Blog Terakhir - Final Blog

Berti grabbing lunch from Bakso (meatballs) cart in village

Time has come to say goodbye to Indonesia and my CUSO volunteer experience. I didn’t set out on this journey to change the world but hoped there would be a small lasting impact for marginalized peoplefrom my work . I even more so hoped that I would represent Canada and CUSO volunteers as a  respectful,  responsible, and resilient interloper in Indonesian work and community life. I think only the Indonesian people can make the judgment and probably only time will tell. I am posting various photos from my last days in Indonesia – hopefully you will enjoy seeing my last days of receiving many cloth weavings which are traditional gifts of this region. A beautifully beaded bag from Berti and her family is among those special gifts. These friends will stay in my memory bank forever!

Jackfruit and colleagues

Mr. Fary, my orgnaization's founder

 Always with the help if others, including Berti my Indonesian daughter/colleague and Kelsey my Canadian daughter we have accomplished some things. Brief re-run: awareness DVD on Disability “Ability”; informational poster of government and community supports available for all ages all levels of ability; website for PERSANI, the Kupang and area disabled persons organization. Hopefully all three of these achievements leave a sustainable resource for inclusion and integration of people with physical and mental challenges. Before I left, the DVD was shown to the VSO Bali Office staff on my final exit meeting day and all staff commented they had no idea these many supports were available to their fellow citizens.

PERSANI members

After I left Indonesia I heard from Berti that the local provincial government representative asked if she could take our DVD to a conference in Jakarta to show to her colleagues. This woman also told Berti that she would be taking a dependent-elder pension application to Jakarta with her for a woman we hoped to help and whose photo was in a Blog post a year ago May. The gears often grind slowly to my dismay but at least this might help this family soon!

As I travel in Australia for a holiday with Don, following my holiday on Flores Island with fellow volunteer Jennifer, I have met many people who have asked about this experience. The words are hard to find;

not easy for me and more than likely not easy for my workplace colleagues;

Trying to work in another language is the toughest;

Loneliness and boredom sets in;

PERSANI meeting and gift

Extreme heat for a northern body makes activity to ease boredom difficult;

New and rewarding experiences, and lifetime friendships make it all worthwhile.

Riding my motorbike although still scary at times was fun!!!!! And the freedom it brought was invaluable.

Two years is a long time to be away from familiar surroundings, friends and family.

Would I do it again?

Yes I would. No regrets.

 Tidak maaf.

 Non, Je ne regrette rien.

village friends and Berti, and boys

To all of you who supported me through emails, words of encouragement and and generally friendly emails and Skypes as well as through CUSO financially as I prepared to set out on this adventure, a great big THANKS  - there aren’t enough words to express my heartfelt appreciation for all of you. 

I do feel blessed.

Last minute great news! Berti has a  great new job starts August with Aus. Aid Perinatal Maternal Neonatal Health programme on Sumba Island.

gifts from my workplace

Smapai Jumpa Lagi - See You Again

Today sitting on the beach at Sanur I realize it has been exactly 20 months since arriving in Indonesia and I am back where I started here on Bali. I said my final “so longs” in Kupang, shed a few tears and extra hugs with Berty my dear friend who is now a part of my family. I feel so blessed to be able to say that I now have family in Indonesia, something that never entered my mind on taking on this adventure. I knew I would make friends, but never imagined what special people  I would meet in Berty, her mother and father, Chris, Augus, and Jupen. I cannot imagine my time in Kupang without her. We said “sampai jumpa lagi – see you again” when we parted at the airport.

son of village head presenting my ikat weaving

My week was full of sampai jumpa lagi’s and so I include photos here. I was presented with several ikat weavings large and small, from the head of the village and his family after which we sat on their front porch chatting with them asking lots about Canada. They wanted to know about farming in Canada and if we tilled the fields by hand or machine, how do we farm when it is cold etc. It was a heart warming afternoon drinking sweet coffee and sharing.

chatting on the porch

Then off to see an elder who really touched me whenever I saw her at our meetings. A woman, who is dedicated to her community, gets to all of the meetings concerning local government and always has a mischievous smile to share. She asked me to come to her house and was ready with a weaving of her own and dressed me up in one of her formal blouses and sarong to pose for the photo.

My borrowed sarong and blouse for the photo!

