Idioms and the tailor

Mr. Lovely’s idioms included the inspiration that he would say ‘Rise and Shine’ after the four hour bus ride. He also talked about the nepotism in his family run business, just like the former president of Vietnam. He was riddled with idioms but our memories fail. Dawna did suggest to him that he could say that the local pig that was the 'real money maker' at the noodle factory really ‘brought home the bacon’…he was not impressed and told us that he already knew about that one.








On Friday, we went to the disturbing ‘War Remnants Museum’. It was pretty graphic, included was quite a good photo exhibit about Vietnam photojournalists. The museum itself was pretty insubstantial. So we moved on…next stop was the Reunification Palace. It was just fascinating in that it was totally a ‘60’s building architecturally, furnishings, there was even a framed Hair poster in the gambling room. It had a nice tawdry feel. but was redeemed by a really cool fourth floor roof top dancing area where you could just step out to the helicopter landing pad that included a US Air Force chopper. Finally, we headed to the basement bunker, which was equally bizarre with numerous coloured rotary dial phones and ancient looking communication telex machines and an austere bed and side table for the president. So that was cool.




There is also a fairly lovely post office which was just bustling with activity. There were even folks there seated at writing desks composing their missives home.

Waiting now for the delayed Air Canada flight home. Project a huge success and now for the pain of the evaluation report- oh yeah also there is the exam for school that we both have to write. The real work strikes fast and furious.

cheers
Unless we are missing something there really wasn’t much else going on in Ho Chi Minh. We went to the local market and we are pretty marketed out…we didn’t buy a thing. We did stop at a tailors at the beginning of the trip and each had some custom made clothes to pick up.

Canthos and Mr. Lovely

Back from the Mekong delta - a tourist trip of the cheap kind. For 25 US we took a bus tour of a couple of plantations, saw how coconut candy is made and also rice noodles. Saw a snake or two and took slightly sketchy boat rides.
Today we visited a floating market which really was quite cool.

The tour cleverly doesn't tell you the details of the itinerary so you can't squawk at the waits here and the waits there and the 2-3 hours on the bus with no stopping and little notice- leaving us scrambling for washroom facilities... Hilariously we had a major journey at the end of the day - 4 hours. We thought we were headed to the hotel but no first we had to get across the river on a ferry so another wait and chaos. Then another 15-20 minutes and the hotel. We thanked our lucky stars we weren't with the tour group we picked up who were stranded at the side of the road due to a bus breakdown and at the mercy of other tour companies. When we arrived after this 4 hour journey they were headed to a home stay with a Vietnamese family, dinner included (which cost them a bit more!) which meant another half hour trip on a motorcycle to a homestay complex of some kind.

Meanwhile we ponied up another 5 bucks to get air conditioning which is just as well since we gather the other rooms with a fan were a bit 'musty'. It was a 1 star hotel after all.

Anyway Mr. Lovely our tour guide was quick with the idioms, so entertaining and we got to places we never would have landed without the tour. Back now in our Spring hotel which is quite serviceable and close to a main drag in town.

Off to pick up our custom made clothes from a Ho Chi Minh tailor.

temples and making it to 10 p.m.

First full day in Siem Reap. It is a great place- comfortable with great food choices and furniture that doesn't wobble when you sit in it.

Actually the temples are truly extraordinary and extensive. We spend a full day walking from place to place and didn't come near to covering the ground. The favourite is Angkor Wat - the relief is massive telling the story of the creation of the earth out of the milky waters.

Tuk tuk is the way to go - same a becak in Indonesia- although here they wear helmets and have official vests. Things are quite nicely organized.

We have left the project behind except for the constant rehashing of events - this doesn't however result in the finishing of the evaluation report. This looms on our horizon. For now we have the excuse of the lack of internet although there is no need for the internet to finish the report. Still it is an impediment. javascript:void(0)

Much silk was purchased today. After a walk through of the market one knows that it is all much the same and truth be told could perhaps be purchased in T.O. for a relatively close price. The exception is the finer silk which we don't know how to assess properly.

