Week 5 -- Part 2

This will just be a short post to let everyone know I am still kicking it here in Indonesia. There is not much going on at work this week, so I haven't got much to say.

There has been very few people in the office this week. It's usual for people to go to the field to visit project sites, but it still feels weird with only five people in the office. It also means a relaxed atmosphere. The girls fry bananas with chocolate sprinkles for dessert after lunch and again for an afternoon snack. It may be LATIN, but working for an NGO is slack. The dress code is casual, hours are flexible and the hierarchy is loose.

Arif, my immediate superior, has gone to Calgary for a conference and will also be checking in with Nick (my TRU course advisor for this internship) I hope Arif has good things to say about me. It's hard to tell if they are happy with me because they are so polite. It's hard for them to make demands and ultimatums, and they definitely won't get mad. I don't think I've seen a single angry person since I have arrived in Indonesia. But I still read about angry mobs and bombings in the paper. It's like these outbursts of violence and hatred are total anomalies that burst out spontaneously from nowhere and then disappear again behind the easy-going, friendly Indonesian personality just as quickly. Or maybe the "never angry" attitude enforced by their culture causes Indonesians to repress their emotions until they explode into riots and violence. Who knows?

The strangest incidence of violence I read about happenned at a Muslim school. The parents found out that the headmaster had been having sex with students when one of them became pregnant. The angry parents then formed a mob and burnt the school down. I didn't understand why they attacked the school instead of going after the headmaster. Now none of their children have a school to attend. Not that I think attacking a person would be better, but their anger seemed somewhat misdirected on that one. Of course, mobs aren't usually known to use logic and rationality.

I've only seen Sopu, the executive director of LATIN, a handful of times at the office. The second week I was here he was sick, the next he went to East Java to visit his mother and now he is in Jakarta. I'm not implying that he is skipping work, but I just find it odd that the main authority figures of the organization are rarely around. Can you imagine a Canadian workplace with no boss present, it would be anarchy. Or at least very little work would be done. I can't say what amount of work is being done at LATIN since I don't really know what most people are supposed to be doing in the first place.

On a more positive note, my computer is back from Jakarta and it has a new CD drive. I'll be diving into the website re-design now and I've also got an Internet connection so I can send more e-mails to help promote LATIN. It's only been five weeks and I'm all set to do some work.

Week 5

Last week was pretty busy around the office with a couple of workshops taking place at LATIN. The workshops brought a lot of visitors to our offices from LATIN project sites and VSO representatives from the UK who are based in Bali.

The first workshop was on promoting good forest governance through knowledge sharing between the various project teams from Pandeglang, Kuningan and Dompu. It was quite a festive atmosphere and there were more people in the office then usual. By that I mean more of the Bogor employees were present than any other normal day at the office. As well there were representatives from each project site. The workshop was done in Indonesian so I had to sit with Liz, who is the most proficient at English from the LATIN staff, so she could translate for me.

It was interesting to watch the interaction in the workshop and the dynamics of the group. We started by introducing ourselves and everyone was impressed that I could introduce myself in Indonesian, but not much else. The whole thing started with an introduction/presentation from Arif. People would come and go as they pleased during the workshop for drinks or to do other stuff. Arif would even jokingly ask for permission to continue his presentation if people got to talking amongst themselves. There was also big plates of goodies on the table for us to eat. They all looked like sweets, but I quickly found out that the Indonesian idea of sweets is quite different than ours. I was eating a little cake/pastry thing when I found out there was a chili stashed in the middle. It was like a booby trap. I was munching away and was suddenly assaulted by this burning in my mouth. I started coughing up a lung and had to leave the meeting for a bit to drink a lot of water. As usual everyone else thought it was hilarious.

For lunch there was a big spread and everybody took their time and enjoyed each others company, as well as the food. After everybody from each project had done their presentations they got into groups to discuss their individual lessons learned from their projects and then presented those to the group. The whole workshop was really focused on discussion and sharing of ideas rather than sitting and listening to whatever the head honchos want you to know. When we were done we all had dinner at the office to. One thing I love about traveling is discovering new foods. We had little skewers of chicken and goat called sate that were awesome. At first I was cautious and only took one of each, but I took a handful of skewers the second time around. The meals at LATIN have been a great way for me to explore Indonesian cuisine since there is always an assortment of dishes to choose from. I usually skip the organ-based dishes, such as chicken hearts, but the vegetable dishes have been excellent and they eat a lot of tofu here. I even tried dog meat at home with Mickey once, but I couldn’t swallow it. The taste, consistency and the vision of my dog in my head added to my apprehension and I spat it out.

