November- a nothing month
As you will all doubtless know, I am doing this retrospectively. So as I’ve been sat in my house, I’ve tried to think of anything interesting that happened in November and failed.
SO I sat down and looked through the e-mails I sent in November and it turns out that actually..... nothing happened!
See! And now some of you wonder why I don’t update often! To be honest, I think it’s actually the only month since I’ve been here that really there wasn’t anything to report.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Blog expanatory note
Blog- explanatory note
Well as I sit here in my house writing this, it’s been a long time since I updated for which I can only apologise. I’ve basically decided to put together a summary of each of the many months that have passed since I last updated.
I’m sorry it has been so long but I just wanted to explain why I haven’t got round to doing it as well as why I have decided to restart.
To be honest, I think the main reason my posts have become more infrequent leading to this huge hiatus is because as I have settled in, there have become fewer and fewer examples of me acting ineptly so there has been fewer anecdotes to share. But then if you’re reading this, you must have at least some interest in what’s going on in my life.
But the main reason I’ve restarted has been the events of the past few weeks here. As some of you may know, at the start of February, my grandma died quite suddenly at home. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it home for the funeral and it was generally very difficult time for me. But one of the regrets I had is that I know that she very much enjoyed sitting down at breakfast and my granddad would read a print out of this blog for her. When she died I felt very guilty that I had let my updates slip and that she hadn’t kept her updated with all that was going on in my life.
So it is with this renewed vigour that I am updating.
Well as I sit here in my house writing this, it’s been a long time since I updated for which I can only apologise. I’ve basically decided to put together a summary of each of the many months that have passed since I last updated.
I’m sorry it has been so long but I just wanted to explain why I haven’t got round to doing it as well as why I have decided to restart.
To be honest, I think the main reason my posts have become more infrequent leading to this huge hiatus is because as I have settled in, there have become fewer and fewer examples of me acting ineptly so there has been fewer anecdotes to share. But then if you’re reading this, you must have at least some interest in what’s going on in my life.
But the main reason I’ve restarted has been the events of the past few weeks here. As some of you may know, at the start of February, my grandma died quite suddenly at home. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it home for the funeral and it was generally very difficult time for me. But one of the regrets I had is that I know that she very much enjoyed sitting down at breakfast and my granddad would read a print out of this blog for her. When she died I felt very guilty that I had let my updates slip and that she hadn’t kept her updated with all that was going on in my life.
So it is with this renewed vigour that I am updating.
October blog
October: VSO giveth and VSO taketh away.....
Well October was a very strange month which was a result of two messages from VSO which both came somewhat out of the blue. Firstly, I got an e-mail from my manager saying that the love of my life here in Rote, my lovely shiny megapro which I loved, had to be returned. It turns out there was a clause in a contract which VSO had with another organisation which meant that the bike had to be returned to the local NGO where it had originally been placed. It was a very upsetting experience; we had become very close over those few months. We had been through a lot together; in august we even hit our first cow together after it had been hiding at the side of the road and then in what can only be described as bovine suicidal rush, jumped out right in front of us, thankfully neither of us were injured, not even a scratch on her beautiful shiny wheels. Add to that on the ‘hit’ list, 4 chickens (they few into us) and on the ‘near miss’ list there were- numerous dogs, herds of goats and a fully grown sprinting pig....
But alas, those days of freedom were over. I should point out I still had access to a bike as I would then be sharing the GL Max with Suzanne. now the sharing wasn’t so much as the bike itself. It’s a perfectly fine bike, but it’s a push at 6’2” (and let’s face it, fairly solidly built even after the weight loss) to comfortably ride a 160cc bike, so then trading it in for a 125cc bike is going to be tough. It’s possible but not especially comfortable. It also means sometimes overtaking uphill can be quite tricky. It is however still preferable to and (just about) quicker than walking.
However, VSO had not finished ‘taking away’ (I’m not blaming them for either problem incidentally!). It emerged that in fact under the new rules of our visa agreement, Suzannes job was no longer viable. This meant that at the end of her visa (in March), VSO was not able to extend her VISA. Now this was quite a blow for her really, when you consider that she wasn’t able to be in Rote for several months due to her medical dog related problems, then she had just started to feel settled and get some good work done when she was told she would have to leave early. She was, understandably upset by this.