Ikat presentation

poster

 We finished our awareness poster in the nic of time to get it delivered to the villages and one each to the health centres, 4 in all. Thanks to Chris for his computer magic to get our concept into print and thanks to my organization INCREASE for managing the print work and stands. We are hopeful it will keep disability services and supports front and centre in the minds of local health workers and their leaders.

 

 We also presented graduation certificates to the volunteers we trained to help people with disability in their villages and they were excited to receive the certificate and a pin for their lapel from the City of Red Deer. 

Berty presenting certificate

Oesna Village Grads!

I am going to finish off for now but still have more to share about the last weeks in Indonesia so stay tuned. a Few more events to capture.

Minggu Terakhir - Last Week

My last week in Kupang has begun. There will be many “lasts” and much anxiety on my part as I pack, give away and generally close down the house where I’ve been living since May.

The trick is to prepare for the next month as I travel the island of Flores with a fellow volunteer on holiday, then a few days in Bali wrapping up VSO reporting and then a holiday with Don in Australia before heading home to Canada, starting in Toronto.

My goal is to travel with my large backpack and my day pack, similar to what I arrived with by sending one box of souvenirs and stuff I don’t need with me on my travels, back to Canada. Will have to arrange a car to take me to the post office with the box as just can’t quite carry it on the bike! I’m sure someone could but not me.

It is amazing what does get transported by bike. Large stacks of boxes on the back of the bike, held on by metal racks; about 20 live chickens on their way to market hanging head down from a pole laid across the handle bars of the bike; a guy on the passenger seat holding onto a long metal pole dragging it behind; a guy hanging onto a sheet of plywood dragging it behind! I do my best to not get behind those guys! I’m still trying to get photos, but to do so I’ve got to stake out a busy corner in the shade and just sit and wait with camera in hand – we’ll see. For this Blog just one or two photos as I've lent out my camera and haven't downloaded the photos first!!!!!

For my neice Meaghan

I had a dream last night that Don and I were trying to get cockroaches out– I wonder how long it will be before I don’t watch where I’m walking closely, expecting to see these household pets underfoot? Then when I went into the kitchen this morning, there was one, belly up by the door – an easy one to sweep out! Gotta love the belly up ones! AND my last bit of musili, which I’d been hoarding, finally let the ants in. Killed me to throw it out but I’ve probably had my fill of them eating it these last few days.

Got the last oil change on my bike today, getting ready for its handoff to Nelly once she is ready to try riding. It has been well broken in – lots of scratches and bumps so she doesn’t need to worry about any additions.

stop at the market for fish

Oesena grads of our training & Berty, Feni (right)from our org.

I realized something this week that makes it tough to be an older volunteer. At least for me – can’t and shouldn’t speak for others. It is that I have such a huge network of friends and family in Canada that pulls me back, keeps me connected and makes is difficult to just settle into a volunteer home half way around the world and make it home. (wouldn’t want it otherwise and couldn't have managed where without it). I can settle in, make friends, find some work and entertainment, but it’s not home and when something comes up with those in Canada, I’m too far away to be part of it and that’s important to me. At my life stage, friends and family become ill, friends and family have aging parents who die, friends losing homes due to floods, and I want to be there to be able to pick up the phone and have a long chat or drop over to give hugs. 

I know, it’s not about me, but it’s important to me. It might seem obvious to all who are reading my blog, and I would have said so before this adventure too, but the actual experience is different. All volunteers say they learn a bunch about themselves with this experience and it’s true.  Hopefully we also leave something behind, which is our main goal.

Will continue to blog as I finish up and get into travel but once I’m off of the Indonesian island, this adventure will draw to a close as will this Blog. Will let you know when the last one is posted.

Minyak Kelapa - Coconut Oil

skinning the shell

Last week in the village we stopped off at a home we often visit and they were in the process of making coconut oil, both to sell and use themselves. What a process! So labour intensive and a full day job. First they have a truckload of coconutes delivered which then need to be skinned, cut up, shredded, squeezed of their liquid which is then boiled in a wok over an open fire. the Dad is the cook, keeping the ire going, fanning it every so often to keep the temperature right and feeding te sticks of wood in at just the right time.

chopping

squeezing shredded mixed with water from the coconut

reducing the juice to oil

It takes 4 coconuts to make a 500ml bottle of oil and the wok can take equivalent to the juice from 80 shredded and squeezed at a time. I believe they have several hundred delivered to make it worth their while and friends gather to help out. I was able to buy a bottle for equivalent to about $2.00!!

