short hiatus / Bali cont.

Hello, hello

Well, yes, I have not been on here in a while. It feels like sooo long ago that I was in lovely Bali! Right now I am sitting in a hotel room, on a wet night in Bandung. I am here to observe the PDS/R refresher training going on this week. Absent the companionship of my fellow FPFs, I brought lots of DVDs and reading material. The translators and I plan to go out tomorrow, maybe with the master trainers in tow. Lots of factory outlets here, but I'm hoping to find stuff suitable for Christmas shopping. Instead of being high up on the hill, as I was the only other time I stayed here, we are down in the main part of the city.

I thought I would take advantage of this time to catch up on photo uploads and on blogging. So much has happened in the past few weeks! I am trying to upload my Bali photos right now, but it looks like it could possibly take all night. I have become very familiar with the slow internet connection provided by my cellular modem. It has made life interesting and, frankly, frustrating. I was able to talk to my parents on Skype last night for the first time in weeks. I also gave a virtual lecture to Washington State University shortly after returning from Bali. As my internet connection would support neither WSU's virtual lecture system nor a call via Skype, they called me on my Blackberry. The phone on their end was hung up to the microphone with bandage stockinette. I guess given all our technology, some things just never change!

After my tango night in Seminyak, we spent the next day reclining on the beach. I was talked into making another trip to crowded Kuta for surfing, of all things. I am proud to say that, 12 years after I last tried surfing, I was able to get up on my rented long board on the first try. The water at Kuta was lovely, but there were tons of other surfers and swimmers to watch out for. I seem to be at an awkward stage in my surfing where I want to start catching waves at the break but am still on a long board, which is hard to get out that far. Not feeling in the mood for too much roughing up, I didn't spend a ton of time in the surf. We caught the famous sunset and then made our merry way to Jimbaran - home of beachside seafood. Just past the Four Seasons, there is a marketplace of fresh seafood restaurants, clearly identified from the vast plumes of smoke rising from the grills. You pick one, choose your seafood, and they throw it right on the grill for you, cooked over coconut husks. We opted for a kilo each of clams, 2 kilos of prawns, and 3 large crabs. Once chosen, we were escorted to a lovely, candlelit table down at the water's edge. A constellation of other candles on tables and villa lights in the distance, as well as stars above, makes for a magical scene. A cold beer and fresh grilled seafood, eaten within reach of the surf, must be one of life's best pleasures!

For our last day in Bali, we opted to check out Ubud, up in the hills. We were sidetracked at the Bali Orchid Garden. (Yes, that was my doing!) The garden was well laid-out and had some lovely orchids, although I was a bit disappointed in the variety of species. What made the stop more remarkable was the opportunity to try kopi luak, aka 'poop coffee.' The beans have been ingested and passed by civet cats - also the apparent reservoirs of SARS virus. The coffee is quite expensive - I bought grounds enough for one serving for $7. The three of us decided to share one brewed cup for about $4. I really liked it! To me, the kopi luak was very complex and rich, but not at all bitter. Also sampled some really interesting and good honey, as well as orchid massage oil. We were able to buy orchid seedlings in a bottle for Dale. Apparently the seedlings can be exported, as is, without a permit...

Next stop was the Elephant Cave. There is a lovely grove with a cave, sacred to the Balinese Hindus in the Ubud area. We walked around to see the cave, which isn't very deep but is said to be in a rock that looks like an elephant. Our next stop was the ever-popular Dirty Duck Cafe. It was very busy, but we had a lovely view of the rice paddies and grazing ducks while waiting for what turned out to be a really good meal. Only enough time remained for a little shopping. Lots more to see in Ubud and Bali in general.

It was a hard landing to come back to Jakarta after our delicious week in Bali. Lots more time at Deptan, although I now actually have my own desk. It's the simple things, really, that give me enough to keep going. I went to the pet fish market with Dale and bought two really funky-looking goldfish. They appear really bloated and bounce around like ping pong balls when they try to feed at the top. They lasted 2 weeks before, unfortunately, dying this past weekend. :( I'm sorry I didn't get photos before they were gone. It was nice to have something living to talk to in my apartment, even if they were stupid fish! If I try again to have fish, which is difficult with all my travel, I will wait until after Christmas...