So she started looking at alternative jobs and options, but generally not fun. In one way however, she was very fortunate; she still had to 6 months to run on her visa. There was a volunteer couple working over in Flores who only had a few days left on their VISA when they discovered it could not be extended. After some negotiation with the government, VSO managed to get them an additional two weeks in which to pack up all their work and belongings and leave the country.
October also saw my parents come to visit me in Indonesia. We had a week in Rote and then I took a week off and we went over to Maumere in flores for a week. It was great and they actually did really well as it was insufferably hot even for Indonesia, so to go from an English October to the hottest time of the year in Indonesia and survive was quite an achievement.
We didn’t actually do that much whilst we were away, I really just needed some time off so it was a lot of time spent on the beach of our hotel sipping juice and enjoying the food! As well as being able to enjoy the company of my father, someone who not only likes but actually understands English football, it had been a long time since I’d been able to talk to such a person at length!
One day however we did hire a driver and head off across Flores. Our main destination was the ‘three coloured lakes’ which are... well.. three lakes which are different colours
INSERT photo
Well actually, when we were there, it was only really 3 lakes, 2 colours. They are on top of a volcano and it’s some mineral that changes their colours. After a somewhat slow start to the day (our driver was actually about two hours late because as it turned out, he’d been up late in/losing a fight with someone) but after that we headed across Flores. It was several hours drive but when you get there, it is amazing if not really really weird. The whole thing just feels completely surreal.
After that we toured around one or two other places nearby. We went to one town well known for its weaving of local cloth (Ikat) and the driver asked if we wanted to stop and buy some my father and I shrugged and looked at my mum who said no. by this point, being off season and there being a dearth of tourists, women from all around had started to bring their cloth out. so we drove through the village until my mum suddenly said ‘actually I really would like some, can we go back?’.
So we returned to the market/selling area. Now by this point we had just driven the length of the village TWICE allowing every would-be seller to see us and come out. Now I had already told my parents this village was well known for really harassing you into sales so wasn’t overly chuffed at giving plenty of notice of our prescence!
BY the time we made it back to the buying area, the whole village had become like a scene from ‘night of the living dead’, scores and scores of women walking towards us with their arms outstretched in front of them (with ikat hanging off them) all calling out ‘cheap cheap, special price and other such slogans’.
I should also point out, although I love my mother dearly, she is a nightmare in such situations. All of these women are independently selling and my mum takes a long time to decide about purchases, in which time the crowd is getting steadily larger. When she does decide on what she wants, she then asks me to try and negotiate “X amount for these three” not realising that each one belongs to a different woman. Eventually after an eternity we return to the car with purchased ikat, as I get to the car I see that my father is stood there joyfully pointing every seller towards me.
But anyway, aside from that, it was a really nice week, it was nice to catch up with them and they even brought me loads of gifts, including a fedora which I love although I’m fairly sure most of those around me are yet to be convinced.
Well October was a very strange month which was a result of two messages from VSO which both came somewhat out of the blue. Firstly, I got an e-mail from my manager saying that the love of my life here in Rote, my lovely shiny megapro which I loved, had to be returned. It turns out there was a clause in a contract which VSO had with another organisation which meant that the bike had to be returned to the local NGO where it had originally been placed. It was a very upsetting experience; we had become very close over those few months. We had been through a lot together; in august we even hit our first cow together after it had been hiding at the side of the road and then in what can only be described as bovine suicidal rush, jumped out right in front of us, thankfully neither of us were injured, not even a scratch on her beautiful shiny wheels. Add to that on the ‘hit’ list, 4 chickens (they few into us) and on the ‘near miss’ list there were- numerous dogs, herds of goats and a fully grown sprinting pig....
But alas, those days of freedom were over. I should point out I still had access to a bike as I would then be sharing the GL Max with Suzanne. now the sharing wasn’t so much as the bike itself. It’s a perfectly fine bike, but it’s a push at 6’2” (and let’s face it, fairly solidly built even after the weight loss) to comfortably ride a 160cc bike, so then trading it in for a 125cc bike is going to be tough. It’s possible but not especially comfortable. It also means sometimes overtaking uphill can be quite tricky. It is however still preferable to and (just about) quicker than walking.
