Wow- sorry to have not written in so long! I have so much to tell! First things first- I have decided to return early to the US, and will be flying back on December 15. Indonesia has been an amazing experience, but I am ill-equipped financially to be here much longer, as I didn't come to Indonesia anticipating expenses such as lodging and food. Another big realization is that there is not much I can actually do in the way of volunteering ... without speaking the language and without having a skill set (a service or resource to provide), I can't do much to help people directly. I have spent a lot of time teaching English and playing with children, but those aren't my ultimate goals. BUT all this has had resulted in a momentous outcome... having done some serious contemplating, I've decided I want to get a nursing degree! I have been wanting to enter the public health field, and getting some technical, on-the-ground experience would be a great way to start. Nursing is great for me on a number of levels.... its a skill set that will allow me to help people directly both in the U.S. and abroad (more travel!) and will provide a good jumping point for a career in public health policy (we'll see about that). 

Anyways, Sara and I moved out of our apartment after one month and went to Jogjakarta for a few days. Jogja is famous for being the cultural capital of Java. We went and saw the famous Buddhist Borobudur Temple (supposedly the most-visited site in Indonesia), the Hindu Prambanan Temples, we saw the Ramayana ballet, and saw a shadow puppet show. All famous sites and performances! 

Days after Jogjakarta we flew to West Timor for a week to work on a malnutrition project with the Foundation for Mother and Child Health (one of the organizations I had been volunteering with in Jakarta). West Timor is geographically close to Australia, so it was a long flight. We were picked up in Kupang, the "big" city, and driven to a remote village called Anin 4 hours away in the mountains. As soon as we got there the village held a welcome ceremony for us, and ceremoniously gave us ikat (the local woven cloth that the region is famous for) that we wore around our necks to show our acceptance into their community. At the end of the ceremony we walked around and met the villagers. The traditional way to greet people is to bump noses. Villagers stood in a line to bump noses with me! Another tradition that we were introduced to was the customary betel nut. Most adults spend the majority of their day chewing out betel nut, which is actually the seeds of the betel nut, wrapped in a leaf with chalk. It reacts with saliva and turns bright red... and you're not supposed to swallow the juice so you have to continually spit. This accounts for the red splotchy ground all over the village! 

We stayed in a 4 bedroom house with the rest of the team. The house used to be the village king's house, supposedly, which explains the large size and the sturdy concrete walls and floor. Most villagers live in a tiny house made of wood slats with aluminum roofs. Most houses had a thatched hut behind it, which was used for storage of food or crops and oftentimes was where the kitchen was located. The village was spread out and covered a side of a mountain. One day we walked down to the river valley and it was an hour long strenuous hike down a dirt path. I can't imagine being a villager and living down there, and having to walk up anytime I needed to go to Church, market, or a community meeting. 

The village's biggest problem is water access. During the rainy season, the river serves as the primary source of water for drinking/cooking/bathing/laundry/etc, but the rainy season lasts only a few months. The rest of the year the community has to purchase water... and water is quite expensive (not to mention how difficult it would be to transport by foot down the mountain). The lack of water also creates a huge problem for agriculture. Many months out of the year farming is impossible, and so they have to depend on purchased food during this time.  There is no established industry, no jobs other than farming.... so people don't really have any money. And for the few government-sponsored jobs, like school teacher for example, the salary is only 250,000 Rupiah or about $20 per month. This was such an eye-opening experience!

The team that we were staying with consisted of 8 people: 5 from Jakarta and 3 West Timorese locals.  On the team was a doctor that served as project supervisor (he had initiated the Timor Project and was the one who had invited me), a project manager, 2 health educators, an Early Learning Center teacher, and the 3 locals (one who served as the driver). They lived together and worked together and seemed to really enjoy the experience. Anyways, prior to our arrival they had spent a few months going house-to-house compiling information on the health status of children under 5. This baseline survey covered everything from malnutrition and anemia rates to diseases like malaria and diarrhea. The day that we arrived the health educators were presenting the baseline results to the community health workers. The Foundation's role, as I was explicitly told, was not to develop a program for the village... it was merely to guide, facilitate, and motivate the village to identify problems and solutions. The health educators were using a method called Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) to do so. Sara and I arrived just in time to see it in action, which was awesome because I finally feel like I am seeing the subject of my university studies. The PRA consisted of day long "seminars" in our house for about a week. The health educators led focus group discussions on common village health behaviors and misconceptions, they did a village mapping to identify resources at hand, they made a timeline to look at the challenges and successes of the health workers in the past, etc. They also did a basic health training, discussing the role of carbs, proteins, vitamins & minerals in our diet. The end result was a project plan that included a more comprehensive training for health workers, health training to village mothers, and monthly meetings to report back to one another on their progress in their own sub-villages. The health educators weren't thrilled with it, saying they thought it was too simple, but at least its something to start with. 

The other aspect of the Foundation's work in Timor (health aside) is the Early Learning Center, like a kindergarten. The ELC teacher from Jakarta trained some ELC teachers in the village, and now the village 3-6 year-olds attend "class" with their moms or dads. The idea is to start the learning process at a younger age so the kids can get into and do well in the government schools.