So, that's the rest of my first trip to Bali. The weekend after I returned, I went to East Java to climb Ijen Crater with another friend. My next blog will be reveal all; spectacular photos available too - when I have hours to spend uploading!

Cheers,
Edie

basking & blogging in Bali

Hello, hello

This one will be a bit short - at least I think so - because it is late and I want to go to bed. But right now I am too excited. Yes, I have found a tango high in Indonesia. Yea! Stacie, Jenni, and I are in Bali while Deptan is closed for Eid/Lebaran/Idul Fitri. If we had to work from home, we might as well work from Bali, right? So, I flew in last Friday morning, very early. The only ticket I could get on Garuda Air was executive class. I had breakfast (the traditional fried rice plus some fried tempeh) in the executive lounge while a woman checked my baggage and got my boarding pass, etc. in order. I could get very used to that.

Our hotel is small and about one block from the beach. It has lovely architecture and a very nice little pool. The landscaping is beautiful - colorful and fragrant blossoms everywhere. My room has a very ornate door and ceiling but the lighting is poor, so the ceiling is hard to appreciate. The food I have had here on Bali so far has been amazing. Down the block at the beach is a fantastic Italian restaurant, Stiff Chili, where we keep finding ourselves - the manager (owner?) now just smirks and seems amused to see us again. Since here, I have had seafood curry, 2 different pasta dishes with seafood, a darn good hamburger, lots of pineapple juice, a goat cheese & veggie wrap, and the usual fried rice and fried noodles. Great food available in Bali, and cheap! Sarongs and sandals are abundant, as well.

Stacie and Jenni had enrolled in a 3-day SCUBA course. I have decided to wait on SCUBA until I have someone to go with and will have one of two friends, who are both dive instructors, teach me. I spent Friday in the sun and Saturday working and walking along the beach. Sunday was for the spa - 4 hours of complete pampering from head to toe. I felt like a jellyfish when it was all over, although I was a bit dehydrated from the hot baths (with flower petals, even), steam room, and scorching dry sauna. Tough life, indeed. I was very lucky on Monday that the diving group had one extra spot in the van headed to a shipwreck dive site on the north coast of Bali. I rode up there with them to snorkel while they were diving.

It was a lovely drive up to Tulamben - rice fields, beach, villages, temples, lots and lots of shrines, volcanoes. We arrived at a hotel that basically caters to divers. First we placed an order for lunch, then we set off for the water. The first mask supplied by the dive company fit horribly, and I could only get maybe 20 seconds of underwater viewing before the mask filled with water. The baby shampoo applied to the inside of the lenses to prevent fogging would then wash into my eyes; so much for the 'no tears' label. I could see the wreck and the lovely fish, but emptying the mask every few seconds got to be too much, so I gave up and went back. One of the dive instructors lent me his personal mask which, after lunch, was a vast improvement over the first one. I decided to look at the wreck some more because it was so fascinating! Apparently the wreck is a WWII Liberty class cargo ship that was built for WWI and outfitted with guns later for the second world war. It was torpedoed by the Japanese in the straight of Lombok and was being towed to Bali for repairs. While under tow, it was about to be attacked again, so the US Navy beached it at Tulamben. There it sat for 20+ years, until the volcano blew up and washed it just off shore. Now it is a very popular dive site. The hull is split open and the whole thing looks a bit eerie, although coral and bright fish liven it up. I caught the current that was sweeping over the wreck and was able to drift slowly over it twice. Very cool.

Today was a rest break from all the water activities. After working this morning, I went to the beach with Jenni. We are staying in Sanur, which is a quieter part of Bali than Kuta - the jam-packed tourist destination where the bombings occurred. I definitely prefer Sanur to Kuta, although everywhere is much more densely populated than somehow I had expected. The beach nearest our lovely little hotel is apparently popular with Indonesian families. Today we had most of it to ourselves until late afternoon when it was positively full of Indonesian families. The people watching was pretty intense - too many fat, sunburned bules showing entirely too much skin. We have also learned how to quickly and effectively fend off the beach ladies who offer to give massages, manicures, and pedicures right at your beach lounger. When we'd had enough sun, people watching, and offers for massages, we came back to the hotel.