We witnessed people getting a foot manicure and massage by fish tonight. Dawna has the pictures and we'll post when we get a chance. It looked pretty weird as there is a pool of water with a number of people sitting around the edge with feet dangling. At first we thought there was some kind of magic fish pond idea akin to those at fun fairs but .... no it was a manicure.

We are beat and it is 7 pm. we are strategizing about how to stay awake until 10 pm as it would be a poor showing to be on vacation and not make it until then (also considering we didn't get up until about 8 a.m.)

On to Vietnam tomorrow.

Going to KL

Traveling again, on the way to KL

Left Banda after another pleasant visit with Sosi, who got up early to have breakfast with us at the hotel.

The last couple of days have been bittersweet, with farewells all ‘round. We visited the library one last time and couldn’t resist making the staff work for a little while on the evaluation statistics and we even did an on-the-spot demonstration of how to apply a book jacket cover onto a hardcover book.

One of the last things that we did was to give the staff certificates for the training they received. The idea for this came about when we were conducting stakeholder interviews with the staff. One of our questions was about the training they received and if they were applying it to their day-to-day work. We were flummoxed when one staff member reported that she hadn’t received any training. We had delivered almost 20 training sessions over the previous 4 missions. Mita was the one that figured it out…..in Indonesia training is documented with certification….so we made up some certificates and handed them out. Everyone was happy and we had another chance to reinforce the range of skills that had been transferred.

We went out for a traditional Acehnese meal with several library staff. There was much formal speech-ifying from both sides. We exchanged gifts with the staff, leaving behind a gilt cookie jar set and many calendars and posters for the staff. We noticed each of our bags were about 10 kgs lighter upon departure.

Then the goodbyes at the house….Yulia, the person that takes care of the house is still yearning for Mr. Roy who had come with us on the first mission. She was hoping they would marry, but alas that was not to be. We have come in contact with so many people that have been helpful and kind…we had little gifts for the staff and probably the Canada luggage tags were the biggest hit, while we were expecting the Canada flip flops to be the show stopper. Ironically, these dollar store items have circumnavigated the globe, we try not to think of the carbon foot print while gift giving.

The ride back to Banda was uneventful, only notable in the fact that it is the LAST time that we will have to travel that wacky road, which is always under construction. Lately it has also been raining. In case we haven’t mentioned, when there is a hole in the road, or some road work coming up they put a big boulder in the middle of the road, to warn you about the impending danger. And if the rock doesn’t get you, you’ll be suitably warned of the hati-hati (danger-danger) ahead. We have always felt a certain element of danger to this drive and there’s a collective sigh of relief when we arrive at our destination in one piece.

We had a very pleasant evening in Banda, on a girls night out. We visited Gemma’s house, along with Louise and Mita. Gemma has a beautiful home in Banda and it was fun to see some of the artwork from Bali and area hung on her walls. We had a very civilized wine and cheese, with olives and wine. Buying wine in Banda is a bit of a furtive activity, at a certain grocery store you say the code words ‘red’ or ‘white’ and take what you get. (Dawna also found that the code word ‘beer’ worked too.) We proceeded to Pace Bene, now at a different location and had a lovely pizza dinner with some more CALGAP staff.


Today was journeying to KL...somehow it was a very tiring day. We have pampered ourselves with a stay at the Pan Pacific at the airport here. We had a lovely buffet dinner and followed by a swim, steam room and sauna. We will sleep well tonight. We head to Siem Reap, Cambodia tomorrow.

Over and out. K. and D.

Final visit with the government officials

Today we visited the mayor and vice mayor, Mirza Ismael and Nazir Adam. We expected to be there only a few minutes as many other visits had been brief. When the vice mayor realized it was our last visit the conversation continued much longer than expected. He called the mayor to say he needed to come in to see us off as well.

The mayor had visited Toronto and other Canadian cities in the winter of 2008 and Pak Nazir came with us on the exposure tour to Singapore so we had a fun discussion about which library was the best in the world. The mayor and vice mayor both had strong opinions and Dawna and I tried to stay out of it.

