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