Also during breaks in the workshop I was working on getting Dreamweaver software downloaded on to the computer I use so I could start re-designing the LATIN website. We initially tried getting the latest version off the Net, but the download would have taken days. Nana had an older version at home on CD so we used that instead. I’m looking forward to getting started on the website since that is something I can do on my own schedule without waiting for anyone else to do something first. I am still waiting for my computer to come back from Jakarta, where it went for the weekend to do the publishing of LATIN’s journal. Since I am a computer mooch I am also ripping all of my CDs onto one of the computers here so everyone can enjoy some new music at work. I was worried at first that I would be breaking some censorship laws by bringing the Beastie Boys into Indonesia, but everybody here already knew them anyways. I also had a great conversation with Liz trying to explain musical genres like punk and surf-folk.

The next workshop was on Friday and it was a session with two VSO (Volunteer Services Overseas) representatives to prepare LATIN for a VSO volunteer from the Netherlands due to arrive in August. The whole thing was very similar to my pre-departure orientation with the Centre for Intercultural Learning (CIL). We talked about different cultural values associated with time, individuality and a persons perceived place in their society. It sounds like heavy stuff, but it was all communicated through interactive games and discussion. It was hard for me not to cheat too much since I knew what was going on and I didn’t want to take away from the LATIN staff’s learning opportunity.

The best thing I got out of that workshop was a brief conversation with John and Martin, the VSO reps, about VSO and living in Indonesia. VSO sounds like a good group and I was picking their brains for information in case I want to volunteer with them some day. They have also been living in Bali for five and three years respectively, so I asked them about the tensions with Australia and the security advisories. They dismissed the security warnings saying the only real targets were the embassies in Jakarta, so as long as you weren’t there, there wasn’t anything to worry about. John said that when the terrorists/freedom fighters bombed other targets they killed more Indonesians than foreigners and therefore didn’t get too much support or sympathy for their causes. It was a relief to hear this since I have been reading about bombings in Sulawesi, travel advisories and tensions with the Australians. I had been getting carried away in all the media hype and to hear someone who had been living here for five years say that it wasn’t a big deal really took a load off my mind. I still won’t be hanging out at the embassies in Jakarta though, so don’t worry.

This weekend I finally got off my butt and did something. I was starting to get into the rut of sleeping and watching TV all weekend and not taking advantage of this incredible opportunity. So I went for a day trip to a nearby national park for a day hike. The whole thing reminded me that I am traveling and am here to enjoy myself as well as work for LATIN. I spent the whole morning on a cramped bus to get to Cibodas, where there is a mountain that has a popular hike. I didn’t make it to the peak, but I did get to these beautiful waterfalls. I may try to go another time and stay overnight so I can hike the peak and visit the hot springs. Even the wilderness in Indonesia is crowded. The whole day I was passing Indonesians on the trail that had come up from Jakarta for the weekend. As soon as I sat down anywhere I was asked to be in a picture with a bunch of Indonesians. They didn’t even ask my name they just wanted the picture.

There were some other foreigners along the trail and I felt like an Indonesian when I saw them because I was so excited and nervous to see them. An older couple had their daughter with them and she caused quite a stir after she went swimming in the pool under the falls. Although she wore a t-shirt and shorts to swim in, she took off her shirt after to reveal a rather skimpy bikini top. Not a big deal in the western world, but here she had all the Indonesian boys excited, even the ones from Jakarta where they are supposed to be more modern and cosmopolitan about these things.

I didn’t spend a lot of time at the falls since I had to get back to Bogor that night. Getting around on my own for a change was really good for me and reminded me that I was traveling again. Everywhere else I’ve gone I’ve been accompanied by someone from LATIN and I’ve just had to follow them around like a puppy. Not very conducive to learning about a new language and culture when you are constantly protected from stuff you may not understand. This short day trip reminded me why I love to travel. Just simple stuff like trying to find the right bus can be an adventure. I plan on going to either Jakarta or a beach to the south this coming weekend.