Video Roundup

Some videos I've been enjoying (many found through fellow bloggers whom I won't credit here):

Nice web, Mr. Crack Spider.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc)

Carl, shut the baby up.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r03IphXh1dI)

Everything is amazing, no one is happy.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbIGbZ6gq_Y)

Chicken Police
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybVb3t560oY)

Logistics Fail!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7fkAF4nElA)

Go Vote

Go vote. Really. I don’t know what kind of persuading you need. Here in Oregon, they’ve made it about as easy as possible. You get a ballot in the mail and you just have to drop it off by 8pm tonight (too late to mail it back!). Drop-offs are all over the city. You have the amazing privilege of being involved personally in your government – something unheard of in many places around the world. Thousands upon thousands of men have died over the years to preserve that right for you. Exercise it, and thank God for the freedom we have in this country.

But with that privilege comes a responsibility. I would encourage you NOT to vote if you don’t know anything about a candidate or an issue. If you can’t say, “I support XXX for reason(s) YYY,” don’t fill in that bubble. If you simply have an emotional reaction to a person or issue, stop. Take a few minutes and learn some facts, then vote. Remember that you don’t have to vote in every contest; skipping a section does not invalidate your other votes.

Above all else, pray. No matter which way the presidential race goes, this country is (and will continue to be) in a difficult spot. Pray for leaders who seek God and will lead this country back to Him. Rest knowing that He is ultimately in control and His purposes will not be thwarted.

Work Stuff

Wow. So I failed pretty miserably at this “return to blogging” thing, huh? I had good intentions, really! When I have interesting things to write about, life is moving too fast to find the time or energy to blog. And when life is slow, well, there’s nothing interesting to write about. I have new respect for those professional bloggers who faithfully produce for the rest of us. And I’ve been a little…distracted…with most of my free time. 

I haven’t really written anything about work since my trip to Indonesia, and that’s a fairly easy thing for me to ramble on about, so let’s start there. Things at MTI have been good, but we’re certainly feeling pressure from the economy. We’re completely dependent on people’s generosity, and when they’re worried for their own well-being, it’s (understandably) harder to give, especially substantially.  It’s different than for a “normal” company, where we could sell more widgets or raise prices or something. The consumers of our services are not the ones paying for it, and there’s no fixed price. And the people most likely to support us in a big way are also the ones who stood to lose the most in the meltdown. So things have been tight. Budgets have been slashed, and it doesn’t appear to be over. They say markets always jump after an election, so hopefully we’re only a couple weeks away from a major turnaround. Of course it will probably crash hard again once that new president starts enacting Marxist programs, but that’s a post for another day. 

Here are updates on some of the key projects I’m involved in: 

Website Migration
This is the big one right now. We’re moving our website off Convio and to a platform we will be hosting in-house. This is a big deal for a number of reasons. One, bringing it in-house means we’re responsible for keeping it up now. As a major fundraising tool, that’s a little stressful. Two, it means every single page has to be re-created inside our new platform. There are over 500 pages on the current site. That’s a massive undertaking. Three, our webmaster left at the start of this project. Three of us have taken on the migration (one of whom was just named the new webmaster), but that also means we’re changing a lot of things. It’s good because none of us have the personal attachment to certain things on the site, but there’s so much we want to change we have to be careful about taking on too much work. Four, the new site will be a major improvement for our constituents. A major impetus for this change is to improve the donor experience on the web. This new platform (Blackbaud’s NetCommunity) integrates with our CRM (Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge) so we can link more information to the web. This will be a MAJOR plus to our donors. And finally, there are technical challenges. We chose to use another CMS along with NetCommunity, a product named Sitefinity. We found NetCommunity to be lacking in a lot of basic content management areas, and didn’t want to put undue burden on our content managers. So we’re building the bulk of the site in this other tool and all the CRM-integrated functions in NetCommunity. But it means we have multiple products to juggle and manage.

I spend my time serving as a consultant, helping the two women who are actually building the pages in the new products. I deal with technical issues as they come up and provide input on web strategy. It’s a flashback to a previous season of life spent doing web consulting, but a welcome one. Especially when there’s other people handling a lot of the grunt work!

Our target launch is the start of January, meaning this project will be completed in under 6 months. Most migrations of this scale take over a year. So we’re working hard. I’ve been posting over on the Blackbaud User Society’s forum, writing about our migration experience if you’re interested in tracking on a more technical level. http://www.blackbus.org/forum/netcommunity-bbnc/4310-mtis-bbnc-journey.html

Inventory Management System
This was the big time-consumer before the website but has recently taken a back seat. For almost 30 years, inventory has been tracked on paper sheets and Excel spreadsheets. Not a problem for a while, but now that we process ship over $100 million in donated medical supplies annually, keeping track of the inventory has become more challenging. The decision was made to go with a computer-based system and I’ve been working on developing a friendly “face” for that system. The system is now in use in the warehouse, though just in its first (of three) phase. So there will be more work on that once some of these other projects die down.

Smaller Projects (and those looming on the horizon)

SharePoint – Building out an intranet. We have some stuff already up there, but we need a one-stop internal resource for many of the tools we’re creating. This is underway, I just need to spend more time meeting with various user groups to determine what they want/need built out before we launch.

Communications – We have a fancy new phone system in our Bellevue/Redmond/Seattle/wherever-they-are-now office and would really like to get a matching one down here. But now’s not the best time to be asking to make a large purchase, even if it would be really helpful. We’re also playing with some “unified communications” products. Basically a Skype replacement we can run ourselves that integrates with email, the phone system and pretty much all our other internal systems. But we don’t really have the money to move forward much on this front.

Infrastructure – A major technical component of the website project was to ensure we have enough bandwidth to handle our web traffic, especially during a disaster time when we can get a month’s worth of traffic in a day. The best solution we (and our ISP) came up with was to do a wireless shot between our facilities (less than a mile), getting us 10 MB up/down for a lot less than bonding T1s or a fractional T3. We had a lot of problems with it at first, but it seems more stable now. We still need to replace all network switches, but, again, no money.

Branch Offices – Remember that Indonesia trip? The whole point was to develop some sort of solution for our foreign offices to better integrate their systems with ours here and take a load off them. This has come up again as that office is moving to Jakarta and will have access to more resources. Still don’t have a lot of answers, though.

Funding
Things are pretty tense here, though, with the economy being what it is. The kinds of people who generally give us the most money are also the types that lost the most in the market crash. So they have far less to be giving away. I know we’re not the only non-profit feeling the pressure. And most churches are too. I want to write about how important it is to continue giving in the midst of financial insecurity, but maybe that will be another post. Also, consider the risk of electing someone who wants to raise taxes on “the rich.” “That’s not me,” you may be thinking, “and they should pay more since they have more!” Well, socialism aside, think of all the things those “rich” support and make possible. Most of the humanitarian (and missional) work around the world is financed by people with resources. If the government starts taking more of their money away to fund ridiculous mandatory programs at home, you can forget about “saving the world.” I want to write more on this, too.

I really will try to be better about posting. It’s not that I don’t think of things to write, it really comes down to time and mental energy to make it happen. There’s a lot going on right now, and I generally don’t want to be thinking when I’m done with work. So that makes it hard. Anyway, no more excuses!

Let's Try This Again

So…I haven’t posted anything here in about 2.5 months. There are a lot of reasons for this, most of which have something to do with lack of motivation. I’ve been writing online since 2001 (still working on the very manual import process), during which time I’ve taken three or four breaks. Sometimes you just need it. Plus, I see that I’ve now fallen off the link list on a number of other blogs, so I should have a much smaller reader base now. That’s probably good. It’s a little awkward when people at church/work/strangers come up to me and say they’ve been reading. I also have reason to believe there are few NEW stalkers in the mix (welcome), so I should probably provide some fresh fodder for judging me.

You’ll also notice I made some design changes. Still sticking with an out-of-the-box template (lazy), but it’s at least been updated to use some of the cool new Google sidebar thingies. So there’s that.

Anyway, there isn’t anything substantive in this post. It’s just here to let you know I’m going to try now. We’ll see how it goes.

Quiet Revolutions, Josh White

The following is a quote from the jacket of the new Telecast CD "Quiet Revolution." I've never really cared much for their music or lyrics. My mom actually lent me this CD and pointed out the liner notes. So she really gets the credit here. I still don't care for the CD, but this short note of Josh's ties in with a lot that's been going on lately. Those things will eventually become posts here, but, for now, enjoy the note.

"Hebrews 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

We want to change the world. We want to feed the poor. We want to care for the orphan and the widow. But I can’t help but wonder why it is, in the flurry of our countless activities and programs, why the vast majority of Christians still find themselves leading defeated lives. These causes we rally around – which are great things – may get done, and even effectively, but something seems to be missing.

I recognize this in my own life. It’s much easier to serve God than it is to know Him. It’s much easier to imitate than it is to be the genuine article. I am not Jesus and my feeble attempts at white-knuckling up Jacob’s ladder have always ended in absolute frustration. G. K. Chesterton’s words ring so terribly true: “Christianity is not tried and left wanting, it’s found difficult and not tried.”

At some point on the road of Christian effectiveness we have become so effective at changing the surface that the interior can go untouched and frankly, unnoticed. “Lord, I’ll change the world but please don’t change me!”

Is the root of this problem simply that we live with a cross-less Christianity and a Christ-less center?

