Hi there,
How am I doing?, a few people have written to ask. … When I first wrote a draft of this, a little cracked out on senseless TV and corn syrup. Mom sent Mike & Ike’s as per my request (also the Oscar edition of People and US Weekly) and Star World Asia plays daily repeats of American Idol and other such classics as Australian Jr Master Chef, British Next Top Model, and Castle. At the very moment, sitting at the Jakarta airport taking advatnage of a free wifi hotspot. (?!??!) More about the trip later...
I’m cat sitting for awhile so I have an “embassy people” apartment to myself. (People are checking in on the cat while I'm gone, but I'll head back there after the trip.) Read: a pool, in-house masseuse, housekeeping service, a gym with free personal trainers, with a view. I have pictures but I'll have to add them later; my USB drive is somewhere mixed up in my carry-on....[25 April: Adding photos! ] So anyway I worked from home a little this week. Meaning that I’ve devoted quality time to wandering around the apartment in my underwear eating Mike and Ike’s and torturing the cat with the laser pointer.
I’m crazy about the cat. He is gorgeous and quirky and smart as shit, but not snotty about it. Actually he’s pretty affectionate and responds appropriately to a stern “no”, a little puppy-like in that regard. He was a street cat – have I mentioned the cats before? There are a lot of them. I’m more used to goats, dogs, and/or chickens but here: cats. Very, very skinny cats. This cat has put some meat on his bones but kept the personality.
It’s good that I’m enjoying hanging with him because I’m still lonely a lot. Nothing dire; just saying is all. I’m being pretty good at not taking it personally but my social life is skimpy at best. And really, a lot of it is that I miss my people at home. Like Katie said, the main problem with here is that it’s really far away from there.But I’m in a moderately solid groove at work and I’ve been rocking out Jakarta public transport and geography – For one, I figured out my route from the embassy people apartment to my office all on my own. (I know it sounds basic but this is a BIG accomplishment, trust me. Look at a Jakarta map sometime, and then up the ante with the understanding that a good 30-40% of it is wrong or wishful thinking or not called that in real life, and that public transport routes mostly aren't mapped for the public.)
Also, I bought a motorcycle helmet. No more searching around for the one guy at the ojek post with the functional helmet; moreover, any potential lice, dandruff, ring worm, sweat in the helmet I wear is now mine alone. The helmet dealer and the ojek driver I drafted into bringing me to make the purchase both agree that “Miss” looks very beautiful in her “helm.” … Looks are the main thing, really.
Work is shaping up to be interesting on many levels. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I have a job description…but, why tie oneself down? I’ve done some interesting projects related to fundraising and monitoring & evaluation/organizational learning, a bit of translation and English teaching, and the big news is that all this is (yes, in Indonesian but also) embedded in my aforementioned secret agent lessons learned project, which has finally been allowed into civilian life….
The only differences in how I roll now that the secret’s out are, one, I feel less creepy sitting in on things and thus am sitting in on any and everything (structured observations, baby, occasionally of the participant observer type) and two, I feel empowered to ask for actual interviews with people (although have yet to do much of that... everyone's so busy, I'm more comfortable as a fly on the wall), and three, I actually feel like I should start trying to produce something - so I’m scrambling to write up some “initial findings,” plus trying create a note taking system that keeps me from wanting to cry when I go back and try to draw any conclusions from the data, winnowing through the massive list of questions I want to ask people (Is this actually key information, or is it just me being nosy, or is it just me being baffled by something that makes perfect sense to an Indonesian person…?), that sort of thing. And, four, I’m going to the field.
The field! As I think I mentioned, in our very Jakarta-centric way of speaking, that means anything but here. Its kind of messed up and I would stop using it but such is the lingo in the NGO and in the expat and aid worlds. …
But anyhoo, semantics aside, I’m waiting on my flight to Aceh right now and will be there for 11 days. As in post-tsunami sharia-law Aceh. I’m packing a couple head scarves and my gratitude for being slowly weaned off alcohol in Jakarta and Yogya. My quick Lonely Planet perusal makes me want to go back already with time to wander, but this time, I’ll be observing a training and a couple site visits and then joining with a researcher on a UN Women project who’s preparing a case study on the NGO’s work on government accountability in Aceh.
And, friends, I have a travel budget. Not saying it totally fits yet, though I sure did get used to having servants quickly enough - I am even worse about doing dishes now than what certain former roommates and family members remember - so I imagine soon enough I’ll be perfectly at ease with someone else booking my flights and my car & driver.
Yes, you heard right, car & driver. Public transport isn't always realistic (and the admin assistant looked at me like I was crazy when I suggested I might take it. As for the driver...would you want me driving here? Um, no. Just so we’re clear though, I will be sleeping on the floor of community learning centers and peeing in public bathrooms for most of the 11 days (and eating a whole lot of white rice, sigh). I could stay in a hotel in a bigger town nearby and keep the car around for me to come back and forth – it would get paid for – but then what’s the point? You miss the good stuff when you only show up for the regularly scheduled event.
Upon return to Jkt my embassy cat-sitting awaits, then I have a few more trips “approved in the system,” to NTT, South Sumatera, and North Maluku.
So, how am I doing? Doing OK. Finding my way slowly slowly. Missing home and also feeling like I have some things to do here yet. Anxious like I always am before any big trip, but excited to get to get on a paid-for plane and see what's going on out there.
More later.
Love you,
M