Everyone is very proud that as of yesterday the Pidie library has been chosen as the number one library in Aceh province (out of 23 districts). There was much clapping and cheering when this news was shared.

Trying to get a post off before the Internet goes down again. We have had a bout 10 minutes of service per day for the last few days in Sigli. Evaluation workshops are complete and we will meet with the Vice Mayor this afternoon.

We had a lot of fun together as the staff acted out library stories. Now the writing begins.

We'll post this now so it gets up on the blog and add pictures later.

Lampuuk beach, Banda Aceh

We met up with Iwan and Sosi today and took a trip to the beach. This is the same spot we visited on the first mission and it has really changed. When we went in June of 2007 the beach was basically empty.

There are lots of food sellers there and a banana boat that takes people around via a speed boat. We saw a mishap with the banana boat- man overboard (girl overboard) luckily it didn't turn into anything. We suspect there was no one with CPR skills in that business enterprise.

Anyway it stopped raining for one day and so with an overcast sky it was o.k. to be out in the sun and not too hot. Afterward we had the usual visit to Joel's restaurant for pizza. After betting on slow service our optimistic driver was the winner - the pizza came quick - less than 1/2 an hour.

We all exchanged our NGO related stories - Iwan is still with FCM working in Calang and Sosi has recently joined a UNDP project. She is now working as a research person on a listserve to share best practices. We are slowly turning her into a librarian.

We also visited the barge and the boat on the roof of the house - tsunami sites. These two have changed a lot with plaques and a park has been built by the barge to memorialize the loss of lives.

We passed a very fine and relaxing afternoon and evening chatting with our young friends including our most recent member of the family, Mita.

From the Jakarta post of November 29- an article talks about a very popular book 'the History of the CIA' which as been banned in Indonesia. The author noted however that the book is already published and selling like fresh cooked sate.

Four hundred visitors a day

We've traveled from Jakarta to Sigli with an overnight stay in Banda Aceh. Things are changing in Banda as many NGO's have left. Many locals are using the hotel and probably outnumber the NGO types that were very present before. We have been greeted warmly as before by the staff who are by now quite familiar with us after so many trips.

Interesting menu anecdote in reviewing the menu last night we had a good giggle at the English translations - one could order tepid nachos and lukewarm apple crisp- understandable but it has an effect of the selections one makes that might not be anticipated by the author.

One of our favorites Rommell has left to a better job in Medan- he was always ready to share some crazy stories and laugh away. Dawna is so on the ball she brought a couple of snaps from an event we attended at the hotel last time and the staff member was thrilled with the thoughtfulness.

The Sigli library is filled to the brim with students everyday. The challenge for the staff will be to also attract more adults and families. In any event the books are being read and borrowed and the place is hopping.

When we visited however it was a very rainy day and just like a snow day in Toronto heavy rains can keep customers and staff from getting to the library.

On Thursday and Friday we conducted stakeholder interviews with various library staff and customers. We had a delightful interview with two young boys - who reported that they were loving the new space especially the colourful children's area and does this sound familiar they reported that library staff booted them from the public computers because they were playing games. And in this case they had lined up and paid for an hour but the use was not deemed to be serious enough. We'll be talking with staff about this customer service approach.

Harvey Nichols and Padang food

We went to the book distributor.....needless to say it was different than what we know from home. This distributor focused on Islamic materials but we were told he could also get other books for us. We went through the three different lists we had on hand and narrowed down the choices to fit our budget. It was kind of a self serve place where we had to write up our own agreement letter. Given that that took awhile, Dawna took the opportunity to teach Pak Mukhtar tic tac toe. Before we arrived, we had thought we were going to a show room scenario...but it really was not much like that. The word show room should never have been used to describe what we saw. Hours later, we left empty handed having given them a wad of cash and feeling about 60% OK about the whole thing. We are told it will take a week for the books to get to Banda...we shall wait and see.