We need a Quiet Revolution where we come before a holy and perfect God and say, “Lord, crucify in me everything that is unworthy of You. I accept the cross not only as a place where you died once but where I die daily.” Only then will we really live.

We need a quiet Revolution where the saving life of Christ so permeates our being that Jesus Christ Himself is allowed to Be Himself in us right now. And that equilibrium would be restored to our lives that we would once again find our center.

Jesus is not looking for decisions. He is looking for disciples. There is a lot of talk about the kingdom on Earth but pray we would begin to understand that to speak of a kingdom is to speak of a King. We must give the world not a weak imitation of what Jesus did but a tangible expression of what He is actually still doing in and through redeemed, surrendered vessels.

Are we ready to count the cost?"

Indo, Day 18: Airborne

There isn't a whole lot newsworthy about today (Saturday). I woke up at 4am to get my transfer tickets for a 6am flight to Tokyo. For all Singapore does right, there are some strange inefficiencies. Like the counter agent who took 10 minutes to check in each person in line. I never waited that long in Indonesia with people who didn't speak English!

The only possible problem that may have arisen is, despite my printed itinerary to the contrary, she insisted her system said I was going to Portland today. "No," I tried to correct her, "I'm going to Seattle today and Portland tomorrow. See the printout?" She just kept repeating that her system said I was going to Portland. I tried to explain how that didn't matter because my fight from Seattle to Portland isn't even on Northwest, so what her system said is kind of irrelevant so long as Alaska has it right. This created no small amount of confusion. She muttered something about rebooking me, and now I can only assume I have no flight to Portland tomorrow. But I guess we'll find out soon enough.

After that flight it was another to Seattle. Basically, I spent the entire day on a plane. No, really, an entire day. See, nothing really to write about.

I arrived in Seattle three hours after I took off (ugh), got to my hotel and tried to sleep. Didn't go so well.

I'm hear for a work event, which I'll write more about tomorrow.

Indo, Day 17: Finality

This was the last day in Indonesia. Most of the day was spent answering final questions and generally hanging around until it was time to go to the airport. It seems kind of strange to be leaving – I half expect to be flying back to Medan in four days, as has been my habit.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for my health. I feel about 80% today and the flight to Singapore was uneventful, which was relieving. I still don’t feel like eating anything, but I should be able to find some “neutral” food here.

Singapore crashed on me like a wave. I remember it being nice, but now it appears opulent. My room in the transit hotel feels fit for royalty. Things are clean, the faucets produce a full stream of (potable) water, and there’s even HOT water! It’s quiet and smoke-free. I have been wondering what the transition would be like. I know I was only gone for 2.5 weeks, but I adjust to new places very rapidly. Going from electricity and water being luxuries to necessities is quite a jump.

But I can reflect on that later. I have to hit up the transit desk in four hours, so I better sleep.

Indo, Day 16: Sickly

Pray for me. I managed to get sick the day before I leave. I can’t complain, though: it’s been over two years since this has happened to me. It makes work hard, but I’m ok powering through that. Spending 20+ hours on a plane, however, will be slightly more…challenging…if the…explosive…nature of this affliction doesn’t get toned down a couple notches.

I think it was some undercooked meat for dinner last night.

The nausea-inducing anti-malarial meds don’t help.

I leave Friday at 8:30pm (GMT+7, 6:30am GMT-7).

(For Joe: it feels like everything on my insides wants to be on my outsides.)

Indo, Day 15: Misc

There’s not a whole lot to say about today. I thought about skipping, but that sort of defeats the purpose. In the morning, I said goodbye to the Sigli/BA staff and (once again) headed to the airport. This time I met an enthusiastic local who was learning English and really wanted to practice with me (though he didn’t introduce himself that way) and a weathered British chap who seemed happy to be understood for a change. For someone who has been here a few times, he didn’t quite seem to get how it works. The flight was smooth and uneventful and soon I was back in Medan.

I’ll be here for the next two days before I start the long journey back home. Since I’ll be in one place for more than a day, I took the opportunity to do a little more sink laundry and prep for the layovers. I was also able to charge my camera battery, though I doubt there will be much to take pictures of before I leave. It’s amazing how quickly time has passed. It feels like a year ago I was in Portland, and I’ve almost forgotten about my time in Singapore and Tokyo. I don’t know if it is the constant moving around or the general intensity of my time here, but it feels like I’ve been here much longer than I have. Maybe I’m just adjusting well.

For lunch, most of the office went out to pizza…at a Pizza Hut. I can’t remember the last time I had their pizza, and this restaurant was WAY nicer than any Pizza Hut I’ve seen in the US. I joked around about not seeing a rice pizza anywhere. It was strange eating something without it, let alone semi-American. Of course the toppings were totally unique, but it still tasted a little like good old American pizza. It’s a fun group here…when I understand what they’re saying.

Everywhere I’ve gone, at least one person has asked me about the upcoming presidential election. They want to know who I think will win, Hillary or Obama. I didn’t realize that race had garnered so much international attention yet; it’s only the primaries! Of course it was hopeless to try explaining that we’re not even to the actual race yet, this is just intra-party bickering. (My money was always on Obama, since I can do math and see that Hillary can’t catch him on delegates. Other people finally started to see that and now he’s been declared the presumptive nominee.) No one seemed to have any questions about McCain. Bad sign for him, I guess. Our political system is crazy. Don’t believe me? Try explaining it to a foreigner.

It’s nice to be staying in a room devoid of insects.

Like I said, not a whole lot going on. Pretty much a transit day.

Indo, Day 14: Banda

This morning I finished up working in the Sigli office and prepared to head back to Banda Ache for my morning flight. Unlike Nias, when given the opportunity to ask me any technical questions or relate problems, the staff had nothing to say. Things run extremely well there. So we actually got out of town on time.

The anti-malaria meds made me sick again this morning. First time I’ve thrown up, though. Too bad I still have four and a half weeks on them. They really suck. Maybe I should take my chances with the malaria. I only have half a dozen or so bites – how many could be malarial?

The drive back to town was beautiful (and not raining this time), but I didn’t take any pictures to save my battery for Banda. So stupid of me to leave my charger in Medan! We got to the staff house, dumped our stuff, then Flora (the Sigli finance manager), the drive and I set out to see some of the relevant sites.

Our first stop was the beach that marks “ground zero” for the tsunami. It’s a really nice coastline that reminds me of Oregon. Much rockier than Nias or Sigli. Actually waves. It was nice. We walked along for a while and talked about the wave. Fifty feet! And the coastline was 1km farther out before the tsunami than it is now. You can still walk through a dirt plane made up of rubble that once was worker housing for the nearby cement factory. 150,000 people died here.

After the beach, we went and saw the two boats that made it over 5km inland and are stuck on top of houses. They’re too big to move, so they’ve become semi-permanent monuments. None of the pictures are great because I started using my cell phone camera which is markedly poorer.

From there we went to the mosque. This is the city were Islam first came to Asia, and they’re proud of their mosque. It’s the largest in the country, and has got to be right at the top of the list for Asia. Flora donned traditional garb to be allowed inside the complex. I’ve never received so many dirty looks in my life. A western man walking with a local in traditional clothing. Not a welcome sight. We walked around trying to take pictures, but then my battery finally died. Flora made a joke that maybe we should walk around seven times and the walls would fall down. It’s good to see Biblical humor transcend cultures.

We talked a little about being a Christian operating in a Muslim world. They get that we’re Christian, and I think they’re becoming ok with it. In Sigli they have to crop our logo to make the cross look more like a plus or just use the words. I don’t think anyone here is militant, and they want (need) our help, but apparently we still have to make some concessions. I don’t think that’s very fair.

I had previously asked if anyone knew where I could find a machete. I saw some guys using one in the bush, and thought it would be a sweet souvenir. “Machete” proved to be a difficult word to explain and translate, and they ended up taking me to a place with traditional ceremonial knives. It’s pretty close, but utterly non-functional. Not quite what I had in mind, but it still looks cool.

Dinner was at a little coffee house near the staff house. It’s too bad I don’t drink coffee, being as this is where it comes from and all. I’ve heard about the special blend here…apparently many coffee houses also run drugs, and sometimes the coffee and marijuana get a little, well, blended. This didn’t seem like that sort of establishment. The food was the highest quality I’ve had yet. Not necessarily the best tasting, but the most western-like in quality. What I mean is, well, for starters, the meat wasn’t raised on the premises. And it was actually plump, not forcing you to scrape what you can find off the bone. Like it was bred to be eaten. And served boneless! Ha! I felt spoiled not having to work at my food.

Afterward, Flora decided we would get back to the house via Death Taxi. If you remember from one of my first posts on this trip, most taxis here are motorcycle sidecars. But not like sidecars we have in the US that are enclosed. No, these are pretty much a seat and a floor with a bar on the side and in front. Very open air. If you’ll also remember how I characterized “driving” here (going/doing whatever the crap you want and using the horn to keep you alive), you’ll understand the Death Taxi moniker.

It was fun, though. We took a loop around the city to see some of it at night. The air (I almost called it fresh) felt great and relatively cool. And there were only a couple close calls (red light? What’s that mean?). I really regret leaving my charger in Medan as I could have gotten some great pictures.

All in all, a fun day, and fairly touristy at that. I wasn’t expecting to be shown around quite this much, but it was kinda nice. Tomorrow morning I head back to Medan (pray the airport doesn’t shut down again) for the final leg of this trip.