The Foundation is expanding its health and education services to some neighboring villages. In our week there we were taken to 2 different villages to talk about the details. Both were really interesting experiences. One community couldn't even talk in a civil way about the ELC because the community was so torn apart... the women wouldn't stop yelling at each other. Apparently one of the health workers had given away all the food donations (these villages get food donations from international orgs like World Food Program) to her own family members, leaving nothing for her own village. There was so much hostility at our meeting because of the "stolen Biscuit" incident that discussing the logistics of an ELC was futile. It's scary to think that families are dependent on this donated food for survival. It's also really interesting to see the division between eating for survival's sake, and eating for nutrition. It's really frustrating for us to see international orgs distributing only biscuits and instant noodles, when their young bodies need so much more. Furthermore, our own nutrition team (from Jakarta, university-educated) did not have very high standards of nutrition. Sure, they incorporated fruits and vegetables, but every meal we ate was fried... fried rice, fried bananas, fried tofu, fried eggplant, fried noodles. Deep-fried everything, combined with rice 3 times a day, made me feel SO unhealthy! Sara and I made an American meal one night for dinner- spaghetti, green beans, and a potato dish... nothing was fried- and most of them didn't like it. They even took our leftover spaghetti and fried it. Unbelievable! ;-)

Sara and I had expressed interest in visiting a nearby village that is famous for being so traditional. I wasn't so impressed with the village, because honestly my village was about as traditional as this one, but the fun part was that we took motorcycles to get there. The entire team went, and so we hired 10 guys with motorcycles to take us. We drove as a group all the way to the village (about an hour and a half each way)... honking at schoolchildren, racing one another, taking pictures of the scenery. It was a great opportunity to see more of West Timor because we went up and over mountains and saw numerous villages. What fun! 

Now we are back in Jakarta, and we moved into a bedroom rented out by a wealthy family. We have plans to go on a day-trip tomorrow to the neighboring city of Bandung to see the town and its volcano. Sara is staying in Jakarta until January, but I am preparing to leave... to meet mom in Bali on December 3, and then fly home on December 15! Yay!

Volunteering!

I have been super busy since I last wrote! I have spent a lot of time volunteering at the Foundation for Mother and Child Health in South Jakarta. The first few times I went to the center I just observed their programs and made friends with the staff  and the women and children that utilize the resources and programs there. One of the classes that I saw was a cooking class... because malnutrition is such a major problem in poor areas of the city, the organization offer not only health education classes but hands-on cooking classes too, both at the center and at women's homes in the slum areas (how cool is that??). They had set up a gas burner outside in the center's courtyard and the women were sitting on the white tile steps prepping food. They cooked rice, meat, and veggies together in a pan with some oil and then picked up handfuls of the rice mixture and packed it into balls in their palms. Then they squished a quail egg into the middle of it, and deep fried each ball. One of the staff then assessed the weight and calorie content of an average rice ball and talked to the women about it. I got to taste one.... delicious! Another program that I saw was the Feeding Program. The center accepts 30 children every few months that qualify as severely malnourished and have the mothers and children come in 3 times a week. Each time they come the child is provided with a healthy meal, and the staff records how much the children eat. Once a week the child is weighed, and only when the child has reached an acceptable weight and level of health is he or she released from the program. To be part of the program, however, the mothers are required to participate in the health education classes and cooking classes. (There are also sewing classes that teach the women how to make bags and other items out of used plastic materials, like instant coffee packets; the center will then buy the finished products from the women and sell them at the center). 

The only skill thing that I can really do for the center is teach English, and so I have been asked to teach classes to the children, mothers, and the staff. The center has a Early Learning Center program for pre-schoolers (the program prepares them to enter government schools, and also provides scholarships so that they can pay the mandatory school fees). I am doing a unit on animals and so spent the first day just teaching general names of animals.... I had little plastic animal toys that I would hold up and yell "elephant", "whale", "tiger", etc and have the kids repeat after me. The kids speak zero English and are only 3-5 years old, but are very well-behaved. And cute! ;-) Future classes will focus on ocean animals, jungle animals, what animals eat, what food comes from animals, etc. I will plan out the lessons, and the teachers will provide the materials. It's fun! Classes for the mothers and staff will start next week. 

Last Saturday when I was at the center I met a doctor named Drevino who volunteers with this organization. He is launching a program for malnutrition in West Timor, with funding and support from the Foundation for Mother and Child Health. He has done TB work in that area before and so is well-aware of the widespread problems of malnutrition. So, last month he organized a team to conduct some preliminary research, and their findings showed that 63% of the children are malnourished, and 87% anemic! He is returning to West Timor on November 15 and is going to do a Participatory Rural Appraisal, in which he and his team will host community discussions to identify problems and come up with solutions. And... he has invited me and Sara! I would LOVE to go- this is development in action! The issue is how long we can go for, because now we have all these commitments here in Jakarta. But hopefully we can go for a week or so in November.  

I have also spent some time volunteering with an organization called Hope Worldwide. They had organized a book drive, and so needed help sorting the donated books into boxes for different schools in the area. I really liked this volunteer opportunity, because it didn't require Indonesian language (just helping hands) and so it was one of the few times that I actually felt helpful as a volunteer. 

The books had been stored in the organization's tuberculosis clinic... so seeing the TB operation was the really interesting part of that experience. We got to sit down with the director of the clinic and learn all about TB: the local stigma associated with the disease (how it's a disease of the poor, and so when people get the disease they don't seek treatment or tell others about it for fear of being shunned...which allows this contagious disease to spread), the treatment process, the costs involved, etc. It was fascinating! The center offers free treatment (treatment would otherwise be about $11 a week, which is an exorbitant amount here), but the treatment requires taking a daily pill for 6-8 months, so many people don't finish the treatment. We were taken into the lab where we saw a woman sitting at a microscope looking at patients' sputum samples and recording whether they were TB positive or negative. The samples were scattered around her on the table, and next to the microscope was a stack of papers and a pencil... she was literally just checking a "positive" or "negative" box on each form after looking at the corresponding sputum sample. It was so simple! We even got to look in the microscope at a sample that was TB positive, and I could actually see the TB bacteria (it was red, so stood out). Wow! Where else could I have this kind of experience?? I feel like I am being exposed to so much! On a side note, neither Sara nor I have had the TB vaccine (most Americans do not) and so wore face masks and gloves the entire time we were there. 

