Bertamu Maumere - Maumere Meeting

workshop attendee

As promised, a post about my few days on the island of Maumere for the sharing of skills. This type of meeting is called a technical visit and is initiated by a volunteer who believes another volunteer could be helpful through sharing of their knowledge with that volunteer's organization and other interested parties. So, volunteer Nyamburu (Nancy) who landed in Indonesia last January from Kenya requested that I come to her island and city of Maumere to share my knowledge through a disability inclusion 101 two day workshop. My luck was with me and another volunteer with much greater Indonesian language skills was going to be there also preparing for the end of her placement, so together we developed the workshop for Nancy's group.

mega tuna!

A fellow Canadian volunteer Meghan came from her town of Ende out of interest in the subject matter and it turned into a group event, with all hands on deck with input and ideas to make the workshop interactive and a good learning experience.  Peter, a volunteer from Uganda also working in Maumere attended out of interest and the 5 of us had an evening together before saying goodbye to Sarah. Peter picked up a huge tuna on his way over from a roadside kiosk, uncooked, then it was taken across the road from Nancy's to another kiosk selling baked fish and we asked the vendor to cook it for us. It was so big he had to do it in portions as his gril was too small. It was delicious. Meghan pointed out the lead that a tuna carries in its body being the waste management specialiist she is. It curtailed my eating too many of the leftovers the next day - much to my health benfit I'm sure! Thanks Meg!

Nancy and Pam

I stayed through the weekend to enjoy some touring and off 4 of us went Saturday, visiting a black sand beach with great surf, an old Portugese church built 1800's, a summit of a hill with a statue of Mary, not unlike the Cristos in Rio de Janeiro. The Portugese definitely liked their statues on high hills.
I tasted my first drink of Es Campur - a mix of fruits and some kind of jelly - will have to get the ingredents as it was delicious! sitting on the beach at sunset with friends. Good memories.

band at first communion celebration

Peter the "Ojek"

Just before leaving on the Sunday, went to Nancy's colleagues son's first communion which is very big here. Live band and full buffet to see me on my way, with Peter driving me to the aiport. 



Today was a home day, started with washing my sheets in a pail - have a bad time trying to get all the soap out; sweep floors, dust - never ending; read some VSO material on gender mainstreaming; listen to podcast of Vinyl Cafe. Friends stopped by for a cold drink on the balcony at sunset. Back to work tomorrow but a nice Sunday. Hope yours is too.