Indo, Day 13: Sigli

In the morning, I was awoken very, very early (5am) by the sound of wailing. It sounded like the zombies from a horror movie, moaning almost in unison. It took a few seconds for me to focus (5am, remember?), then I could clearly hear one voice clearly amplified over the others. Ah, prayer. I forgot I was in a Muslim city. In Medan, I have heard the calls to prayer many times over the loudspeakers, but never individuals responding. In BA, everyone is a Muslim, so everyone is praying. The sound came from everywhere. It was incredibly eerie. One voice over the loudspeaker sounds melodious, tens of thousands murmuring in unison is creepy. And heartbreaking. The Darkness is so thick here.

A couple hours later we left town on the three hour drive to the project site in Sigli. The countryside is very different from Nias or Medan. It feels more African to me. More plains and less dense vegetation than Nias, more mountains than Medan. At one point we even passed a small grove of pine trees that reminded me of home. Cows wander the streets (Corvallis?) and later on we saw some monkeys and even a small elephant that was being used to haul something. But I was quickly told that’s not a normal sight. I want to ride the elephant!

Sigli seems like a pretty nice place that would have been even nicer before the tsunami. The climate here is much more mild (we’re about as far north as you can get) which I’m enjoying. It rained a lot today, in a very Oregon sort of way. Cold, grey and heavy. I don’t know why that’s so refreshing. And, of course, “cold” is a very relative term. It’s still a Muslim community; at prayer times, as soon as you drive out of range of one mosque’s speakers, you pick up another. But it seems less so than BA. The influences are everywhere, though. In the architecture of the buildings (big domes on top) down to your behavior (shoes OFF!). We might as well be in the middle east with more palm trees.

The office is nice. It’s by far the cleanest building I’ve seen in Indonesia. Everyone takes their shoes off when entering, which helps a lot. Seriously, this place is spotless. Whoever they have cleaning it is doing an outstanding job. The staff are friendly and much closer to my age than any of my stops thus far. It’s been easier to joke around with this crew, and, if you know me, that’s important. Their computers have also been meticulously maintained, even though the staff know very little about them. “Don’t install software.” So they don’t. It’s nice to have users who listen.

Their Internet is coming off a wireless setup. The antenna looks very familiar. I’m wondering if it was setup as part of the tsunami relief effort. Remember when I did the emergency communications work after Katrina? There was a crew that did the same thing in Indonesia after the tsunami, and this equipment looks like what we were using. I haven’t been able to get an answer as to where it came from, but that’s my guess. Kind of brings things full-circle for me.

Both project managers I’ve worked with (first Esther and now Jenny) have liked to feed me. I thought I would lose some weight on this trip, but they’re always bringing me something new to try. At least with Jenny it’s delicious fruit drinks. Seriously, they taste like biting into the fruit. For dinner we had some fried noodles – I think that marks my first Indonesian meal (any meal) that didn’t contain rice. They were spicy and delicious and reminded me of noodles my cousin Leo used to make when we were kids. Noodles were one of the few things we could make unsupervised, and he had a special blend of peppers to keep it interesting. Burned your mouth but you couldn’t stop eating them! If I have any tolerance for spicy food, it’s due to him.

The hotel I’m staying in (they have a hotel here!) has the look of a place that before the tsunami was nice. The walls are brightly painted instead of white and stained. There’s intricate molding around the doors and ceiling. There’s even some cool multi-colored lights. But, like most things, it suffered a blow from the tsunami. It’s still nice, but has a certain…worn…feeling to it. Like it was abused. And it suffers from the overall infrastructure problems (power, water, etc.). It comes with a prayer rug and a sign that points to Mecca.

Speaking of the tsunami, I should probably comment on that. Sigli is one of the “ground zeros” for the wave. Not only was there an earthquake here (see the map in yesterday’s post), but this is one of the places there was a wave. They say it got to be around 12 meters high. They took me to the beach this afternoon. It was deserted. No one goes there anymore. The good news about this particular spot is that there were no houses close to the water, just salt flats and shrimp, uh, growing (?) areas. But you can still see the devastation. I’m mad at myself for leaving my camera charger in Medan, because as we were there, my battery light started blinking. I’m saving the rest of my shots for tomorrow when we’re back in BA and visit the main landing spot for the wave. I’ll write more about the tsunami then.

Indo, Day 12: Stuck

Today started like so many others on this trip: at the airport. This flight was later in the morning, so I at least got to sleep in a little. Even though this is a domestic flight, the airline operates out of the domestic terminal (the distinction isn’t as major as it sounds). And, once again, I thoroughly enjoyed the comical airport security routine. They’re more concerned with making sure you pay all the fees and taxes than you take anything dangerous on the plane. The metal detector beeped for every person walking through, but there was no one on the other side to do anything about it. And this is the international terminal!

For an exciting twist, my flight was delayed indefinitely. Another plane had mechanic problems on the runway (shocker) and is stuck, preventing any flights from landing or departing. Nothing like being trapped in a smoky airport at lunchtime with no food and no idea when you’ll leave. I can’t even understand the overhead announcements!

It ended up being just over six hours later that the runway was clear and my plane arrived. Theo came back to the airport and got me, so at least I didn’t have to wait it out there. I think the airline handled the situation about as well as they could. Right around the time we should have landed, they provided airline boxed meals to everyone. I don’t know if we would have gotten these in the plane or not, being as it’s only an hour-long flight, but the fact that they actually provided food for us was refreshing. You don’t hear about that sort of thing in the US!

The flight is to Banda Aceh (BA), a very significant city both in Indonesia and in Asia. To say it’s a Muslim city would be as redundant as saying Vatican City is Catholic. Locals proudly call it the “port to Mecca.” It’s where Islam first entered Asia. Sharia Law is in effect. This is the real thing. It is also significant because of the tsunami. BA was the closest city to the epicenter, and of all locations hit by the resulting tsunami, BA was the worst. Over 150,000 people died and parts of the city are still submerged. BA is still flooded with NGOs, however, and our project is (another) three hour drive out of the city to Pidie.

Consistent with every stop thus far, my arrival was marked by a blackout in the city. So I didn’t really see much of it on the way to the staff house. We’ll spend the night there, then drive to Sigli, where the project is, in the morning.

Thankfully the power came on after only two hours or so.

Indo, Day 11: Family

Despite wishing I could stay in GS a little longer, I had to leave for the airport bright and early. Much earlier than my flight, in fact because that’s when the van was running. Arriving at the, uh, airport, I waited in line for about 30 minutes before being told I was on the NEXT flight and to come back in 20 minutes. So apparently there IS more than one flight a day! I met an Aussie bloke in the line who was on a four week surfing vacation with a couple mates. They’ve been pretty much everywhere in Indonesia. I need to learn how to surf and come back here. We chatted for a while – I think being the only white people in the place drew us together. That and the English.

Checking in is a process of exchanging your handwritten ticket for a handwritten boarding pass. On the way down, I had to pay a weight surcharge for my bag. I guess domestic flights have a lower weight limit, or maybe it had something to do with our tiny plane. I was wondering if I would slip by since there’s really no electricity in the airport and they might have a scale. But there it was. No power, lights, fan, computer or anything else you would expect to see at a check-in desk, but they had their scale! Anything to make a buck I guess. Funny thing was, I looked at the only screen on the thing, and it was shot. No numbers. But the guy working it was still dutifully writing weights on the luggage tags and sure enough I had to pay extra. Maybe it’s based on size or maybe he’s really good at guessing weights. Either way, when I didn’t have exact change, the guy called what I had “close enough.” That’s not shady.

After paying the airport tax, I moved over to the waiting room. I walked through a metal detector and past a x-ray machine, but neither was operational due to the lack of power. This is part of the joke of airport security. I could walk through a place like that with explosives, get on a plane to Medan. From Medan, I could cross over to the international terminal. If the guys happened to be watching the screen as my stuff went by and saw anything, so long as it looked high-tech enough and you talked fast, they wouldn’t stop you. From there, I could get on a plane to anywhere. Not to make any of you nervous fliers more nervous…just something to think about the next time you’re practically strip searched in the US.

The flight back to Medan was an uneventful as such flights are. The skies were clearer than they were on the way out, and I got a much better look at the country. It’s beautiful, mostly uninhabited. At one point we could see a large mountain jutting out of the surface of the island (Sumatra, not Nias). I’m not used to seeing mountains that aren’t in mountain ranges. This was literally a sheer face of rock, nothing else to it. As such, there was nothing growing on it. Just the rock.

Arriving at the domestic “terminal” of the Medan airport, I got to see another side of it. It appears that there may have been a much larger airport behind the current airport at some point, but most of this building was destroyed. A couple guys were working on it, so I don’t think it’s a high priority. Near the end of the runway there were a couple planes up on blocks. Yeah, just like old cars. They had to have been there for some time, as the grass was starting to overtake them. I wish I could have taken a picture, but we were being herded along. Maybe on my next flight.

Back in the hotel in Medan, I got to take a real shower! This bathroom is a lot like the one in GS, except instead of a bucket, there’s running water. But the shower area is still just in the room (different from my last room in Medan) and you use a handheld showerhead. I did a little laundry in the sink, but just enough to get me to my next stop. The rest will take too long to dry, and I’m just here overnight.