The third and final book shopping took place at a very upscale bookstore called Gramedia. It was on par with Indigo for selection, display and range of material. It is surprising to us that there are Muslim based books in every subject, from science to cooking. Who knew? The focus for this spree was children's books. The staff were incredibly helpful and they made this final shopping a treat. The head of the library was delighted to receive a special 'Gramedia' clock which was presented to him upon the completion of the big sale. We even found an Indonesia version of 'Eat, Pray, Love'....Dawna loved this book, Katherine refuses to read it...but Katherine selected it.


The malls in Jakarta are over the top. They are what you would expect in Rodeo Drive. Even have Harvey Nichols of Ab Fab fame. It feels kind of odd to be in these extravagent malls complete with Christmas carols and then go out to the street and see the standard Indo street vendors. Gucci on the main floor and 5th Floor hawkers with Padang food.


We felt great about completing the book buying, down to the last $3. Items were shipped to Banda already and will be ready for the Sigli library on Monday.



Wednesday was travel day, leaving Jakarta for Banda. It was a bit of a long day. We are noticing a different vibe in the air as we progress towards Banda. People don't seem so keen on Westerners. There are not so many NGO's around and we get the sense that people are glad they have left. Maybe this is the ebb and flow of development work when things wind down. Still we keep maintaining a positive attitude and aim to take things in stride.


The hotel that we stay at in Banda is under new management. There are less staff and less of a Western focus in their approach. The internet was down when while we were there.


We headed up to Sigli, first thing Thursday morning. It was good to get to the library and receive a very friendly welcome from the staff. The morning was spent reviewing what has been done (or not done) while we were away. In the afternoon we did some interviews with the staff, to find out their thoughts on the changes at the library. We are gearing up for the main event which will be the evaluation workshops next week.



Over and out.

Going shopping

Day one Jakarta.
We met everyone as planned this morning. O.k. after about an hour of this and that - getting organized to go book buying, we hit streets to flag a cab. It is only Blue Bird's or White Bird taxi's that we are after. The White bird is elusive but when it comes to cabs the Blue Bird is ever present.

O.k. so we got a cab and headed downtown to one of a vast number of malls in Jakarta. It's lovely that there are bookstores in town and many of them. As you may recall it was a stretch to find one book store in Banda Aceh and that one was pretty much religious texts on the second floor of a hardware and lingerie shop. Go figure.

So here is a picture of Pak Mukhar and Mita our new translator. Mita is studying library science and hoping to further her studies overseas next year. A good English speaker and lots of fun so we are lucky again. we are at a Starbucks waiting for the book order.
Mr. Mukhtar is showing off his pics on the cell phone.

It was so fortuitous that Pak Mukhtar had occasion to meet an important staff member from the National Library recently. So when we got to town he was able to arrange a meeting with the Director of the National Library. The Director, Dady P. Rachmananta generously spent a good half hour with us as we shared stories about the CALGAP project.

It was very encouraging to hear about the national efforts to increase the reading habit through a celebrity reading ambassador who travels throughout the whole country. The national library is working hard to promote reading and library use however it is challenging in a country so large. The federal government recently passed a Library Act and there is lots of work to do around library governance and jurisdiction. Not all provinces are willing to support public library service at the level needed - a common issue around the world.

As a result of this visit we were able to learn more about the publishing industry and the staff member Fadli, who happens to also be Achenese, set up an appointment for us with a key book distributor. So tomorrow is a big day for books.

Another Padang meal for us this afternoon - this is the cuisine that is left out unrefrigerated all day so poses some challenges for us westerners. The Achenese are quite fond of this food. This time around we noticed that the mosquito coils were strategically placed to waft over the food to keep it bug free. We focused on the rice - had a light meal and let it go at that.

Just an observation Nimrod was simply a cabin crew member with an unusual name. We didn't get a chance to hear the story of his naming.

We'll keep you in suspense regarding the dental artist, who is quite a pleasant Persian met while waiting in an immigration lineup. More on that later. No luggage yet but apparently it is at the airport in fact we are assured that it has left the airport-that it is on route from the airport (a 1/2 hour drive) to the hotel -several hours later still no luggage.

