21 January 2009I was told there would be a meeting at 10:00 today with the ward managers and I did not want to miss it so stayed in the office. It happened at 12:00. Ibu Ani - Head Nurse chaired the meeting and all the ward managers and other senior nurses and midwives were in attendance. Ibu Ani outlined the new incentive agreement but said in return nurses were expected to be more professional. The white uniform had to be worn on Saturday to Wednesday, local jackets made from ikat could be worn on Thursday but only with black skirts or trousers and own clothes day remained on Friday but no jeans and preferably with polo shirts. Caps and name badges were to be worn with the uniform. There was some concern about nurses having enough uniforms but otherwise this was well received. Ellen had moved near to me to whisper the outline of discussion but I was able to write her a note outlining what I had understood. I also followed the next topic which was over the role of the nursing assistant – Ibu Ani made it very clear that nurses were not to let the assistants do professional roles eg blood pressures, care of infusion, administering medicines. There was more questioning of this / justification why it was done at present. Ibu Ani then asked for my suggestions on improved professionalism – talk about being put on the spot. I did my best to explain about informal teaching through case studies and feedback when staff went on courses. There was again a lot of discussion but when I checked my understanding with Ellen after the meeting she confirmed all areas had agreed to do this with maternity leading as they already did it. The final area of discussion was what role Ellen should have – there were lots of suggestions made but in the end there was no agreement so the view was things should remain as they are if Dr Rina will support this. We were served with cake and water during the meeting. I was pleased with how much of the meeting I actually followed and Ellen seemed impressed.
Over the rest of the week I attended meetings on VIP and childrens ward when the information was cascaded and by the end of the week had a more indepth understanding of what was being agreed.
About 17:00 I decided that despite the rain I would try to burn my garden rubbish. I managed to break off some of the rattan which was not too wet and using a bit of my paper and a lot of blowing I managed to get the garden rubbish burning. I then started to pull more of the dead rattan off the bushes. Some of my neighbours were out and commented on my tidying the garden; then one said I really should use a parang (chopper) – I said I did not have one and an order was sent out for one; which came along with a pembatu (maid) to use it. She cut back all the big rattan bush, quite a bit of the small bush and then all the other bushes as well. The later was a bit of a shame as I actually wanted to keep them. At the same time another couple of neighbours were sweeping up leaves in front of their house and used my fire to burn them. It really felt as if I was part of the community and was nice as the conservation group would have been starting to burn at the same time. Two of the very young children were playing on my porch and wandered into 
my house much to the concern of their mother. I said it did not matter but she went to sit by my door to prevent them doing it again. Once the tidying had been finished at about 18:45 I sat with her and showed he pictures of Steve and Sonya and explained when they would visit and how long I was here. The fire continued to burn for a long time and flared up in the wind for several days more.
