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Four days in reality

The wedding of the year took place on Solor on the 11^th July 2008, also our 44^th anniversary, and P M invited us to witness the event. His sister was getting married and this is my account of the whole adventure.

We set off on our journey on Tuesday morning by bus. Yes I know some of you know how I feel about buses, but hey we all have to do it at least once so bus it was. We were meant to leave at 7 a.m. and we are outside Puskopditben’s gate waiting for it to arrive. It came on time but went sailing past! Ombie and Yohanes our local helpers went charging off down the hill to call it back. Much amusement by all concerned, including the bus driver, who reversed back up the hill to collect us. Off we go, stopping at various places on the way to collect other passengers. We reach the terminal outside Ende and stop. No idea why as no one else boarded but at 8 we finally(?) set off to Maumere. But wait, 20 minutes up the road the driver gets a call on his mobile and back we go to the terminal to collect a straggler, a young girl of around 18 or 19. At 8:30 we start our journey, one and half hour late.

An hour out of Maumere we stop at some road works to allow a truck coming from the opposite direction to pass. He can’t as our side is blocked by a giant tarmac machine and a pile of boulders on his side prevents him from moving out onto the edge of the road. Much discussion later the road workers decide the only option is to move the tarmac machine. But wait, the starter battery is being used by the air compressor. Someone goes off to find a spanner to remove the battery cables. He returns and does the business but now the battery won’t come out the hole in the compressor. It went in so it must come out. After struggling for some minutes he removes the battery and carts it off to the tarmac layer. But then someone remembers the cables have to be moved as well so more shuffling about as they are removed and reconnected. The moment of truth. The driver attempts to fire up his engine but not a peep from the starter motor. More head shaking and probably sucking of the teeth as they discuss how to solve this one. Heads peer into the battery compartment, arms wave about and eventually there is a giant puff of dirty black smoke and yippee, we have lift off. The machine, tortoise like, moves a massive 5 feet, the truck eases by and we are off at last.

We arrive in Larantuka at 18:30 hours or 6:30 p.m. for the uninitiated. The driver, Alfred, who speaks rather more English than I speak Bahasa Indonesian delivers us to Hotel Tresna where he finds us a room. We establish where to eat and go to Nirwana (the only place in town apart from warungs which I refuse to use - I do have some standards). The roads and paths are somewhat better and cleaner than in Ende and bliss, no blaring Bemos. On the pitch black way back to the Tresna I am careful that Christine doesn’t fall down a hole so take the inside whilst she braves the traffic. We are talking and suddenly my world disappears and I find myself speaking to her navel. I have fallen (stepped into?) a hole, a meter square and just as deep. I am now standing in something wet and slippery and I remember the open sewers I was familiar with in Saudi Arabia. I think ‘ Oh s**t’ (or words to that effect), as I haul myself out of the hole. 5 days later I am still hobbling about with a swollen big toe to the amusement of everyone I recount my story to. AND YOU CAN STOP LAUGHING AS WELL, IT’S NOT FUNNY.

Morning arrives and we are met by P M who escorts us to the ferry. He refuses to allow me to carry any bags so I trail along, being brave about my swollen toe, trying to look as if I am not part of his party. We board the ferry. But wait, we are hemmed in by another ferry at the sharp end and by a ramp at the blunt end. The Captain, and I use that term somewhat loosely, now engages some of the passengers down in the steerage cabin hold to give the boat a shove off the jetty. A few arms are broken, heads crushed between the ferry hull and the concrete jetty and eventually, after numerous oohs and ahhs by the more fortunate of us to be witness to the circus, we sail out into the wide blue sea. At this point I think, do I really want to be here? I look for the life jackets of which there are none, heave an old lady from her place by an open port hole so that in the event of the inevitable disaster I can escape (sod the woman and children first) and settle down to die, either by drowning or by gangrene of the big toe.

An hour later we arrive at Solor jetty. Everyone piles off, occasionally being stopped as a goat (later to be part of our wedding feast) is cajoled off and the crew wrestle a motorbike onto the landing. We are instantly surrounded by ‘you want ojek mister?’ entreaties but we wave them aside and stand on a concrete platform waiting for our next move. A few minutes pass and a beaten up village truck rumbles and clatters into sight and jolts to halt. Turning to C I joke, ‘our transport has arrived’. She looks at me as if I have finally lost my senses, not that I had many to start with. But lo and behold  P M ushers us over and says ‘my brother has come to pick us up’. Another ambition is about to be achieved. We are offered the posh seats, next to the driver, everyone else clambers in the back, including the old lady I shoved aside on the ferry, a few sacks of rice are loaded, some goats, including the unfortunate soon to be makan creature and other miscellaneous odds and end and we move noisily off. The road is crushed stone, of which the entire Island is comprised and we arrive at the village some 10 bone crushing minutes later. My toe has resigned itself to everlasting agony but I cannot decide whether that hurts more than my rear end which has been under constant attack by the steel seat chassis which years ago ceased pretending to be a seat and metamorphosed into a  cruel and vindictive instrument of torture. Plus, I am now deaf from the unsilenced engine that is no longer an engine, rather a bag of bits roughly resembling one.