However, VSO had not finished ‘taking away’ (I’m not blaming them for either problem incidentally!). It emerged that in fact under the new rules of our visa agreement, Suzannes job was no longer viable. This meant that at the end of her visa (in March), VSO was not able to extend her VISA. Now this was quite a blow for her really, when you consider that she wasn’t able to be in Rote for several months due to her medical dog related problems, then she had just started to feel settled and get some good work done when she was told she would have to leave early. She was, understandably upset by this.
So she started looking at alternative jobs and options, but generally not fun. In one way however, she was very fortunate; she still had to 6 months to run on her visa. There was a volunteer couple working over in Flores who only had a few days left on their VISA when they discovered it could not be extended. After some negotiation with the government, VSO managed to get them an additional two weeks in which to pack up all their work and belongings and leave the country.
October also saw my parents come to visit me in Indonesia. We had a week in Rote and then I took a week off and we went over to Maumere in flores for a week. It was great and they actually did really well as it was insufferably hot even for Indonesia, so to go from an English October to the hottest time of the year in Indonesia and survive was quite an achievement.
We didn’t actually do that much whilst we were away, I really just needed some time off so it was a lot of time spent on the beach of our hotel sipping juice and enjoying the food! As well as being able to enjoy the company of my father, someone who not only likes but actually understands English football, it had been a long time since I’d been able to talk to such a person at length!
One day however we did hire a driver and head off across Flores. Our main destination was the ‘three coloured lakes’ which are... well.. three lakes which are different colours
INSERT photo
Well actually, when we were there, it was only really 3 lakes, 2 colours. They are on top of a volcano and it’s some mineral that changes their colours. After a somewhat slow start to the day (our driver was actually about two hours late because as it turned out, he’d been up late in/losing a fight with someone) but after that we headed across Flores. It was several hours drive but when you get there, it is amazing if not really really weird. The whole thing just feels completely surreal.
After that we toured around one or two other places nearby. We went to one town well known for its weaving of local cloth (Ikat) and the driver asked if we wanted to stop and buy some my father and I shrugged and looked at my mum who said no. by this point, being off season and there being a dearth of tourists, women from all around had started to bring their cloth out. so we drove through the village until my mum suddenly said ‘actually I really would like some, can we go back?’.
So we returned to the market/selling area. Now by this point we had just driven the length of the village TWICE allowing every would-be seller to see us and come out. Now I had already told my parents this village was well known for really harassing you into sales so wasn’t overly chuffed at giving plenty of notice of our prescence!
BY the time we made it back to the buying area, the whole village had become like a scene from ‘night of the living dead’, scores and scores of women walking towards us with their arms outstretched in front of them (with ikat hanging off them) all calling out ‘cheap cheap, special price and other such slogans’.
I should also point out, although I love my mother dearly, she is a nightmare in such situations. All of these women are independently selling and my mum takes a long time to decide about purchases, in which time the crowd is getting steadily larger. When she does decide on what she wants, she then asks me to try and negotiate “X amount for these three” not realising that each one belongs to a different woman. Eventually after an eternity we return to the car with purchased ikat, as I get to the car I see that my father is stood there joyfully pointing every seller towards me.
But anyway, aside from that, it was a really nice week, it was nice to catch up with them and they even brought me loads of gifts, including a fedora which I love although I’m fairly sure most of those around me are yet to be convinced.
September blog
Blog September
Now I’ve been thinking back to September and couldn’t remember much so I looked over some old e-mails and it turns out, not that much happened to tell you all about!
However, at the start of the month I did, with my ever dependable Batman, Sam, organise a weekend conference for all the volunteers in NTT. At the time this was about 20 or so and we had to organise the entire weekend (accommodation, food, sessions etc) at about 3 weeks’ notice and on an incredibly small budget. Just to give you an idea of the scale of this, in 2008 they started planning nine months in advance of the same event!
Firstly, I should explain about the nature of volunteers. Although I love them all dearly, they can be a little difficult to organise. One of the qualities they look for when recruiting is being independent minded. You have to be to survive working in such odd conditions plus it actually makes them very good company and they are great to have around because they are always up for doing things/going places etc. However, it does make events such of this a little difficult.