Sleep beckons

A quick post to say we are here in Jakarta book buying. Once we get over the immediate pressure of jet lag we will do a proper post. We can then tell the tales of the dental technologist to the stars and bicuspid sculptor and Nimrod the cabin crew member on our flight from Hong Kong to Jakarta.

The fact that we don't have our luggage is putting a bit of a crimp in our lives but we are getting things done nevertheless. Bought books downtown and visited the National Library of Indonesia and met the Director there.
Pictures later

Just thought I would add some of the food images that we have as an in between post.
The lovely sushi like dish was on offer at a lunch spot en route during the Bali bike tour.







The next pic is from the Temple street night market in Hong Kong. To date since the trip we've run into a few other folks who have been to this same night market. What you see here are live prawns just squirming on the table beside a shop.

Hong Kong - a day in the life

We ended up with basically Friday in Hong Kong. Making the most of our time has become one of our fortes. It was a rainy overcast day but we made the most of it. We made our way to the Hong Kong Museum of Art at opening and walked through it. There was a major exhibit about the Chinese influence on the art of France during time of Matisse and earlier. Lots of ceramics collected by French kings and the like and even including a few owned by Matisse. Then we walked through the HK Cultural Centre and found a Starbucks to sit in for a bit as the rain was thick and fast.

Next stop was the Star ferry, from Kowloon to Hong Kong island. We found the bus that took us to the Peak tram, a funicular railway. It was like a Wonderland ride for Katherine. Very moody as the mountain top was enveloped in mist. Later the fog lifted some and we were able to see the wonderful view. We tried to walk around a bit while at the peak but the rain really didn’t make it all that enjoyable. Next stop was a dim sum restaurant before descended the mountain.

Back in Kowloon, we went to the Hong Kong Museum of History. It gave a tour through the history of Hong Kong with many colourful panoramas giving detail to HK’s past and present. It was very well done especially the replica of street life complete with shops and tram. There was a special exhibit of propaganda posters - graphically Coke ads meet red cheeked happy and hard-working youth. Too bad there were no posters to buy- later on we found the same posters reproduced on playing cards- thank goodness.

Next stop was the Temple street night market. We had been told about it by some stewardess’s on one of our flights. We succumbed to some more shopping and have added to our collection of knock-off Sport Sac bags. One of the purchases included a proud sewn in label on the outside of the bag announcing that it was 'carefully made in the U.S.A.'

Back at the hotel, we had some more dim sum (Dawna’s fav Chinese meal) and then headed back to the harbour to see the famous Hong Kong night-time light show.

Wild weather- storm came up in only a couple of minutes. This shot is just outside the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

Only had the one day in Hong Kong. Sadly we flew economy on the way home so it was the endurance flight once again.

Bali - What's not to love

We arrived in Bali late Sunday night. It was the smoothest airport exit ever, we already had our visas so missed a mega line-up there, our luggage was waiting for us. In a sea of signs held by drivers for various hotels we quickly spotted ours and we were off. As usual the narrow and curvy roadways meant it was a fairly long trip to the inn. We turned into smaller and darker streets and finally after travelling a few blocks down a narrow lane we landed at the Sarinande Beach Inn. It is quite sweet and old worldish. Our room was simple yet tasteful and comfortable,(www.sarinandehotel.com). We felt we were in just the right place after the intensity of our mission. We stayed in Seminyak which is just up the coast from the craziness and bustle of Kuta. We booked here on a recommendation from Mary (aka Sylph) and Douglas- thanks a million.

There were only a few days in Bali and as usual we needed to check out as much as humanly possible within a 3 day period. The hotel offered tours with drivers, and we chose the Tanah Lot sunset tour for that first day. We went to a temple, called Temple Taman Ayun. It is one of the over 20,000 Hindu temples that are on the island of Bali. This temple was peaceful and flowers lovely. Dawna once again challenged herself to cross a rickety bridge of bamboo to be sure everything was seen and experienced. We survived this and then enjoyed some heckling from locals as we walked the shoreline path. Hey mister and so on. There was an artist in residence (or so it appeared to us) in the temple grounds. Sadly most of the work we saw in Bali was just for the tourist so nothing special to get excited about.