I knew that there was a practica / milonga on Bali tonight, and I just couldn't resist trying to go. I haven't brought any tango shoes, so I set off towards the Bali Hyatt where I had seen some cute boutiques on the way to the spa. No one had high heels with an ankle strap of any sort. I finally came across a few ladies selling leather shoes along with the usual sarongs and touristy stuff. They helped me find a pair of thin leather slippers with a slight heel. Not what I had been looking for, but they had a leather sole and a strap around the heel to keep them (mostly) on. I bought them, trekked back to the hotel, scarfed soup for dinner, and headed off to Seminyak for the "pralonga." There were only 3 men dancing and too many women, but, as usual, everyone was so nice and gracious. It was splendid to be back among tango people, even if I had only just met them. That is one of the great things about the tango community - a worldwide group of friends, even if you haven't met them yet. I got in a few dances, got contact info for a tango instructor in Jakarta, and, most amazingly, exchanged contact info with Iris, who MAKES tango shoes. I can have a CUSTOM pair of tango shoes made here in Bali. Amazing! I can't wait to get back into tango while here. I hope it will raise my spirits significantly while I am stuck in Jakarta...

So, no photos yet, but I will get to that soon. Two more days to enjoy Bali then back to Jakarta. Things on the project are heating up and should get pretty "interesting" in the next several months. I have tentatively been assigned to cover West Java and South Sumatra. My Bogor field visit exposed me to West Java; I don't know anything about South Sumatra yet.

Hope everyone else finds their safe, healthy, 'high' for the day! Selamat malam!
Hugs, Edie

beach village idyll

Wow, I must be a glutton for punishment today. After standing in 3 lines and filling out countless forms to get an Indonesian bank account this morning, followed by an irritating 3.5-hr meeting for work, then fending off a psycho neighbor's weird text messages (apparently these people are able to find me in whatever country I go to), I am now Skyping to finally cancel my U.S. cell phone account and deal with credit card charge disputes. This feels like one of the days that will never end. Did I mention the mosquito that bit my thigh as soon as I got home and desperately raced for the bathroom? If only I could go back to the beach...

I escaped Jakarta last weekend for a short tour of a secluded beach in West Java. It was the most amazing time! I started out the trip with a fair amount of trepidation. It was the end of a long week of being stuck by myself in the office in Jakarta - Stacie & Jen were in Bali, telling me how much they loved surfing and eating fancy food and getting their nails done. I was the first of the tour group to arrive, at the late end of the appointed meeting time. So much for leaving "SHARP" at 9:30pm. The number of participants had fallen below their usual minimum of 10, but the organizers had decided to go anyway. Instead of a minibus, though, they settled on an SUV. The thought of 8 people, with gear for the weekend, crammed into an SUV for 6-7 hours in the middle of the night over potholed Indonesian roads put my already-frayed attitude on a bit more of an edge. It certainly didn't seem to get better when one of the staff had to be left behind and I watched one of the others cram ramen noodles and bottles of water under the car seats to fit everything in. Thank goodness for my Bucky travel pillow, as it allowed me to sleep most of the way. I did come to partial consciousness several times, mostly when we would hit a big hole really hard or slam on the brakes - enough time to think, "At least the UN knows where I'm supposed to be, when we die."

The group was made up of 6 young Indonesians, all of whom spoke really good English, and Budi, our organizer. A few of the participants were students and the others were young professionals. All in all, a really good group.

We arrived in the village (I'm not sure I want to give away the name yet because I want to keep the place all for myself! hahahahaha) at about 3:30am. As soon as I stepped out of the SUV, I knew why I had come - I could hear ocean waves crashing far off in the distance. After crossing a jumpy suspension bridge on foot, we were met by a few of the villagers who were preparing a meal for us. With the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims eat before 6am and then not again until about 6pm. They served us mildly spicy fried rice (nasi goreng), fried and very yummy cubes of tempeh, sliced cucumbers, sweet tea, and I can't really remember what else (sorry, Joan!). I have really gotten a taste for tempeh - fermented soy or other vegetable protein substrate that has been worked on for a little while by some fungus or other. It is widely consumed in Indonesia and comes in all sorts of forms and local varieties. It is one of my new favorite foods. :) After sleepily gazing about and eating on a raised, roofed platform built for basically just hanging out, we walked to another part of the village where we would be staying. Next to a small, open, tile-floored community building was a raised hut made mostly of woven mats and a tile roof. It had a tiny covered "porch" and an equally tiny enclosed room. There were 2 bathrooms nearby: wet mandis where you squat over the "toilet" opening and then you pour in water from a dipper to flush and rinse off the whole place. It's a good idea to roll up your pant legs and bring your own toilet paper before entering. Indonesians who use TP, and expats in Indonesia, tend to carry tissue with them at all times since the TP supply here is highly unreliable. But I digress...

