7 Days and Counting.

Well in 7 days I fly out to Flores. The reason I have come halfway across the world for 2 years. I am going to be meeting Sister Christine, my manager, and Anouk another volunteer working in Retung with the same school 1 day a week. Thank goodness I am feeling much better than last week.

This week we have had more language school. Unfortunately our normal language teacher was replaced. It has made me really appreciate how hard it is for people to teach English. Our normal teacher is really interested in everything, so when we ask questions in our lessons about certain things Indonesian he thinks why we would ask a question and answers things as well as he can. He also has a good level of confidence in his language skills and is able to verbally communicate almost fluently in Indonesian. Unfortunately his replacement does not have this same level of confidence, but also does not understand why we think in certain ways. E.G. In Indonesian you do not take a photo, you photograph.

However this was a beneficial experience as I think it was possibly a introduction of what things may be like, such as people not listening, or not comprehending what you are saying. Culturally having very different experiences about how people learn information, but also how daunting it is when you cannot understand anything going on around you.

This all culminated in a school trip that we went on Friday. Which turned out being a tour of souvenir shops which sell their goods in American dollars. The people facilitating the trip just did not understand that our budget at the moment equates to 3.50 pound a day. Quite interesting not having much money, but being judged because of the colour of my skin!

This week we have had one volunteer fall off her push bike after being hit by a car. It was Alanna, same person who got bite by the dog. She's not having much luck at the moment.

The good news is that Lau and Danny, two of the Phillippino volunteers who are going to be moving to Bajawa together, which is only four hours from Retung have got a three bedroom house! Which means somewhere for me to sleep when I visit.

The wedding I am going to tomorrow is in the local banya (community) we have been invited as it is either the nephew or cousin of someone who works in the VSO office. Don't really know how he feels about 8 foreigners gate crashing his wedding. The wedding goes on over a period of days, and I do not know which bit we are at on Sunday. On Thursday the bride was carried to the future husbands house to talk with him about there future together. In the UK we have horse and carriage, or a car for such events. In Indonesia about 12 men carry bamboo rods in the shape of a square and carry the bridge and groom on top of this. Everyone must be quite strong in that process.

Looking forward to tomorrow, so next week I shall try and get more photos on the website.

See ya

Boring week!..........

Well I have done it. I am now officially allowed to ride a bike with a top gear of 120 mph around Indonesia. The bike training was tough. Not the exercises on the bike, but the heat and all the padded gear we had to wear!! I was sweating and stinking like a pig for two whole days. However I now have the joy of borrowing a bike and going out by myself, which I am not particularly looking forward to, but it has to be done so that I can get my confidence up on the bike. This week I have been tired and quite fed up. Has been that changing to a new country is tiring.

Had a bit of a black spot last week where none of the Indonesian Language made any sense to me for a whole two days, but it seems to have come back now. Volunteers are all starting to get a but tetchy with each other, as we have spent so much time together, and we are all at the different stages of the change process. I seem to have my first dip and was close to wanting to come home, as everything just seemed a bit too hard, but I seem to have come out of the other end. Amazing what watching 7 hours of the West Wing can achieve.

Today I have been sarong and sash shopping. A photo will appear as soon as I have one. This is in preparation for a wedding I am going to next Sunday. So lots of photo's will follow. Have also found out that in Indonesian culture they celebrate when girls start menstruating. Glad this is a bit more private and confidential in England.

Hope everyone is well, and much more will appear in the next installment.

I made it to Ubud!!

I set off on Saturday like a little intrepid explorer, off to practice my haggling in Bahasa Indonesian. The end result was getting three Bemo's. One into Denpassar, One to the other side of Denpassar and then one onto Ubud, at the grand total of 40,000 rupiah. Despite haggling this is still the same amount as the Perama tourist shuttle bus, that actually drops me off near my house and is much more comfortable, but I can say it was an experience. I also wont be doing trips like this very much, as it cost 40,000 Rupiah. In England 40,00 is about two pound fifty, but when you are living on 130 pounds a month, this is a lot of money! Managed to find myself a little home stay just outside Ubud called Biang's, as recommended in the Lonely Planet. Owner was lovely, and understood my very strange Bahasa Indonesian sentence construction. In Ubud saw Monkeys in the rain, watched the 12 hour thunderstorm, mainly from my patio, as the thunder was loud could not sleep, sounded like an airplane was coming though my room, and enjoyed my hot shower!!!! not had one of those since leaving England, only difference with this hot shower, was the room had no roof, so all the wildlife got to see me naked, not just once but twice.

Needless to say Ubud is at higher altitude than Sanur so it does rain a lot, but I managed to choose one of the wettest weekends in Bali history to make my journey, and got thoroughly soaked. Most entertaining part of the day was when I thought I was following a footpath, only to be chased by an elderly gentleman who could not speak a word of English to tell me I was heading towards the rice paddy field, and it was flooded and if I did not get back in the road, I was going to get very muddy and find it hard to get home.

Sunday night watched England loose to Germany, an occasion that I hope to forget quite soon, which referee did not think our second goal was not a goal, it ruined everything. So had loads to drink and went to sleep. Woke up the next day feeling a bit ropey. Now going to support Holland, as loads of Dutch people are here. (Because it used to be a dutch colony) and they are playing Brazil tonight.

Big thank you to Anne who is letting us use her big screen at her house for Lau's Karaoke for his birthday and then world cup footy afterwards. Beer will be flowing. Not too much though as that costs 20,000 Rupiah for a bottle - 1 pound 25.

On Monday went back to school to get introduced to the concept of transitive verbs, lets just say on Tuesday I was not so keen to go back. Some of the Indonesian is starting to make sense, but this is definitely a long and sometimes painful learning process. Tomorrow starting the motorbike training.

As people who know me know, I have had 10 car driving tests in the UK and failed them all. So when I told people I was going to be riding a motorbike in Indonesia people looked at me like I had gone crazy. Well whilst in England I went to Crystal palace and passed my CBT, basic competency on a 50 cc moped. You know those lawnmower's as that do not go over 30mph. Tomorrow I start a course on my bike. The bike is a slightly more powerful bike. It is a 160 (means nothing to me) But they look big and the top speed is apparently 120 mph. I think this my be slightly more powerful than the one I tried in London, so watch out people of Bali when I hit the road on Saturday afternoon, after my briefing the transport police of Bali.