What a lovely aroma to cook with and on checking the internet I don't believe it is all the unhealthy as I thought it was.

boiling oil

I hope you enjoy the photos!

Selasai yang Dekat - The End is Near

 

One month before finishing in Kupang.

I have decided that as of June 25^th I will be finished with my placement in Kupang and wrapping up. The projects that I’ve been working on will be finished, local volunteers with be trained and able to carry on the interviewing and linking of people with disability to appropriate resources, the  awareness DVD on “abilities of people with disability” is done and the resource poster will be finished and in two venues in each of the two villages. That means it’s time for me to move on and allow local people sustain it all as much as possible.

Berty's birthday

So, to that end this month is busy with all the follow up of the volunteers, yesterday being a day of hearing how they made out in their meetings with people in their village, and us helping them understand the resources available for the people who expressed desires for change in their lives or that of their child.

Beach at Wini

One such possibility we are helping them to follow up on is a man who had polio as a youth, now married with a family, but with no use of his legs who is mobile by using his arms to propel himself along the ground. He has been making money my building door and window frames, does not want mobility aids but does want better tools to do more of his carpentry work. He does not want to go off the island for extensive training as he has a family to support. On investigation we have learned there is the possibility of a sponsored 3 month training in Kupang, an hour and a half from the village, and at the end he would get the tools to carry on his carpentry work more efficiently. I sure hope this comes to fruition and hopefully will know before I leave.

Breakfast in the garden

Another is a young girl who is mentally challenged and also physically and her parents want her to receive some education. We have confirmed she can come to boarding school in Kupang and the fee is within the means of the family as it is a government-supported school.

I’m also busy trying to remember to take photos of the everyday sights that I don’t want to forget, but have become such a part of everyday life I forget they will soon fade from memory. A couple of videos taken while on the back of Berty’s motorbike should prove fun to watch some day!

Wini sunset

Dinner at Wini Beach

So, there will be a couple of more posts from Indonesia before I depart on July 10^th.

Berty at market

We've also had Berty's birthday celebration with dinner, carrot cake baked by Angela and great music from a friend's guitar.

Also a visit from a CUSO volunteer working on another island along with his girlfriend visiting from Canada. 6 of us, including my former CUSO volunteer housemate Nelly rented a car and driver and went for an overnight trip up island to a village and beach named Wini. It was mountain driving all the way, so winding narrow roads. A good trip and excellent souvenir shopping at a shop sellling weavings from a local women's group. We started with a lovely breakfast at Angela and Morton's in the back garden then off we went for a full day of driving. Great dinner at the beach when we arrived - fresh fish, of which I'm getting loads of these days.

Also, on the way to the village this week we stopped and Berty bought fresh fish - cleaned on purchase, to offer to the family and have for our lunch during our visit/meeting with the local volunteers. Grilled to perfection - the fish, not the volunteers!

So, there will be only a couple of more posts from Indonesia before I depart on July 10^th but I'm sure a few more stories to go!

Selamat Hari Ibu - Happy Mother's Day

 

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY NORTH AMERICA

The “big” move has now successfully happened. Our lease was up the end of April and as Nelly my housemate is here for another year and a half she found a place to live that suits her well. I am staying with Angela and Morton in their house, where I stayed last year for a month when looking for a new place for me. Angela’s work contract of 4 1/2 years is finished the end of June and they are heading to the UK for a while before settling back in Australia. Their plan is to leave about the second week of June, then I will have the house to keep running until I leave.

The projects I have been working on; the awareness DVD that is now finished, the informational posters that will sit in the offices and health clinics of both villages I have worked in, and a website for the Disabled Person’s Organization PRSANI, will all be completed by the 3^rd week of June when I feel my work here will be at an end. I will be leaving Indonesia July 10^th. There will be many memories and special people and experiences that will stay with me forever. I am trying to capture some of the everyday life to share with all of you.

