The photos of the motorcyces totally don't do them justice. The swarm between the cars.

I think I am now officially fully recovered from my GI ick. The nice doctor called Bu Mudji to ask about me. He had some sick puppies that he wanted her to see, too. Goldens, sounds like maybe parvo. Sad.

The people in the hotel were also really sweet…they kept bringing me ginormous thermoses of hot water so I could make tea in my room. One person came by with a glass of hot milk for me (and I succeeded in not vomiting on her at the concept of drinking hot milk while I was queasy). And Utari went above and beyond…she even rubbed my back while I was puking on the side of the road, conveniently across the street from the army barracks, so I got to treat a whole lot of Indonesian men to the side of a western woman vomiting to beat the band. I’m sure I will be a topic of conversation for some time. oh, well. Add Indonesia to the list of countries where I have vomited on the side of a road.

All of our interviewees thus far have been very pleasant. I think they’re a little befuddled by my presence, but they’re more than willing to talk. Some of our recent interviews have been a little bit of a challenge because the manure traders speak Sundanese, which has to get translated into Bahasa Indoensia for Utari by the agriculture agents who are with us, and then into English for me. It gets a little tie consuming, and a little frustrating when the ag field agents sit and chit-chat about who knows what while Utari and I are sitting with pens and paper ready, watching them.

The countryside is really amazing. The population is so dense on Java that every usable parcel of land is under production, and the production is very intensive. People get three seasons out of the land here…often one crop of rice, then 2 of vegetables. Which is why there is so much trafficking in chicken manure…it’s cheaper than the inorganic fertilizers, so everyone uses it. This is predominantly a horticultural (rice & vetetables) area, so farmers truck their vegetables into big markets and come back with loads of manure from the big poultry producing areas.

I watched part of ‘Ghostbusters 2’ last night. There are American movies on TV every night here, subtitled into Bahasa. The censoring is funny…any hint of sexual contact is edited out, but the naughty words are not bleeped.

I had a funny experience today while we were doing some of our interviews...I'm used to getting stared at, which happens all the time since there are so few westerners around here. We were waiting for an interview and Utari and I both had to pee, so we figured we use this little central wash area between several houses. Basically a cement square with a hole on one side and walls about a little higher than my waist and a plank of wood you place in front of the doorway. You pee, then dump some water to rinse it down the drain. Utari went first. As soon as I got myself situated, a very old woman came by and rested her arms on the wall and kept staring at me. She said a few things to me...I was pretty sure that she wanted me to finish so she could use it, but I couln't pee with her watching me, so I gave up, waited for the interviewee to show up, and then used his bathroom.

OK time to post come photos.

-Janine

recovery

Lost two days to GI ick. I broke down and saw a doctor, who is a friend of the vet who is facilitating my project in this district. Turns out, he went to Moravian Academy for high school & Lehigh for college (both in Peter's hometown of bethlehem, PA). He went to medical school in CA. A nice Chinese man. I'm really not used to deling with medical issues outside HIPPA-landia, though. In a matter of minutes, everyone in the office and in the apitik (pharmacy) next door knew that I am a vet student from the States, who lives near Boston, who is working with the FAO in Indonesia for 6 weeks on avian influenza epoidemiology, and that I was going from both ends. No details were spared. But I did meet a nice woman who lives close to my hotel and has a son who is in Boston for a Lion's Club conference.

Sigh.

So I'm definitely changing sites for the 2nd 1/2 of my project. I'm heading to Tasikmalaya (south-eastern
West Java) after I get back from my trip to Singapore to renew my visa. We'll see if I have enough time to finish everything.

Hope you're all well. More photos soon.

-Janine

OK. So I think I copied big versions of the photos to my jump drive and not the scaled-down ones. So click on the empty-looking rectangles.

-J

Sun PM, 06/25So it looks like I am going to be able to change locations for part of my project (the integrated livestock/fish farming, where farmers raise chickens in pens above fish ponds. A good way of recycling resources, but can dump AI virus-laden poop into the water where free-roaming chickens, ducks, etc. (as well as wild birds) can get at it.

So I think I'll stay in Lembang/Bandung for the manure trading portion of the project, then head to Tasikmalaya (still in West Java, but east of where I am now, on the way to Yogakarta.
Lots of bureaurocracy to deal with...everyone is very nice, friendly, kind, etc. but there are a lot of hoops to jump through. Add that to the insane traffic and the slow pace of life and I frequently find myself having to dial down my very American Type-A tendencies.

I tried to load on two photos...not sure if they attached. Both are from an interview site...I spoke with the manager of a large farm that produces a lot of poop and sells it to local farmers so that they don't fertilize their fields with manure from AI-positive areas.

Hope you're all well.