After we threw our stuff down in the "guest house," we took off for the beach by moonlight to catch the sunrise. We left along the banana palms next to the guest house, passed by rice paddies and tethered water buffalo before coming to an area devoid of most vegetation due to a burn that went out of control. But as we got closer, the sound of the ocean became louder and louder. Once we crested the final stretch of sand, we had a huge curvilinear sand beach all to ourselves! The sun was rising from the hills behind, and we could see fishing boats and large rocks a way down the beach. Ever the seashell hunter, I observed what looked like some promising shell beds and took off that way to see. Yes, I now have some amazing shells to add to my collection! After running around a bit there and testing out the cool ocean water up to my knees, we decided to move along down the beach. We passed a few houses with fishing boats in front of them and headed to the big rocks. We wandered out on the rocks to check out the great tide pools and huge waves crashing on the outer rocks. There were tons of spidery little sea stars; one couldn't help but try to just tread on them carefully. Past the big rock island with shrubs growing out of it, the lava rock forming the tidal pools continued and made a large, glassy, lagoon-like tidal pool perfect for skipping rocks on. At the end of the tide pool lagoon there was another much smaller sand beach protected by the surrounding ridges and trees. We all took a nap there on the sand, in the shade, for at least an hour and a half. Amazing.

Our journey continued down the beach. It was getting hotter, and I hadn't brought my hat since we were only supposed to be away from the guest house for 2 hours or so. Another lesson to learn - at the very least ya gotta double the time Budi says it will take to do something... We continued along, me filling my pockets with really interesting shells. We came along a grove of coconut trees and could see yet another, completely perfect, practically empty sandy beach lagoon. Fishermen were setting up on the rocks for their day's work, as the sun was glistening off the waves. Definitely check out the photos on this one! We were getting desperate for shade and headed for 2 huts at the apex of the lagoon. Two guys went to the coconut grove and cut some down for us. Those who weren't fasting downed the juice with pleasure. It was so completely idyllic - I will carry an imprint of that place and that moment forever. When things here in Jakarta get hectic, that is definitely now my mental "happy place" to escape to...

After a rest in the shade, we observed some folks boiling down stuff to make palm sugar. Then we walked back over the hills and through the rice paddies to our humble abode. It was also quite lovely and so different from the beach, but so close. For the non-fasting folks, lunch was white rice, fried fish (the kind we had seen the men catching on the beach), fried noodles (mie goreng), these slightly fish-flavored cracker things, cucumbers, squid, and maybe something else. Everyone went to take another nap, and I was faced with the thought of laying down out of the breeze and sweating my way into dreamland. What the "porch" really needed - Dave, are you listening?? - was a hammock. Indonesia does not appear to be much of a hammock culture. I haven't seen one anywhere, even though people lounge around quite a bit in the heat. Fortunately, I had a handy travel hammock I had bought for use in Guatemala - light and strong. I got our flirtatious, young, village boy helper to find something to tie it up with. He brought plastic twine, which was surprisingly effective. That hammock was a dream! Instead of sweating on the floor out of the breeze, I could swing comfortably, surrounded by the lovely breeze. And another blissful nap had its way with me.

When we got going again, it was to cross the jumpy suspension bridge and head across the river to see the sunset on the beach from another angle. We were walking out toward the setting sun, through a coconut grove. Another amazing scene. The rumored crocodile never materialized, and children were playing freely in the water, so we felt confident to wade across the river outlet to the beach. It was an idyllic sunset. With the setting of the sun, those who were fasting were able to finally eat and drink. We broke out snacks and all sorts of stuff. Tea and chocolate - on the beach at sunset - never tasted so good. As darkness descended upon us, we headed back up the beach to where we had come out on it in the morning. We played a bit of LED frisbee while waiting for dinner, as the ghost crabs came out to watch. Eventually, dinner was served: stews - one sweet with bananas and the other more spicy with veggies and meat, leftover fried noodles, sliced watermelon, white rice (nasi putih, of course!), squid, fried fish, and sweet coconut. And tea.