Next stop was a monkey and bat forest. Over 600 monkeys lived there and we walked around as monkeys jumped at us looking for food. The bats were more sedate, hanging from the trees during the daylight hours. Still the monkeys did enjoy climbing up each of us and hanging out on our heads until a tantalizing peanut distracted them – thank goodness.

The final stop of the tour was Tanah Lot, a floating temple on the sea. The temple grounds were surrounded with hawker stalls selling everything from Crocs to Gurci (yep you read it right) sunglasses. We made our way down to the temple and it was quite stunning. This was also the first place we had been to in Indonesia that was packed with other tourists and tons of newlyweds who couldn’t get enough of taking each other’s photos. It was a beautiful spot for a sunset and we sat for a bit and then walked around to watch the various views of the sun setting.

We met some Australian women while at the Serinande, Vicky and Guyatri. They were seasoned Bali travellers and we dined with them on the first two nights. They gave us many useful tips and suggestions about where to go and what to see. Most notably, we now each have two pairs of antique batik fisherman pants, made from Guyatri’s design.

Our flight home is being called so you will have to wait to hear about the next day’s adventure in Bali.

There is lots to see but mostly there is shopping. It is actually a pretty cool place for home furnishings and fashion, with designers from France and all over the world represented here. We know we have landed on a different island as on the first day we visited a kind of Pusateri style grocery store, called the Bali deli. We knew then that we were no longer in Aceh.

So where did we go: we visited a Batubulan barong – which was basically a Hindu folk musical and dance show. The Japanese photographer tourist didn’t have any qualms about basically becoming part of the show by getting right on stage beside the performer in the pursuit of a good shot. Next we visited a silverwork factory and then the Batik factory. It was great to get batik tools there to bring back to Canada. In Ubud, supposed to be a cultural center we quickly went through the famous Sukawati market which was no great shakes. Ubud did have some lovely stores and restaurants and we had lunch at Wayan’s café which had an eclectic menu and a classy garden setting with one or two tables at selected intervals so it was quite lovely and peaceful. This amounted to another full day and we landed back at the inn in the late afternoon.

The beach was just a short walk down an alley and the waves crashed in with tremendous power which explains why the area is called the Seven shores and is a mecca for surfers.

Once again we shared a meal with the lovely Aussie gals – DebO and VickO. DebO is known these days as Guyatri, after her Ashram visits in India. VickO will tell you a few tales with great dramatic flare and is a Bali aficionado, she is on her 7th or 9^th visit- she’s been coming since 1996. We ventured into Kuta with them for dinner. Kuta has its own flavour, picture Hard Rock café and the like.

Wednesday was terrific with a full day bike ride. Some of us felt we could have gone a bit faster but basically it was downhill all the way (25 Km). It was very well organized. The first stop was at a hillside restaurant that overlooked a valley, lake and the volcano Kitimati (spelling might be wrong). With mist at the top and sparkling water below it was truly spectacular. The evidence of past eruptions could be seen with blackened landscape and heard as there was a continual stream of dump-trucks taking volcanic rock down the mountain. We also had stops at a plantation: coffee, cocoa, bananas, ginger, jack fruit, mango, lots of different plants were shown and we tasted traditional Balinese coffee (o.k., thick stuff), ginger tea, lemongrass tea…and so on. Down the road we ventured into a family compound that housed four families. We had occasion to see a group of villagers created handicraft items out of banana leaves and stuff to be burned at a mass cremation. We saw all the various stages of rice production and even whacked some mature rice plants to dislodge the rice from the stalk. We were in a party of 6 some older, some younger. We were very well treated with refreshments and a fine lunch.

Our guides were a lot of fun. Here are a few of the bon mots that were shared as part of the presentation: “Smoking is good, not smoking is better.” And the unforgettable “These red peppers may be small but they are really hot. Just like Balinese men.”