The afternoon was spent with Theo’s family. We had lunch and talked about a great deal of things, many of which I would classify as “internal” and probably not appropriate to print here. He’s a man with an incredible breadth of experience in many places and it’s been good to talk with him. This ended up going through dinner, which we had in “downtown” Medan, at their equivalent of a boardwalk (sans water). The kid waiting on us was wearing a shirt emblazoned with “Germany” and the Nazi logo. He had no idea what it said/meant, but it was a little awkward. We were walking past the shops on the way back to the car when we came across one of those infamous Asian DVD stores. We stopped in to see if they had the latest Indiana Jones which came out the day I started this trip, much to my extreme displeasure. Sure enough, they did, and only a dollar! I grabbed a couple movies for the trip home, since I’m almost done with the reading material I brought.

But now it’s time for bed. In the (late) morning, I leave for Banda Aceh – a fascinating city I’ll post more on later – and a drive to our project in Pidie. I hear it’s quite a bit more civilized than Nias, but am still not quite sure what to expect.

Indo, Day 10: Rest

The power stayed on all night! It's funny the things you start to get excited about when you have nothing to start with. What's more, it rained quite a bit throughout the night, cooling the air even more. But it was no less humid. It's a bizarre feeling when there's cool air, but it's still incredibly humid. It is neither refreshing nor annoying, but it is also both.

Walking to the office in the morning, I pass groups of kids walking to school. They always stop and greet me with "good morning, sir." I think they're proud of their English. The older kids, and some adults, on motorcycles just stare. But I smile and keep on my way. The early morning fog is beautiful in the valleys. Makes for a nice walk.

The plan was to eat breakfast then head into the main town, Gunung Sitoli (GS), for the night. It's an early morning flight, and with our village being a couple hours away, this made more sense. But, of course, as I'm getting ready to leave, people start coming forward with problems for me to look at. So we got a late start.

Esther and ended up leaving late in the morning for GS. Along the way she pointed out some of the projects they have going in the community. Distributing vats for collecting rain water and health education for mothers and babies are the two big ones. They're going to be starting up a child survival project that will include some actual clinics for children under 5. That's Esther's specialty.

GS feels like a huge city compared to where we were in the interior of Nias, but it's still that same tiny town made up of shacks I flew into four days ago. The particular hotel they arranged for me is really quite nice. I think it was a popular stop for the surfing crowd (Nias had world-renown surfing before the tsunami) as it has a lot of that feel. The grounds have little grass huts scattered around for eating or whatever. There's a dock that goes out into the ocean - oh yeah, GS is on the coast. It was so refreshing to walk out there and smell the salty ocean air.

The room itself is the nicest thing I've seen in Nias. The tile floor has a large crack, a reminder of the earthquake that devastated the island. The bed has one of those roll pillows down the middle which I've seen a lot of here. I don't think they like bed-mates touching. There's actual windows...well, plastic wrap over the holes...keeping the room (mostly) insect free. My only disappointment was not seeing a ceiling fan. But, given where I'd been, this was still going to be amazing. Then I saw it. High on the 12' wall was my very own AIR CONDITIONER! It doesn't get very cold, but it does just enough to get some of the humidity out.

The bathroom is in standard form for Nias (and elsewhere in Indonesia, I think), but much cleaner than what we had in the village. It's a tiled room with a drain that is literally a bath room. Although there is a showerhead on the wall, it doesn't work (no running water, remember?). There's a sink and a western style toilet (no more squatting!). The corner contains the all important giant plastic garbage can filled with rain water and a small pot. The principle is simple: wherever you need water, use the pot to get it there. Flushing the toilet? Dump lots of water in the bowl. Taking a shower? Use the pot to throw water on yourself. Yep, just standing right there in the room. The drain and temperature take care of the excess water. And since UNICEF decided the rain water here is potable, it's also used for drinking. But I'm avoiding that step.

The shower/bath thing was amazing. Bathing before was somewhat fruitless because the humidity almost immediately undid whatever you accomplished. But here, with the lower humidity and AC in the room, it felt wonderful. It's rather remarkable how a clean head can make you feel a million times better. New clothes that aren't bathed in permethrin and DEET both smell and feel great! Simple things, I know, but they make a difference.

I decided to take full advantage of the situation and do something I haven't done yet in Indonesia: don a t-shirt and shorts and lounge. Time to be a tourist. I went out to one of the little grass huts over the water (see pictures) to spend some time reading and talking to God. It was incredible. The weather is perfect. The humidity is low, but it's still warm. There are far fewer insects, so I don't need repellent. The sound of the waves crashing into the support posts, the smell of the ocean, the serenity of the whole place was incredible. It brought me such inexpressible joy to be sitting there, enjoying this beautiful retreat. It's funny how at any other time I would have thought of this setting as rustic, but now it feels like the lap of luxury. I would totally vacation here and spend the whole time sitting out on that little platform over the water. So peaceful. I stayed there until dark.

Is the water warm? For being on the equator...yeah...it doesn't get any warmer than this!

I've been a little wary of ordering food on my own again, after my last attempt got me nowhere close what I was trying to order. But I was hungry (turns out I accidently skipped lunch), so I gave it a shot. The people here are great. The waiter was a college kid and talked with me a little about why I was here. A couple Frenchies from another NGO sat down a table away and greeted me. The menu was very easy to understand, and I wound up with the most wonderful Indonesian fried rice I have run into yet. Maybe I was starving, but it was exceptional. And the fruit juice the kid recommended, I don't remember what it was, but it was right. And it's all so cheap! The room is 200,000 rupiah and dinner was like 27,000. If it wasn't so hard/expensive to get here, I would be all over this place. Forget Bali. It's cheaper than a hostel.

Except, you know, all the death and destruction everywhere outside this little pocket....

But this pocket has refreshed me and brough termendous joy. And for that, I am immensley thankful. My ride to the airport just got bumped up another hour, so I best be getting to bed.

Indo, Day 9: Wilderness

This morning I was woken up by a loud CLICK as the power flicked off. Staring up through my mosquito net, I could see the precious ceiling fan starting to wind down. Excellent. Not that it made a huge difference anyway. Every inch of my body was sticky with a mixture of sweat and DEET. By the time I leave this island, it will have been three days without running water or electricity that's on more than off. Or a shower; that's going to feel good. I have a good start to a beard going, something utterly new to me. The only thought running through my head as I assessed my current situation was the namesake of this blog: how DID I end up here?




Nias is like an extreme breed of camping. There are buildings, but they provide little more than shelter from the rain (for you and whatever else may want to hide). They're really just a roof and walls. Windows are holes open to the outside and doors don't really close. Consistent with my description from yesterday, the house where I spent the night looked like something out of Hurricane Katrina. And you sleep in a mosquito net, even though you're inside. There are still plenty of insets and other critters (lizards, mice, larger bugs) that you don't want joining you. In the bathroom, besides the squatting toilet, is a large vat of collected rain water for both flushing said toilet and splashing on your face, etc. Food is scarce. Last night we had some chicken (which I'm pretty sure was raised in the back - isn't living with poultry where Bird Flu came from?). Each breast, wing, leg, etc. was only about 2" - not the giant genetically engineered pieces we have in the US. Two small pieces of chicken and some rice. But I'm adapting well and haven't even been all that hungry in the first place.


A little geography: Nias is the island with the big green arrow, and you can see Medan, where the main country office is, on the opposite side of Sumatra. My next stop will be in the Piede province at the tip of Sumatra. The capital city, Jakarta, is down on Java.

Being so close to the equator accounts for most of the climate. Being an island is the rest. It's hot and humid here, you've already heard me say that. This morning we were blessed (in my mind, maybe not that of the locals) with a torrential downpour that lasted a couple hours. It has a wonderful cleansing effect on the air. Now it's about perfect out.

I've been working up on the roof, which has become just about my favorite spot in Indonesia. It's covered, so it's safe in the rain. The tin roof makes it almost deafening. But the view is spectacular. I'm looking out over a lush, well, rainforest. I really wish the pictures did a better job showing it, but the perspective is hard to capture. My excuse has been the satellite I'm working with requires a clear shot of the sky, something you can't get indoors.

Thank you to everyone who's been praying for me. I can feel it in a very tangible way. This is a miserable place, but I've been far from miserable being here. And the staff, which aren't from here either, seem to be doing quite well given the harsh environment. There's very little I can do for them on the technological side - I mean, fixing the power is the biggest need they have, and I can only recommend a bigger generator. In some ways, it's been very relaxing. There's so little here to get distracted with. I love just sitting up on the roof working, thinking, or talking to God. I've been wrestling with a lot of things lately, and it's been nice to have this space. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not going to hesitate to leave! And that shower is going to be incredible! But, for now, this is a very peaceful place to be.

Talking with the staff has been fun. They're a little unclear as to what I do and why I'm here. I share a certain amount of that confusion! It was important for me to come and see the site and conditions so we (back in the US) can better provide solutions to them. But a day would have been enough. Flights are on Wednesday and Saturday though, so we have some time to spend together. And they don't get many visitors this far out. Most of the staff visiting Indonesia make it as far as Medan, maybe Piede. So it's been fun. They've been amazingly hospitable.

Esther, the project manager, is a fiery little Pilipino doctor who retired into this job. She was going for a position in Medan or Nias, she didn't really know which, and accepted Nias without ever visiting here. Ha! She gets the joke now. Her job covers more than managing the projects...I think she's also the office mom. She's the best cook out here and tries to keep everyone else in line. Not an easy job. She reminds me of my grandma, complaining about the incompetent help. They don't know how to slice a watermelon? What use are they?!?

