Is this the end of my dream?

30 September 2009

 

VSO used to work under the auspices of the British Council but for at least the last twelve months VSO has been in discussions with the Indonesian Government to establish a Memorandum of Understanding to manage it’s own work within Indonesia. The status of VSO will be strengthened as it will be a legal entity in Indonesia and the position of volunteers in relation to visas will be much easier. The negotiations have already had a big impact in the volunteer community (from more then 40 colleagues down to 20) as volunteers who work for Non Government Organisations (NGO) have had to finish placements early or leave the Country on a temporary basis as their previous visas expired as it is almost impossible for NGOs to comply with the requirements to sponsor a volunteer on a KITAS (stay visa). Negotiations are now in the final stages which has involved clarification of the scope of the agreement. The scope of work should cover the following objectives

1.    To improve local/regional capacity to support creating job opportunities

2.    To improve the capacity of disable human resources

3.    To support Indonesian (national) volunteers and volunteering institutions

Unfortunately it is now certain that VSO cannot have clinical health placements and possibly have to scale down the Health programme. Even though Depnaker (Ministry of Manpower) are also supportive of our work in health, as their mandate does not include support for clinical work (which falls under Ministry of Health) Depnaker suggested that once VSO are a legal entity with a signed MOU, they can start exploring additional agreement with the Ministery of Health. The provincial Health department in NTT is very supportive of this and is willing to give recommendation or any other support for this additional MoU.

 

In response to this news, VSO had to cancel three new clinical placements in hospital or clinical training in health colleges that were originally planned for January 2010 intake.

There are also some restrictions for new non-clinical placements in hospitals. Most of the current health volunteers will not be affected and can finish the placements as planned, however those of us currently in clinical placements in hospitals will not be able to continue (although not immediately). At present it is not clear if I will have to leave when the MOU is signed or if I can work until the expiry of my KITAS in early March 2010. Either way I will leave a lot of work unfinished.

 

I have asked VSO to explore other options for me. This is unlikely to be within Indonesia given the current restrictions that the MOU are putting on health work – so watch this space.

 

International Surfing Competition

15 – 20 September 2009

Nembrala (Dela) hosted the 2009 International Surfing Competition this week. Seventy-seven surfers came to the island along with supporters and event organisers. It was Justine’s last week on Rote and we had already decided to spend most of the week down in Dela. Teresa another VSO volunteer had also asked to visit the island as she had already been in Kupang for the meetings. Through friends of acquaintances we were offered a bungalow on the beach right next to the best hotel on the island as the homestays were already fully booked. I needed to work so drove down each day after work – about 65 minutes and then back at 06:30 in the morning. This meant I had the afternoon to enjoy the beach, watch the surfing etc and the evening to enjoy the entertainment.

When the competitors arrived on the ferry there was a welcoming committee including music and dancing. As I had gone down to meet Teresa I was able to watch all this. Most evenings the Nembrala Beach Resort had laid on traditional music but most of the action was round a fire on the beach.

The surf was good the first day but the swell got less as the week progressed. The Friday and Saturday were public holidays so a lot of locals went to Boa to enjoy the spectacle. Unfortunately we had the first rain of the season Friday afternoon which sent people hurrying away at the end of the contest rather than continuing to scialise. There were quite a lot of surfers from Bali and a reasonable gender split.

Kupang a Weekend of Meetings

10 – 14 September 2009

Many of VSOs health programme volunteers across NTT have been supported by money from GTZ whose programme of work is finishing at the end of the year. Those volunteers still in placement were invited to a meeting in Kupang on 11 September to review the partnership and develop recommendations for how such partnerships should be formulated in the future.

For the rest of the weekend 17 volunteers from across Flores, Timor and Rote came together to share learning, undertake skills development and socialise.

Ndao – an Island Paradise?

4 - 6 September 2009

Well normally when I write my blog I can easily select a reasonable number of photographs that sum up the subject; this has not been the case with my weekend in Ndao. I know that words alone (and there are a lot of them) are not going to give you a real feel for the magic of the experience, the beauty of the island and the shear calm – even all the photographs I have selected fail to capture all I want to share with you all. I had the privilege to be invited to join a doctor when she went to visit a colleague on Ndao.

The day before our trip we went shopping for vegetables and other perishable goods. The boat ride to the island was amazing. It was a small open decked fishing type boat. It took a long time to load on the beach as everyone seemed to have even more luggage than us, which the crew had to carry out and find somewhere to stow it – this included a generator and a wardrobe. We were then taken out in a very small and unstable dug out canoe. It was then a case of finding somewhere to sit or lye on the bare wooden floor. We stayed very close to the shore so had an excellent view of Rote as we went along. We passed other boats fishing and saw large flocks of birds fishing as well. At one point we saw a small school of dolphins breaking the water and also saw a flying fish. The water was deep blue and bright turquoise, it was so clear and quite shallow, we could often see the coral. We passed by two other islands off the tip of Rote before reaching Ndao just over 4 hours after leaving Baa. No luxury of a canoe to ferry us to the shore this time just jump in and wade ashore.

