Membangan sistem dan prosider keunangen. To develop sistem and procedure finance (literally)
on Rachel Gates (Indonesia), 15/Oct/2010 05:06, 34 days ago
So I was all excited about the possibility of seeing a nice beach. I was sooo wrong. First I left Ruteng with Sister Lydia at 3.30pm in the afternoon. Already know this was going to be an issue as the journey to Ende where the plane takes off is seven hours away. I had started work on the same day at 7am in the morning. So after my seven hours in the car, listening to music that can make your ears bleed, guess how much of a bad mood I was in when I arrived in Ende! Yes you have guessed it, a foul mood. So shared a hotel room with the sister I was accompanying to Sumba, next morning woke rather early, as the Sister got up at 3am to watch the television which happened to be positioned by my head. At 7am had to ride on a back of the motorbike to the airport. Which was fine, except I was the only white person around for this flight. So I was a tourist attraction once again. But the things that really caught me off guard in Ende is that you have to get weighed before you get on the plane. Now I am not the smallest lighted person in the world, and knowing the Indonesians I taught this has the potential to get very embarrassing. However all the airport staff were very good when thy saw the scales tip over 100 kilos. (Which is really unusual in Indonesia) However the sister accompanying me had a dance and a jig whilst laughing and shouting at the top of her voice to everyone who would listen about my weight. (however I was quite pleased it is the first time that I have been weighed since leaving England and I have lost nearly two stone) weight I really did need to loose. I just hope I can loose a bit more. So we get on a small plane, kind of one of those planes they do not let into British air space as they could potentially crash at any moment. But in comparison to England and Europe where everyone runs for the seats on the plane, here people are really polite. They wait for mothers and children to get on the flight first, and the infirm and then the sisters and priests, and then the rest of us. The flight was about 30 mins, and as we traveled over Island of Sumba I could see white beaches and crystal blue waters. Glad I saw them at this time, as I never saw them again and my week was about to deteriorate. So I arrived in Waitabula, the sights include a cathedral and a hospital and the Bishop of Sumba lives here too. My accommodation, was my own room in a house, with the other participants of the course, I think 14 in total. However Sumba is very hot, and we had no air conditioning. Their was 3 squat toilets and mandi's between 14 so things got a bit frought at times. The food was brought from a local rumah makan and motorbikes in every meal, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I love Indonesian food so much, I am going to have to have some serious cooking lessons before leaving here to learn how to cook some of this dishes. Even boiled vegetables spiced up I love, especially those dished that involved aubergines. YUM YUM YUM!The next day the course started at 8am. And then I realized I was in trouble. The course was from 8am through to 5.30pm in accountancy and the course was all in Indonesian. Now I am very keen to learn the language, but this was overkill. So I sat quietly in the corner and did understand some of the discussion. but then at about 10am the sun entered the sky and everyone in the room started to boil. No air-conditioning! The people in charge of the house had to go and buy some more fans whilst we all melted, but tried very hard to look as if we were concentrating. This continued for five days. Now I am practicing my Bahasa Indonesian, however being in a house with no escape, with only Indonesians for company was really hard work, especially when the sister I went with became ill. So a massive thank you to Arnold who saved me, he could speak a bit of English, but was also very, very, funny! Very big thank you to the bloke who organized for me to have a beer on the last night too! It was so nice. Also thanks to the Bupati of Sumba who had an impromptu visit from me and a group of other trainees at the end of the course, and was very nice and pleasant. He is new and people were preparing for his party. We also went to visit the Bishop, but unfortunately he was busy.