We had a good talk at lunch today about the disaster response world in general, and specifically Myanmar and China. It was interesting to hear the frustrations from someone on the field. She's not the kind of woman to take no for an answer, and has sure tried her hardest to get in to Myanmar, without much luck. A number of the staff here (Indonesia, not Nias) were hoping to get in as they're not American and some are even Asian. But the embassy hasn't budged, despite saying every day on CNN how they're now letting "everyone" in.

Later that evening, there was a going away dinner for the man who has been managing the water sanitation (watsan) project. All the staff were here. We hung out for a couple hours and stayed up "late" (10:30) talking and answering quesitons about the US.

Tomorrow I leave for the main "city" on Nias, then early Saturday catch a flight back to Medan.

Indo, Day 8: Nias

Morning came too soon. I was getting picked up at 6:30 (although the driver showed up at 6!) to head to the airport. Rushing through checkout, I accidently left my friend C.S. Lewis behind in the room. Explaining that I needed to go back for a book was much harder than I anticipated!

Seeing the airport in the light…well, no, it’s the same. The domestic terminal seems like it’s been remodeled recently, and is surprisingly clean. Getting there still involves destroyed sidewalks with boards over the holes to help with luggage carts. I really wish I could take more pictures, but it’s hard with your hands full of bags. Getting through security was hilarious; the guy watching the x-ray machine was talking to a friend when my stuff went through. I wonder if the international terminal is any better. At the gates they have a “smoking room,” which is pretty typical. Except theirs is a room without a ceiling, opening into the terminal. Nice going, guys.

I was nervous taking the malaria meds just before the flight (same time every day) given yesterday’s experience, but had little choice. Said a quick prayer and swallowed the pill dry. About the time I should have started getting sick, God provided food in the form of a small roll handed out on the plane. It was just enough to keep my stomach at bay.

Speaking of the plane…it was a small prop plane that sat no more than 20. To say it was old and busted would be something of an understatement. But it worked! It smelled like a urinal cake. For all the ladies out there, think of the cleaning stuff in a port-a-potty. The seats were all sorts of broken: mine was stuck in recline and there was nothing I could do about it. Felt bad for the person behind me. Turning the vent on did nothing, and I can’t say I was really surprised. The AC blowing into the plane’s central systems created such a fog that I could barely make out the flight attendant doing her safety presentation at the front. Not that I could understand her anyway.

As we began our final approach, you could see the runway whacked out of the vegetation, making a very visible clearing. For a moment, it looked as if the runway was simply dirt and I could check off another Life Goal, but, alas, it was “paved.” If the airport in Medan was a parking lot with a large building attached (more like a train station than anything), the “airport” in Nias is like a Greyhound bus stop. There is just the one runway (totally unmarked), and there we no other planes or even places to keep other planes.

Nias is a very special place. It’s absolutely beautiful. It’s a jungle. They could have filmed Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones here. Maybe they did. It’s lush and green and…tall. Huge leafed…things…and palm trees. In places you can see the coast with the bright blue water. Many of the buildings have thatched grass roofs…except these aren’t the fancy kind you find at a resort. These are on people’s homes. Nias could be a spectacular, world-class resort destination with the proper investment and management.

But it’s not. The three hour drive through the center of the island that took us from the airport to the main project office showed a tragic situation. For at least an hour of the drive, the road wasn’t paved. And that doesn’t mean it was just dirt or gravel. It was like the surface of the moon. I was continually jostled around in my seat, testing the limits of the seatbelt. The driver often had to stop completely to get over an obstacle. Every couple of minutes we would drive through another little village. It reminded me of the ruins of Katrina. Except people live in these ruins. I tried to snap some pictures as we drove by, and hope to get more on the way out. Like most things here, it’s hard to explain.

In the middle of it all, we have an office. It’s a small building with a lot of staff bustling around. Light bulbs hang from the ceiling. The floor is about the only thing that looks nice. The main floor has all the offices, downstairs is living quarters for a couple of the staff and upstairs is a roof-deck sort of thing. I like that part. Supplies are scarce and hard to come by, so there are giant vats setup to collect rain water to boil for drinking. Food has to last. The power goes out constantly and presents a very real problem for the equipment.

I had only been here for a couple hours when a mighty thunderstorm rolled in. I love storms, and this was one for the record books. The lighting and thunder were right with each other; we were close. The thunder shook the building and hurt your ears. It was almost high pitched cracking. Surprisingly enough, the power held. Rain flooded the streets in a way unheard of in Oregon.

It’s hard deciding what to actually do here. The computers all run, and all that could be done to make them run better is change the work habits of the staff. But with so many staff all popping in and out of the office, it’s not really possible to make sweeping changes. And they don’t have anyone here to help them. So it’s best to leave things as they’re used to.

I brought a satellite transceiver with me to see how they work from the field. This was my first opportunity to give it a shot (both in terms of time and being outside). I’m very impressed. It runs circles around their giant satellite dish (see pictures) and really isn’t bad for a single user. I have a Steelhead appliance (more on those later) configured to test with it hopefully tomorrow when its counterpart in Portland is ready. Not that this particular stop is in any way lacking adventure, but using a satellite modem you brought in your luggage is a pretty awesome feeling.

The sunset was breathtaking, but, of course, the pictures didn’t really come out. It was dark by 7. Wonder when it gets light.

Indo, Day 7: Routine

Today was the closest thing I’ll have to a routine on this trip. Woke up and got to the office feeling pretty familiar with everything. The absurd driving seems normal now. I even managed to snap a few pictures on the way. In the office I checked my email and prepared for the morning discussion time. But that’s about as far as I got with the routine. Despite having been on the anti-malarial for five days now, it was THIS morning that my body decided to get upset about it. People had warned me that I MAY get an upset stomach. You’re supposed to take them with lots of water (not present) and some food (ditto), and I’ve been ok so far. Yesterday morning I was a little sore and borderline nauseous, but it was only for like half an hour. But today, oh man. It took every ounce of strength in my body to hold my throat closed. My body put up a strong fight to get the meds out, but didn’t quite succeed in the end. Hopefully I can find a cracker or something in the morning.

A number of things happened around the morning meeting, none of which are really appropriate to share here. I think people underestimate the stress and hardship associated with being field staff in a downright miserable place. It takes an incredible toll on the expats especially.

I spent the rest of the day primarily doing troubleshooting and helping set up a new way for them to store files. I have a few more staff interviews to do in order to finish my reports, but I’ll take care of those when I return from the projects.

Oh, I had to exchange some money for the next part of my trip. The $200USD ended up being $1.8 million rupiah. Ha! The stack was like an inch thick! They really need to drop two zeros off their currency, especially considering 100 is the lowest denomination anyway.

For lunch, Theo took me to a restaurant specializing in food from a different region of Indonesia. The restaurant was cool – the outside-facing windows all had water flowing down them. Seems fancy, but I guess if you can’t drink the water, you might as well use it for decoration. At this particular establishment they bring out 15-20 small (tapas-sized) plates of food and literally stack them in front of you. You go through and take what you want, but if you take something out of the bowl, you get charged for the whole bowl. An interesting way of doing it, but it lets you try many different things. My juice (since that’s what you drink) was something they call “Dutch Eggplant,” which I think the rest of the world calls a tomalito. Absurdly delicious.

For dinner, Ramesh, the program manager, had Theo’s family and me over. His wife cooked an Indian spread that was also delicious. I’m eating better here than I do at home! It was cool to see the community where most of the NGO expats live. It helps that they have this one development where they all seem to flock. Their kids know each other, and I think it helps being surrounded by people in the same life situation. And the houses are a little different than the traditional Indonesian style. Yes, there’s that many NGOs based here. We had a really good time sitting around the table talking. Felt just like something back home with old friends. Eating with my hands is starting to feel normal.

I got back to the hotel tired, and quickly tried to pack all my stuff for my (very) early morning flight to Nias. Ended up falling asleep on the bed writing this.

Indo, Day 6: Medan

I arrived in Indonesia last night around 8. The flight was a rather uneventful up-down on Singapore Air’s commuter subsidy Silk Air. Despite the language barrier, the old man sitting on the aisle from my window were able to successfully communicate our anticipation, then joy at the lack of a person sitting between us. Seems that travel is another universal language. The biggest difference I noticed in this flight was that the snack they served was a HOT roll-up type thing. None of these cheap cracker bags or whatever. Very limited drink options, and I was really hoping for some caffeine.

Landing in Medan was interesting, to say the least. We didn’t so much land at an airport as a large parking lot. It reminded me a little of Frankfurt Hann, except they actually had an airport building. This really was just a building on the side of a parking lot. No airport-style equipment to be found. It makes me laugh every time I disembark from a plane using stairs. In the US, only presidents and famous people do that, so we equate it with some sort of status. But in the developing world, there are no jetways. It’s normally on stairs. So what we equate with “fancy” is actually much less evolved than our “boring” jetways.

Anyway, my first impression of Indonesia was “smoky.” A lot of this was from the jet engines running right near the “terminal,” but although no one was smoking at the time, it wouldn’t surprise me if everyone working in there had lit up not that long ago. So my first breath on the ground was followed by my fist coughing fit. Excellent.

