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.