We disembark from our limousine and P M escorts us to our accommodation for the next few days. It is constructed of bamboo and timber and the first house he built. His brother now lives in it along with various other souls that might be visiting. We share it with at least six others but never really sure how many as people arrive, sleep and depart at odd times in the day. In preparation of our visit and out of sympathy with our western sensibilities he has installed 2 western toilets and fixed a mossie net over our bed. However, C attracts mossies wherever we go and her arms are soon covered in bites. They avoid me either because they don’t like my smell or the fear of instant death is greater than their love for blood.

We take a walk around the village which stands next to the beach. Within minutes we are accompanied by many children so I oblige and take the expected photos.

Now Ende is not exactly Singapore but until we arrived in Solor we considered Ende a place of poverty. But on Solor poverty takes on a different meaning entirely. Given the difficult terrain, its dryness, the rock strewn landscape, the trees and shrubs struggling to survive in this hostile environment why, one asks, do people choose to live here. Water is a constant problem and the ground is more rock than soil. P M explains as he points to a place barely discernable across the bay that as a young child he and his father would walk four hours to go there every morning simply to scratch for food and tend whatever few crops would grow there. At 2 they had to leave to get back before dark otherwise they would have to camp out for the night. He also recounted the 3 year famine his family survived when no rain fell at all and they survived by chewing tree bark and literally scratching in the ground for anything vaguely edible. On one occasion he remembers being beaten for taking some food meant for his sister but said he was so hungry it didn’t seem fair to him at the time for being beaten when he was so hungry. This from a man so generous that it is truly humbling to know him. Today, the Islanders still live essentially from hand to mouth and somehow retain both their dignity and their friendliness’ to relatively rich, white Europeans.  The answer to ‘why live here?’ is very simple, to those that are born here it is home.

The following morning, Thursday, we are up at 5 to the sound of music announcing the wedding day has begun. Someone has also located a tannoy system and is acting as master of ceremonies. At 6 we breakfast and at 8 we walk to the community  hall for the wedding Mass. The happy couple walk from P M’s new house (2 years in the building with 3 to go) accompanied by local musicians, dancers, singers and villagers leading them on there way.

The Mass and wedding service is some two and a half hours long followed by a vote of thanks by P M for all the help by the villagers in the wedding preparations. But P M is P M and I know what is coming next. He launches into a marketing speech about the importance of Ko-operasi Kredit and how learning to save can and does lead to a better economic society. Given he started a Ko-op group on Solor some seven years ago which has grown to a membership of 200 with other villages clamouring to join his group I think he is entitled to his speech. We depart at eleven for another breakfast, the now wedded couple accompanied back to the house by the same group that lead them to the community hall. There I meet his father and we have a very interesting conversation about what I’m not sure as I speak three words of Bahasa Indonesian and his English extends to ‘where you from’. A case of equal linguistic abilities so we get on like a house on fire. (my Bahasa Indonesian is ‘where’s the beer?’ (Ok four words for the pedantic)

At five we now move down to the meeting hall which all the villagers, some 600, have dressed and decorated and the reception begins. This will go on till 5.00am the next morning. We leave at around 11:00pm with P M as the festivities start to begin in earnest. He has no wish to jig around anymore than we do (remember the toe) so we say our goodbyes and return to our room. We are tired so thankfully flop into bed. But, others are now leaving, some of whom are staying where we are and when they come in they start a small private party of their own. The walls are paper thin and lined with pages from the Pos Kupang so every word and comment is very clear. Not the Pos Kupang dumbo, the party goers. We abandon sleep and resign ourselves to a disturbed night. At 2 a.m. the limousine (AKA Mitsubishi COLT diesel farm truck) parked outside our wall starts up and takes others back, I assume, to their homes – we are laughing now albeit somewhat hysterically.

At 5.00am  the survivors, musicians, dancers and any hardy souls with life remaining accompany the married couple back to P M’s house where the formality of him handing over his sister to her new husband is made; they are led to the marriage chamber (decorated throughout in white satin and flowers) and the day has ended.