Inside the airport, you go pay for your visa then go to the immigration stand to get grilled. I managed to drop “tsunami relief” in there somewhere, and I think that helped expedite the process.

Oh, that reminds me of something from Singapore. The lady I was buying lunch from saw my MTI shirt and asked if I was doing work in China or Myanmar. Seems our name is explanatory enough for people everywhere to figure out what we do. I also found it interesting in Singapore that almost every shop had a little donate box for China. Didn’t see any for Myanmar, but they sure love China! I’m sure there’s a lot of history there, but I didn’t take the time to look it up.

Anyway, back in Medan. After getting through immigration, they run your carryon bag through a x-ray machine with a big sign reading “customs” over it. I didn’t see anyone watching the screen. It always cracks me up when a inherently less secure country feels the need to re-check your bag after you came from a much more technologically advanced and secure place. After clearing “customs,” the madness began.

A man was waiting for me next to the customs machine. He had a uniform on and asked for my papers, specifically bag claim check. Assuming him to be some sort of official, I handed it over and he disappeared to find my bag. “Oh, ok,” I thought. “Since they don’t have a carousel, this is how they do it.” I ended up finding my bags in the heap before he did, but when I tried to wheel them out, he grabbed them, threw them on a cart, and took off. He asked if I needed a taxi. No. Stepping outside, I saw Theo, the country director who was there to pick me up (thanks, bright red MTI shirt!). We motion to the guy with my bags, and he takes off toward the parking lot. It looks like he’s still trying to get my stuff into a taxi (profit sharing?), but we finally get to the car. Then he stands there with his hand out waiting for a tip. I didn’t ask him for help, and I only let him help because I assumed him to be some sort of airport official. Talk about misleading! Theo’s wife has some change and pays the guy off. So a word of warning: if you ever fly to Indonesia, refuse help with your bags. And I mean really refuse. They’re all sorts of pushy, literally grabbing your bags out of your hands.

We get to the hotel and head upstairs. This time I was careful to keep control of my luggage. The room we enter is immediately cool (temperature), which is a relief. Second, it is dark. No amount of flipping the (numerous) switches remedied that. After some back-and-forth and a phone call (none of which I understood), I was moved to a different room.

The room is…functional. It has a working AC, which is about all I require. The water isn’t drinkable, and there’s two small bottles for brushing teeth, etc. Washing hands has become a fun ordeal of washing with water to get the dirt off, rubbing with Purell to get the water off, then splashing with bottled water to get the Purell off. Ha! You’ll have to look at the pictures of the room, which, of course, don’t do it justice. It’s a large room that reminds me of something out of Russia or an eastern bloc country. The bed is comfortable and insanely springy. Rolling over results in several aftershock bounces. Kind of fun. There’s cigarette burn holes in the sheets, but they seem kind of clean. The bathroom isn’t really, but it has a western style toilet, which is nice. There’s a notice on the mirror that tells you what hours to expect hot water, and a bottle opener built into the door frame. The power outlets are a mix of US and European style (though not the recessed kind) that are rusted and frayed. Actually, any metal in the room is rusted. When I plug something in, there’s a big spark. I’m probably going to burn the place down charging my laptop. It probably goes without saying, but there’s no Internet. There’s a hint of lingering smoke in the air, either from a previous resident or through the walls. I’m thinking the latter, since it was much worse in the morning. Really, it’s a nice room, and I got a good night’s sleep there. Just trying to paint an accurate picture of the place.

I didn’t think I was tired, but after unpacking a few things, I fell asleep sprawled out amongst my stuff on the bed. Waking up a couple hours later, I finished putting things away and returned to bed. In the morning, I was picked up by one of the office’s drivers and brought in. I’m still thinking of how to best describe Medan. I will need more time to process all I’ve seen, but at the least, I can say it feels like a movie. If we were in a military humvee with a machine gun mounted on the roof, it would probably feel MORE reasonable than the small vehicle we were in. It has the look of one of those war-torn middle eastern countries, sans the desert. I want to take pictures to help me explain it, but want to also be discreet about it. So we’ll see what happens.

I can say that driving is an adventure. You pretty much go wherever you want and lay on the horn to avoid accidents. People weave in and out, drive in between lanes and generally disregard any sort of order. There are motorcycles everywhere, which add to the chaos. But these bikes have sidecars. I was told the black ones are private and yellow are for hire. I guess yellow sidecars are the taxi system.

Arriving at the country office, I got a quick tour and met the staff. There’s six staff, two drivers, and an “office boy.” Yet to learn what exactly he does, but I think it’s errands and the like. They have plans for more staff, but that’s all that’s here now. The office itself is in a three level building. The first floor has a “reception” area and a conference room, and the two upper floors have two offices each: one smaller one used by a single person, and the larger shared with three or so. It’s not in bad shape and everyone here seems pretty happy.

They start each morning with a team time they rotate through leading. The discussion topic is anything not work related. This morning, Ramesh, the program guy, shared about a book he has been reading on the link between religion (specifically Protestant Calvinism) and the rise of capitalism. I thought of quite a bit to say (especially clarifying the Calvinism side), but didn’t as this was my first introduction to the staff and the language barrier was already taxing enough without trying to communicate complex theology or economic theory. We had to pause for translation every couple minutes.

I spent the day talking with Theo and Untung, the finance/IT guy about their situations and what MTI does in the country. There’s a lot more to do in terms of documentation, and they have a good list of things they would like help with as well. So we’ll try to fit all that in before I leave for the project sites on Wednesday.

Lunch was with Untung at a nearby restaurant. We had a fried rice dish and some hot chicken stays. He was happy to learn I like spicy food. It was pretty good stuff. The drink was an avocado drink of some sort, which I had been instructed to try. It’s hard to explain what it tasted like, but it wasn’t bad either. Yeah, that’s right, I drank an avocado.

Back at the office, I worked mainly on paperwork. There’s a number of reports I have to write by the end of this trip that should keep me busy. I was treated to the (at least) daily power outage and a couple sporadic Internet outages. But the generator did a fantastic job, and we were only without power for a few minutes. It was out for a couple hours, I think.

Driving home, I saw more of the city. I really hope I can take some pictures that accurately show what this place is like. I’m going to try getting some from the car tomorrow. I think it might be offensive to just walk down the street snapping pictures. Not that I would even know where to find the street. There’s a reason the office employs drivers.

I had every intent of finishing a bunch of paperwork tonight in the hotel. It didn’t happen. I passed out almost immediately. Didn’t realize I was that tired. I think it’s a combination of the heat and dehydration. But I can’t do much about either, so sleep it is! Waking up, I wandered down to the hotel restaurant to see about some food. There wasn’t much English on the menu, and though I tried my hardest to order the rice dish I had for lunch, I ended up with a piece of…meat…that more closely resembled schnitzel. The waiter must have assumed I didn’t really want Indonesian food.

Sitting outside for dinner, I got my first taste of the insect life. It wasn’t bad, but it will be much worse out in the field. So I decided to bite the bullet and treat my clothes with the permethrin I brought. I hadn’t done this before I left because permethrin is a highly (no, really) toxic spray that you’re only supposed to use outdoors. The funny thing is my highly non-toxic Exofficio shirt/pants/socks/hat have a permethrin material woven into the fabric itself. It must only be toxic in aerosol form. Anyway, no way to do it outside, so I hung some shirts up in the shower and went to town. My thinking is that if I have to be breathing toxic fumes (neighbors smoking) at night, they might as well be DOING something for me.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Medan for a week as I head out to the project sites. That should be the real adventure!

Indo, Day 5: Airport

It’s hard to believe the rate at which time has passed over the last couple of weeks. It feels like I was in Tokyo a week ago, not yesterday. I guess it’s the sheer number of places I’ve been compared to my normal routine back home. I was thinking about this as I tried to fall asleep last night: how amazing it is that we can get on a plane and go anywhere in the world in a matter of hours. And not just technologically, but that it’s part of the human spirit. In the hostel, I was surrounded by people from all over the globe, most of whom I gathered to be college students. College students have no money. But because of places like hostels and cheap transportation via train and commuter air, you really can get around for a small amount of money.

I’m half with these people and half on a different level. I took a major airline for the primary leg of my trip, something many of these people wouldn’t do. But upon arrival, we’re doing the same thing. Trying to make sense of cheap public transportation and staying at cheap hostels. If I had been more creative with my flight over here (couldn’t because of work restrictions and scheduling), I could have done this whole trip on a college student’s budget. If you don’t mind a little work, you really can go anywhere. I need to keep reminding myself of this and plan for more trips. Maybe even convince some people to come along. There’s plenty more of the world to see.

Coming off that thought, it will probably surprise you to hear that I spent today at the airport. Now, before you jump all over me, let’s focus on what’s really important here: Singapore designed an airport in which it’s possible to spend an entire day. It’s hard to explain just how amazing this airport is. It is, by far, the trendiest place I’ve been. There’s dozens of little coffee shops you’d expect to find on 23rd in Portland, restaurants with every cuisine imaginable, lounges….so much!

I did some reading online last night and planned out an adventure completely inside the airport. First, I set off to locate and visit the FIVE unique gardens scattered around the three terminals. You’ll have to look at the pictures, but these are amazing. Fully contained gardens with water features, fish, and bridges. That gives you an idea of just how big this airport is. There are hundreds of shops – people come to the airport like we go to the mall.

