Time for Plan "C"

How bad does your career karma have to be to get laid off from a volunteer position? I’m guessing pretty bad. Re. last post: “will I persist for another year?”. Turns out, that’s not up to me. Not only is CUSO terminating its partnership with VSO Indonesia at the end of March 2014, VSO is closing its operations entirely in Indonesia. Hmmm. When they said we would need to be flexible..... So that’s it. Five more months, at the most, and I’m finished here. 

There were rumours floating around about cutbacks and changes at CUSO, obvious signals from the Conservative government, particularly when CIDA was dissolved as an independent agency and sandwiched into Foreign Affairs. I haven’t read anything about other changes - I’m assuming there are other reductions in support for international development as has been consistent throughout the Conservative’s time in power. And, in fact, I’m in favour of this reallocation of resources. Although my stomach dropped when I got the news a week ago, Indonesia doesn’t need foreign aid anymore. Their economy has been growing at a faster rate than Canada’s for several years, and the country has many trained professionals who could fill any of the positions the remaining Canadian volunteers are currently holding. Government departments at all levels seem to be well-staffed. If their funding isn’t spent appropriately on programs, and rather is disappearing into a well of official visits and new vehicles, then that’s an upper management problem that won’t be solved by an international volunteer working at the village level. We have no ability or authority to affect those issues.

While CUSO is terminating programs in Indonesia, Tajikistan and Cameroon, new programs have started in South Sudan, Myanmar and the Congo. It’s all decided on the basis of country GDP, estimated rates of poverty and national government support of development programs, among other indicators. 

Also, Indonesia is awash in NGOs with many different objectives: saving the coral reefs, saving the turtles, saving the rainforest, saving homeless cats and dogs.......it goes on. There are so many NGOs operating that fundraising competition is fierce, resulting in less donor dollars (or rupiah) for each individual organization. This is a classic tug-of-war - do you want your development organizations to be centralized, with many areas of expertise, and a larger administrative requirement? This may result in more effective fundraising efforts and bulk economies for training, provision of resources. Or is the better option to have many small organizations each with narrower focus - lower administrative costs but also a shorter reach for fundraising, expertise and impact.

Another entry into the development market is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs. Essentially, businesses start their own local improvement projects in areas where they are operating, sometimes to mitigate negative environmental impacts that can result as side effects of their operations. This form of development has great possibilities, primarily because it is less dependent on outside fundraising. Money may be solicited from employees, or budgeted from the company’s own resources (and used as a tax deduction), and people to do the work may also be community-minded employees volunteering in their free time. As with many new initiatives, a burgeoning market in contracting experts to recommend meaningful CSR projects has sprung up in many countries. The emphasis on local issues is particularly helpful. Typically, projects with a broad sweep (like saving coral reefs) can become overwhelming and suck down resources at a mad rate due to the geographical span alone.

Things weren’t going swimmingly here. But I have accomplished a few things, and there was the strong possibility that, given another year, I could have made more progress. In fact I feel like I’ve only just settled in, created some good working relationships, and begun to understand how to achieve results, so having only 5 months left rather than a full year, is very discouraging. Not to mention having to start the soul-destroying routine of searching job boards and writing cover letters.

Might be harder on Alex, ‘though - he’ll need every day of those 5 months to clean up the house & put it back the way I left it. Better get started, hon.

My Annual Check-up

Well, I’ve been a bit lazy & haven’t written anything for a couple of months, & then thought I’d wait until the one-year anniversary of my landing in Indonesia (October 8) - maybe pull out some profound ponderings on how the year has been for me. I find myself bereft of clever & profound right now, ‘though. Maybe it’s because I’ve never been someone who paid a lot of attention to the past - always trying to see what’s coming next & hoping it’s different. But I’ll try. Here are a few observations.

Lost about 20 pounds (yippee) - mostly due to drastic reduction in alcohol intake - which makes the heat more bearable - fewer fat folds in which the sweat can accumulate.

Learned to love riding a motor scooter, even in wicked traffic. Still swear at other drivers but that’s not going to piss anyone off because (a) it’s in English & most of them wouldn’t catch the meaning, & (b) it’s mostly just resounding inside my helmet.

I don’t get to go swimming hardly ever! Imagine living in the middle of a bloody island archipelago & I can’t manage to get down to a beach even once a month. Conclusion: I need another vacation, soon.

I can plan the hell out of the organization I’m working for & none of it will survive 5 minutes after I land back in Canada. After a year, I’m still trying to figure out how to convert anything I do to have even a minimal lasting impact.