I should further explain, I know that people do this because I have been one of the volunteers being organised at an event. But at such things, the majority of volunteers will, at some point in the day:
1) Criticise some element of organisation
2) Tell you how they would have done it better
3) Make some sarcastic joke at the organisers expense
Now I should reinforce, I know this because I have been someone who has done exactly that and truth be told, it’s not that bigger a deal on an individual basis and actually is normally pretty helpful and even if it isn’t, you have to be used to a bit of light ribbing. However what you forget is that when you say these things, you are just one of 20 people saying them which means even if everyone only says two out of these three, that makes forty comments a day, which kind of wears you down a bit!
Like I say, it’s really not a criticism, just a fact of life and I think is probably the same whichever group of people you get together!
But all in all, it went pretty well and people seemed to have fun and enjoy it which was the important thing. It did wear me out quite a lot though because we had to do a lot of organisation ‘on the hop’ plus just the two days solid of facilitating various sessions would have worn me out a fair bit! So all in all was ready for another holiday (having barely got back from Alor) but instead got to go back to my office and sit and read yet more medical records.......
Now I’ve been thinking back to September and couldn’t remember much so I looked over some old e-mails and it turns out, not that much happened to tell you all about!
However, at the start of the month I did, with my ever dependable Batman, Sam, organise a weekend conference for all the volunteers in NTT. At the time this was about 20 or so and we had to organise the entire weekend (accommodation, food, sessions etc) at about 3 weeks’ notice and on an incredibly small budget. Just to give you an idea of the scale of this, in 2008 they started planning nine months in advance of the same event!
Firstly, I should explain about the nature of volunteers. Although I love them all dearly, they can be a little difficult to organise. One of the qualities they look for when recruiting is being independent minded. You have to be to survive working in such odd conditions plus it actually makes them very good company and they are great to have around because they are always up for doing things/going places etc. However, it does make events such of this a little difficult.
I should further explain, I know that people do this because I have been one of the volunteers being organised at an event. But at such things, the majority of volunteers will, at some point in the day:
1) Criticise some element of organisation
2) Tell you how they would have done it better
3) Make some sarcastic joke at the organisers expense
Now I should reinforce, I know this because I have been someone who has done exactly that and truth be told, it’s not that bigger a deal on an individual basis and actually is normally pretty helpful and even if it isn’t, you have to be used to a bit of light ribbing. However what you forget is that when you say these things, you are just one of 20 people saying them which means even if everyone only says two out of these three, that makes forty comments a day, which kind of wears you down a bit!
Like I say, it’s really not a criticism, just a fact of life and I think is probably the same whichever group of people you get together!
But all in all, it went pretty well and people seemed to have fun and enjoy it which was the important thing. It did wear me out quite a lot though because we had to do a lot of organisation ‘on the hop’ plus just the two days solid of facilitating various sessions would have worn me out a fair bit! So all in all was ready for another holiday (having barely got back from Alor) but instead got to go back to my office and sit and read yet more medical records.......
August blog
Blog- August
So august saw the departure of the my visitors but not before the football competition. This was the under 15s competition for the island (opposed to the adult one in
Anyway, my lads were physically bullied by the opposition who were all far closer to the fifteen years old cut off age and drew two games and lost the third meaning we didn’t get out of the group stage.
I was, as anyone who has seen me watch or play football, the stereotypically overly vocal football manager. Although, as I found out, this is far far harder in a second language. At one point, I was incensed by a foul on one of my players and shouted at the “kartu pirring” when what I meant was ‘kartu kunning’ as a result, instead of telling the referee to give the opposition player a yellow card, I just shouted out ‘plate card’ (as in a plate you put food on) which makes about as much sense in Indonesian as it does in English. There was a very strange moment as the referee, all the players and the crowd which was probably 100+ all sort of stopped and just looked at me in a very confused manner....
As you will see from the pictures, I shunned the ‘crombie’ manager wardrobe and instead pose as a player in the hope that I could pass myself off as being a freakishly tall albino 14 year old who had already developed a great deal of facial hair, my plan was not a success......