There are comfortable chairs. In an airport! Imagine that! Lounges where you can relax in soft chairs, and others with high backs perfect for sleeping. Why haven’t more places done this! There are computer terminals for Internet access scattered throughout, including at the gates themselves. I visited one of THREE movie theaters and watched a FREE movie. Then visited the game room where they had Xboxes, PS3s, and computers set up for killing time playing games. There are TVs everywhere showing sports and news from around the world. Restaurants have live music in the evening. There’s really no end to entertainment.

It’s utterly remarkable how much they fit into this airport. And, like the rest of Singapore, the architecture is breathtaking. The new Terminal 3 is beyond anything I’ve even heard of. Seriously, I love you PDX, but I don’t know how you won best airport the last two years with something like this out there. I would come back here just to hang out in the airport. It’s relaxing. And that’s why I decided to spend the day here. I needed a little actual vacation time before the intense work starts. Tokyo was great, but it’s work running around sightseeing. So was the first day in Singapore. But today I was able to just kick it, pop in and out of shops, sample different foods, and generally just relax. In an airport!

My ONLY complaint is the wireless. For as brilliant as these people are, they screwed up BIG TIME here. There is free wireless through? You go through the signup form, at the conclusion of which you find out that your password will be delivered to you via SMS. Uh…what now? My cell phone doesn’t work outside the US, and the international phone I have from work has an Indonesian SIM card in it. I’m not going to buy a Singapore SIM card – it would be cheaper to buy Internet. BAD SINGAPORE! And they advertise this system for transit travelers! Ha! It’s impossible to use! Fail!

I would come back here. I would like to see more of the city. I know there’s tons to do and lots to see, I simply wasn’t up for all of it on this trip. With any luck, I’ll be coming back through here in the future, and now that I know, can save up a little more money to take in more of the sights.

But now it’s time to get back in a winged box and make my way down to Indonesia. It’s not a US-based airline, so I’m sure a unique experience awaits me. I have pictures which I’ll upload from Medan. Broken Internet, remember?

The work starts tomorrow.

Oh, there was a story I wanted to share! While waiting for the subway this morning, they had a video playing actually showing someone carrying out a mock terrorist attack on the city by leaving his bag (bomb) on the train. People saw him, but no one did anything. And they show a train blowing up. Then the guy comes out to tell them that security is everyone’s business. If you don’t want someone blowing up your subway, DON’T LET THEM. I thought this was wonderful, and they should show it everywhere around the world. Especially on planes. It would be a lot harder to hijack after the passengers got a pep talk in laying the beatdown. Just a thought.

*** Update: Singapore pictures are now online. Like Tokyo, they need some work.

Indo, Day 4: Warm!

I arrived in Singapore just before 2am. Who schedules these flights?! But Singapore has an answer for that: airport hotel. This wonderful invention is in with the terminals in the sterile zone, so you can check in straight from your flight. They rent rooms in 6 hour blocks, which is just enough to make a huge difference. The room was nice; there’s just something about staying in an actual hotel. Fancy LCD TV, not that I had any time for that. Sent a couple emails and crashed. The night went too quickly.

In the morning, I got a better look at the Singapore airport. Amazing. It really sets the tone for the rest of the city. It’s spotless and uber trendy. Everything is big and open, made of glass and stainless steel. I have a bunch of pictures of it, but it’s probably the nicest airport I’ve been to. But people weren’t kidding when they said the government keeps an eye on everything. There’s probably three cameras on you at all times. Security actually watches you as you walk by. The room leading up to immigration is lined with soldiers, armed with automatic rifles. Contrast that to Japan where there was one old guy with a large stick (that he was leaning on) and a riot shield. Or the US where we have, uh, guys in white shirts with radios. Like I said, it sets the tone.

The public transportation is remarkable. The subway is cheap, clean, and COLD, and it goes just about everywhere. Over 20 cars in each train. Getting around is so easy. Even the buses are nice! But they do have strict rules: I was yelled at for drinking from a water bottle in the train station. Apparently eating or drinking in a station or train is a $500 fine. These people do NOT mess around.

So I get to my hostel around 9, but can’t check in until after noon. Stashing my stuff, I head out to see what can be seen. Orchard Street is supposed to be a big deal, so I head out there. To say it’s hot here doesn’t do it justice. Not only is it around 100 degrees, it’s over 80% humidity. My shirt was soaked as soon as I stepped out, and I’ve been literally dripping sweat all day. It’s disgusting. Good thing my anti-malarials have a warning to avoid sunlight. I wasn’t quite ready for it that early this morning, so I ducked into a Starbucks. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I needed to get out of the sun and needed a cold drink. After doing some reading on Wikitravel, I decided there was no more walking around sightseeing to be done for me. My feet were a little too sore and I was tired. The Indo country director warned me to come healthy, since they have a lot of work lined up. So I decided I needed to rest a little. The Internet told me about a nice beach, so I decided to get there and chill.

Three hours later, I found the beach. In the process, I saw almost the entire city/country. But I’ll start with the beach. It was basically like Portland’s waterfront park, just ocean adjacent. A small strip of nice between the road and the water. Except the horizon of this water was exclusively freighters. Not quite what I had in mind. They had bike rentals, so I nabbed one for a two hour block. So nice to get off my feet and moving around with some breeze. I intended to find a seafood joint to eat at, since I have heard wonderful things about Singapore’s food. But I didn’t want to spend $30 on a chili lobster (their specialty) and I didn’t want to eat deep fried baby squid, so I struck out there.

The city itself is truly remarkable. It has the look of the trendiest parts of Portland/Seattle/Vancouver BC, the foliage and landscaping of the nice areas of Florida or southern California, all infused with an Asian twist and a hint of Arab-ness. The architecture is spectacular and the city spotless. It’s incredible to see a city like that. If I had to open a branch of a business somewhere in Asia, it would be here. Things are very “high touch” in that area, too. Hotels are extremely nice. Everything is professional and shiny. But it’s everywhere, not just in the “good” parts of town. I would totally spend more time here, and probably spend way too much money.

You get out of the city a little ways (I know it’s technically the same city, but different districts than the business center) and you start running into more ethnic flavor. There’s a very large Indian population (my hostel is in Little India), then there’s Chinatown and Arab Street. There’s a certain level of Western culture that overshadows all of this. Everything is in English. Signs, media, announcements, etc. That’s probably the biggest difference from the rest of Asia. In the subway, signs are also in Mandarin, Maylay, and Tamil, which makes them look very cool. The look of things is more like rural Asia: packed in row homes and shops, vendors shouting at you as you walk down the street, and pretty much everything for sale. It’s a noticeable difference from the financial district. A funny thing is that the infrastructure is consistent across the entire island. In the worst spots, the buses are the same and all the streets still have crosswalks with all the lights, just like downtown. Kind of a funny blend.

Arriving back at the hostel, I got my bed and got a shower. Not sure why I thought it would help. This place is supposed to be air conditioned. But as far as I can tell, that means there are non-functional air conditioners in the walls. It’s just as hot in here as it is outside. It sucks. I actually thought about leaving and paying for another place to stay. But I won’t. Need to prepare for Indonesia.

So now I’m back in the warm and sticky hostel, where I will most likely stay for the rest of the evening. I picked up a large thing of water because I was feeling very not good from my previous waterless sun-drenched wanderings earlier. Amazing the difference it makes. And, no mom, I didn’t wear sunscreen. Everyone looks at you funny if you wear sunglasses, but that didn’t stop me! I don’t know how they do it.

I have big plans for tomorrow, but you’ll laugh if I share them in advance, so I won’t.

Indo, Day 3: Stairs

I’ve decided the dominant feature in Tokyo is stairs. Seriously, I’ve gone up and down more flights of stairs today than I did all of last year. And that included cathedral climbing in Germany. And Justin can tell you how many stairs THAT involves.

I woke up very early (read: 6am) because I went to bed very early (read: 10pm). Those times are meaningless because I’m in my own special time zone right now. My flight out of Tokyo wasn’t until 7, so I wanted to have as much daylight as possible. Breakfast and email at the hostel, then I spent about an hour in Asakusa, mainly around the temple.

It was interesting to see it during the day. Last night when I went by, there were still some people around, but this morning it was quite busy. In front of the temple stairs was a cauldron of burning incense. People would approach it and wave the smoke over onto them. Some people would also wash their hands and/or drink out of a water fountain with ladles. At the top of the stairs to the temple was a large box where people would throw in donations. They would stand with their hands together, I’m assuming in prayer, then bow, and clap a couple times. Those last two steps could happen a couple times. One of the smaller temples I saw had a stick with bells on it you could shake.

This reminded me of Elijah at Mount Carmel battling the prophets of Baal. The priests of Baal were shouting, singing, and cutting themselves trying to get his attention. I’m assuming this ritual was similarly trying to get god to notice. How thankful I am to serve a God Who never sleeps or takes His eye off me! I was also surprised to feel nothing in the temple. In the past, when I’ve been in places of spiritual depravity, it’s like you can feel a palpable evil. Here was nothing. I suppose that’s strangely appropriate and the very problem with the whole setup. There’s nothing (no one) there.

After that, I jumped a train to Akihabara the “Electric City.” If Fry’s had a metric ton of crack, covered in radioactive waste that exploded in a room filled with neon gas, you might get close to describing this place. There are blocks and blocks of these tiny little gadget shops. Well, there’s some big ones too, but most are packed into alleys. I mean, there’s a whole shop that just sells the ends that go on cables. Just the ends! The one that sells the actual cables is about a block away. It’s really hard to describe this place, and even harder to photograph. But I tried both. Unfortunately, like most geeks, the shop owners must have still been asleep. Some of them opened at 10, and the rest at 11. But I was gone between those two.