“The Move” (Balcony photo care of Morton Rees photographer supreme)

moving truck

Angela got us a small truck through her work driver which was a blessing as Nelly had SO much stuff: all the kitchen stuff and her own. So they got a full load from her then came back for me. By then the little local boys had arrived and all wanted to help load.  Our friend Laura arrived to take James’ (former volunteer) big motor bike down to Angela &Morton's as VSO doesn't know yet what they want me to do with it as no new volunteers are coming, but it has been sitting since January so wouldn't start, had a flat front tire and hardly any gas!!!!! So Laura took off on her bike to find a guy to come back to push it to the nearest tambal ban - roadside business selling air. By the time she got back the guys with the truck had the bike running, opening up the choke, and  the guy she brought took off pushing the bike, down the road to his air service, Berti  and Chris arrived to help, so Chris took Laura on her bike to follow the guy pushing James’ bike, I had mine and Berti on hers and the little helpful boys I paid off for the loading, telling them they had to share the money. So off we set, me driving behind the truck, Berti leading on her bike and Chris with Laura off to the air pressure and the guy pushing James' bike!!!! What a sight we were. (sorry if this is just very confusing but I was laughing all the way to Angela’s! See the photo of the truck unloading.  Even brought my little herb garden with me – basil, mint and parsley.

movers

Friday nights are often the night some of us go out to eat and have a drink so this Friday was a walk to the Sasando Hotel for a burger, fries and a beer. It feels so good to walk nd get some exercise, as this is not a walking country. We have a road with a good short hill as busy intersection to cross then a busy roadside with no sidewalks – very few of those in Kupang – and of course it is dark at 6 pm so we carry our lights with us more for others to see us than us to see as the motorized world is not looking for walkers! But, we also have to keep our eyes open for holes and pits along the road as well as rocks. This is what makes walking not an enjoyable experience and especially in the dark.

ikat weaving class in village

But now that I am living closer to the “Zumba” class, Angela and I are going up the hill for a 5 minute walk to the classes 3 times a week. A good workout aerobically and fun women and good music! Tells me how out of shape I am though. I am down about 12 pounds from my Canada weight but still feels like I’m hauling around the same poundage on the Zumba floor!

volunteers trainees interviewing in vllage home

This morning I babysat Rose, my friend Chrystal’s little one and enjoyed watching a 9 month old explore her surroundings, while Chrystal tried to get some of her correspondence schoolwork done. Such fun watching this little one!

So all for now everyone. Next one should have a link to the new website Kelsey is helping to build from distant Vancouver and a photo of our new poster – all going well!

Memperbarui Desa Oesena - Update, Oesena Village

Where has April gone? For those of you who have suffered through the usual April snow, warm, rain and just plain up and down weather patterns of Canada's spring I can imagine you are now rewarded with the sprouts and signs of warming. As I've said, seasons here are dry and wet and really the only other difference is in the direction of the breeze. Hot is the only word!

Lounging on Lombok with friends

So, the update on our DVD debut in Oesena village. The DVD was well received and comments are mostly that people were inspired to try to make a difference in the lives of their fellow villagers who experience the external barriers that having any kind of difference brings, be it mental, physical, emotional or social. With patient prodding and long silences we gained 7 volunteers who were willing to be coached by us on how to interview people with disabilites in their village and collect the data required by the provincial and district governments to assess them for assistance.  Primarily, the ones who will probably receive the most assistance will be young adults who qualify to go for training in skills or in upgrading high school education interrupted by accident or disease. We are learning that although it is said there is a pension fund  for older people who are totally dependent, the fact of the matter is this seldom seems to come about. Right now we think we are hearning that this year's budget for them is fully ascribed, therefore the woman we submitted information for two months ago will probably not receive anything. This is so sad, as her daughter provides total care in very limited surroudings and cannot get away to earn the money they need to make things a little more comfortable. The other limitation is schoooling for children with significant limitations physically and mentally. The family needs to have enough money to support room and board at the school sponsored by government in Kupang and transportation to bring the children home on weekends for a day, if there are even rooms available for the kids to board.

PERSANI 3rd Birthday

But, back to our volunteers. We went back to Oesena the following week to do the training with our 7 volunteers- two for each sub village (neighbourhood), one of whom is a local health volunter who has been trained to facilitate the maternal child health programme of  clinics for weigh in and checkups and referral. This is great to get these volunteers as they know their community and are well respected. Next step this week was to accompany them on their first interviews and coach on site if needed. It is so cool to see these people interact with their community members, how they use humour to set the tone and how serious everyone is about "data gathering". We left Kupang at 8 am on motorbikes and arrived at 9:30 in the village where we sat around for half an hour waiting for the other volunteeer to arrive who had been at her distant "plot" harvesting the corn crop for a few days so had to get up at 5 am to make it back to the village - taking local trucks as transport, outfitted with boards in the back for seats and on then foot the last 2 km.

