Hello again. It has been a longer time than it should have been but that is because of my technological problems which have turned out to be no problem at all. I had my computer checked at the Mac shop in Jakarta and all is well with my computer. It is the crappy Manado phone lines that are particularly troublesome. I think I may have found a way around it with a wireless modem. I’ll let you know how that goes. The pricing is by kilobyte downloaded so things may get cost-prohibitive.
The second take on Jakarta was accompanied by a first round of sickness on my part. One Fellow had already come a few days early due to a stomach ailment. I came in on Sunday and took ill the next morning. Joy! I have been quite ill in the past due to various reasons in Nepal, so this was not really new. What was new was waking up after having relieved myself unknowingly. Yes, it was not a pretty sight. However, it didn’t surprise me after being thoroughly coached in ‘I crapped myself’ stories in the Peace Corps. I had to wait until Jakarta. I threw the sheets and matress pad in the tub to rinse them off, showered myself, and threw the blanket on the floor to sleep off the next few hours. The next day wasn’t so good but I feel much better today. I slept from nearly 5p yesterday until 6a this morning to top it all off.
In one of the meetings I was expected to sit through regarding some USAID programs, there came a woman from the Phillipines who had actually worked on a project in Nepal almost 15 years ago. She set up a woman’s teaching college in the Dhankuta area of eastern Nepal. She had this stupendous demeanor, using our names in attempt to understand them, asking us what we could do for her (as this was supposed to be an informational session and she quickly deviated from telling us exactly what her program was doing) we really had no idea what we could offer in the few provinces her grant program was working.
Sidenote of bureaucracy: The Indonesian government has decided that all foreigners working in Indonesia will have to pass a language proficiency exam. They describe it as a TOEFL-like proficiency exam. The directors of organizations will be exempt from this requirement. We are unknown as how this will impact the Fellow program here. The new regulation will take effect some time in the first quarter of next year. Depending on the required scores, I would not be surprised if every one of us fails any language test because our language proficiency is largely confined to the vocabulary of teaching and largely speaking and listening.
I hope that I’ll be able to respond to email shortly. It’s been thirty minutes already at the internet shop. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to last. By the by, the post office works here…