At 6.00am we are up and breakfasting. Our ferry back to the mainland is at 7:30 and the limo returns from wherever to take us to the port or should I say collection of ramshackle buildings. Wedding guests are also with us but where is the goat? Of course, in my stomach, or some of it anyway.

At Larantuka we are met by our mobile driver, Frans. The plan is to make it to Maumere, stay overnight , stop at Kelimutu in the morning and reach Ende by Saturday afternoon. But, we are both dog tired, my gangrenous toe will not suffer a walk up a b mountain to see a patch of funny coloured water so we catch a quick lunch with Peter, Geoff and JPA staff in Maumere (many thanks for their hospitality) and move straight on to Ende. Ha, that’s the plan anyway. As with all things Indonesian planning is at the bottom of the heap and out of sight. We reach Moni on schedule and expect to reach Ende in just over an hour. The rain starts as night falls. Drizzle at first then rain. The road from Moni to Ende is under constant construction, four bridges have collapsed since I arrived almost two years ago and the road is slippy but we have a careful driver.

Then the fog, as thick as I have seen smog in the UK, but not since the sixties when smoke control was introduced, comes down and replaces the rain. Things are now serious. There are quite big drops on one side of the road or other and there are no road markings. Not that you could see them even if there were any. We slow to half a klik an hour. The driver tails another car, we sigh with relief. If his lights suddenly disappear we will know he has gone over the cliff and we can stop in time (remember the old lady, I’m the original coward). The fog dissipates and we proceed apace. Not before C and I clap and cheer Frans for a job well done through the fog.  He acknowledges our applause with a grateful sigh.  At Ende money changes hands and we are home at last.

I am on the last few months of my time here, I had no plans to visit Larantuka, travel by bus or by village truck, visit Solor  and being an ex-marine engineer who once worked on North Sea oil rig boats ferries are the least of my must dos. In four days we did all that and this missive has been a thank you to P M for his kindness, consideration and being given the privilege of being able to visit his home, meet his family and being welcomed into his life. Thank you P M, we would not have missed it for all the tea in China.

Trip out?

Almost since the day I arrived the guy I work with here has said I must visit his home Island. A place called Solor to the East of Flores. However, communications are difficult and everything is expensive. He is building a house there for his family and some of the materials he transports there from Ende, not the cheapest place but cheaper than Solor. This includes carrying doors made by the famous carpenter to the rear of my original room. Some of you may remember the noise I commented on early in this blog. The doors are carried on a public bus along with various livestock and other odds and ends. To get to Solor from here means a bus to Larantuka, then a ferry(?), then more public transport.

 

This week he announced he had made arrangements for us to visit his home there. No problem as you learn to roll with it. However, we were in some confusion as to when. Was it Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday? We received various  answers so were no nearer understanding when. This morning, at breakfast, he turns up clutching a bus ticket and a note, barely readable with  the name of a hotel(?) written on it. We leave Tuesday morning at 6’ish and arrive Larantuka around the evening time, time indeterminate as the bus will stop for passengers to throw up as they are not good travellers, diversions to pickup or deliver livestock, building materials, foodstuffs, the odd stop for people to do a bit of shopping in any of the roadside markets we pass on the way and anything else that either the driver or a passenger wants to do. We are looking forward to the whole event as an adventure, probably never to be repeated. The ? hotel may be a bivouac or actually contain what looks like a bed and perhaps water. We shall see. More next week after our return.

 

In the meantime word is out that I am leaving Paradise (as our new Gyny volunteer fondly refers to Ende) and SMS’s are arriving from all over Indonesia asking for I.T. advice before I depart these shores. This includes Indonesia people I have never met as well as other volunteers. A colleague in Sumatra is working on her employer to employ me and suddenly I am receiving invitations to visit places I have to look up on the map. However, in October I leave for pastures anew. Where, remains to be seen. Some dirty, stinking rat hole no one has heard of I have no doubt but as a way of spending early retirement it can not be beaten. The one advantage of being vaguely knowledgeable about I.T. is that electricity is, almost guaranteed, so a mud hut in the middle of desert, forest, or some other wonderful location is essentially ruled out. Six or so months back in the UK catching up with the latest developments, boring friends (they won’t be afterwards) and relatives (they have to be polite) with all the horror stories I can manufacture, showing endless photos only really interesting to me and mine, getting as much free beer as I can persuade others to buy me and I will want to return to reality.  Reality is where you find it and where you hang your hat at night. Yeh, I know, only baldy bonces need hats. Or so I’m told.

