Well this has been a pretty busy time. We got picked up to go to our hotel for the employers conference. Just as we got there I discovered that there was a swimming pool and I’d left my swimming shorts back at my homestay.
This wasn’t too bad as our facilitator Tjeert offered to give me a lift on the back of his motorbike to my homestay as he had to go that way anyway. You sort of feel it’s setting the tone for a fairly laid back few days when you need to fetch your swimming shorts. He typically dutch but alrightl, over the next few days he gave me a more of a first hand view of volunteer life with all it’s ups and downs. Interestingly he was actually a professional footballer up to 17 and then got realeased and realised he didn’t like being part of the football world (footballers are stupid he said) as well as admitting that he just wasn’t good enough either. He actually used to play in the same team as Jan Klaas Huntalaar for any football fans. We returned alive (barely) after I’d stuffed my oversized head into sams normal sized helmet I’d borrowed, with my shorts.
The conference was very enjoyable, I spent much time swimming and the hotel was quite posh. During the day we went through a load of VSO stuff so that both our and employers and us had heard it. My employer, Dr Rina, is really nice and speaks a little English. We got to find out some more solid details about living quarters etc. There is one, two bedroomed house available on the site and both Suzanne agreed we didn’t want to live together long term (in a realistic not nasty way) so we will both stay there until we find another place. This may end up being a little contraversal in the end, we will have to see what the search turns up in terms of other accommodation.
There are a few pros and cons each way, it’s on site which can be a blessing and a curse but there are two big issues:
1) It has two bedrooms which probably any other accommodation we find won’t and (more importantly
2) It has a TV with a satellite dish which means English football (Sepak bolah Inggris off the top of my head, apologies for spelling) will be available on.
So we’re going to have to fight that out, obviously Suzanne has no interest in the football whereas as obviously I am! I also talked to Dinnia our programme manager who is going to find out more about if I can ride the motorbike which the hospital actually has available for us to use.
The evenings were spent hanging out (jalaan jalaan) with the other volunteers, Tjeed and Steve (who was observing so he could facilitate the next one) sat out discussing everything from conspiracy theories and global warming to the rules for cricket. I actually had a couple (when I say that I do literally mean only 2!) bottles of the local Indonesian beer, bintang (which means star). It’s not exactly top class but I’ve actually not touched a drop since I arrived (about 5 weeks) so it was nice.
The whole conference was really nice although it did make all of us a little suspicious, three days in a lovely hotel with great food and a swimming pool and at the end of it they ask you to sign the three way agreement (employer, vso and volunteer) which is basically like a contract. All this before you’ve visited your placement! It does just make you a little paranoid about what lies in wait.
My mail arrived as well from the office, I unexpectedly had two peices of mail. One was from my parents and contained my new barlcay card and the other bit was a genuine surprise. It was from the Student loan company telling me apparently I hadn’t sent a letter showing I worked for VSO with a form I had to fill in so they sent me the form back. This is annoying as I asked left it to be sent along with the form (mentioning no names, mother) but what is more annoying is that they will deduct from my bank another a payment in line with my previous NHS earnings, some £250. The really annoying thing is the complete lack of common sense, they had my e-mail address on the form but instead sent a letter to the opposite side of the world which takes about 6 weeks to arrive, they will feel my wrath, I feel a strongly worded letter coming on.
I actually came away from the conference with a real confidence boost which actually helps with language as nine tenths of it is having the conviction to have a go and risk getting it wrong. When I got back to my homestay, I sat outside drinking coffee and chatting to the father of my homestay father (motorbike guy from previous posts). It was really nice and I find I can sort of get my very basic contributions across.
On the Saturday afternoon we went to the first VSO office family beach games (the asian beach games were going on Bali). We got a Bemo there which is a sort of a cross between a small bus and a taxi. The drivers showed an ineptitude I have yet not seen and we had to end up directing them to the district and then they tried to rip us off! It was really nice all the staff brought their families and we had a great time, I even got to give a yellow card for dissent to the country director (big boss!) in a game I refereed. It really was a great time and much fun.
Wanted to watch rovers but unfortunately it was a 5:30 kick off (thanks setanta, again!) rather than a 12:30 which I had thought. I couldn’t stay late as I still had to pack for my first trip to Rote and my flight was at about 11 the next morning and staying up till three felt a little risky for a morning flight.
Sorry this update is a little dull really, especially for all you sadists who wanted to hear me suffer again, but ahead lay my first visit to Kupang and then Rote, it was pretty daunting and I had no idea what it would be like, beautiful island paradise or prison island, who knows......
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