The third and last organization that I have gotten involved with is an organization called SOS Children's Village. It is an Austrian-based organization that has branches all over the world. I have befriended the woman whose family brought SOS to Indonesia (her husband is currently the Indonesian director) and they have encouraged me to volunteer at the Jakarta village, as well as check out the other 7 scattered around Indonesia if I have time. The Jakarta Children's Village is quite far away... it's in Southeast Jakarta and takes 2 hours to get to on public transportation. I went one day last week to check it out. It's an incredible organization! Basically it's a center for children that either don't have parents at all or have parents that can't provide for them. The center is set up as an actual village, with a soccer field in the middle, and 15 small houses situated around it. Each house has a mother in charge, and has 5-8 kids that live there. Each house is autonomous and has its own rules and traditions (some are Muslim houses, others are Christian), but the kids get to live and interact together in a beautiful and well-maintained "village". Imagine mango trees everywhere and little kids running around playing hide and seek in bushes... it appeared very idyllic!  The children all go to school in the morning (they attend normal government schools), and in the afternoon they are required to participate in extracurricular activities. They have so many options... sewing, traditional dance, percussion, choir, badminton, etc. I sat in on a percussion group, which was utterly amazing! Apparently they have won first place in a televised competition. I also watched a choir class- adorable. I think that when I come back to the village in the future, I will spend the night (to make the long trek out worth my while), and just hang out with kids and maybe do some English-teaching. 

Volunteering aside... I got a JOB! Woohoo! I will be teaching English at a English language school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For every 80 minute class I teach I will make $150,000 Rupiah... about $15 (and I get cash at the end of every session! And they throw in about $6 for transportation).  The students are all Indonesian, age 7-18, and come from fairly wealthy backgrounds if they can pay for a program like this. The downside to the job is that it's a quite a trek to get to the school. It's only about 12 miles away.... but with traffic it takes about 2 hours each way. I take 2 buses to get there... and it is a LONG journey. 

So yes... I will be teaching lots of English in the months to come! I am excited though, I am starting to settle into routine and get to know the area. 

That's all for now!

Living JAKARTA-style

So, I finally left Bali and started a life for myself in Jakarta! Sara and I took a late night plane from Bali to Jakarta, which was an experience in itself... the airline's computer system broke down, and so they had no way to process us. They wrote our info down on post-its, and gave us these flimsy little pieces of papers as boarding passes. Once we got on the plane, the AC was blasting.... to such an extent that I couldn't see more than 2 feet in front of me. We thought it was hilarious. We spent the night in a terrible hostel in central Jakarta, and went apartment hunting the next day. We signed a lease for one that day.... I am now a proud resident of Jakarta! I feel so very Indonesian. We live in a super glamorous apartment complex. The complex has swimming pools, restaurants and cafes (that deliver!!), fitness center, a salon and spa, drug stores, laundry facilities, DVD rental, a theater.... all on-site! Our 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment is on the 33rd floor (there are 3 towers, we live in Tower B), and has a great view of Jakarta at night. The kitchen is minimal... 2 burners, no microwave or oven, and a pretty small fridge (there is clearly no such thing as cooking for fun- all the equipment and appliances are for purely functional purposes). Sara and I each pay about $300 per month, and our landlords kindly waived the $50 per month maintenance fee for us. Our landlords are an Indonesian couple (who coincidentally have 3 sons currently living in San Francisco). They love us, and took us out for lunch and grocery shopping immediately after we signed the lease. They even gave us a welcome gift- a rice cooker and a bag of rice. Pretty funny. 

The apartment complex is adjacent to the Jakarta branch of the London School of Public Relations, so the area is full of young people and has a great vibe. The students are always in our restaurants and coffee shops, doing work and socializing. I think many of the students live in the complex. On that note, the majority of the apartment residents are Indonesians (wealthy, definitely), with only a few "bule" (foreigners). 

There is also a mosque right next to our apartment, and so everyday 5 times a day we hear singing and praying. It's not very harmonious (lol), but I really like it... and it has come to be a marker of time for me. 

We signed the lease for 1 month to start, as a trial period, but told them we'd like to live there for 3 months. Sara wants to conduct research and I will volunteer; at the end of 3 months (January 12) she is going to return to the US, and I anticipate I will travel a bit or just fly back to the States as well.

So... we settled into our apartment and the next day I went to meet with the staff of a nonprofit I am interested in. It's a family foundation that funds all sorts of social programs (I'm particularly interested in SOS Children's Villages, an independent orphanage program they fund), and they also have a branch that addresses women specifically called WADAH. The husband and wife couple that started the organization is very wealthy, and their name is a household name in Indonesia apparently. (The woman's brother is running for president of Indonesia in the next election, and the husband's father is a famed Indonesian economist and professor).  So I went into their office to meet them (their office is located in a fancy business building that is only a 10 min walk from my apartment! Bonus!) I met staff from both the Family Foundation and WADAH, and they sat me around a table and asked me all sorts of questions about who I was and why I was there... they were really interested in me, and I felt so honored to be taken so seriously by all these older, professional, amazing individuals. It was a sharp contrast to my previous orphanage experience, that's for sure. I started speaking to the WADAH chairwoman, Tyas, and after speaking to me for several minutes she told me her and a few staff people were going to be taking a 4 day trip to the other side of the island to survey some projects WADAH is funding; basically doing a project assessment.... and she invited me to go! They bought me a plane ticket on the spot (the ticket cost almost $200!) I am absolutely overwhelmed by the generosity I have encountered while here in Indonesia. Absolutely blown away!