Short intermission

Small advert.

I interrupt this service for a short announcement. I will be leaving in October for pastures new (he said, hopefully) and VSO is looking to replace me (some chance of that, I am irreplaceable) but nevertheless...

If you are interested in taking over from me, but have a mix of finance, banking, customer service, plus a strong interest in I.T. and are daft enough to want to see for yourself what all this rubbish is really about go to http://www.vso.org.uk/volunteering/ and apply. Only the best get through so if are rubbish (be honest now, the truth will out) stop reading now. Good luck.

Normal service, if you can call it that will now be resumed.

Use of mobiles

We were expecting a visitor from Maumere. At worst around 4 hours. This time over 8. Why? They had planned to camp overnight near the Kelimentu site (3 coloured lakes about an hour from here) but as they approached someone discovered they couldn’t find their wallet. Turn round and go back to Maumere. Find wallet on the table and set off again for the 3 lakes. Start to pitch camp and 2 uniformed rangers turn up and inform them camping is no longer allowed on the site. By now it is dark so they decide to continue on to see us. Beer flows and a decision is made to continue the journey to Bajawa and stop on the way and camp. The roads at night here are dark and with landslides and potholes the size of small bomb craters plus vertical drops either to the left or the right I suggest that they might manage to pitch one side of the tent but there might be a 200 foot drop when the attempt to pitch the other side. Like all brave(!) adventurers they decide to proceed regardless.

I have not heard from them since so if anyone out there discovers 4 intrepid travellers at the bottom of a steep valley give them my regards.

My time here is fast approaching its end. We had planned to visit friends and relatives before returning to the UK, however, the rising cost of oil has increased the fares by over 50% so sorry folks, another time perhaps when the guy in Indonesia publishes his invention of using water instead of petrol (do not hold your breath on that one).

 

With 4 months to go the organisation I work for is desperately scheduling as much training as they can before I leave. Ok with me as I prefer being busy than bored. I often say I can be bored in comfort at home but 12 hour training days does take its toll and a day off, yippee, tomorrow, will be very welcome.

 

As last year the weather here is unsettled. Last year the rainy season was dry, this year the dry season is wet. Draw your own conclusions.

Today our broadband supplier submitted his invoice. What service, we have been unable to connect for two months now so he was sent away with a flea in his ear, no service no pay. At home such an event would not have happened and any possibility of no payment would not arise. Here, one of two things will happen.  Either the service will be restored sometime this century or, more likely, nothing will be done by the service provider and we shall continue to use dial up and the broadband gear will slowly moulder away unused and unloved by anyone.

 

Service resumed! Turns out the ISP changed the DNS addresses and with the best of customer service in mind, failed to tell anyone.

 

A high powered(?) meeting was held this week to discuss finance and other relatively unimportant stuff. Some 25 senior personages were in attendance along with 3 from Jakarta. Not in my line of work at all so I can observe with a reasonable degree of disinterest and hereby report the non-collated results of my extremely scientific study.

 

3 leave the meeting minutes after it starts for a fag outside. 2 answer their mobile phone as the chairman gets into his stride. 1 decides now is the time to SMS a colleague across the room (probably to say shall we have a fag with the others) and they both get up and leave the room together. Now there are 5 outside. 2 open their mobile and seem to be playing games. 3 more start their laptops up and we are serenaded with the Windows start up jingle. 1 opens the Jakarta Post and studies the sports page (we are in the middle of the Euro Cup remember) whilst another, not to be left out, goes for an ancient Flores Post he must have spotted at the entrance. The chairman ends his intro speech and the meeting, now depleted by those obviously tending to more important business (see earlier sentences) begins. By now those not occupied elsewhere are falling asleep if the snore like noises are anything to judge by and one has almost fallen off his chair trying to balance his feet on the table. Then, the killer move by the leader, he calls for a blackout as a “death by PowerPoint” is about to start. By now I can barely contain my laughter and decide I have a very urgent computer problem to fix. I depart.

I am pleased to report that the meeting was judged a huge success by all not present.

 

17 or perhaps 21 Islands

No broadband for two months now – and everyone using the limited number of  dial up connections makes the web very slow. The operator first told us it was a router problem, then a server problem, neither of which I believe. I reckon the I.T. man is hoping an answer will fall from the sky.

Another epic about the latest adventures.