We then walked a little further to where a fire had been built. Budi encouraged us to share our dreams with each other, including "wet dreams!" I thought Indonesians were more discreet than that!! Hahahahahaha. Anyway, it was really neat to sit there under the stars and hear about the hopes and aspirations of these young and upcoming Indonesian professionals. They share many of the same goals and desires I, my family, and loved ones have. One young woman, Unik, sounds like she is in the same place I have been previously about international vet med. She holds a passion in her heart and can't seem to break through to get where she wants to go. I hope our sharing helps her to find the patience and surrender to trust that the universe hears her and will make her path apparent, even if it is not the path she had imagined for herself. It was also interesting to hear what books people had read and their beliefs about life, energy, and the universe. We are all so alike, even thousands of miles, years, and languages apart.

Then it was back to the guest house. A few wanted to stay, but the rest of us piled into the SUV and drove to a nearby village to hike to a cave. We started out along the road in the village but wandered through cemeteries and rice paddies before reaching the cave. It was a horizontal limestone cavern with stalagmites and stalactites that are a bit worse for the exposure. A stream was running through, so we ditched our shoes and wandered along the cave, alternating between the silty or sandy stream and slippery clay. Not quite Carlsbad Caverns but still quite a treat. The trek back through the paddies by moonlight was probably even a bit more special. But one has to have a good source of light because the dikes between the paddies are narrow and sometimes high, so you don't want to slip!

I slept well that night, starting out in the hammock but moving to my sleeping bag on the floor when the breeze was too cooling to be comfortable. The heat of the morning sun drove me back to the hammock, however. Breakfast was modest - fried egg, bread, and what I discovered too late was a local tempeh. I finished off a small jar of peanut butter I had brought along for just that purpose. Besides, it was crunchy Skippy PNB, when I really just like creamy Jif! No more crunchy! We got ready for the beach and struck out. The water was cool but felt WONDERFUL! A few people were surfing in the distance. The waves were quite strong, so I didn't stay in too long for risk of getting tired and swept out to sea where there probably isn't a Coast Guard to come to my rescue. I love playing in the waves more than I like body surfing. The clear, cool water; the waves; and the tingly foam were just what I needed to recharge. After the surf, we were napping and sitting on the beach, discussing ways to improve tourism to benefit the village. I must not have applied enough sunscreen - sorry, Mom - and my shoulders got cooked. All the better to soak in the experience, I guess. Gotta have some sunburn to go with the sand in your clothes that just won't quit!

We walked back, rinsed off at the village well and again in the mandi. Then there was a simple, and simply perfect, lunch. First they brought iced sweet tea, and I realized that drinking iced tea is just what I would be doing at the beach at home. I am glad to know that beach cultures seem to universally appreciate the finer point of iced tea drunk at the beach when it is hot. We also had these divine cassava cracker things that I just love. They are a bit like tortillas but thinner and then folded over. I'm not sure what, if any, flavoring has been added, but they have a savory kind of flavor. There was a mildly spicy vegetable soup, nasi putih, and - best of all - a fantastic fried fish. Beach village cuisine at its finest. It was soooooo hard to pull down the hammock to leave...

We walked back through the village to the waiting SUV. The tailpipe had fallen off, by the way, when we left for the cave, presumably a result of the aforementioned hard driving on bad roads. We took photos of our friends, each grabbed a souvenir kilo of sweet preserved (smoked?!?) bananas from just up the road, and piled into the SUV for the trip home. We made a stop for photos at the top of a bluff overlooking the main beach and another stop in a fishing village where another river empties into the sea. Quite nice, but I'd rather be back down the road away from all the "traffic." LOL. We passed through a very narrow strip of virgin rainforest; most of what I saw on the trip back was secondary growth and oil palm plantations. Obligatory nap in the car, dinner at a random padang, and then back in Jakarta.

All in all, quite a weekend. This group is pretty active outside of Ramadan, and I will definitely go out with them again. Maybe Krakatoa? I also hope to see more of the young and upcoming Indonesian professionals. It's great to have local friends to spend time with, apart from people connected to work. Sigh. My sunburned shoulders are still quite red, but I think I have washed off most or all of the sand from my clothes and gear. I hope to go back. Maybe next time I won't return!