I showed up at the airport at 6am the next morning, met up with the 3 WADAH women, and we caught a plane to Jogjakarta, a city in central Java that is known to to be the cultural capital of the island. We were to spend 1 night in Jogjakarta, one night in the neighboring city of Solo, and the last night in a rural town called Ponorogo in East Java. We had private drivers (in air conditioned cars!) drive us around to different sites to look at various projects. I saw a lot of schools, orphanages, community centers, and microcredit projects. We would drive up to a site, take lots of photos, then sit on mats on dirt floors or chairs if they had them, and drink tea and talk. 

A few sites stand out in my mind... one was an orphanage for refugee children from East Timor. The site provided a home for the children, and it also provided life skills training. At the orphanage they taught the kids how to sew, how to make and use construction materials, how to fish (they had big tanks that they purposefully put fish in in order to teach the kids fishing as a livelihood), how to grow crops, and so on. It was so impressive! Another memorable site was a government school that had sought funding because their current government funding was not adequate. The school had experienced major flooding last year, and has not been able to repair the damage. Additionally, the school serves a very poor community, and many families have trouble with the mandatory fees: books cost almost $20 for a year, and uniforms are about $5. Many pay in monthly increments.... and if they fail to pay the full amount by the end of the year, students do not get their certificates (which means they can't advance). Apparently this happens to a huge number of kids.... so sad! I was a big hit at this school, all the kids wanted to say hi and take photos with me. ;-) Another project was a microcredit project for a cooperative of women in a rural village who cooked every evening in their homes from midnight to 3am to sell to vendors in the local markets. Each woman makes less than $2 per day. The interest made from their loans goes towards funding another microcredit project in the next village over. In our visit there, the women sat around us and gave us food to sample... we had a delicious cassava and coconut dish. Another site that we went to was the home of a woman who has recently tried to kill herself and her 3 children after her husband left them and she was faced with dire poverty... one of the organizations that WADAH sponsors has helped her out by providing chickens (I know, right??) and emotional support. We sat in her little house and met her kids; pretty crazy experience for me.

It's very unfortunate that I don't speak Bahasa Indonesia (the Indonesian language), because it would have enhanced my experience to know what they were saying.... I would love to know what kinds of questions the WADAH women asked and how the dialogue went. But it was great to see Indonesian social work from the perspective of an Indonesian non-profit ("yayasan" in Bahasa Indonesia). I mean, I studied international development and came here to experience development firsthand... I feel so lucky to have had the privilege to go on a trip like this and experience social work through the eyes of locals! 

The women met with the rest of the staff in a meeting on Monday, and it was there that they were going to be discussing budget allocation. I am curious to see what they decided (what is their criteria, how much money they actually are distributing, etc) and I hope that they let me see how they have allocated funding. It was great to see the work they do, but I'd really like to know about the internal logistics of a local (and professional-run) non-profit organization.

I came home from the trip late Friday night, ready to be "home" again. It had been an exhausting, action-packed trip!

The next few days Sara and I tried to take care of logistical stuff for our apartment... figuring out water & trash systems, internet installation, grocery shopping, etc. This has been an eye-opening experience. Everything takes SO long here... I feel like I only get one or two things done per day. Grocery shopping for example. We spent all Saturday and all Sunday grocery shopping. We wanted to go to all the different stores to compare prices and food items. Between the intense heat, and trying to figure out transportation, grocery shopping has been an incredibly draining activity! 

As for water, you cannot drink water from the tap, so you must buy all drinking water. It is purchased in the 5 gallon bottles, and when we ran out of our initial supply, we made the rounds to the various mini-marts trying to figure out where we could buy refills. They all said they didn't have any, and to come back Friday. Friday??? At this point it was only Monday, and we refused to have to buy mini water bottles all week to cook with and drink. After 3 days of asking different people and lugging our empty water jugs around we finally found a man with a dolly full of empty water jugs. So we followed him (sneakily) for like 15 minutes hoping we'd find a place that sells water.... and it worked! We discovered a place tucked away in our apartment complex that sells (and delivers) water. Why it took us so long to figure this out, and why somebody couldn't have just told us (or taken us there), is beyond us. 

Trash is a whole other story. There are no big dumpsters in the basement, like there would be in the US. Instead, there are 3 foot wide, and 2 feet high canisters (I think I have seen 2) that we have been told to put our trash in. WHAT?? Do people just not produce trash here? We filled the canister with just our trash. Somebody else said just leave our trash bags out in the hall and apartment staff will come by and pick it up in the morning... but we have our serious doubts, and don't want to be those rude people that leave their garbage out in the hall for someone else to deal with. 

Internet has been the most frustrating. We have been on a waiting list for internet installation for 2 weeks. We were told there were 10 people in front of us... but we can't believe that they only serve one person per day. Additionally, they don't call when they say they'll call, and they don't come when they say they'll come. The system is so inefficient! (For the time being, Sara and I are paying the girls next door 50 cents a day for access to their wifi). Sara and I try to understand that the capitalist mindset just doesn't exist as much here, but everyday we find ourselves awed by the inefficiency and lack of infrastructure here. 