-Janine

Fri AM, 06/23

I traveled from Jakarta to Lembang (suburb of Bandung, 4^th largest city in the country and capital of West Java Province) on Weds. I had some informational meetings with people associated with the FAO project yesterday, which were helpful. I’m scheduled for meetings today and Monday with district and regional DINAS (agriculture dept) people. Indonesia’s government was decentralized in the late 90s, so each province, district, region, etc. is very autonomous. So I’m glad I’ll be only working in one area, so I don’t have to have meet-and-greets with people from a zillion different offices.

The bigger project that I’m working under (sort of) is a US-AID funded and UN FAO-run. They’re establishing local ‘disease control centers’ on Java, Sumatra & Bali to run avian influenza surveillance and to have emergency response teams in place to take over if the surveillance teams find cases. Most people in the more rural areas have backyard (‘kampong’ or village) chickens that run all over the place and have contact with wild birds and gardens fertilized with chicken manure. The backyard chickens aren’t economically important, but they’re culturally important. And people are worried about influenza. The government has a vaccination program (central government provides vaccine to local governments to distribute) and the hope is that vaccination, good surveillance, and targeted culling (with immediate compensation) can control the virus.

I’ll hopefully get to talk to a WHO person or two before I leave the country. In light of the number of people here who have regular contact with chickens, ducks, pigeons, manure, etc., the human cases are really, really rare. But it is scary because the disease is so deadly in people, and it doesn’t necessarily seem to only infect the very young, very old, immunocompromised, etc.

I spent some time on Weds night and Thurs morning with Stacie, the 4^th year Tufts student who was here before me. I was hoping that we’d overlap for a little longer, but that turned out not to be the case. She went to Jakarta on Thursday and flies back to the States this afternoon. She had a great experience here, which I hope bodes well for me! She got to bring her husband here for the first ½ of her month in the country, which was really nice. (I have to admit, I’m a little jealous…)

I got to have a nice, long talk with Peter this morning, which was really restorative. I have a cell phone now, and he got some internet calling card thingy. I spoke with him for a few minutes on Saturday to let him know that I had arrived, but hadn’t been able to talk to him since. That was a long time. Entirely too long.

Well, I guess I should sign off. I discovered that the internet café is not within walking distance, but it’s not too bad of a drive, so I hope to make it here a few times a week. FAO has provided me with a car & driver, which is fantastic. I would quickly lose my mind if I had to drive here.

Hope you’re all well.

-Janine

Sat AM, 06/24

Made the discovery yesterday that I can get world cup games on the TV that originate from an Australian broadcaster, so I can understand the play-by-play. I’m watching Spain & Saudi Arabia (reboradcast) right now. Since the games are late at night here, they get re-broadcast the following day. As far as I can tell, this particular channel doesn’t have much else besides games (live & re-broadcast) & commentary (but that’s in Bahasa Indonesia, so I can’t understand it).

I discovered yesterday that there is a major SNAFU in my work plans. I’ll either have to change the scope of my project or work in another district. Chris originally wanted me to work here because they have very good relationships with people here, and they are very helpful and very nice. So I need to talk to Chris & Jeff today and figure out what to do.

I’ll be working with a different translator (Valentina) as of today. I’ve heard that she’s good. Supartha, the translator whom I’ve been working with since Wednesday, is excellent. I’ve done translating, but I’ve never been on this side of the situation before. So it was good to work with someone who is experienced for the first few days. I hope Valentina and I will work well together.

My hotel is really nice. It’s the one that the Indonesian FAO people usually stay in when they’re working here (westerners who work for FAO and Indonesians who were being put up for their training sessions stay in a fancier one across the street; Indonesians who are paying for their rooms out of their per diem stay here). There was some discussion for a bit about putting us all in a cheaper one, but Stacie & her husband spent one night there and determined that it was gross. Breakfast is included, which is nice. I think I’ll really miss cereal, oatmeal and yogurt by the time I leave. My choices are corn soup, chicken soup, fried rice, sometimes an omelet, spaghetti, chicken cordon bleu…dinner for breakfast, basically. Good thing my stomach was used to eating dinner leftovers for breakfast before I arrived.

My only complaint about the hotel is that it’s right on the main drag, so there’s a lot of street noise. There are several restaurants close by with karaoke on the weekends, so that was a little noisy last night. But I’ve been sleeping OK for the most part.

I haven’t had much trouble with the food so far, except that I’m eating meat a lot more often than I normally do. Lots of fried foods, but that’s not making me feel too gross so far. People throw snacks and drinks at us when we’re in the field, and I hope I don’t turn into a blimp while I’m here.

