Days 43-45 (visiting Roti for the first time)

Well today I got to see my office, it didn’t have a desk but did have a bed and quite a few of what I can only assume were dead insects or rat droppings on the floor, I didn’t look to closely. We also met the bupati who is the local official, sort of like an MP but is very significant. The hospital were keen for us to be introduced and I managed to chat to him in fairly broken Indonesian. My office will apprarently be cleaned up by the time I get here properly and have a desk, no bed, curtains (I’m right next to a waiting room) and a lock on the door.

Suzanne and I were also shown the house on site, it’s a two bedroom little house with two sort of living areas, a small kitchen and even smaller bathroom. It’s onsite which has it’s pros and cons, the hospital is up on a hill so if you live here and have no mode of transport (still waiting to find out on that) then getting down to the market could be a little tough.

On the plus side, it definitely has a TV which possibly may have satellite. Now I know you all think it is sad to be in an exciting country and care about such things but I’ve not watched any football since I got here, that’s like six and a half weeks, I even had the DTs at times. Given the time difference, on a sleepy island like this, it’s not as if there are any late opening bars to try and catch a match in. So hey, I know it’s sad but I don’t care!

So the plan is that Suzanne and I will both live there together until we find a second house which should only take a couple of weeks. The issue with the hill also means that should you live in the town (and I use that word in its loosest sense) then you then face a battle to get to work each day. Suzanne and I both agreed that it would be much better if we didn’t live together, the houses aren’t massive and it’s just an issue of personal space. Also it means one of us can visit the other and get out of the house to somewhere else every so often. We’ll see, we’re going to ‘discuss’ who lives where when we find a second place but it shouldn’t be too bad for the first few weeks.

We also registered with the local police, well I say police I’m not entirely sure! Two blokes in normal clothes who if I’m honest, would look more suited to loitering on street corners with mopeds, came up to the hospital and we had to provide them with copies of our passports. One is a friend of my boss and she assures me he is a police man otherwise I would have thought that we had just registered with the Rote Mafia!

The rest of the day was just spent sort of chilling out really, I wandered along to the pier to watch teh sunset. This is a pretty remote island and on the whole most white folks just get off the ferry into a taxi and down to Nembrela for the surfing so in Ba’a I sort of stick out a bit. Thus far I haven’t minded it too much but I could see it getting really annoying at times. You really are a novelty and if you stand in one place for a while you can hear yourself being discussed in what I can pick up from my language skills.

The language has been much better since the employers conference, nine tenths of it is about confidence and my tail is up a bit more these days so I am much better. I’m still not great and I suspect my grammar leaves a lot to be desired but I can normally get my message across.

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Another slow day really, Suzanne is able to get on with some work sitting with the head of nursing (who speaks good English really) and talk through ideas and possible changes. My job is a little more tricky, I’m going to have to be here for a while improving my language skills before I can get really stuck into making any sort of assessment of the medical records.

My boss has ideas but they are sort of far more vague so I need to make a proper assessment. Judging from the bundles stacked in the office somewhat haphazardly (I saw a dirty food plate on top of one stack) and the lack of any sort of lock on the door, it could be a challenge.

We went and opened our Indonesian bank accounts which appeared to mean signed countless forms which I didn’t full understand, most likely I now have a bank account but there is a small chance I may have bought a small property somewhere with a 200% morgage or bought into some pyramid scheme, I just signed anything in front of me, I’m sure it’ll be fine.

In the afternoon, we went with some of the doctors and drove down to Nembrala which is the area which is famous amongst surfers for its waves and beautiful beachs. I have to say, the beach really didn’t disappoint although it was a little surreal in places. That side of the island appears to have a great love of pigs, you see them everywhere wandering around on the roads and generally getting in the way. But they also wander on to the beach and seem to dig with their snouts into the ground as if hunting for truffles.

The beach is gorgeous, like something out of an advert. We walked up the beach and went and had a nosey at how the other half lives at a very expensive hotel. The hotel is apparently the most expensive on the island and rooms cost about two to four million rupiah a night which is about £125-£250 a night.

It was gorgeous and just as we were sort of loitering in the grounds then some bloke wandered up to us dripping wet with a surf board in hand. He was American and introduced himself as Greg, the manager and instead of telling us to clear off he invited us to hang out and use the facilities. He explained it was coming to the end of the season so they had no guests so we were more than welcome to use the pool etc. He was really cool and we discussed why we were here and he told us about the development work the hotel helps with in the area. So we swam and hung out and waited for the gorgeous sunset as it sunk into the sea.

Things here will be pretty tough work wise and overall I know it won’t always be a barrel of laughs here but as the sunset I just felt immensely lucky. I have been given an opportunity that a lot of the people never have, I’m just some bloke from Lancashire of no particular note and i was sat there on a gorgeous beach watching a spectacular sunset. Like I say, I’m under no illusions about how tough this will be and it won’t all be using the facilities of expensive hotels for free, hanging out on beaches and watching amazing sunsets, but I still know how lucky I am.

After that we drove back to Ba’a and went and ate in a fish restaurant. It was my first experience since I got here of being expected to eat rice and fish with my hands, it’s a tricky one I can tell you! When we got back to our hotel it was about nine and I nipped out to try to find some bottled water and see if the rather enticing looking bakery was still open. I may as well have been trying to shop at three in the morning, the place was dead. It’s not exactly an island of late night ravers. SO it looks like it’ll be two years o early nights for me, unless I can watch the football........