A trip to Riung with two Dutch volunteers of our age.  Riung is a small fishing village on the north coast  about 90 miles from Ende and takes around 4 hours to get there along what feels like a track at times.  There are about 22 small islands (17 according to the Government who thought it more appropriate as it fits in with Independence day August 17) with white sandy beaches dotted around and with good snorkel and swimming .  The landscape changes after getting through the mountains and it's similar to Scotland or the Yorkshire Dales.  The people also get poorer and poorer.  We passed a young boy balancing a dead goat on his bike (the bike had old fashioned round handlebars and probably  dated from the 1940s or 50s) and a farm truck crammed full of live chickens all squashed in together. Probably going to the market where they are killed as the customers buy them.

Our driver deposited us at a hotel run by missionaries which he said was expensive but the best place.  Expensive is 8 pounds a night for two with breakfast in clean rooms with a shower (albeit cold water) and a flushing toilet, a real luxury.  There is no electricity in Riung but we were connected to a generator that supplied power for a limited time in the evening.  We arranged a guide (Chris), a fishing boat and "captain" and lunch for the huge sum of 25 pounds for the four of us and were picked up at seven the next day.

A community of Muslim water gypsies live at subsistence level by fishing down by the harbour.  The houses are on stilts near the mangrove swamps and when the tide comes in they are surrounded.  Why the children don't drown is a mystery, especially the tiny ones and it is probably rife with disease as there are mosquitoes everywhere.  In July and August tourists arrive and boosts their income. However, last year, because of the IATA ban on the local airlines there were none and it hit the area badly.

All the islands are now a nature reserve and uninhabited. The first island visited was where giant fruit bats live.  They hang in the trees during the day sounding and looking a bit like birds and at night fly over to Riung to eat papaya and anything else in season if they are not shooed off by the villagers.  Average bat span around half a metre.

We chugged round several smaller islands, stopped and bought  squid from a fisherman and then landed on the island where we spent  the day.  The sea is warm bath temperature and very clear.  The coral, blue, and brightly coloured fish along with a huge number of star fish which are everywhere right up to the shore.

While swimming the guide and fisherman cooked lunch on an open fire and the guide had brought rice, noodles, and vegetables cooked ready to go with the fish. 

Then, a real bit of luck. Chris asked us if we would like him to cook us a meal at his house the following evening.  Thinking we were being altruistic we said yes and gave him the money for the food (4 pounds each) thinking it would be an experience if nothing else. More of this later.

The following day we were in the market when we met him buying the food for the meal and we asked him to tell us where we could walk.  He left the fish at the hotel and came with us saying there were no other tourists and he'd got nothing else to do that morning - and wouldn't take any money.  He took us along a country road to Riung village and saw women weaving and an old woman of 70 making clay pots.

Walking with Chris he spoke about last year.  He lives in a community of 200 people.  They only have one rice crop a year which occupies them for four months and for the rest of the time they rely on tourists and fishing.  Because there were no tourists last year there was real poverty.  Chris keeps goats and because he couldn't afford to mend the roof, the goats got wet, got ill and most of them died and he couldn't afford to replace them.  Now this guy is really enterprising.  He's taught himself English and was saying to that although he had goats they don't drink the milk or make cheese (he knows Europeans do both) or use the skins because they do not have the knowledge.  He commented about the stupidity of buying milk powder for babies.  He also wanted to know what we did when the cows and goats stopped producing milk. We explained and this was a revelation.  Anyway the upshot was that I've said to him that we'll get in touch with the VSO to see if they could help.  It would be a brilliant project teaching them how to cure skins and make stuff for the tourists as all the skills are there and it would make extra income for the women making purses etc.

And now to the meal. We went out to Chris' house in a car that a German couple had hired.  Ours was meant to arrive but was still waiting in Ende for petrol to arrive from Maumere. Chris knew the driver and had persuaded him to take us out there for free because he was being paid by the Germans - we did give him some money.  There was no electricity, the house was made of bamboo with cement floors and all the cooking was done on a fire outside. We ate - just the four of us at a table lit by two candles and it was the best meal any of us have had for months.  Come to think of it I don't think I've even eaten so well in England.  We started with pumpkin soup, then roasted duck from an open fire, a huge fish called locally called an Emperor (around half a metre long and 12-15 cms thick, aubergines cooked in a tomato and onion sauce, papaya flowers and the leaves of potatoes cooked together rice and noodles with peppers.   It turns out he used to work as a waiter in a restaurant in Moni (another tourist village) and between customers used to watch how things were done and now makes extra money cooking with his wife for tourists who don't mind coming to his house. 
 