I went to get my visa extended (the SOS orphanage organization is kindly sponsoring me so that I can stay!), and I spent hours in the immigration office. I literally took my passport file in hand and went from office to office collecting stamps, signatures, etc.... it was such a bureacratic and cumbersome process, and strange that I did it myself. I get the feeling that most people just drop it off and pick it up completed another day, without having to engage in the process themselves. Anyways, this was the day that I decided to explore public transportation. The taxi to the immigration had cost about $3.25, and I refused to spend that much again. So after achieving my visa extension, I hopped in a bajai (3 wheeled, golf car type taxi that's super cheap) and went to the busway. The busway has the feel of a subway, but its just a bus system that has its own lane (and is subsequently unaffected by the constant traffic that plagues this city). The fare is only 3,500 Rupiah (about 40 cents). I had no idea which direction I was going, but with my basic Bahasa I told people where I was trying to go... and people were SO helpful! I had no problems getting home, and only spent about a dollar- much less than the cost of the taxi! Getting home by myself on public transportation felt like such an accomplishment!

I have to say though, by this point I had been in Indonesia for almost 2 months and had not volunteered, which is what I came here to do. I had been in Jakarta for 10 days now (although I had been on a 4 day trip with the WADAH women), and I have been so bogged down with figuring out the logistics of daily living that I hadn't been able to meet with non-profit organizations and volunteer hands-on (the WADAH experience doesn't count because I wasn't actually working or engaging with any of the people that I met). Honestly, just getting from point A to point B, dealing with the inefficiency of everything, the language barriers and the blazing heat made me physically fatigued and emotionally worn out everyday. I literally got only one task accomplished everyday. Sara and I were getting really frustrated with out daily lives! I found myself questioning why I left California (where I could have invested myself in a meaningful job and routine) and my friends and family, to move to Jakarta to deal with this and live a life that was so seemingly meaningless.

I have to remind myself all the time that I came to a developing country to experience life in a developing country.... and this is it! Setting up a household (and a life) is all part of the experience. And by no means is what I'm doing pointless. This is life! Around the world, for so many people, this is life as they know it.  

Anyways, Sara and I have had some good conversations about it and are moving forward on a positive note, and I'm starting to fall into a routine... exercising, eating healthy, and taking care of myself in general definitely helps (travelling is not conducive to those things!) 

I have also allocated days to visit organizations. Yesterday, I visited an organization that I am very interested in, called the Foundation for Mother and Child Health ("Yayasan Balita Sehat" in Bahasa) and they have a number of great programs. Their services include feeding programs to feed malnourished children, cooking classes to teach women how to cook nutritious foods given their limited resources (the cooking classes are held both at the Foundation's center and also in women's own slum homes), health education, sewing classes, preschool classes, and scholarship funds. I am going to the center both tomorrow and Saturday to help out and observe their numerous programs. Because I don't speak the language I don't think I can truly volunteer (a very sad reality) but I hope to help out in any way that I can and see more of how Indonesian non-profits operate. I really think I want to pursue public health in the future, and to see it in the context of a developing country is going to be a great experience! 

Today I went and talked to an organization called Hope Worldwide. They have a number of programs that cover education and health, and I plan on volunteering (or at least checking out) their various centers and programs. I am, again, very interested in the public health programs, and would like to see/participate in their tuberculosis control efforts and nutrition training events. Additionally, because I don't speak the language, I have been told the best way I can actually help the organization is to teach English or assist in English language tutorial programs for students, so I'll definitely do that too. 

I really need to get some sort of part-time work while I am here to subsidize my expenses (I'm draining my life savings- ahh!), and unfortunately the substitute teaching idea hasn't pulled through like we would have hoped. We have been in touch with several English teaching institutions, and I hope something works out. Many of them are pretty far away and don't pay much, so we are weighing our options. 

A big problem is that it is illegal to work while on a tourist or social-cultural visa here (I have the latter). Work permits are rarely given to foreigners like myself who are just living abroad. If the government found out that I was teaching English I would be deported and fined! Yikes. 

To wrap up, I am doing well, and proud of myself for starting a life in Jakarta. Everyday is an adventure that's for sure! 

 

Sara and I have now been in Bali for 2 weeks! After Ubud, we travelled by bus (public transportation here consists of minivans called "bemos" that cost anywhere from 20-80 cents per ride) to a harbor town called Padangbai. The greatest part about our brief stay here was that there was a 3 day Hindu ceremony going on... so we got to see all the locals dress up in their fancy sarong outfits and walk (with their offerings balanced on their heads) to the temples up on the hill. The event required all local Hindus to walk to all 3 temples and deliver offerings once a day for 3 days. After praying, they came out with rice on their foreheads and chest.  It was a beautiful procession to watch! The people were very kind to us, and allowed us to take lots of photos, and even gave us some of the breads and fruits in their baskets of offerings. I felt honored to be so welcomed! Because most people did this at night, nighttime was very lively, with vendors cooking and selling satay (chicken and fish skewers) and other interesting tofu and banana things on the street,  so all you could see up and down the main road was the light of the cooking fires. It was such a cool experience!

Padangbai also had lots of fun reggae bars (plastered with pictures of Bob Marley, it was hilarious), and we found some fun Germans to hang out with over the course of our stay there.

The next place we went to was my most favorite place yet- an old royal palace called Tirta Gangga. The palace grounds were beautifully landscaped, with pools of water and picturesque statues and bridges everywhere. Some of the bathing pools are accessible to visitors- so I went for a great swim! The surrounding area was lovely as well... terraced rice fields as far as you can see, framed by palm trees and a volcano.  We stayed in the hotel on-site, and enjoyed some great meals and great views in this tranquil and serene spot. 