Some of the crowd became prepared for my teams wayward finishing
WOMAN WITH HELMET photo
The end of august brought a nice holiday in Alor. Alor is a small island in the
PHOTO OF MAN WITH FISH
And some evidence I did actually go diving
DIVING PHOTO
But I will I do look far from graceful in this photo!
I should say, I really needed the break from work. As part of my job in the hospital I had been auditing old medical records within the hospital in order to find any that were still current. This mean I had to go through all the records over five years old and see if any had been used in that time. Some of these had various drawings from when some of the doctors had become bored during appointments (a bird, a house and one time what looked like a camel) but also the always useful description of an appointment, just two words- ‘orang sakit’ which translated as ‘sick person’.
Anyway, at that time my basic day consisted of- get up, go to work, read medical records, go home, sleep, repeat. By the time I’d gone on holiday, I think I’d looked through something like 10,000 which was only about a fifth of all the records. Fun times.....
Monday, 12 October 2009
week 56 ish
July
Well hannahs departure was swiftly followed by the arrival of my motorbike. VSO has a number of motorbikes which are given to those who need them in their placements, which does not include me. However, if there are spare ones knocking about then they can be borrow and used until they are needed by the organisation. To this end I my Honda Mega Pro arrived with it’s devastating 160cc of power arrived. Now I know in England even I would mock someone calling 160cc a big bike however here it really is as big as you can get.
It makes such a difference to my life, it really open everything up. Don’t get me wrong I really like Ba’a however without a bike, you really are just consigned to the town and at the mercy of Ojek drivers. With the bike I can nip down to nembrala any time I want and generally do as I please. It was especially well timed as I had by this point moved into town into a new flat (complicated why) so it made my commute much easier. One less nice aspect was that in the first few weeks someone kindly pushed it over outside my house overnight and then a couple of weeks later, Suzanne borrowed and subsequently dropped it. It took quite a battering in those first few weeks and it took me some time to get everything fixed and running smoothly.
I forgot to add in my last post, June actually saw the departure of Jude. He’d been here by himself for about 18 months before Suzanne had arrived working in the regional health office. It was really good having him here, he had a lot of personal contacts and was always willing to help or just make you a cup of tea or coffee and sit around and shoot the breeze. The new flat I’m in is actually a different room in the one he was living in before.
The flat is basically a penthouse in the middle of Ba’a above a shop. The room isn’t massive however it does have a really nice balcony area which I have pretty much to myself. I live with three other guys but they are no trouble at all. It just makes a big difference to me having some privacy and freedom, living with the family before really was a pressured situation for me. For example every time I was ill (which is considerably less these days) I would have to have the following conversation when I stepped out of my door
'mr john where are you going?'
'I'm going to the toilet'
'oh..... but you've just been to the toilet'
' yes I know'
'you are going to the toilet a lot'
'yes I know'
'are you sick?'
'Yes'
'diarrhoea?'
'yes'
'oh do you have drugs (their answer to everything)'
'Yes (I lie)'
'good'
And it just gets a bit much every single time. on another occasion I got up craving a shower and coffee and as soon as I walked out of the door, the daughter was there with a towel in her hands. She ran up to me and thrust it right in front of my face and said:
‘Mr John, look the dog had puppies in the night and this one was born dead’
Now as a general rule, I believe still born puppies should not be displayed in public especially not about 8 inches from my face pre 7am before my bloodstream has been sufficiently caffeinated. I know they were just being friendly and concerned but I guess it’s a different culture and I needed somewhere where I can retreat to and not be harassed because I’m white. There were quite a few reasons why I decided to move which I don’t really want to go into here.
The end of June (towards the end of hannahs visit) and July was incredibly busy for me because I was made the assistant manager of the Islands adult football team for the Regional competition in Flores, it was really quite a challenge. They aren’t bad players at all however they play as what they are, people who only get to see football on TV not actually watching it live. So their understanding of movement and positioning (especially for defending) is quite poor. SO I was there to help with training and try to drill some defensive discipline into them, all of which is quite difficult in a second language.
In the weeks preceding the competition, it really was quite a drain on me. we would hold training from three until six in the evening, for six days a week. This meant I was running training for about 18 hours a week, I would have just an hour between finishing work and then starting training in which to eat and get changed. This was pretty tiring as well as difficult to actually keep the training fresh and original.