There had been a bit of a panic early that evening (hence the German car) as our driver had sent a text message to say the garage had run out of diesel and he couldn’t come to collect us until there had been a delivery.  As it was he arrived at 3.00am, had four hours sleep and then had an eight hour drive to take us back via Bajawa. We had intended to do a quick tour of the hot springs and mini volcanoes (dead) at Bajawa but decided to do that another day.  The drivers are paid for a flat rate per trip regardless of whether they have to come up the day before or perhaps finish at 11.00pm at night.  The hotels and home stays have a room with about four bunk beds in them where the drivers sleep when they have to come up overnight. 

I could go on and on about the banks of flowers along the road to Bajawa, the funeral we passed where they were carrying the front half of a dead pig by its legs (sawn in half and its innards removed), the ikat weaver who gave a discount  when she learned that I was a volunteer with the same group of credit unions she belonged to but I’ll desist.

Here the weather is behaving most peculiarly.  We had an earth tremor last week, and it’s supposed to be the dry season but it rained yesterday – weird. 

Off  to Singapore, again, next week for a visa run.  Meant to be going last month but got as far as Bali, had ears checked because it they felt odd and was told not to fly. 

A sense of Humour?

During our trip to Java we decided, with others, to visit Prambanan, a rather large Hindu temple complex. However, we arrived in the middle of a thunderstorm so decided to give it a miss whilst the others braved the rain. We hovered around the entrance and watched various groups go in and come out. No sign of our group so I decided to sms and find out where they were. On the way back to the hotel was the reply. Wonderful!  After a few, real, phone calls the car came back and a very embarrassed organiser. Couldn’t organise the proverbial p*** up in a b******* came to mind but what the hell, this is Indonesia after all.

Since then it has been very quiet. Some computers we were expecting to arrive from Surabaya are still somewhere on the Ocean between here and there and until they turn up, no training. Plus, the entire broadband Internet system in Ende has collapsed. This has been going on for weeks now and the only information is that the system in Singapore, where our ISP is based, has suffered a virus. Yeh, and I’m the King of Siam. But the Indonesians do not complain so the service will, eventually resume but only when the supplier feels like it. If you recall I commented around Christmas about a so called ISP I wanted to use for our website. Here it is, almost May, and total silence on that front. One of my students brought in a machine fro repair. After testing it it proved to be the mother board. No problem, he will buy one from one of the “computer shops” in Ende. Two hours later he appears with a new motherboard. We fit it, it doesn’t work. We remove it and he returns it for a refund. Sorry, you buy, no refund. And this is to a local man! He shrugs his shoulders and says “this is Indonesia”. The board cost the equivalent of a week’s wages to him.

A fellow volunteer ordered some parts from Java for his coca processing machinery. The office is 40 meters from the dock. The parts are delivered to Ende, some 4 hours away and only if the road is open. He tries to ring the agent. Either no connection or no answer. When he does get through a woman answers the phone and immediately puts it down. He sms’s me to see whether I can resolve it. In the meantime he has phoned Java who informs him the agent in Ende has already dispatched it to him in Maumere. We can not trace the agent but miracles of miracles his parts turn up some 4 weeks later. How do you translate 4 hours to 4 weeks? Only here in this tropical paradise.

I decide to visit the 3 Museums in Ende. After all I have been here 18 months now and really ought to explore the place. I find them all, all shut, weeds and other large plants growing around the entrances. Abandon hope all ye who enter Ende. But for all this I prefer it to Bali where the Island is very tourist oriented (as you would expect of course) and fine for a tourist but not a place to just pass the time, waiting, as I often am for a flight to somewhere else.

Our local airline, who shall remain nameless on pain of me being thrown in gaol, has introduced yet another new schedule. This it does around every 6 months or so. I believe it is a ruse to confuse an already confused population as to it intentions. An intention it definitely does not have is to keep to any schedule, fictitious or otherwise. A recent innovation is to start flying twin otters. This will increase our flying time by a factor of two but probably enable the pilot to maintain his annual flying hours. Recently arrived volunteers to this wonderful Island had made pre-arrangements to return to Europe with no days between flights. I explained that it is wise to plan 3 days to exit Flores from Ende. Their plan has no lee way at all and I get the impression they think I am exaggerating. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your viewpoint) on their first trip back to Bali they experience a 3 day delay in leaving the Island, first from cancelled flights, then, because it rained, a further cancellation. They are re-scheduling their European plans. Enough said.