After Tirta Gangga, we headed to the northern coast of Bali to a town called Lovina. It's famous for it's dolphin-watching boat tours (which of course we didn't do). The town wasn't very exciting; I don't think I would go back. We tried to go to a waterfall recommended by my guide book, but because it is still the dry season there wasn't much to see. We hiked all the way out there only to find... a pathetic little trickle and a pool of stagnant water. It made for some funny photos! We did, however, make it to the local hot springs, which seems to be the locals' weekend hang-out spot. There was an admission fee of about 30 cents, and the site consisted of 3 warm pools with lush surroundings. 

After Lovina, we hopped on a bus and rode down through the center of Bali (think more beautiful rice fields and small villages) back to the southern beach/resort area of the island. We had hoped we'd be able to catch a plane and return to Jakarta before the start of Idul Fitri, a major Muslim holiday at the start of October. Of course we had major difficulties booking a flight (sooooo aggravating; despite being able to make flight reservations we were unable to pay for them) and so now we are stuck in Bali until the end of  Idul Fitri (because of the holiday, transportation is infrequent and incredibly costly). We anticipate leaving next Wednesday or Thursday. Bali is not the worst place to be stuck... that's for sure, and we definitely plan on making the most of it! I have to see though that I am eager to return to Jakarta and get my life started there. We have already started looking into apartments, and I've contacted organizations regarding both paid and volunteer work. 

I am having trouble posting photos on this blog (despite what many of you think, I am incredibly technologically challenged!), and so have created a flickr.com account to post photos. You can log in as me to see the photos that I have posted so far. The internet connection as these internet cafes has been weak, so the upload has been slow.... so not too many pictures are there just yet. Go to flickr.com, log in: stinsona86 and the password: spirit

From there click on "photo stream"

Love and miss you all!

BALI!

So.... the 24 hour bus ride to Bali somehow turned into a 32 hour bus ride. It was barely air conditioned, and we only stopped at 2:30am and 6pm (that's the eating schedule of Muslims during the month of Ramadan!) The only interesting part was taking the ferry from Java to Bali. Anyways, we made it safe and sound, and started our trip in Sanur, a sleepy beach resort area in southeast Bali. Our first day was very relaxing-- the beach in Sanur caters to an older crowd and so is incredibly peaceful and quiet. We laid out on the beach and walked up and down the boardwalk, and all we could hear was the waves crashing and the birds in the trees. We got half hour massages in a tiled beach hut for about $2.50... I'm loving Bali! We quickly realized there was no nightlife in Sanur... everyone our age goes to the Kuta and Legian areas to stay and go to bars and clubs. We also realized that although our Sanur hostel was cheap (11 per person per night) we could find much cheaper, and much better lodging. So we relocated to Kuta for our third night, and stayed in a hostel room for $6 ($3 each!) Kuta is known for its little alley ways (called Poppies Gangs) that are filled with vendors, surfboard/motorbike rentals, and cheap salons. Sara and I loooove the cheap spa treatments, and have been treating ourselves like crazy. We explored the nightlife, which consisted of like 10 clubs and bars clumped together. It wasn't really our scene... it was definitely geared toward Europeans and their bad taste in music!  ;-) 

The next day we hopped on a shuttle and went to Ubud, which is the center of the island and is considered the cultural capital of Bali. It's a small town, famous for its art, craftsmanship, dance, surrounding rice fields, monkey forest sanctuary, and incredible shopping. We splurged on a nicer hotel, with beautiful landscaping and a pool. In the last couple of days we have done a ton of shopping; there is a huge outdoor market with vendors that sure are eager to bargain. I bought a lot of cool stuff- paintings, wall face masks, handbag, dresses made out of batik (the famous Bali textile), jewelry, etc. We also checked out the Ubud palace, which is beautiful (and still has royal family living in it!) Today we woke up and went to the Monkey Forest which was awesome... there were 300 monkeys running around in the beautifully landscaped park (which, by the way, encompass 14th century temples). We walked the rest of the day and explored the surrounding areas and the rice fields, which are so scenic. We walked as far as we could and popped in and out of roadside art galleries, in hopes of buying cheap paintings. 

Bali is interesting because it is predominantly Hindu, while the rest of Indonesia is Muslim. What I have found absolutely fascinating is the daily offerings they make up and leave out... the offerings are small banana leaf baskets, filled with a little bit of rice, some flowers, burning incense, etc. Women make them, and place them everywhere: on the sidewalk, in their shops, tucked into statues, etc. I feel like I step on them all the time because they are literally everywhere. And the smell of incense is perpetually in the air. I love it!

Alright, the internet cafe is closing, so we have to go.

Until next time...

xox

An end and a beginning...A new Indo adventure!

I've resigned from my position with IHF yesterday.

The children were wonderful, but the founder lady Carol was awful. She travels the world, going amongst her 6 orphanages, and communicates entirely via email on her Blackberry phone. I have never met her, and there was no training upon my arrival, nor was there an explicit explanation of expectations of my role as Co-Director. Her contact with me (and with everyone in the organization) has been consistently rude and offensive. She also tried to control everything we did- we had to ask permission to even send emails out about IHF when recruiting teachers or comunicating with overseas volunteers. This made it really difficult to accomplish anything at the center, because she gave barely any guidance, and at the same time whenever we (we being me and my co-directors Sara and Prashant) took initiative and made a decision to solve a problem, she would attack us and call us foolish, ignorant, and rude.