Gili Island snorkel day from Lombok

Every interview - 5 in all in the 3 subvillages - took all day, getting home at 5, just before dark. I was bagged! Mostly because conversation runs slowly and lots of visiting, food at every home of course - lots of rice! Two interviews stand out for me, but all were vary valuable.
One is a girl of 10 whose twin is healthy, but this girl has a knee joint which is backwards, (try to picture how she walks) a hand with stubby and missing fingers, limited eyesight and  reduced mental capacity. Her father saw the DVD on Elmi's experience and this inspired him to try to find schooling for his daughter. We will do our best to investigate the possibilites as they will not be able to pay large fees and they will need to room and board her.

PERSANI Birthday party

The other is a young man of 25 who had a stroke due to high blood pressure a year ago and has lost the use of his right arm and has distinct weakness in his right leg. He was part way into his biology degree in Kupang at the university but has not returned, working on his ability to write notes with his left hand and trying to build walking strength. This so dismays me, because if he were in Canada or another "western" country he would be back to school with all the electronic aids at h

Green cake is popular!

and and conciliations from the university to support his continued success. We are helping the volunters to explore some options for him to continue his learning path.

I am also helping the organization for disabled persons with website development but as that is not in my repertoire, have enlisted daughter Kelsey's expertise. she is fabulous and the 3rd birthday for PERSANI the organization was this week, with a very tearful Director thanking us for this work so freely given. the members are so very appreciative as they have very limited funding and didn't see themselves able to have a much needed website. a few photos here on the birthday party.

roommate Nelly's kitten and neighbours

So that's the update. Other than that, I'm including photos from my Easter holiday on Lombok with my friends and a photo of my bed etc on the balcony frying out the bedbugs. Success!

Pertama Hasil - First (tangible) Result

Happy April to all of you in the land of 4 seasons.  Most of you will be seeing spring bulbs coming up, some will even have had the blooms – west coasters for sure! Here, we are mostly out of the rainy season although the odd rain does surprise me but only lasts a short half hour at most. But the end of rain means it’s now hot and muggy and the breeze is now coming from the south which means my balcony does not catch the lovely breezes that have been so helpful to me in the last few months. It’s pretty hot out there once the sun comes around! But this is the last month in this house as our lease is up and the end of April and I will move in with my friends Angela and Morton until I am finished my time here. We make a good group and as I stayed with them a year ago for a month we’ve already done a trial of living together and we more than survived.

drying clothes-tin roof and 32C perfect dyer and no electiricity

 This morning greeted me with my neighbours who are within a few meters away, burning their garbage that they pile at the end of our balcony below us.  Also where they live.  The lovely smell of burning plastic wafted across as I stepped out with my coffee in hand, so quickly backed into the house to wait it out. Piling and burning garbage is a common practice, even in the large cement bins that are along roadsides for the purpose of dumping and they are supposed to have garbage truck pickup regularly but sometimes they are overflowing and people burn some of it after they have climbed into the bin and sorted through for any good “finds”. It sure gives me the worries to see people sorting through, even young children, bare foot clambering through a pile of garbage with who knows what in it.  We’ve started to separate ours into a bag of stuff people might want and the kitchen wet stuff they might not so that they don’t have to sort through all of it to get bottles and cans etc. It’s a real dilemma as to how we can help out the waste management here! That’s our little bit that we thought of so far.Also see the laundry below us on the rood of the housing. Great way to get the clothes dry quickly.

my speaking debut!

Well, I left my last Blog with a comment of “see what’s next” after experiencing my epiphany of the education I think is needed regarding people with disability. That being just illuminating the “abilities” rather than the “disability” of people with physical differences such as missing limbs, body size, vision and hearing loss. All the power points in the world explaining symptoms and encouraging inclusion is far too generic. So, in consultation with my colleague Berty and my man Don (by Skype) the idea of doing a film of Elmi and her independence could be the start of showing how someone from their own village is independent, more so than they ever imagined, and begin to plant the seeds of seeing “ability” rather than pity for “disability”. There are many clips of videos shown here of white foreigners who have very serious limb losses doing spectacular things like playing piano with their toes, getting around with paralysis of the lower body etc but people see these and just look at them as movies from far away and can’t relate this to people here. They believe that these “miracles of ability” happen because foreigners have lots of money. Now they will see that every day independence and the learning of a skill to make a living can happen right here if they know about the resources available to them, mostly from government and can get connected.

