefings about VSO and Indonesia as part of our in Country training. We have had phographs taken and registered with the police.

Sanur Beach

The visa situation is very complex with extensions necessary monthly after the first sixty days then applying out of country every six months – this entails a trip to Singapore. As you can imagine this very quickly uses up all the pages in the passport. The visa is single entry so any out of country holiday at any other stage entails the extra personal time and expense of a new visa. As there is no agent on Rote VSO will keep my passport and send it to an agent in Jakarta. I was issued with a letter and authorised copy of the passport to explain why I do not have it.

Approach to Bonsia Cafe

Friday 19 September 2008

Today we checked out from our lodgings and moved to the families
we will live with whilst we attend language training. I am living with Ibu Rini a divorcee around my age who has three daughters Mita, Ersy and Putri; she teached English at the local university. I have my own entrance to my room which has an ensuite - European toilet and a shower - unfortunatley the pressure is not high enough to be able to use if. I am provided wit breakfast and someone from the family will spend time each day talking to me in Bahasa Indonesian.

Entrance to my temproary home

Sunday 21 September 2008

I went exploring today and found a pleasant park where groups of men were busy playing chess; these were very serious games with timers employed and large audiances around each game, In the afternoon Sam and Dorothea joined me and we went to Bali museum. As we left the museum there was a gathering of children in the park in various costumes.

The Experience Begins

14 September 2008

After years of dreaming and months of planning I set off to Indonesia at 06:30 this morning for a 26 month placement organised by Voluntary Service Overseas. The last six weeks have been a long round of fairwells and the last one took place at Heathrow as I waved goodbye to Steve and Sonya. The airline allows 20kg free luggage and VSO will pay for a further 5kg - my bag weighed in at a hefty 27kg but somehow I managed to get away without paying any extra. It was suggested I transfer some to my hand luggage but as this was over 10kg I was not keen!


15 September 2008

Well the adventure has really begun. There were four of arrived at Denpasar airport at 13:00, we were met by an established volunteer and a member of staff. The others are:-

Sam - 30 year old Dutch IT whizz


Dorothea - 27 year old German IT systems guru


John - 24 year old English systems and processes bod


As I get to know them better I am sure you will to.


We were taken to Sanur - a beach resort and left in our guesthouse; Yulia 1; to relax on the porches and start to get aquainted.