Finished an online social psychology course which reinforced & complemented a lot of impressions I have about society in general & helped me understand some things about Indonesian society that are a mystery to me. The most interesting thing I took away was the affirmation that attitudes & behaviour are often completely disconnected, so if you want to change something people do (like littering) you’re probably wasting your time (& money) trying to change attitudes (for example, through a public information campaign). The effort may be better spent on simply working to change the behaviour. So I yelled at one of the university students on campus yesterday for throwing a used water bottle on the ground (well, OK, I didn’t actually yell - but I did tell her she shouldn’t be littering). 

It’s great having 2 homes here - one up in the cool hills among trees & one down in the city. I don’t think I’d be happy living full time in either one & it’s like a mini-vacation / change whenever I go back & forth.

Makassar is the fourth largest city in Indonesia & I’m surprised to find that I kind of like it. It’s dirty, noisy, confusing, hellish traffic (as I may have mentioned 6 or 7 times by now) - but it feels alive & vibrant. And the Starbucks has the most reliable wifi connection I’ve found yet. I still have 90% of the city to explore - have generally been staying on the streets I know & I still get lost with remarkable regularity - but there’s tons more of it with interesting little shops & restaurants.

Social connections are the central fact of Indonesian life. People thrive through their relationships with others - that’s how the majority of time is spent by an average Indonesian - simply maintaining existing relationships & creating new ones. Anything that has to get done is accomplished by making those connections with others. This is probably the most foreign concept to me & the most important thing I’ve learned here. I don’t know if I can acquire any kind of skill in social networking (& not the computer kind) but it’s revelatory to me to have the examples in front of me all day, every day & I think I’m improving.

So - am I going to persist for another year? I don’t know - don’t know if I’d even place good odds on it. I miss my fam - but Kir & Alex are getting along fine without me - & I think I even have fewer gray hairs since I’m not looking over their shoulders worrying about them all the time. Well, OK, technically (in the technological sense) I’m still looking over their shoulders, but they find it a lot easier to ignore me for some reason.

To sum up - this experience has been & continues to be frustrating, infuriating, confusing, discouraging, even depressing, but always & still interesting. I’ll probably be here next month, so sampai jumpa.

Notes from the month of Ramadan

Throughout July, the pace of work has slowed down appreciably. Not only is it the month of Ramadan, It’s also the mid term break for universities; lectures resume in the last week of August. 

There’s one week left to Ramadan, culminating in the two-day celebration of Idul Fitri, a big event, for which many people visit family. “Lots of kue (cake)”, my work partner Nasri tells me. Next week is a holiday for the whole university & yesterday evening I was invited to share “membuka puas” with the forestry faculty and staff. It’s an interesting phrase that refers to the daily time at which Muslims may break their fast - shortly after sunset in this part of the world. Rather than “breaking fast”, it means (sort of) to “open satisfaction”. An animated gentleman gave a long, cheerful speech, some of which I understood, speaking about heaven and the reasons for fasting, and then we were treated a buffet dinner.

To my “new” eyes, the effects of Ramadan seem to be relatively minor - people tend to be a bit more tired, traffic seems to move slower (for some reason), but generally, life carries on pretty much as usual. I asked Amir, Cristina’s research assistant, which he reaches for first on breaking fast - food, water, or cigarettes - definitely cigarettes, he tells me. His daily routine during the last month includes waking up at about 3:30 am to prepare a meal before call to prayer starts at 4:30. Another minor difference, I can hear longer sermons & singing from the nearest mosque during evening prayers.

All the small warungs & food stalls are closed during the day, but in the city, coffee shops & restaurants still operate regularly. In a gesture of propriety, they hang light curtains across plate glass windows. No one is offended if you (especially foreigners) eat or drink while they are fasting - but it’s just not polite to flaunt it.   

People do definitely look thinner now - I noticed some of the faculty members are a bit trimmer. The most obvious effect is that dehydration is evident. I felt very sorry for a team of students who were at the forest last week, collecting samples. Six to seven hours of hill-climbing with no water takes its toll, & I was surprised they would plan field work this month. I went out with them for one day, which was enough for me, & I had a bottle of water with me. Luckily the weather is at its coolest this time of year.

Comparing our biggest Christian holidays with Ramadan & Idul Fitri - well, there’s no mass marketing of consumer goods to celebrate the Muslim religious holiday. Nice to see that retailers haven’t yet figured out how to exploit it in that way. So, I guess it corresponds best to Canadian Thanksgiving Day. Mmmmm, turkey - ok, there goes my concentration.