Hugs, E

field visit photos

Just wanted to let y'all know that I FINALLY posted photos from my field visits in Yogya and Bogor. They show Yogya PDS officers testing for avian influenza using the rapid tests, including the discovery of a positive case. (Those guys are pretty darn good and probably my favorite PDS team so far!) In the Bogor photos, you will get to see participatory epidemiology in action, with images of proportional piling, mapping, and the scene a few minutes prior to a community education session.

My next trip to Yogya has been delayed again, and this time we won't be able to go back until after the Idul Fitri portion of Ramadan, when everyone goes home to visit the family. I am disappointed! But I plan to leave Jakarta this weekend to see the beach.

Ciao,
E

apartment living part 1

I've been promising to write about apartment living in Jakarta for a while. In honor of a successful plant shopping adventure today, I will now do so... However, you will only get a portion of this now because my bloody modem lost the signal the better part of an hour before I finished writing this the first time. Then it crashed my laptop so I couldn't save what I had written. Now I am too tired to start over on water, electricity, elevators, and the manual washer. Sorry. Blame the crummy Chinese modem and Indosat broadband system! I will do these topics over another time, I promise.

Many of you know that I now live on the 32nd floor. No, it isn't particularly safe given Indonesia's frequent earthquakes. But we all have to die sometime. And, in the meantime, I have a killer view. One I could never afford somewhere else. I'll try to grab photos of it to post, but it is really best at night. There weren't many 1 bedroom apartments available in this complex, Taman Rasuna, when I was looking. And even rarer is a top floor one with a large terrace, like I have. So I had to grab it. Overall the decor is nice but the place is grungy - hand grime on the door frame, etc. I made them clean up and paint over the large area of mold in the bathroom wall before I would take it. I also think water pools in my bedroom when we get hard rains, but, well, I guess that will be a problem to deal with when it rains again.

I looked around for other complexes, but settled on this one (aka the "bule ghetto") for two real reasons: 1) it was cheaper than many of the other expat apartment complexes and 2) high, high convenience factor. The complex has more than a dozen towers, surrounding an enclosed plaza with a pool, playground, sport courts, outdoor bistro, and several small businesses such as dry cleaners and convenience marts. There is also a small business center, where I had the most amazing exfoliating body scrub ever!, with a food court. Nearby (5-10 min walk) is a very nice, and relatively expensive, tennis club/gym. The gym is my #2 oasis in Jakarta, after my apartment. It isn't crowded, it has a nice pool, I have my own locker, and there is a towel service. I couldn't afford a gym membership like this one in the U.S. either. Just past the gym is a smallish mall - Pasar Festival - with a Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, a used book store with English titles, a really good Indian restaurant, and Bengawan Solo, my favorite coffee. Just beyond the mall is a stop for the air conditioned bus that takes me all the way to Deptan for about $0.40 each way in a dedicated express lane. Super convenient, really. I shouldn't complain. Too much, anyway. (I am a Pretty, Pretty Princess, though, so I have to complain a little to maintain my standing with the P3s!)

[Next was originally a description of my apartment's layout and stuff about the elevator, getting electricity, bottled water, and the automatic washer. I'll make up for it!]

equipment failures

Hello, hello

Yes, I have not posted in a while. I really have an excuse, though, and it was not for a lack of desire. My satellite modem died this past Monday while I was in the field, so I am very painfully at a loss for communications with the world outside my head and outside Jakarta. I had a little time at the office on Friday but it wasn't nearly enough. To check email and write this blog, I have sucked it up and come to the "Cheetos" mall. [I have no idea how to really spell the name of the mall, but everyone knows it by Cheetos - as long as it is pronounced properly. I had a dumb taksi driver who couldn't understand my American pronunciation of Cheetos, so I panicked and called Cipu, one of our translators. Apparently this idiot wanted me to make the "chi" sound more harsh so I sounded like an Indonesian. How annoying.] So now that I know how to properly pronounce Cheetos like an Indonesian, I took a taxi out here to get my internet fix. This means I have to sit at the mall and be assaulted by the sounds of the Indonesian "rock" band playing nearby. I'm talking covers of Celine Dion, people, and other songs you haven't heard in 20 or 30 years. Add in speaker feedback and children screeching songs like a nightmare of karaoke in hell. Not to mention the cigarette smoke. I hope you understand how desperate I am to be in touch!