Berty introducing DVD of Elmi and independence

watching the DVD

So, Elmi thought this filming was a marvelous idea; Berty used my camera with my coaching on what we are looking for and the night before Elmi flew to Solo, Java for her 10 months of computer training, they filmed and re-filmed until 2am! But they got it. I located a studio to do the editing through my friend Chrystal, and Berty and I spent many hours with the editing, writing script for Berty to narrate the introduction and purpose of the film, choosing music, colour – very bright ones catch Indonesian’s interest who love lots of colour. And we figure at least 40 hours start to finish, we are having the debut of the DVD in Elmi’s village this week. We are starting with a workshop on disability in general, then letting them know I will be going home, so we need 3 people to volunteer for us to coach on how to keep up to date on government resources and how to help people get applications in for what they need. Then we will end with the DVD of their neighbour Elmi. I think they will be very surprised when they see how able she is, as some have not seen her since her accident a year ago as they fear seeing her with missing legs.

I will not post this until I have a few photos from our film debut in Oesena and the workshop. Take care all, and enjoy your spring. 4 seasons is a blessing I think!

Mencampur - Mixture

 This Blog is a mix of daily observations and experiences on my part. I sit looking out across my balcony at a very blue sea, light breeze and quite comfortable in the shade but the sun is a scorching burn if I even could sit in it. This follows several days of rain. I have pillows in the sun like other homes have during the day (my neighbours can reach the lower part of their metal roof so put their foam mattress and pillows up there on sunny days to dry them out and keep out any bugs that might be setting up shop.)

walking partners Chrystal and baby Rose

Speaking of bugs I have had my own to deal with this week. Woke up in the night Monday scratching my arm, went back to sleep - silly me, and woke to much of my torso, hips and upper arms covered in itchy red spots. I willl guess they are bed bugs as I am sleeping on a very old mattress and box spring that came with the house. But why now or where did they come from? Are they also in my sofa where I normally sit in the evenings to listen to podcasts of Q and Vinyl Cafe? I had a small experience a few weeks ago with my arms bitten but with lots of severe pesticide daily over a few days thought I had dealt with them.
So spent a night with my friends at their house and had a good sleep -thank goodness for Benedryl - then came home to think this through. Pillows and all bedding went right out into the sun then washed by hand - that's all I have - and unfortunately only air temperature water but hung them out for two days on the line. No more sitting on the sofa, although had already not been doing that for a couple of weeks, and the morning I got up with the bites had woman-handled the king size mattress out to the balcony, where it will live until I vacate at the end of April when our lease is up. I have been spraying the box spring daily with the ultimate pesticide, and now am going through my clothes in the wardrobe washing them and putting into our spare room when dry. I am sleeping in the spare room on a thin mat on top of a wooden platform as that room didn't have a mattress and thank goodness no real box spring to hide the critters. I bet all of you readers are now scratching just reading this. My friends have been great and not banned me from visiting but they too start to scratch when they ask how my new friends are doing!
So, that's my rant on that topic. But, given that you can imagine my mood is not top of the world but then again, one must have a laugh over all of these experiences, so no need to renew my Xanax prescription yet.
But now that I'm on the end quarter of my placement here are a few of the things that make life interesting.