Something that surprised me, in an incredibly nerdy way, is now little Sony stuff there is around. I was expecting to find it everywhere. None of the cell phones I see around are, most of the laptops are Dells, and most of the cameras are Canon. Just like home!

Back in Asakusa, I checked out and hopped another train to Ueno. Here I was subject to even more stairs, something exasperated by the 50 pounds of luggage with me. It took me a good 20 minutes to find a storage locker big enough for my bags. I was up AND down about 10 flights of stairs. Japan apparently doesn’t have an equivalent of the ADA laws here in the US. No ramps or elevators anywhere. I finally found one, right before I was going to give up and just leave town.

I didn’t get too far out into Ueno, but there was plenty right around the train station. I spent most of the time in a large park that led to a zoo and about four museums. I opted for the Tokyo National Museum, mainly because I desperately needed to get out of the sun. It’s not really hot here, but the humidity makes it feel much worse. It’s good warm-up for Indonesia, especially since I was staying somewhere without AC.

The other complication is that I’ve been trying to drink LESS water. Yes, you read that right. Less. Back home, I drink about a gallon of water a day in the summer, half or three quarters that in the winter. It’s been freakishly hot lately, so I’ve been drinking a lot. I love water. Anyone at work can tell you I’m never seen without my Nalgene. But the water in Indonesia isn’t drinkable, which means I’ll be dependent on bottles, and I don’t know how plentiful they will be. So I’m trying to scale back. I’ve had 3 normal little bottle things today, and I feel incredibly dehydrated. So getting indoors was helpful.

You can’t take any pictures in a museum, so much of my time in Ueno goes without photo record. The museum was interesting, but it would have been much more engaging with someone there to explain the importance of this stuff to me. The English translations weren’t all that helpful. Also nerdy, but the thing that fascinated me the most (given my limited understanding of the artifacts) was the lighting. The museum was dark, but each item was perfectly lit. Yet none of them had that look of a light shining on them. In fact, if you were to look up, you wouldn’t see any beams of light. Using highly focused lights above, lights below and an array of mirrors, each item was perfectly lit, allowing you to see it without it even occurring to you that there is light coming from anywhere.

By this point, I was pretty tired, and decided to call it a wrap and head to the airport early (2 hours before I really needed to be there). Got on the fast train (nice!) and relaxed for a while. Pointed both the air vents at me. I’ve decided I don’t like sightseeing alone. I have no problem doing utilitarian travel alone, in fact, I think I prefer it. If I’m just hopping through airports or doing work stuff, that’s fine. But when I start doing the “fun” stuff, it’s not quite the same with no one else around to share it with.

Narita airport is nice, but weird. Very big, open, clean and attractive. Ha, that reminds me. There are some weird jobs here. Like the little old man who stands at the bottom of the escalator with a rag he presses onto the railing to clean it as it passes. Anyway… So the airport. It would be incredibly annoying if it weren’t so nice feeling. Besides all the escalators (seriously – is PDX the only airport on one level?), bathrooms are few and far between, food is scarce, and there’s NO FREE WIRELESS. And even though we’re indoors, it’s still humid. For some reason the check in counters are in a secure area. You have to go through a layer of security before you get to the counter. Then the normal one before you get to the terminals. Odd.

There are some cool things, though. Like the observation deck anyone can go out on (not in the sterile area) that’s above the terminals. You can watch the planes! There’s more power outlets than there are at PDX, which is my only complaint back home. There was something else I liked, but I’m not remembering it now.

So I’m sitting in the airport again. I’ll be onboard in about an hour. It’s fun to people watch, though. There’s actually Americans/Westerners over here. It’s kinda funny when you see one. Your eyes lock and it’s like you’re both thinking, “that person sure looks different!” But then you realize you do too. That probably sounds strange, but I’m guessing other people who have been here can explain something similar.

Japanese people cough extremely loud. You don’t try to disguise it, in fact, I bet they TRY to make it as loud as possible. It’s strange, and kind of disgusting.

My next leg takes me to Singapore, where I’m supposed to arrive around 2am. Awesome. Big thanks to Elina for sharing all her inside knowledge and helping me plan/survive this leg of the trip!

I uploaded the pictures I have so far to my Picasa space. I want to clean them up and add captions, but that will have to wait until I have more time. But I wanted to get them out there.

Indo, Day 2: Wandering

I guess it's Thursday now. I arrived in Tokyo around 5pm and found my way out of the airport. I was surprised at how empty it was. Saw hardly any other people around. They do the same thing as Frankfurt, though, where there's a million ups and downs for no apparent reason. Security was tight, requiring two fingerprints and a photo to get your visa. They're wise to not show it to you.

From there it was the trains. Getting a ticket was easy enough, and the lady circled my train change on the map. So I just sat there and watched for a name I recognized. She neglected to mention the dots on the map are not actual stops, but GROUPS of stops. So the one I wanted wasn't four down, it was some large number down. It was so hard to stay awake and watch for the stop. A nice old lady saw me studying the map and "helped" me by confirming what the ticket lady had circled. But it was still a nice gesture.

Took me a while to figure out the train change. There really are three levels of trains, so even though you're on the right side of the tracks, you may not be on the right level. Then I missed my stop because the directions to the hostel said there would be 5 of this name, but there wasn't. I though it would be easy to hop on one going the opposite direction and go the one stop. I was wrong. Had to let 5 trains go by until there was room to get on.

The trains remind me of Germany's. They look similar (wouldn't be surprised if they came from the same place) and seem to run under a similar level of efficiency. Two things Japan has over Germany, though: multi-level tracks and nice people.

So I'm at a hostel now, and it's a pretty nice one. It's clean, comfortable, and cheap, your three basic requirements. It's nicer than staying at a hotel because you're surrounded by people from around the world. And that makes it fun. I'm exhausted, but trying to stay up a little while longer to get on this timezone. I think I'm going to go get some pictures so I have something to supplement my post with tomorrow. I have the day to spend around the city before my flight in the evening. I'm going to try to get a lot in, so I should probably go to bed early.

But I'm alive and successfully knocked out "phase 1."

Indo, Day 1: Boxen

Today was the first day of what I think will be around 18. I’m not too sure because of all the time changes and other nonsense. But it’s Wednesday. At least I think it is. The day started out like any other, go to work, scramble to get things done. Except I had been up until 2am packing and only got 4 hours of sleep. After two weeks of working 75-ish hours each. So I’m pretty tired to start out. Then I get on a plane for 10 hours. I was asleep before takeoff.

I opted to use some of my frequent flier benefits and skip the lines. I was funneled through the "priority" security line and they really didn't check my stuff at all. Because my little travel toiletries were NOT properly bagged. They didn't look twice. Maybe not even once. At the gate, I usually wait until the last minute to get on the plane because who wants to be on there any longer than you have to? But for some reason their "elite" passengers go first. I never got that. But today, after looking at the HUGE line to get on the plane, I decided to try it out. It was a little more relaxing getting on without a couple hundred other people pushing around you.

It’s been a good flight (still on it). My first international with Northwest. They’ve done a lot of things I like. Hot towels were distributed right after takeoff (does anyone REALLY know what those are for?). There’s been a lot of food (snack, dinner, snack, breakfast) which hasn’t been bad, and it’s about as comfortable as it can be. I don’t particularly like Airbus’ seats compared to Boeing, but sitting in one position for that long on ANYTHING makes me hurt. They have the cool entertainment system with like three dozen on-demand movies and music and stuff. I haven’t watched any of them, but they’re there! And if you’re in the forward cabin, there’s a power outlet at every seat! I didn't use a single drop of battery power the whole trip.

The crew has been pretty good. There’s one lady who feels the need to walk up and down the aisles yelling “seatbelts on!” whenever the captain turns on the light. There’s a baby wailing in another cabin, but, thankfully, I can’t really hear it. There are some interesting passengers. It’s always fun to see who you end up trapped with. The guy next to me is a Filipino doctor, and he’s been doing paperwork almost the whole time. He doesn’t seem to recognize the armrest is an imaginary wall between my world and his, but at least he’s not falling asleep on me!

I do think the invention of the reclining seat is the worst move in aviation history. I never use it myself because I know how irritating it is to be on the receiving end. It’s not bad under normal circumstances, but if you have a laptop you want on the tray table, the reclining seat ruins the angle so you can’t. And if it’s on your lap, you can type, but the screen angle is at the lower limits of readable. I find it terribly inconsiderate not only to recline, but then put as much pressure on the seat as possible so it reclines FURTHER than it’s supposed to. I don’t know how he’s doing it, but I think I’m getting crushed.

Yeah, not much to write about when you spend your day on a plane. We’re at the northern tip of Japan now, some 40,000 feet up. I think we have around an hour and a half left. Ha! Guess I probably should have mentioned my first stop is Tokyo. I have day layover there, so I’ll get out of the airport and see a little of the city. I opted to stay in a hostel, so we’ll see how that goes. Could be really fun.

That’s about all I can muster at this point. Tomorrow should be more interesting. I’m going to try to keep the post-a-day thing going, even though they may not show up for a couple days, depending on my Internet availability.