Family Life

14-18 August 2009

Steve and I flew to Bali to spend a few days with Sonya and Chris before Steve flew home. It was really nice to experience family life again and to show them around places I am now so familiar with. This was a particular pleasure with Chris who was on his first visit to a developing country. It was wonderful to hear his reactions and watch his face as he experienced all the new sights, sounds, tastes and smells. We were fortunate that the Sanur festival was on the week they arrived and they saw kite flying, fruit and ice carving, local races and lots more. We also hired a car and toured a lot of the east of the island including the largest Hindu temple and a ‘traditional’ village. Whist in Ubud we went to a shadow puppet performance – an experience that I will not bother to repeat but pleased I can say I have done it; particularly as the one we had used a real oil lamp rather than electric light to give a less harsh silhouette. The traditional plays last many hours but this was thankfully only an hour. The play is accompanied by music, the puppeteer knocking on the puppet box and him narrating the story. The story was also not totally traditional as it included references to usual local interactions with tourists eg ‘Transport’, ‘Maybe tomorrow’, ‘No problem’.

On the evening of my birthday we met up with Dorothea and went to a very good Italian restaurant as a special treat. I was horrified that we spent nearly 600,000 Rp for the five of us this equate to a weeks allowance for me but was less that £40 so for Steve was nothing. My adaptation to the different value of money was further illustration when helping Sonya and Chris to plan the rest of their trip after leaving Rote. To take a car rather than the bus to Moni from Maumere would only cost them an extra 50,000 Rp each a difference of £3,30. I see the car as expensive luxury they see it as a cheap necessity.

DIY Continues

10 – 12 August 2009

Having finished the painting Steve turned his had to woodwork. However before he could do that I had to borrow tools and help him to source the wood. The tools were easy as one of the nurses in UGD (the A&E department where I am based at present) does a lot of DIY and was happy to let Steve borrow all the tools he required; he also told us which wood yard to go to. Trying to get the message across there that we wanted to buy the wood and Steve would make it rather than us trying to commission them to make a shelving unit. We did eventually chose the wood and they cut all the pieces to length. Once home Steve set to work to plane the timber and build me a shelving unit to store my food. It is made to measure and fits between a wall and the fridge. Having everything on it does make the back room so much tidier and I can find things. It has been a very productive few days and the house looks so much better as a result. Shame he did not have time to make me a table as well.

Painting

4 – 7 August 2009

Steve has come to stay – as a surprise I went to Kupang to meet him at the airport and travel back to Rote with him. Once we had taken his luggage to the house we went down town to buy a large tub of paint. I was after a cream, beige of light yellow but my first four choices were habis – finished – so I had to settle for a rather bright yellow. It is actually quite a pleasant colour; it just not go with the pink curtains which I have in all the rooms.

The rooms in the house are all quite tall and even standing on a chair Steve could not paint all the way up the walls. I therefore asked to borrow a step ladder from work. When it arrived we discovered that the side restraints were missing and it was only held together by wire cable. Steve sensibly decided to wait until I was back before climbing the steps. Unfortunately they were definitely designed for people of his weight and started to buckle so I had to paint the top of all the rooms. The one large tub of paint just lasted to finish all the internal rooms.

Public Transport

I have been writing a lot about motorbikes and thought it was probably time to cover transport links in general. Indonesia is a huge archipelago. There are between 17,508 and 18.000 islands – although not all these are inhabited.

Plane

There are a lot of different operators flying to the islands, some airports accept international flights and others like Rote only have two flights a week and very basic facilities. Planes range in size and quality of service.

Boat

These come in all sizes from small charter boats to the more remote islands, via passenger ferries to larger cargo boats that will take passengers.

Train

There are only trains on Java. Daddy was intrepid enough to agree to travel between Jogjakarta and Solo by train and despite the experience agreed to used it on the return journey as well. Actually not as crowded as the tube in London. The big problem was that at the stations we wanted to get off at there was no platform near our doors so it was a long jump down. The level of safety at the stations was poor – you needed to walk across the tracks to get to the train.

Taxi

In the main cities there are conventional taxis which are salon cars with details of the taxi firm on them, these are generally metered although the driver may try to negotiate a flat fare. In smaller towns they are unmarked 4x4s, sometimes with set fares to specific areas of town but certainly not metered. It is quite normal to have the phone number of the individual driver and send a text requesting him to collect you.

Bus

Buses travel between major towns on the island and advertise their destination on the windscreen. They take passengers and copious amounts of luggage. They have a flat fare for the route irrespective of how much of it you travel. If you want to catch a bus – other than at the terminal you leave some luggage beside the road and then go and sit in some shade until the bus stops. As you approach your stop you call out to the driver and then pass your fare forward as you get off.

Lorry

Lorries travel to more remote areas that the buses but are also used if you have excessive amounts of luggage. If very lucky you get a seat up front with the driver but generally you just climb into the open back along with your luggage. I have yet to work out how you know where the lorries are going but when I used one in Sumba a local organised it for me so I did not have to worry.

Bemo

These are small minibuses with bench seats at the back. In Bali the route is denoted by the colour of the bemo. In Kupang all the routes are numbered and on Rote the destination is displayed in the stickers on the front of the bemo. The bemos in Bali are plan inside and out and just have a driver who collects the fares as the passengers alight. In Kupang and on Rote the bemos are all individually decorated with various stickers obliterating the drivers vision on all sides. They also have lots of internal decoration and the addition of sound systems with the speakers taking up all the space under the seats. You can hear these bemos approaching by the loud thumping music emanating from them but in case you should miss that they have very distinctive horns that they sound at the sight of anybody within close proximity to the road. The also have conductors who ride the running board and jump off to try to persuade people to ride in their bemo. It appears there is always room for one more passenger however over full you already think the vehicle is.