The oranges here are more tart than they are at home, so orange juice has (a lot) of added sugar. I had the strange experience of drinking hot OJ made from concentrate syrup with breakfast yesterday. I’m slowly making my way through all the different kinds of iced fruit juices and shakes…soursop was great; mango was (of course) delicious. Avocado (yes, avocado) with condensed milk, ice & sugar was surprisingly good. Hot tea is usually unsweetened, which is much appreciated. Bottled cold tea is super-sweet. Indonesians also drink their coffee with a lot of sugar…it’s chunky: hot water mixed with coffee grounds and sugar. The Indonesians in the FAO project office in Jakarta looked at me strangely when I asked for it without sugar. There are a few Dunkies around that serve American-style coffee, so I may treat myself to some non-chunky coffee occasionally.

Well, I should sign off and get ready for the day.

More soon.

-Janine

Sun AM, 06/25

I’ll hopefully actually get to the internet café today to post this. Budhy, one of the vets who works for the district agriculture dept, has been taking us around for the past two days (which have been quite full) so I didn’t want to make everyone stop. But today I’ll just be out with my translator & driver, so I’ll ask the driver to drop the translator off and take me to the internet café. Valanetina (Utari) is very nice, but has never translated before. I think it might take us a few days to get into a good rhythm. Also, I think she feels like it’s her responsibility to baby me. We stopped at a honking huge mall in Bandung on the way home yesterday so that I could buy a map of the district in one of the bookstores. She & Bhudy also ate dinner there. She asked me if I wanted her to come to the restroom with me. People drive like maniacs here, and we had to cross the street (sans crosswalks) a couple of times. Utari & Bhudy always put me in between them to cross streets, and Utaria even grabbed my hand once. It all feels very strange.

I’m going to a meeting at the district ag office this morning…some people from the Netherlands are here to discuss a vaccine campaign. I hope it’s short, because I think I’m stressing Utari out. The meeting will be in English, though, so she won’t have to work. Hopefully, I’ll get to talk to Mudji (director of the LDCC (local disease control center), the local FAO project office about her thoughts regarding changing my study area. There are so many bureaucratic hoops to jump through, and the new area isn’t formally incorporated into the LDCC yet, so that stuff will likely take even longer than it did for me to work in Bandung. I hope this whole summer isn’t shaping up to be a total disaster.

Oh, well. Not much I can do about it now, other than to play the game and try to get as much usable data out of the summer as possible. If this ends up being a total disaster, maybe I can meet up with Josh & Anna & the other BUMP folks and hang out with them for a bit.

OK. Time to get moving for the day. Hope you’re all well.

-Janine

This is the view from the Ministry of Agriculture building.

Not a bad view from the bedroom, huh? This is the small mosque that is across the street from Chris & Jeff's house.

hello all!

I'm at the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture offices in Jakarta (Mon AM). I'm here for some meetings today, and I'll be at the FAO offices for some meetings in the afternoon. I'm off to Bandung on Wednesday AM. I'll be staying in Lembang, which is a town ~12km north of Bandung. Things are going well so far, and I'm not feeling too terribly jet-lagged. The mosque across the street that broadcasts morning prayers at 4AM doesn't help with that much, though. The imam changing in a hypnotic monotone isn't too bad, but I could do without the drums.

Jakarta is an incredibly dense city. I think official estimates are around 15 million people, and estimates that include 'unofficial' residents are even higher. The traffic on the way to the office this morning was something else. I am so glad that I don't have to drive. There are a zillion motorbikes that cut between the cars and zoom back & forth across the road, often with 2 adults & a kid on them. I would have a heart attack if I had to navigate the roads while watching out for them.

Well, I think it's about time for the meetings to get going, so I'll sign off. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to post some photos soon.

Hope you're all well.

-Janine

arrived!

Arrived early afternoon Saturday, Indonesian time (late night Friday east coast time.) I'm in Jakarta at Chris & Jeff's house (two TUSVM faculty members here working with UN FAO for a year). All is well. Trip was long, but went smoothly. -Janine

um, testing?

OK, so I find the whole concept of the blog to be sort of weird, but I figured that this would be an easy and economical way of keeping folks at home appraised of my progress (and aware that I am alive and not under lava from the latest volcanic eruption or buried by an earthquare or dying from avain influenza...by the way, I finally saw that BIRD FLU made-for-TV movie and I now have a new role model...she's a pathologist; no, she's an epidemiologist; no, she's an infectious disease specialist; no, she's Barbie (but not Pet Doctor Barbie); and she's so smokin' that she doesn't need PPE!)

I leave on Thursday 06/15 PM and arrive on the 17th. I hope to have reasonably frequent access to internet cafes so that I can keep this thing updated. With photos, as long as my camera and/or jump drive remain in my possession for the duration. I head home on 07/30, and arrive eeeearly on the 31st (yep, I'll get to have the fun of leaving Hong Kong at 4:15 PM and arriving at LAX at 2:30 PM. I won't be confused at all.)

So, um, yeah. I have a blog. I figure that if Mom Calabro can operate a laptop, I can operate a blog.

-Janine

P.S. I will be checking my gmail email account more often than my school (or work, depending on how long you've known me) email since it will be easier/faster.