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