Ojek

These are motorbike taxis. In Bali they are obviously regulated and all wear tabards else where it would appear that anyone with a motorbike and a spare crash helmet can pick up passengers. The are useful for short distances when the destination is not on a bemo route. You either go to areas where ojek drivers congregate or as in Kupang I have the number of a couple of drivers and just send them a text when I want to go anywhere.

Becak

These are found in Java and are bicycle driven transport where the passenger sits at the front and is exposed to what ever is approaching you – a bit hairy as the becak drivers do not worry about one way streets so you are often being propelled towards on coming vehicles. It is necessary to negotiate the price for the trip – interestingly when I came out of the station, shops or even a basic hotel I could negotiate a very reasonable rate however when we emerged from a more expensive hotel where we had been to eat I had to pay far more than I felt was reasonable.

Dokar

These are horse drawn carriages – I have yet to try on of these as they feel a little too decadent.

Sport on TV

25 - 26 July 2009

Both John and I have had many obstacles put in our path in our quest to watch sport on TV. The 7 or 8 hour time difference between the UK and Central Indonesia time gives John particular problems watching football with evening kick offs. There is a limited number of fixtures shown on cable TV and nowhere in Kupang that would stay open late enough for him to watch a satellite broadcast. My interest is F1 grand prix. This is broadcast on cable TV which I can receive. The pre and post race discussions are in Bahasa Indonesian and revolve around competitions to promote the programmes sponsor Kapal Api and coffee. As well as taking up a large proportion of the adverts they also feature on a screen behind the presenters. The race commentary is the BBC feed so is good quality. The big problem is the adverts; which appear every 10 minutes irrespective of what is happening in qualifying or in the race. This week there was an advert break just towards the end of second qualifying as Massa crashed. This was a particularly long break so I totally missed the results of this session. At least when ITV had the rights there was some flexibility with advert breaks and the commentators filled you in with what had happened and there were replays if something special had happened – here I am left guessing. At least this weekend I did get to see all the broadcast. Some weeks I have been watching only to have the power fail – not normally a problem with day to day activities at night as the hospital generator is swiftly switched on and power restored. The problem is it does not power the cable companies equipment so although my TV is working quickly ther is no broadcast to watch. The cable company provides 10 channels but these are not always the same 10 channels and I missed the British GP because they had switched channels to a children’s network for the weekend. Whilst in Bali I went to a Sports Bar to watch the race and the one week had to contend with a table of drunken English football fans who wanted the main screen to be switched from F1 to football and who eventually won as the local F1 enthusiasts walked out in disgust. My father is now kindly recording the BBC coverage and I get a batch when ever anyone comes to visit so I can belatedly catch up with what is actually happening in the sport.

NB My motorbike a Honda GL 125 finally arrived on Rote on 26 July. My thanks to Ega an ojek driver in Kupang who collected it from the post office, took it to a benkel to get it working correctly and then put it on the ferry for me; keeping me fully informed at every stage of the journey.

Tangga Tiga Ratus

20 July 2009

Well today was another public holiday – I have lost count of how many there have been since my arrival in Indonesia. In preparation for today’s trip I had again borrowed John’s bike – mine has still not arrived, over a month from Bali so far! I had managed to get a puncture on the relatively good local road going to the market and had to take the bike to a benkel (local motorbike maintenance shop) where it took 6 men over an hour to mend the puncture, everyone seemed to have a specific part to play in the process. Today Yarni – a friend from church – who works for World Vision and two of her colleagues went with me to Tangga Tiga Ratus (300 steps); as you may gather this is a high vantage point. It is towards the south of the island and is reached over some very challenging unmade roads. Then the climb up 350 steps of very variable height and depth. We were fortunate that it was a cloudy day so the climb was not dreadfully hot but arduous enough all the same. The views certainly made the climb worthwhile but I am not sure how long it will take for my body to recover from being shaken over all the bumps. We had a picnic of rice, fish and pizza before heading back home.

Work

14 July 2009

It has occurred to me that even though work is the reason for me being in Indonesia it has actually hardly figured in my blog. This is partly because there are so many interesting things going on each week and partly because with my time off sick I have actually only been at the hospital for 4 months. For long term volunteers the first six months is about adaptation and learning about the culture of our partner organisation and assessing what we have to offer; then there is a review meeting with the partner that VSO facilitates to agree the objectives for the next 18 months and a work plan to achieve these. Today was my review meeting. My colleagues were very complimentary about how well I had adapted to life on Rote and fitted into the community and integrated well at work, they also were more complimentary about my Bahasa Indonesian that I was. There was a view – that I share that there is still a lot I need to learn about the organisation and that I need to continue to gather information to be able to be fully effective in my role. I now have four slightly more specific objectives to work on:-

1. To assist the hospital in participatory development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in nursing – I want to highlight the need for improved infection control and privacy and dignity in all these
2. To improve nursing skills through formal and on the job trainings and implementation of SOPs
3. To improve the nutrition of patients diet
4. To assist in making health promotion a part of patients routine intervention

The hospital already had a few SOPs which I had been updating whilst in Bali – this is a very arduous task as I have to translate them into English – work out what is missing, outdated practice etc, think about what can be done to improve practice; within the limitations of the available resources and then translate this into Bahasa Indonesian. I have been very grateful for the help I have had from my colleagues at Worcestershire Royal Hospitals NHS Trust for all the information they have sent me in response to specific questions I have had.