Pulau Flores in Pictures

Although I've only been back from vacation for 10 days, it already seems a very, very long time ago. Instead of describing our activities (in short, we ate, we drank, we saw sights). Here are some pictures:

Landscape from boat on the way to Rinca Island 

Lazy komodo hanging around the kitchen area

Walking around Komodo National Park

Sunset from hotel room in Labuan Bajo

Lunch with Kir & Pam (in mirror) in Ruteng

Traditional village of Bene, outside of Bajawa

Male figure on top of traditional house

Canada Day in Bajawa: Selamat Ulang Tahun, Canada

"Go be scale for the tree fern, Kir"

Two of the three coloured lakes in Kelimutu National Park

"Go be scale for the volcanic lakes, Kir"

The third lake

Landscape around Moni, where we stayed to visit Kelimutu

How I spent my winter vacation: Part 1

Kir, tickled pink, on the porch of our homestay in Sanur.

I’ve had a great last 3 weeks exploring a different island with my daughter Kirsten and another volunteer, Pam, who has finished her placement & will be returning to Canada next month. I flew to Denpasar on June 17th & waited at the airport for Kir to arrive on a later flight from Toronto via Hong Kong. Absolutely super to see her, & excited to show her around the bits of the country with which I’ve become somewhat familiar. We spent several days in Sanur at the beach, browsing the fabric shops on Jalan Sulawesi in the city, & eating good food. Luckily most of the restaurants serve both western & Indonesian food, since I wanted the former & Kir indulged in nasi goreng & mie, with sambal, of course.

Kir's dinner: very fancy nasi goreng
at restaurant in Labuan Bajo.

We also rented a motorbike for half a day & spent a bit of time wandering back roads trying to find a particular beach up the coast. Did find it, but the surfing competition we wanted to catch was over for the day & postponed indefinitely due to wind & wave conditions. Still, fun to wander around independently without having to depend on public transport.

A few monkeys in Ubud.

Then, it was up to Ubud for 3 days to show Kir the monkey forest & the beautiful shops, traditional market & more great restaurants & coffee shops. So far, this is a touristy extravanganza & there are many more of us wandering the streets as it is a prime winter vacation spot for Australians & Europeans. Indonesians are also plentiful since most schools have just started a month-long break right now. Many volunteers want to show visiting family members their placement towns or villages, but I was craving a bit of luxury - so our vacation skipped the whole island of Sulawesi. If Kir decides to visit again in the next year, I’ll bring her up to the tiny village of Bengo & show her the delights (?) of Makassar.

Kir comparing the taste of Lay's
salmon teriyaki chips to a previous
experience with Pringle's
seaweed flavour.

Week 2 of the trip had us on a plane to Labuan Bajo on the island of Flores, a well-known destination for diving, snorkeling & seeing the komodo dragons. We planned on 2 out of these 3, neither of us having current dive certification. Pam was waiting for us at the hotel, newly arrived from saying her goodbyes in Kupang, West Timor, where she had been living for the better part of the last 2 years. The hotel was top-notch at a good price, arranged through one of Pam’s friends. Beach front & pool, lovely sunsets.

View from the 8th floor of our hotel, over the harbour of Labuan Bajo.

Next post: pictures of lazy komodo dragons & volcanic lakes (stay tuned).

All I ever needed to know I learned in...

...turns out, Girl Guides. Currently, I’m trying to drag up from my memory games & activities to enhance our youth environmental education program. We’re into the fifth session of eight, and so far it’s been a qualified success. Down to a core group of 8 regulars, all girls & they really like games. So far, learning about the environment is incidental. But this is a good first test run & will help Nasri & I to plan a better program for the next session.

Our first "remaja alam" class.

My goal, however, is to design a logical, science-based program and booklet as a guide and then train the trainers. I’ve proposed a 2-day teacher training session to take place in about 6 months. In other words, I have no intention of going around to every local school week after week taking 6 or 7 kids at a time through an 8-week program for the next 2 years. So, some of my work hours are spent scouring the internet for educational resources, copying & pasting (with references, of course) to compile a teacher’s guide. Then, we’ll work on translating it & then distribute, distribute, distribute to any interested teachers. Thanks to Girl Guides and Atlantic Teacher’s Tour - none of my ideas are original & I always get a little warm glow when I find a use for past experiences which I thought (at the time) might be a waste of time (or at least not in my areas of interest). They’re certainly making me look good here.

Nasri marking the trail through
a pine plantation.

I’ll be getting busier over the next few months, as my language skills pick up & I can contribute more to lectures at the university & meetings in the local villages to facilitate the community forestry program. We’re expecting a class of first year students up in June for their field school - they’ll need a schedule & some supervision on plot establishment & data collection. 

