 |
| avoc |
As for me, I have had several activites among many slow days - it all balances out; so here are the bits and bites of my more active, and subsequently, upbeat days.
A market shop that found me with an avocado like I’d never seen before! Large and of reddish hue. There is a lovely drink that I’ve had which is an avocado juice. Sounded awful but it is avocado blended with milk and sugar then drizzled with chocolate syrup. It is absolutely delicious! So, we will back up to Valentine’s Day. Began with Berti coming to my door with the most cute card of Micky Mouse valentine with a personal note inside summarized here, to tell me how happy she is to have me as her friend, giving her confidence in the work she does in our organization by letting her know that she is working in what I think is a highly professional manner and great work ethic. (She often doubts herself as some of her colleagues don’t understand why she works the way she does.) Her note went on to say that although she guesses my family and friends miss me, she hopes they will be patient waiting for my return because she and the people here need me. She assured me I am not alone here, and I should know I have a friend to call on anytime. I was SO touched - what a way to start a day and I look at her note when I have those days that I need a lift to carry on. She joined me for leftovers in my little sitting room, and soon later another colleague, Yeni came by and the 3 of us ate togehter and enjoyed my leftovers together. They laughed that us 3 women were sharing Valentine’s and I let them know that this brings memories of sharing a few such Valentine’s with my women friends when Don was away working. Thes young women make me laugh and they coninuously laugh, not matter what they are facing in their lives personally. Such a warm and fuzzy day with a love note text from my honey to boot! Now to tie this in with the giant avocado. I hauled it out of my fridge and asked Berti what to do with it so she proceeded to scoop it out and mash it with milk and sugar in a glass and we yummied it down with spoons!! It was scrumptious.
 |
| view from Farm School to the sea |
 |
| students prepare land |
Another day our coordinator took me out to the organization’s Farm School - Sekolah Lapangan Nakamese, built a year ago by the founder of INCREASE and now takes students to learn animal husbandry and crop production. The bulding is ultra modern and animals from goats, to cows to pigs and chickens and several plots of vegetables surround the place. All stock are in barns and clean pens. Some high school students there for a 3 month practical were preparing the ground for another plot of vegetables - backbreaking work as it is all prepared by hand and the earth is very solid and the last step is to break it down to finer soil for planting. It was a stinking hot day and they were working hard. But out there in the rural area in the hills above Kupang there was a cool breeze that in the shade was SO refreshing after a day in the city with not a breath of a breeze and 31C in the shade. It was also QUIET! I just sat and looked out at the vista to the sea over the forest and it was a moment of pure bliss. Reminded me of early days at the Newsham farm when we would work in our garden and I would just stand and listen to the quiet. Some students went and picked us some guava and they all laughed when I had no idea how to eat this fruit - do you peel it or just bite in? You can figure it out I bet or do the research. Happy to give them a laugh once in a while!
 |
| groups at work |
 |
| community process |
A day in the village I was witness to an amazing priority setting process by the village we are starting with for the diability incusion work. At this point I am just observing and letting people become adjusted to seeing me there with Berti. A fully democratic process so similar to what we have done at home, gather community input ato set the next year’s priorities. But the difference was they needed quorum so the meeting was to start at 9 am but we visited and waitied til noon for the numbers to add up as many people were still planting in their fields. Then off we went with powerpoint reports, lists of possible needs that were identified in earlier meetings then 5 small groups, each taking education, health, infrastructure, governance or economy as their assigned talk to identify the top priority. (Berti told me it was good to see gender, age and professional balance in most groups! Everyone from the aged farmer to the young head master of the elementary school and young and older women participating.) Then the groups reported back and started yelling out why they thought it was a good one, others interupting to say why it was not, others yelling other ideas or needs as most important. So lively and interactive - this was NOT like a meeting in Red Deer Alberta. But they did arrive by 6 pm at their top 5, with all interest areas covered. One is a new multi pupose building - started out as a kindergarten as they have funding for the building but one woman called out that her local district within the village did not have a meeting place so if she donated a portion of her land, how about they have a multi purpose building and get more use out of it!! How is that for participation and cooperation? To get the funding they have to show right to the property and this covered that need as she is the owner. So cool. Now Berti and I are going to try to stick our noses in and suggest we look at a fully accessible building - “universal design” toilet and all - for those with disabilites. This will be a cautious process and we haven’t figured out how to start quite yet, although her suggestion of asking to hold a focus group when they start their planning might get us there.
Next bite is that I was invited Saturday evening to dinner with a couple I recently met at a local gathering spot for those of us far or not so far from home. These lovely people originate from the UK - Ireland and Wales but have a home in Sydney Australia but Angela is on contract here with the Health Dept and Morton is retired. It was an evening of memorable proportions as I realized how lonely I am for socializing with people closer to my age, background and interests. They invited another friend as well, started with appetizers with Camembert cheese! vodka martinis, follwed by a fantastic pasta dinner with the best vegetarian sauce you can imagine and real parmesan cheese! And to top it off - RED WINE! You can see cheese of a real sort - not Kraft singles and red wine have not been past my lips for some time! Great conversation rounded out a night that just felt like home. They have a real house with a real kitchen!
 |
| bar b que bananas |
 |
| Berti |
 |
| drinking coconut juice |
Now this evening was followed by Berti taking me to the beach Sunday as she felt bad that I hadn’t seen it yet. It is a large stretch of sandy beach, the gathering spot for people, families, barbque picnics etc. Lots of kids in the water which is warm like bath water. Reminds me of the Indian Ocean which must be attached to this water. Will have to look back on my map! Laciana Beach is superb, clean and a place to get back to. It started to rain so we headed into a little covered spot with benches to buy fresh young coconut juice - vendor just punched a hole and stuck a straw in - then after split it for us to eat the soft slimy coconut inside. Not like we are used to at home - I think we get “old” coconuts that have dried out more and I must say I do enjoy those more. Then we ordered barbqued bananas - done over the coals of coconute shells, the fuel of all barbques here - and smeared with our choice of palm sugar - like brown sugar but better!, fresh ground peanuts or chocoate or grated cheese. Since I had overdosed on cheese the night before, I had the sugar with nuts and Berti had palm sugar with cheese. Oh my gosh was it good! She insisted this was my treat day as she had finally gotten paid! I feel so guilty letting her do this but it does please her and I find ways to reciprocate. Our stop on the way home was to buy fruit for my week and we found Tamarind pods - another great find that I will return to - sort of like dates.
So my friends and family another week or so in the life......
Happy Family Day whatever you do - enjoy those around you and the simple things of life! Sampai lain kali - until next time
No comments:
Post a Comment