For example, we were worried about two of our 15 year-old boys, who are super behind in school, and if they don't pass an upcoming exam they will not be eligible for the free government-sponsored school. To top it off, they only attend a "catch-up" type tutorial 3 hours a week. They do not attend normal school like the other orphanage kids. These are the same 2 boys that we are trying to give english and math lessons to at the orphanage, 5 hours a day (what a joke- they hate it and don't show up). Anyways, so Sara and I went to speak to their tutor/teacher about this upcoming exam to see what material would be covered and how we could best prepare the boys. We also asked about the costs of increasing the hours of schooling the boys had with her (their classes actually only cost 80 cents per hour!!!). The meeting went well, and we happily reported it to Carol, feeling pleased that we had given her some options to consider for the boys' schooling.

No.

Instead she wrote several nasty emails saying "I am shocked that they would take my children whom they don't know at all and do this without even discussing, let alone asking. Shocked." (She considers these children her children, and I've even gotten an email from her saying how they are "practically from her womb." She even has them all call her Mommy, even though they all have mothers of their own).

And then "Do this again and you are fired. If you knew more you would not have, it was foolish. Either follow the rules of working for me, or don't work for me at all. Am I perfectly clear?"

And then the next one "You have caused us far greater trouble than you have any understanding of and it is exactly why I have not brought outsiders in and I feel I have made a big mistake by doing so now. I can't explain how foolish and long-term your doing such a thing is, and how much damage you've caused.

What damage? We merely asked questions so we could see what the options were to improve the quality of the boys' education! I thought that I was hired as a recent grad because I can think critically and come up with and implement creative solutions to problems. What I call taking initiative she considers totally unacceptable, apparently. And she doesn't even explain why. There was no explanation as to why what we did was wrong, all we got was a threat for dismissal.

We had quite a few exchanges like this, and then Sara and I realized we didn't have to be there. We are volunteers, contributing a year of our lives to this organization in a developing country and we paid out of our own pockets to do so. And this Carol woman clearly doesn't respect or appreciate me. The major reason I do community development work is because of the way it makes me feel-- I feel fulfilled and empowered by helping others. Carol's constant negativity and hostility instead made me feel really bad about myself (I took it very personally), and created tension between me and my co-directors, who are both fabulous people. It was just so much negative energy. On a more practical note, I also felt like I wasn't able to accomplish anything meaningful at the center because she made it so difficult to implement change. I wasn't doing anything to help the center, just sitting in a dim office in front of a computer all day, interacting with the kids only minimally because they were gone for much of the day. I felt like my time and efforts would be more useful at a different organization, where the administration trusted me and my decision-making and I was enabled rather than constrained.

On top of this, Rini, the cook, came back from her village about a week ago and was really ill. So Sara and I took her to a doctor, and the doctor diagnosed typhoid. Great- typhoid is spread through food-handling.... so we told her she couldn't cook. But she totally dismissed us, and was back in the kitchen cooking again a few days later. Supposedly typhoid can be cured if caught early and treated with antibiotics (which she was taking), but it seemed like a terrible situation. I'm vaccinated, but are the kids??? Sara and I were concerned, but our concerns went totally unacknowledged by Carol. (A few days later Rini ran away with $130- about 1/5 the center's monthly budget. What a mess!)

Saying goodbye to the kids was the hardest part. The looks on their face made Sara and I cry, and we felt sooooo bad to leave them, as they've been abandoned by so many of the people in their lives. We promised to keep in touch, but we are unsure if Carol will allow them to communicate with us. It's such a shame that we can't continue to work with these amazing kids, on account of my relationship with the founder....but the reality is that all organizations have wonderful, adorable children, and that I will be able to find one that is better managed and supports me as an individual.

It seems like a bad experience, I know... but I see it as a learning experience. I wanted a non-profit experience, and I sure did get one! I feel like I've learned so much in my short 2.5 weeks with IHF, about the challenges, the internal operations, and the general experience of a non-profit... about what sorts of questions to ask when starting to work with a non-profit, etc. I also learned I need to be way more careful when choosing an organization that deals with kids, because it is so easy to get attached, and their mental and emotional stability is at stake.

I feel like this is just the first of many non-profit experiences!

So... what next??? Sara and I are going to go to Bali for a week to relax and see some sights (yeah!), and then come back to Jakarta. We want to get an apartment or hostel room for the next few months and get some paid, part-time work to finance our trip. We can then do volunteer work on the side. I'm really excited at the prospect of living in Jakarta independently, and turning this into a live-abroad type experience!

We have been very lucky to have found the American Women's Association of Jakarta. SO lucky. Basically I was doing some online googling of opportunities and resources in Jakarta (this past weekend, before we resigned), and i stumbled across the AWA's website. It said they had a once weekly coffee chat, and it happened to be the next day. So Sara and I went to the center (a beautiful house!), met a bunch of ex-pat wives of oil businessmen, and had coffee and coffee cake and talked to them about our situation. They were so supportive! They gave us tons of ideas, and took our contact info so that they could put us in touch with their network of jakarta friends for paid/volunteer work. They asked if we had registered with the US embassy, and when we told them we hadn't (it hadn't even crossed my mind) they made us do it on the spot at their center. When they asked if we had cell phones, we said we didn't (it didn't really seem like a necessity), they said it was imperative for American women to have cell phones in case of an emergency. One of the women, Annette, said she wouldn't sleep that night if she knew we still didn't have phones, so she announced that AWA was going to sponsor phones for us. So a half hour later she took us (well, her driver did... all these women have personal drivers, paid for by the companies) to the mall and bought us phones. I am now the proud owner of a cell phone! Only condition is that we return the phones to the AWA when we leave Indonesia so that they can be re-used. No problem! ;-)

Another woman, Cathy, suggested that we apply for substitute teaching jobs, because you don't need a work permit to do the job and only need a Bachelors degree to qualify. So one of them took us to speak with the Australian International School about applying, and helped create a list of other international schools to apply at.