After my last posting, we spent 2 more days in the induction workshop. Funny how the audience got smaller and smaller as the Tamrin bigwigs would put in an hour of "facetime" and take off. The FPFs (field program facilitators - Stacie, Jen, and me, plus Ali until she is promoted) stayed behind one evening to have a glass of wine at the hotel. Ah, good wine. Y'all in California have no idea how spoiled you are! Then we piled into buses and drove out to Bogor, where we checked in to a pretty decent hotel. Friday night was our cultural presentation evening. I was shocked at how Ibu Ade - the head of the avian flu Campaign Management Unit (CMU) - belted out the songs, played the guitar, and danced. Lots of dancing to Indonesian pop songs that never seem to end. Of course I got dragged into the dancing, which seems to have made an impression on people. I caught them off guard with my skills - hahahahaha. We spent the next day doing team-building challenges in the jungle. For the most physical challenges, my team turned out to be all petite women and one short guy. Needless to say, we did not excel at any of the physical feats, but our guy, Ata, sure loved the attention he got in the trust circle!

Then I got one day back in Jakarta to recover by the pool, and then it was off to the field. Because the Bogor area is very close to Jakarta, we took Unang, one of the staff drivers, instead of hiring an outside driver. I get along pretty well with Unang, but they sent us in the sedan, which isn't exactly an ideal field vehicle. Especially when we have a pickup and an SUV driving people around Jakarta, looking cool. Efa was assigned as my translator, and Ibu Mundi from CMU was my government chaperone. All in all, we had a pretty good trip. The PDS/R team in Sukabumi City had never been visited by anyone from FAO, and I liked them a lot. I think they are doing a darn good job, given the circumstances. That first night was my birthday. We went out for dinner to celebrate. One big difference between home and Indonesia: when you go out for your birthday here, you are expected to pay for everyone. I wasn't prepared for that, so when the bill came... Not expensive, of course. But it would just have been nice to have something feel like home on my birthday. Instead, dinner was more like being licked by a cat. It's a nice gesture and is meant to feel good, but it really doesn't. Thanks to everyone, though, who sent e-cards!! We'll just have to celebrate extra next year.

The next day we were off to Cianjur, where the PDS/R teams are mostly male. I told them a refresher training is coming up, and they told me to make it as long as possible. Why? Because they are still single. I guess PDS/R trainings are good places to meet potential mates? Geez, maybe I should be going to more of them! Another day observing PDS/R officers at work, and then we spent the night high up in the hills near Bandung. The hotel was pretty ok but the traffic noise was terrible. My mom would have loved the area, though. There were tons of plant nurseries with some really neat plants. The higher we went (= cooler climate) the more familiar some of the plant species looked. Wednesday was Ciamhi City, where, again, we have a pretty excellent team working hard for us. And a military academy. We returned to Jakarta Wed night and headed back out again for the day on Thursday to neighboring Bekasi, where they are reporting lots of avian influenza.

What made Thursday remarkable is that it was the start of Ramadan. Indonesia is mostly Muslim, so people fast from sunup to sundown through the month of Ramadan. On the first day, no one is used to it, so they get tired quickly and don't want to do much. They must get dehydrated to since they can't even drink water. Unang explained to me that they can't drink because maybe a morsel of food stuck in the person's teeth would get washed down the throat, violating the fast. I suspect that explanation is just a silly Unanag thing. Anyone know for sure? All the lunch places at Deptan close for Ramadan, and non-Muslims have to bring lunch from home or order in. One must eat and drink somewhat discreetly so as not to "offend" those who are fasting. It is a "slow" month in the office and everywhere in Indonesia because people go home early and haven't much motivation to work to the usual standards. That meant we went out to a village in Bekasi on Thursday morning, where the whole village turned out to talk with and learn from the PDS/R teams, and were back in the office just after noon because no one wanted to take me out to see another team. Ah, well, thus is life during Ramadan, I suppose. However, it seems to make Jakarta traffic a bit better, which is surely a blessing.