Two accidents outside our accommodation this week. Traffic lights were installed just after I arrived here at the junction as many accidents were occurring. Not that it makes much difference, if you want to go through a red light just sound your horn and hope nobody is coming the other way. The first was two motorcyclists in a head on, no real injuries, just a lot of screaming from the local girls sitting on our wall waiting for a Bemo. Each rider shrugged their shoulders, remounted and rode away. The second one was more interesting. A Bemo suddenly suffered a mechanical breakdown and stopped in the middle of the road. The road is barely wide enough for two to pass so the traffic mounts the curb (a bit ambitious to call it a curb but allow me some literary license) on either side and continues on. This happens at around 5:30 in the evening. Much low discussion between driver and his mate, the passengers disembark and catch another Bemo, a rear wheel is removed and wheeled up the hill, and silence. By 7 another Bemo arrives complete with a load of spares and a ‘mechanic’. At 9:30 the Bemo is fixed and off it goes. But remember, the Bemo stopped in the middle of the road. And that’s where it stayed until it drove off. We now have a wider road and many opportunities for even better accidents as the locals attempt to overtake on a road that is wider for all of 20 feet.

And to cap a really interesting period my watch battery has stopped, despite being replaced just 18 months ago (it normally lasts for 3 or 4 years). I now have no idea of the time but as no one here has much idea anyway of time it is no big deal. And my spare pair of reading glasses has lost as screw. I am now very careful about my remaining pair. I’m off to Singapore in a week so both will be fixed there, I hope, and always provided I actually get off Flores. Hey ho, he says, tempted towards the ******* pill.

Meetings, bloody meetings

Just returned to Flores having been away for almost three weeks and I have to say that despite leaving behind hot water, showers, food, taxis and shopping it was good to see the mountains again.

Where to begin?   We arrived on Java via Maumere, Kupang (East Timor), changed planes to Surabaya on Java, then another plane to Yogyakarta and a taxi to a three star hotel with flushing loos and its own swimming pool.  You can see how low I’ve sunk when I enthuse about the plumbing first. 

First event, the annual VSO partner’s conference was unremarkable but it does explain why we were in Yogyakarta.  The event finished with dinner and a cultural evening.  No problem the Brits thought, food followed by a display of Javanese dancing.  Oh no.  The entertainment had to be provided by the volunteers, but no one had told the British contingent that they were meant to prepare something.  The Phillipinos had made costumes and did a song and dance about fishermen; the Dutch did an elaborate sung performance about a young man being pursued by a group of girls; the Africans danced accompanied by drum music; the Indonesians did a local Flores dance and the British, beer bottles in hand stood up and did the hokey cokey.  Panic and hysteria had been setting in all through the evening – we’d debated putting a table in the middle of the room covered in beer bottles, staging a fight and then going out to find an Indian – British culture at its best, but thought that would lower the tone. Then literally as we were called onto the central stage someone was inspired.  ‘B’, Irish and feeling she was betraying her roots, helped make up the numbers – I left at the call and went to the bar down the road – the rest joined me after the hokey cokey (or so they said).   

Things did improve for the final week because it was organized by volunteer representatives for volunteers.  There was a programme, everything ran to time, and the agenda bore some relation to what was needed.   I think this was particularly helpful for the newly arrived volunteers who came for the second week and had an opportunity to ask questions of those already established in post.  And like all these things it was the evenings spent in the bar with the other volunteers that were the most useful.  Despite my abysmal performance at the cultural evening I was forgiven and they produced a birthday cake and other stuff.
 
Becak’s...  A tricycle rickshaw with no gears or suspension.  Expensive and bone shaking compared to local taxis but they do stop and wait whenever you ask them to.

A group of us went to a local orphanage to paint it for them.  A Muslim couple, unable to have children themselves, had bought an old single storey complex and were looking after 50 children.  They were aged between four months and sixteen and about half were orphans and the others were children whose families couldn’t afford to keep them.  We were formally greeted, thanked and given fruit and then taken through the village to the orphanage.  There were masses to do and I don’t think any of us realized how hard we’d have to work.  The children had chosen the colour schemes, the paint and brushes were ready for us when we arrived but every room was shall I say, not clean...  We started by trying to clean first but in the end had to adopt the Indonesian method – just paint over everything.  The children all helped, the villagers prepared lunch for us and we were serenaded by one who had a guitar.  The frustrating thing was that we weren’t able to clear up and finish off properly and the humbling thing was that they were all so grateful. 

The orphanage is supported entirely by the local villagers who bring in food etc but from day to day they never know how they’ll manage.  Obtaining gas for cooking is the worst because they have to find Rp60.000 (approx £3) a week and cash is something no one has, so we made a collection on the coach and raised enough to keep them going for six months but, and this is the endemic problem throughout Indonesia, because of corruption they can’t be given the cash.  ‘A’, the volunteer who liaises with them will keep the money and pay the bills as they come in.  Corruption exists from top to bottom and is part of the culture.  If you can fiddle the system it’s to be admired and they just can’t seem to see that they all lose by it.