Bride and Mickey

 - sticky sweaty skin, bug bites, bug spray twice a day, anti malaria meds and just thinking of keeping a home free of vermin! The hassle of buying big jugs of clean water when I don’t have a car, grocery shopping in small bits as I have to fit in in my backpack and be able to hook any extra bags to the hook on my bike. Trying to judge weather, too hot to walk in mid day or monsoon rolling in! phoning the water truck man when our cistern runs dry - about every 5 weeks and hanging around until he comes as he is often in the midst of filling other orders, keeping an eye on the electricity credits on the meter outside so we don't run out of electricity and going to the store to get more credit, having to put on my helmut, jacket, socks and shoes, gloves to go anywhere on my motor bike (now that I have had 3 accidents, I am continue to be vigilant on safety wear) , walking with no sidewalks or shoulders on the road and dealing with children who yell "boulay"  (foreigner) at me and children playing "knock knock runaway" on my front door. Now this might sound like it is terrible here and no it's not. It's just these become the daily life and for me who comes from a country where daily living is pretty convenient, and I can communicate easily to get my needs met and to just socialize, it feels like a lot of work.

interisland pilots- from several countries

 I am so lucky to have been able to come to be in a country so different from my own, meeting a vast array of new people of many different backgrounds and experiences and of course new friends. The view of the sea every morning, noon and night!  Being in the villages where I am welcomed as a friend and to have tasted mangosteen fruit! It is new to me and I really like it - will have to see if it is imported to Canada. Oh and avacado drink - now that's really a treat chocolate syrup and all! House parties with friends and crazy headwear themes! See photos of friend's going away party as their contract has ended in Kupang.

I plan to stake out a street corner that has traffic lights at some point and take photos of all the sights that we would never see at home before I leave. Have to go to that corner as that's the only time anything holds still enough to get good shots! Imagine live chickens hung by their feet  upside down strung on a pole across the front of a motor bike on their way to market! 

Angela the Bride and Alberta Cowgirl

So friends and family, Easter will be upon us soon, with all the accompanying activities among you. Blessings to all!
 

Elmi

Elmi's home

This post doesn't need a translation as this one is all about Elmi, the name of the young woman I have been writing about who has the amputation and for whom we were able to get the wheelchair donated from the local disabled person's organization. As I said in a previous post, we have been working on getting all the forms in and documents gathered to put her application to the province for training in Solo, Java as her mother has now given permission for her to go. She is now 19, the same age as War who I wrote about last May who we were also working to get out to training but who died before he could leave.

 I have resisted posting this Blog until Elmi was in the air, which she is today, leaving early this morning with 4 others chosen to go, in the accompanyment of a provincial staff person to get them settled at the school.

front of home

papers to sign

We went Friday to Elmi's home in the village, a 1 1/2 hour ride away to be there for her meeting with the provincial staff person for the asssessment meeting. (my first time to ride my own bike this far and the roads are atrocious in this village) It was confirmed that another person had definitely dropped out so Elmi could join the current group going and leave on Monday, today! There was great excitment and Elmi, sitting so proudly in her wheelchair was ecstatic. Her demeanor since rising off of the floor to be able to sit at eye level with everyone else has brightened and when she gets to Solo she will be meeting for the first time others who are in the same or similar situation and I think she will expand her horizons when it comes to accessibiity and maybe even learn some tricks to getting around easier. She really is housebound at present due to the inaccessible home, mud yard and road made of rocks and the steep hill where they live. BUT, one step at a time - I get ahead of myself looking at her other barriers but hopefully she will be her own best advocate when she returns. She hopes to study computer operations over the next 10 months and she will be tested for aptitude when she gets there. There are many other choices open to her as well and she may well change her focus on arrival.
In the meantime, she is off as of today, her mother was too tearful to come to Kupang to see her off, but was strong enough to give permission - a big step here as young people look to their elders for that support or they would not take these steps. Elmi's Mom is a widow, so she will certainly miss her for the next months.

Elmi and her craft work

We met with the village head after the time at Elmi's and Berti explained  why we were out there that day. He was amazed that Elmi could go off without her mother to lift her and help her with personal daily living needs and Berti used this as the teachable moment to explain how independent Elmi is and will be even more so on return. He couldn't believe that she could dress, toilet and bath herself and also clean the house and prepare food. He was suddenly very tearful as Berti talked and she later explained to me that it was his worry for her that brought the tears. (surprising to me in an Indonesian man)
My own lightbulb went on when I realized the biggest need here is the teaching about how people with missing limbs can be independent in all ways, and that the barriers are transportation and people's lack of knowledge. Usually those outside of their own family only see them sitting on the sidelines or in their own home, doing nothing. They don't see them in their daily life when they drop by for a visit. And some admitted that they haven't seen Elmi since her accidnet as they are afraid to see her legs cut off!
Still work to do!
Enjoy the photos from Friday.

neighbour gets us coconuts - barefoot to the top!