We asked another woman, Cari, (who is actually originally from Wales and has a lovely accent) if we could leave our suitcases at her house when we travelled to Bali... she said yes, of course, and came and picked us up from the orphanage even though we live on the other side of town (its like a 40 min drive with all the traffic!) She suggested we spend a night or 2 at her house to solidify our Bali plans, so we took her up on it. Her house is beautiful... very spacious, with all glass windows, a pool and courtyard outside, probably 4 or 5 bedrooms, and a maid and driver. When we first got to her house we had a nice lunch, and then she said she had a hair appointment, and why didn't we go with her to the salon so she could treat us to a spa service. The generosity just doesn't end! So we went to a beautiful salon, and she got us both an hour and a half massage (that was the duration of her hair apointment). Oh my god. It was amazing. The salon was beautiful too, with all the typical Asian decorations: tea candles, lotus flowers, goddess stautues, and doors that opened out to a patio with a pool and garden.

After the spa service, we went to a coffee shop and waited for her driver to come pick us up, and from there we went with her to a meeting of the Australian Women's Association to stuff goody bags for their upcoming gala event/fundraiser (she asked us earlier if we wouldn't mind coming along to help out). Of all the places I could be, and of all the things I could be doing, here I was drinking wine with older Australian women and stuffing bags. Life is so random.

This whole experience seems so surreal. I went from one extreme of indonesian life to another. Wow. This has been quite a trip thusfar; I am curious to see what the future has in store!

Tomorrow Sara and I are taking a bus to Bali. It's a 24 hour bus that will take us across the entire island of Java, onto a ferry across the ocean, and then onto the island of Bali. We have a hotel reservation in Sanur, which is supposed to be a fabulous beach area in southeast Bali.

Can't wait!!

xox, Allie

So I've had some problems with the organization, and I wasn't sure if I was going to stay.... but I've worked them out, and I am staying! (For the time being, at least). It has definitely been a bit of an emotional roller coaster though.

Prashant, Sara, and I went out on Tuesday night to explore some more of Jakarta's nightlife, and went to a hookah bar on the other side of town (we took buses, and it took AGES!) It was inside of a huge mall, and it seemed like half of the Jakarta population was there. I mean, for being a Tuesday night, this mall was teeming with people. The mall consisted primarily of coffee shops and restaurants, with comfy chairs and tables set up outside the restaurants to people-watch. AND we were super excited to see that there was a fashion show going on... a Muslim women fashion show! All the models were veiled and wore gowns that covered their arms and legs fully. But the gowns and veils, although modest, were brightly colored, and covered in sequins and sparkles, and they also wore super high heels and sported fancy little handbags. SO fashionable! 

Things back at the orphanage are all right. I do live in and run a household of teenagers (all but 1 are teen-aged) and I get all the attitude and behavioral problems that one would expect. The 2 15-year old boys are particularly difficult... staying out till 4am, not coming to the classes that Prashant and I hold daily for them (they instead go play guitar on buses to make some extra money), demanding pocket money whenever they want it, etc. I feel like such a parent! Only 2 of them are this way though. The other 4 children are incredibly respectful and obedient (I think religion plays a big role). 

Because Rini, our cook has been gone this week, Ayu the 14 year old has been cooking in her absence. To give her a break, Sara and I offered to make the evening meal. It was such a time-consuming process. We went to the market and went from stall to stall buying the various fruits and veggies we wanted (the language barrier made the situation quite funny) and then we spent the afternoon preparing the food. We made a coconut vegetable curry, some scrambled eggs, seasoned tofu, a fruit platter, and some fresh chili paste on the side (I sauteed the chili peppers and garlic and then mashed them together using a mortar and pestle... I've learned from watching Rini do it!) The coconut curry is fun to make too- basically we buy a whole coconut in the market, and the vendor puts it through a machine to shred it. At home, we soak the coconut flakes in water and then wring out the water... over and over and over again until  we have enough coconut water for the curry. I don't think I've ever thought about making coconut curry myself without using canned coconut milk! Cooking was such a cultural experience. With that said, I doubt I'll volunteer to make dinner again any time soon... ;-)

A huge part of my job is my online international tasks I am required to do everyday for 4 hours. They take up a lot of my time, and makes me feel like I have a normal (and mundane) office job. Basically, the organization doesn't have paid staff who sits at headquarters and does the administrative stuff. Instead, each volunteer is required to be on several different task teams and coordinate within their area of focus to keep the organization going. I am on 6 task teams: I help submit sponsor letters, coordinate travel plans with new volunteers, help recruit new volunteers though online media,  assign tasks to new volunteers, etc. Each department has their own email account and set of task instructions. The founder travels a lot to each of the orphanages, but she sees every email that is sent through the organization, all on her blackberry phone. She must spend her entire days on her phone, responding to emails! Last I heard she was in Kenya helping out with one of the Kenya center's famine feed programs, and even though she was in the middle of nowhere helping to feed nomadic tribal people she was still responding to my emails. It's a pretty crazy system, but it seems to work well. 

I'm off to bed... Love you all!