Nice, the band has taken a break. My ears are pleased. In addition to my dead modem, the last 2 DVDs I have tried to watch - all pirated, of course; they cost <$1 each! - were apparently bad ones. I was maybe 30 min from the end of "Breaking and Entering" (sigh, Jude Law) and 40 min into "Motorcycle Diaries" when they just really couldn't be read anymore, either by my DVD player, which is tuned to handle pirated DVDs, or my laptop. Maybe tonight I will be a bit more lucky. I left early from Deptan on Thurs to recharge my electricity account, and the bloody office had closed at 2:30pm. Mind you, this was a day after my nearly-fruitless search for coffee at a decent hour of the morning. On the island of Java. (But the coffee experience here is a topic for another day.) Ali's housekeeper, Ikrab, seems practically impossible to communicate with. I really needed her to come last Friday after I had been in the field, and she came an hour late, after I had already left for work. Sadly, I am giving up on Ikrab and trying someone new. Maybe nothing here works - modem, DVDs, lunch during Ramadan, the gym during the month of November, the office that dispenses electricity, the postal service - but at least I can keep trying to find a housekeeper who shows up when she is supposed to!

The smokers have moved in behind me, so I may need to migrate soon. I am borrowing Jen's laptop later so I can Skype my family tonight before my parents leave for Peru. I'll also grab a bite to eat here at the mall so I can take a break from chicken and rice. I love rice, but once per day is enough. Although, I have found this really yummy, organic red rice...

More to come this week! Planned topics for future blogs include: apartment living, java on Java, malls/shopping, food & food safety, and fashion. I hope to get to the apartment topic this week, since I will be in Deptan.

Love to all, Edie

laundry racks

Yes, I have been remiss in updating my blog in a timely fashion. Sorry.

All I wanted to do when I came home from my week in Yogya was sleep in, go to the gym, and shop with Dale. I did all those things but had to spend last Sunday at Eric/Dale/Robyn's house learning how to handle chickens and ducks. Fortunately, our learning included vaccinating and drawing blood, but NOT killing. Yea! I don't mind eating chickens but, as a veterinarian, I also don't need to kill any more beings than is absolutely necessary.

Yogya was nice. I like it there. I stayed at a fairly "upscale backpacker" hotel, if such a thing exists, near Jalan Malioboro - the main tourist shopping drag. The folks at the Local Disease Control Center (LDCC, remember this one) were really good to work with. On my first day in the field, we made the rounds meeting people, then had a truly lovely lunch with the PDS officers. Goat sate and an orange squash in a nice outdoor setting, with gamelan music in the background. Cost less than $1.50 per person - amazing! Then we were off to a village that had recently had a die-off in their chickens. Most of the carcasses had been buried and burned (the proper means of disposal) by the time we got there. We tested one surviving bird, which was negative for active virus shedding, and then went to look at the river where some of the villagers had thrown carcasses. While at the river, a woman brought us a dead chicken and a dead chick. Yep - positive for influenza. HPAI up close and personal!! Don't worry - I didn't touch it and I was wearing my N95 respirator mask. Got some great photos; I'll try to post those soon.

The rest of the week wasn't nearly as exciting, but being in the field is certainly better than sitting in front of my computer in a noisy office. I visited more PDS teams, chatted with a woman vet, and I attended the LDCC monthly meeting along with all the local PDS/R officers. I also indulged in some retail therapy, including a trip to a local school of batik art. Or so I was told. Not sure if it was the truth or not. But there was some lovely art that will hopefully grace a few American walls one of these days. I also found that there were 2 new Anita Blake novels (urgh!) so I had to pick them up. Doritos for the brain. Or maybe worse. Pop-tarts?

This week I've been back at Deptan preparing for the Induction Workshop we are now having at a really nice hotel called the Grand Kemang. It is supposed to be an overview of the entire project for everyone involved. Too bad so many of the higher-ups chose not to attend. We have a good crew of Indonesians involved, though. In the next few months our training team hopes to conduct a total of 93 initial and refresher trainings for PDS/R officers. Quite an undertaking. I apparently now have government clearance and, thus, official permission to work in Indonesia and travel for work. Next week I am supposed to go to visit a few of the districts under direction of the Bogor LDCC. Bogor is really near Jakarta, and the site of our "team building" workshop starting tomorrow evening, but I will travel a bit farther afield in West Java. If all actually goes according to plans...

So, that's all for now. I had to send out laundry plus do a big load of my own, so I have drying clothes all over the place. The housekeeper Ali, Jen, Stacie, and I are sharing is not quite consistent or easy to communicate with. If it weren't for the huge annoyance factor of the manual washing machine (to be explained later), I wouldn't even bother having someone come in!

E