On our free day we visited Borobudur, which is a Buddhist temple built from two million block stones wrapped round a small hill.  It was conceived as a Buddhist vision of the cosmos in stone. At the top some volunteers had to do the tourist thing and risk life and limb to reach through the stupa to touch the foot of the Buddha for luck.  Our guide, who was excellent and gave a really clear explanation of Buddhism, told them they now had to walk round the monument clockwise at least three times to guarantee their luck.  Just climbing to the top of the pile was enough for me.

The conference ended and on by train to Solo where I had a technical visit to Interaksi to install and train staff in the use of a database.  The taxi driver took us to the wrong side of the station.  No problem, just wait until a train comes in and then open the door and walk through onto the other platform.  This we did, bought tickets, the train arrived and on we got.  It was only an hour’s journey so we bought a standard ticket.  The train was similar to a London tube and packed so we started the journey strap hanging surrounded by our luggage.  However, a very efficient official moved us up to the front where we were able to sit and see the countryside.  Rice paddies, more rice paddies and very flat.  ‘S’, who had done the journey from Surabaya to Yogyakarta by train really liked it because he said the openness reminded him of home – Africa – but I found it uninspiring.

Interaksi is an organization which helps groups of disabled people to work, preferably in their own homes. It was started and run by a Muslim woman disabled by polio and has been running for 9 years.  All the staff are disabled in one way or another but they were all so motivated.  They have brilliant motor bikes adapted to carry a wheel chair or to be used by people with multiple disabilities and they all, whatever their problems, simply ignored them. 

And finally back to Bali for four days – one day spent being driven round the island and getting lost – and then on to Flores where ‘PM’ met us with the news that he’d arranged for me to go to Bajawa at 5.00am on Saturday to install a new server for a network and could I talk to the managers that evening about loan payment collection. I got back at midnight following torrential rain and landslides.  This week, touch wood and the Buddha’s foot, all is quiet.

Landslides and rain

Back from Singapore and Ende and death and misery has arrived. The hospitals are full of Malaria and Dengue fever patients suffering from these and other nasties. The local administration has fogged the most infected areas and patrolled the streets with a public address system warning or asking people to take care. This will not achieve a great deal as a few years ago there was a rabies epidemic and most of the dogs (of which there were many) were shot in an attempt to control its spread.  Dog owners were also asked to keep their animals on leashes. Result, as many dogs as ever as the owners argued that dogs were meant to roam and it was cruel to tie them up.

One of the first victims of this latest misery was the death of a four year old girl. Her parents were concerned about her health and took her to hospital for a blood test. The test was negative but 2 days later tragedy struck and she died.

This is the season for the co-ops to hold their Annual General Meetings so I am busy attending those I can fit in between normal work. At a recent AGM some 2 hours away it rained. Not unremarkable as this is the rainy season. The meeting is held under the standard tarpaulin supported by bamboo poles. The tarpaulin fills with rain and threatens to collapse and  drown us all. No problem, those with umbrellas push the tarpaulin up to empty the water down the sides. But wait, we are on a slope and down the middle of the meeting floor a small river starts to flow. This new born river causes those sitting over it to get wet feet.  They move but in so doing bump into those with umbrellas ejecting water from the roof. Much confusion because now the umbrellas are misdirected and water gushes copiously where it is not wanted, onto the audience. In the meantime the board members are slowly being submerged by the growing river torrent as it also flows directly under their table. The Indonesians are nothing if not sanguine about nature and the meeting continues as if nothing was unusual. The only small concern was when the board heard that lunch was delayed as the rain kept putting out the cooking fire.

During the meeting we are offered some bananas. These are really tasty and I offer to buy a bunch to take back to Ende. Big mistake! They will not accept payment and offer us a lorry load as a parting gift. It will insult them if we refuse so what to do? Solution, as we depart we are accompanied by hordes of young children deputed by the village elders to carrying our bags up the slope to our waiting transport. I am not known for my quick thinking (I am a wrinkly so be fair) but one of my few remaining brain cells springs to life and I pass a sum of money to the children’s minder and tell him the money is for the children. As we depart he tells the children and a huge cheer erupts. Mission accomplished and conscience salved.

Another AGM, the slopes of Gunung (Mount) Ingerie (look it up on Google, or Microsoft maps) the hopefully, extinct volcano is our backdrop. We stay in a guest house 20