Campur - Mixture

Here's a little bit of everything over the last few weeks - seems ike longer but checking the calendar it is a short time since my last post!
Starting with today and going back, just finishing the first real rain since last April. It was the rain of the rainy season as I remember it from it's height. It has rained hard for the last two hours and luckily I just beat it home on my motor bike as riding in the rain is something I am bent on trying to avoid as much as possible. First and foremost for safety sake. The potholes and rocks on the road cover quickly in this kind of rain, leading to head over heels transport or skidding off the road. In this rain, just when you think it can't rain any harder it does. It's amazing how fast a lot of water can fall. This afternoon at the office it was so hot the 5 of us there were perishing. Our director came out of his office complaining and I sat in the small room the size of a bedroom with 3 other staff and the one and only fan going full blast. I could hardly keep my eyes open and felt totally drained fromt he stifiling air. We should have known "hujung datang" (rain is coming).

When I got on my bike to head home I could feel the change in the air and got a few drops as I pulled into home. Otherwise I would have been trapped for another two hours and coming home in the dark as by 6:15 it is dark. The kids of the neighbourhood have been playing in the rain since it began, some getting out the soccer ball and others running around with plastic pop bottles collecting the rain and throwing it at each other. By the end of an hour the smallest were shivering as there's nothing like a good rain to cool one off. Problem is our house doesn't cool down even with front and back doors wide open. Seems the heat just rises to the ceiling and hangs there! I have my fan on me as I type, but can join the mosquitoes on the balcony and cool off.

James and my coordinator Rusty

Last week was our volunteer and partner organization workshop to look back over our previous year and map progress of volunteer activity with our partners and plan for this next year of VSO/CUSO in Indonesia.

my coordinator and I presenting our year in review

It was a successful event of two days, hosted by VSO in Bali. This was followed by our Volunteer Conference which is planned by the volunteers here for the volunteers. Staff of VSO are welcome to join us, which they do, but it is our event. We had two days of Lifelong Learning as our theme this year. I was on the committee for the planning of the conference and as some may recall, as part of this I was on the welcome and orientation committee voted in at last year's conference. I handed over my position this year at the new elections and a full new committee of 3 will now take us through 2013.

The conference went very well by all evaluations and in most part due to the number of volunteers who came forward to provide presentations. We had a sampling of Waste Management at our Organizaiton and Home, ( very crucial here!!!), Forestry Management here and in Canada, Sharing Knowledge and Changing Mindsets, and Yoga to stay healthy in placement and after motor biking on rough roads, (very good for me since I went down on my bike yesterday coming from my office down a very broken steep hill) no bones broken, just knocked the wind out of me and bruises.

facilitating but looks like I'm going to be sick!

This is only a sampling of topics and with such a mixture and sharing our skills between us, we realized what an awesome community of volunteers we have here in Indonesia spread over 3 islands, often not seeing each other for months and only once in a year all together. Some of the conference was a bit nostalgic as we said goodbye to Richard who has shared his Kenyan expertise in Indonesia for 3 years! Also Meghan heading home to Canada, soon James and Peter finishing their 2 years and going back home to Kenya and Uganda mid January.

volunteer workshop

Oh and forgot about the kittens! When Laurie and arrived back from our vacation momma cat had decided it was nice and quiet on our outdoor dishwashing area to have her babies. See photo! Unfortunately, we had to get water into our cistern and the big hose and men from the water truck were just a bit disturbing! She moved them her first chance.

My last "so long" is to my housemate Anna who is re-locating partiallly to Jakarta and will not be in Kupang very often. It is hard to see her go as we have shared some good laughs and helped each other around the house. She retains her share of the house though as she promises to drop in. But, a new VSO volunteer has arrived in Kupang by the name of Nelly and she will be with me here in the house, so we are just finding our way around each other and looking forward to getting to know each other better.

So I say good night to all of you, or I guess good morning for those of you who have subscribed and will see the post when you wake. We'll connect again soon.