Ndao is a small island lying of the west tip of Rote and has only 600 residents, one pickup truck and 10 motorbikes on the island. No electricity although a few people have generators; where you can pay to get mobile phones etc recharged. So there are no street lights and just a hurricane lamp in the house. There are only two places where you can get phone signal and this is of a worse standard than in Nembrala; as this is where it is being transmitted from. There are two kiosk style shops. Water is a bit of a problem as the well water is brackish so it is hard to get any form of lather for washing anything and salt residue is left in clothes, hair etc. Access to vegetables is also an issue – either you grow them yourself or go without. On the plus side at this time of year the variety of fish was amazing. Ndao has quite a large fishing fleet and men fish with rod and line from the pier whilst others go out swimming amongst the coral with spears. Part of the pier was washed away a few years ago and has not been repaired. There is now a ladder which is a little challenging to climb to get up to negotiate with the fisherman for their catch. One time we agreed a price for 12 with the guy with the most fish beside him and then his younger brother went round negotiating to borrow another 4 to fulfil our order! We had a BBQed fish on the beach each night using drift wood and coconut husks – the doctors were impressed by my fire making skills. There was a full moon which reflected off the sea but meant we did not get a good view of the stars – sad as there was absolutely no artificial light pollution.

Justine and I walked most of the way round the island on the beach taking about 4 hours. For 3.5 hours we did not see another person. Apart from one small rocky outcrop the beach ran all round the island – white sane and turquoise sea. On three sides of the island there were excellent surf breaks the fourth side was where the fishing fleet anchor and the sea was very calm here. The island does get occasional visitors on day trips from Nembrala but there is no where for them to stop on the island so I caused a lot of interest when I was seen evening, night and morning.

The trip back to Rote was much shorter as we went into Nembrala – under 2 hours. This was probably a good thing as the sea was quite a bit rougher and I had trouble sitting up and kept toppling onto other passengers. We were travelling into the early morning sun and again the journey was very special. This weekend was a really special privilege and I am grateful to Justine for inviting me and Octo for letting me sleep on his floor – yes even the discomfort of that did not distract from an amazing time. I will be back when I need refreshing again but am pleased that I have a little more in the way of facilities for my 2 years out here.

Cooking

When I first arrived on Rote I had two pieces of equipment I could use to cook. A rice cooker and a kompor. The disadvantage of the rice cooker is it requires electricity – not a problem in the evening as the hospital uses its generator if the electricity supply fails after 18:00 but as I tend to cook at lunch time and go out in an evening it can be very frustrating when the rice, noodles or vegetables are not ready when the sauce is! I have found that I can cook a wide range of dishes in the rice cooker.

The kompor is a single, kerosene powered, cooking ring. There is a real art to adjusting the flame to give the right amount of heat as there is a significant time lag between turning the wick and the heat altering – this is a skill I still have to perfect. It is a very portable cooking devise and when people are preparing for a party extra kompors are just borrowed from neighbours to allow the range of dishes required to be prepared.

In March I acquired an electric oven from another volunteer who had finished placement. It is only small but has allowed so much more adventurous cooking. I now bake my own bread – I tend to do this on a Friday as I finish work early and can put the bread to rise in the sunshine on my porch. It took a few attempts to get a reasonable loaf as the flour here does not absorb water in the same way and I can only get an all purpose flour. Sonya was slightly scathing about the bread but it is so much nicer than the slightly sweet breads we can buy here. I have made pizza and cakes and can toast my bread – if I have long enough to wait for breakfast!

Long Legs – Big Problems

19 – 25 August 2009

Sonya and Chris traveled back to Rote with me. Chris at around 6’ 3” caused even more turned heads that most Westerners. The length of his legs gave him really big problems with public transport. On the plane he could not put his tray down for his food as his knees got in the way. We were fortunate that the ferry was not very busy and I was able to book a front row seat, which for once was not obstructed with luggage. Then we used a bemo – these are much shorter than those in Bali and once he had folded himself up to get inside he had the problem of low ceiling and a hand rail preventing him bending too far forward. Not the most comfortable way to travel. I then put him onto an ojek – only about 100cc and quite short so his knees were up under the riders armpits and the bike was struggling up with hill out of Baa. The final problem Chris had was he was not really the right size for my house, the sink was too low and he had big problems with the squat toilets – his legs were to long to allow him to squat properly as his knees hit the wall. When Sonya and Chris were together the stares were even greater because of the difference in their heights.

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.