The First Weekend – a Recap

The weekend was pretty uneventful. During the week at work I was surrounded by people all day, even though I was hardly able to communicate with them it was still a sort of social interaction. But over the weekend I was reminded that I have no friends here and I don’t speak the language, so even if I did have somewhere to go or someone to see I wouldn’t be able to get there even if I tried. It was a little disheartening to realize this, but I also realize that I have three months to go here and things can only get better.

The weekend wasn’t all doom and gloom though. I went to the Bogor Botanical Gardens with the secretary from LATIN, Pagitta. She is very nice and speaks English very well. She also studied journalism in university and will be helping me in my PR work for LATIN. Hopefully once I’m gone she will be able to continue functioning in a PR role for LATIN. If she does, I’ve advised her to ask for a raise. We talked about all sorts of stuff while walking through the manicured landscape that was formerly the backyard to the presidential palace. We even talked a little about religion, which I had been wary of talking about since I didn’t want to offend anyone. I asked her about it being illegal to be atheist and how you can only marry within your religion. She felt that it helped to keep relations between the religions peaceful, while I felt that mixed marriages would foster understanding. She didn’t convince me and I certainly didn’t convince her.

The gardens are a popular spot for picnicking for families, as well as serving as a tourist attraction. There were huge indigenous trees all through the gardens that had been allowed to grow. The gardens also serve as a sort of natural preserve for plant life. At one point we were sitting on a bench over looking a huge lawn with families picnicking and children running around. There was a huge group of trees across the field that was swaying in the breeze. Their rhythmic motions gave the impression that the jungle was breathing. And with this image in mind it was easy to imagine the jungle as a living organism that was capable of thought and aspirations just like any other. It may have been the heat, but I started to think that the trees were pulsating with life as they yearned to grow and reclaim manicured lawns and landscaped gardens that had once belonged to the jungle.

After that we went to the mall and the AC got me thinking straight again. The mall was like any other with fast food, teenagers and a central area where a band was setting up to play a concert. We didn’t stay long enough to check out the show, but we did hear the bass player’s sound check. I had an urge to cheer and yell something like “Kick-ass bass solo!” But I really didn’t need to attract any more attention to myself and Indonesians tend to be a little on the conservative side, so I thought it better to try and fit in.

Sunday was really mellow since it rained all day, so I stayed in and did a lot of reading. It was actually pretty convenient since there were food carts coming by all day, I didn’t have to leave the house to get a meal. And I didn’t want to leave because this was some serious rainfall. There were times where it seemed that all the water in the surrounding area had been lifted out of the lakes and rivers and then dropped like a wave onto the town. In other words it was really heavy rainfall. The rain has been reminding me of home on the Wet Coast though, so I don’t mind it at all.

Today I’m back at the office and getting more into work. I’ve presented my plan to Arif, my immediate supervisor and he seems pleased. We laid out a plan to generate promotion for LATIN through some serious PR work. In the next little while I’ll be hunting down publications to pitch stories to as well as getting together press releases to send out. I still have a lot of research to do to get a good idea of what LATIN does, so I’ll be doing that too. Check your e-mail boxes because I’ll probably be asking some of you for help in finding publications that may be interested in publishing stories about LATIN. I’ve already pitched to the Kamloops Daily News, but they’ve stipulated that they don’t want me pitching to any of their competition as well. I don’t know if they consider the oMega as competition, but I’ve also agreed to write a feature for them for the July 6th issue. It’s a slow start, but I feel good about it.

I’m off to Pandeglang tomorrow to visit the village where LATIN is undertaking one of its projects. It’ll be a short trip and we’ll probably only stay over one night, but I’m excited to see more of the country and to interview some of LATIN’s people working in the field. I’ll be taking lots of photos over the next few days and hopefully I’ll be able to post some photos on the blog soon.