When it actually came close to the event which was to be held in Bajawa (I have no idea of spelling) in Flores, it was decided by the powers that be that in addition to the manager, coach and players that a trip leader, local doctor, a government official, a treasurer and a number of individuals (none of whom had actually been involved in the training or preparations) should be paid for to travel to the competition BUT not me. It was decided that being white, should there be any trouble with the crowd, I may get scared and run back to England which would cause friction with the hospital. This is neglecting of course that I am at least two foot taller than anyone here and have spent years going to English football matches (including away matches at leeds, being under siege by several hundred unhappy Birmingham city fans and having to run the gauntlet of Blackburn vs Burnley matches) so a little hooliganism isn’t going to scare me!
So anyway, they went without me and promptly got pummelled in all their games, which without being egotistical, I believe is because I wasn’t there. I say this because having seen them play friendlies, despite all my work with them, if I wasn’t on the sidelines bellowing defensive instructions then they were pretty frail at the back.
It did mean I wasn’t away for my birthday which was a bonus. It was pretty low key really but very enjoyable. It was picnic on the beach and then spaghetti bolognaise in the evening (another bonus of having moved, it gives much more cooking freedom). So it was an enjoyable day but it’s a bit weird having it here, it’s just not the same as it is in England with family etc, not better or worse, just different.
The end of the month actually saw my older sister Jenny and her friend Alex come to the island for a holiday. I went to meet them in Bali, partially because I’d promised Doro I’d go visit her before she left. It was really good just to hang out with them all and generally get my hit of western food before heading back.
When we were all back in Rote I think they enjoyed themselves. We had a trip down to Nembrala including having a fire on the beach one night and generally chilling out. They also went to my friend Denvers school and helped out with an impromptu English lesson which included Jenny singing ‘I’m a little teapot’, she will probably kill me for writing that and she was highly embarrassed about it, such a sterling rendition is in fact still the talk of the island. But generally I think they had fun and enjoyed seeing how I live. They were also welcomed with open arms as they brought me a handsome supply of hobnobs and other goodies as well as a load of birthday presents.
As far as I can remember that was july, I’m sure loads more happened but my brain is old and weary...
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Summary for June
June
Well as I look back at my last post I realise that my ability to be reliable and update this is slipping somewhat. So what I propose, I’m going to write a summary for June, July and August so that I can get back up to date, they may not be the most interesting (I’m such a great salesman) but at leats it’s easier for me to keep on writing!
Right, to pick up hannah finally made it here after partying her way across Indonesia. It was great to see and catch up about various people best of all was that for twelve months I’d not actually heard an accent from the north of England, it was a refreshing change. She also brought with her a bountiful supply of treats from England, some editable others just practical (the essentials: kettle, hammock, dvds etc).
We went down and hung out in Nembrala for a few days which was great. We stayed at Mr Thomas’ homestay which boasts the best doughnuts available in Rote or cake for breakfast each morning and a very friendly if not slightly eccentric owner. We had a great time, there was a really good crowd staying down there who we hung out with, a birtish guy (Dave), an American (russ) and an aussie family (Danny, Tan, Leighton and jared) who were all good craic really.
So we hung out there for a few days then came back up to Ba’a. We had an afternoon in Jefri’s village which was generally hanging out, looking at paddy fields and then noticing how freakishly tall both hannah and I are in comparison to a lot of the locals when we posed for pictures.
The truth is, there isn’t that much else to tell about hannahs visit. We had a great time but we spent most of it just hanging out, chatting and chilling (which are hannahs three key life skills). But we had a good time and it was cool to just spend some time with her.
Now one slight oversight in the whole thing was the fact I actually hadn’t booked hannah’s flight back to Bali from Kupang, as I say a minor issue. So we decided that she would just chance getting a slight and we’d hope for the best, I should sya even if she missed it then she still had a day to spare. We just made it to the airport as the plane was boarding so I could run and buy her a ticket.
So all in all, not that exciting but very very enjoyable.
TO be honest, eating takeout, chilling out and chatting with hannah did take up a large part of my june, nothing else really happened aside from preparing for that and recovering from it!
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