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!