We’ve also started marking trails, just in case stray visitors happen along. The Hutan Pendidikan (Learning Forest) is only 1300 hectares in size, but seems a lot bigger, as the terrain is hilly. In places, the trails are very steep and there are several waterfalls scattered throughout the forest. Unfortunately a lot of the area is planted to pine, which is not native to South Sulawesi; the species actually originates from Sumatra. I say unfortunately because the native forest is much more interesting with mixed broadleaved trees - looks like you would imagine a tropical rainforest should look. The pine was planted in the 1970s by the government; professors from the university have also planted some areas with ebony and mahogany, which are native. In open meadows the natural forest does not regenerate - cows and water buffalo owned by the local community freely range and browse everything but a few stray shrubs that apparently aren’t to their taste. 

Wallowing water buffalo

And another small step this week; a meeting between faculty members and the heads of the local villages to talk about issues concerning both sides. Encroachment into the forest by local residents establishing rice fields and vegetable gardens is a problem that will require some discussion. The previously mentioned free ranging cows can obliterate reforestation efforts. Also, there is a random network of small pipes to conduct water from the hills to individual houses that should be replaced by planned distribution. Benefits to the local communities were emphasized; if we can build up the capacity of the Learning Forest to host visitors and researchers, job opportunities on site (for forest guides, security, cleaning & cooking staff) will increase. So, we seem to be on track, although I’m sure there are some bumps ahead that we can’t see yet.

The Case for an Indonesian Downhill Ski Team

I’m going to start working on a proposal to develop a national Indonesian downhill ski team, for several great reasons. First of all, balance - they’ve got it, as a result of riding motorbikes - from birth as passengers & then as soon as they’re big enough to reach the controls on their own (the licensing age is 14, but rules aren’t always followed). Many women ride pillion sidesaddle, which demands its own delicate balance & women drivers in (very) high heels are everywhere. Families of four or five will fit with relative comfort onto a bike. And I’ve seen everything from dozens of eggs to 10 foot ladders and full size bookcases loaded onto tiny scooters. Got to get from A to B somehow, right?

An "intersection" - guy with his arm out & a whistle guiding van into the stream of traffic across about 5 and a half lanes of oncoming vehicles.

Second reason - control. Driving on a bike in Indonesian traffic is exactly like negotiating the closest bunny hill to Toronto the day after Christmas on downhill skis. First rule - don’t worry about what’s behind you - you have no control over the guy coming up on your right or the minibus trying to pass you on your left, you need to keep your eyes on the next pothole in front of you & your rearview mirrors really only give you a glimpse of half of your own arm & a somewhat terrifying snapshot of the masses of scooters in the rear. So the strategy to safely & calmly driving around Makassar is just what you’d do on a black diamond slope with occasional moguls - weave around those slower than you, leave room for unexpected co-recreationalists popping out from the trees or side trails, and be ready to stop when the newbie in front crosses his tips - at the same time scanning the surface for holes, bumps and slippery patches. After you’ve got all that down, it’s quite fun. But it does demand a lot of focus, & you need regular breaks to slow your heart down.

And the third reason that I can see gold for downhill skiing in Indonesia’s future - optimism. It may be because I’m still working on the language but I haven’t met a cynical Indonesian (yet). In fact, the country faces many of the same difficulties we do in North America - although currently they have better economic growth, unemployment and underemployment is high, there are very limited opportunities for young people & even those with university degrees earn very low wages. But the Indonesians I know look forward with a (somewhat confusing to me) belief that their lives are getting better. They commonly express ambitious goals & sincerely believe that these are within reach.

To some extent, I think that this cheerful attitude towards life can be explained by the bahasa Indonesia word ‘belum’. Essentially, it means ‘not yet’. If someone asks you ‘have you had lunch?’ the answer wouldn’t be ‘no’, it would be ‘belum’. This could be interpreted as: not yet, I’d love to, the possibility is still out there, what have you got? You get the same answer if you ask someone on this island whether they’ve been to Bali. Belum - but the universe may get me there sooner or later. Most Indonesians can’t afford the plane ticket to travel off their own island, and hotels are completely out of reach. But, whether the question is ‘have you finished your homework’ or ‘are you married’ or ‘have you taken that commercial flight to the moon’, you’d hear ‘belum’. But ‘belum’ says it all. The possibility is always out there. That one word might just reflect a uniquely Indonesian deep-seated optimism. I can learn from that. 

I haven’t started my ski team proposal, belum.