We had been told about batik addiction, but had no idea how easily it could take hold. Debo/Guyatri had told us about a tailor she used for her business (she designed patterns to be made with fabrics found in Bali and India and sold them at a market place in Oz). Ade, her tailor sold antique batiks and once we found his little shop we selected some batiks. Time was pressing so we asked him to cut out some fisherman pants for us (ala Guyatri’s design) with Katherine doing the sewing once we got home. We went by his shop the next day (departure day for us) and he not only had cut out the pants but had sewn us three pairs. In a fit of excitement we ended up buying about a dozen batik handbags between us and another pair of pants. We made it to the airport, ready for our next adventure.

Don’t look down at the fast moving water

We are always looking out for each other while travelling here and one will caution the other when the wrong hand is going to be used, when one might be poised to fall into a sewer, or drink water they shouldn’t and so on.

Sometimes the other agrees and sometimes they don’t.

We were invited on a field trip to see a bridge building project in the area where the GAM and the conflict was centered. It is a partnership project with CALGAP supporting with funds, the community also providing funds and the community organizing and doing the work. The bridge will obviously be a real benefit to the community as it provides a direct route to the local village where before it was a kind of steel girder foot-bridge.

So while there Dawna was keen to go on the steel girder, Katherine cautioned, Dawna proceeded. She kind of freaked out a little a few steps over the water- which was really quite fast moving. Bravely she turned around for the photo op to prove her mettle, never letting on that she was experiencing vertigo. After said photo she hustled back to shore- crowing at her achievement. There were congratulations all around.

Quite a few country people came through while we were there- shyly smiling and confidently walking over the girder bridge. It is a pretty spot with a rustic charm, as the stream curves around bends and there are footpaths going in various directions.

We’ve really gotten around this trip to different parts of the countryside - farming areas and mountain areas also to the beach of course.

__________________________________

Sorry no pictures but we did want to share that one day we were driving along in town here and passed a mosque that was filled with cows. There must have been 40 cows milling about. We had a lot of fun discussing the topic of their meeting. Earlier in the tri p we did share some jokes including the favourite ‘why is 6 afraid of 7’. Find the answer yourselves by asking any 6 year old. So we conjectured that this might be a point of discussion for the cows that day. What did one cow say to the other one in the mosque? ‘You know, I keep thinking it is Tuesday today.’

World Environment Day at the Pidie Public Library

Thursday June 5 was World Environment day and all kinds of the NGO’s in Pidie collaborated on festivities that included tree planting throughout the town and environmental displays at the town centre park. A painting contest, storytelling and refreshments were on the agenda at the libray. And immediately afterward there was tree planting there as well.

Working over the course of a couple of days we created stick puppet sets for the Great Kapok Tree story and for the Great Big Enormous Turnip. Sosi helped with adapting the various animals to fit the Indonesian context- turnip to a carrot, anteater to a squirrel and senor to tuan (mister). We coached the staff through the delivery and how to work with the children to be participants. The performance of the Great Kapok Tree was truly a lot of fun for everyone. The children were really very good readers and ready hams, if you can say that about Muslims. The boy who was the butterfly was particularly animated and the man who chops the tree was a youth about 17 and he gone into the chopping motions and the whole nine yards.

Just after refreshments things got pretty hectic with the imminent arrival of the second adjutant to the assistant governor and the head of the legislature and various heads of the Dinas (a bunch of bigwig political types). They even have ball-caps with the gold crests of the position and names embroidered on them.

What a scene it was; the fancy SUV’s pulled in and there were about 30 becaks out front each with a tree as a passenger. So the air was a buzz with excitement at the library. The dignitaries proceeded to plant the trees with the library staff providing the muscle to shovel in the dirt. Dawna and I both have trees assigned to us- Rambutan, a kind of red fruit of which there is a picture on an earlier posting if you dig back in time. Can you dig it- Mukhtar has declared that they will treasure these trees dedicated to us. This is said to much mirth.

After that we went for a fancy meal with the officials at the Vice Mayor’s mansion. It was one of those stories where the women stay in one room and the men in the other but for lunch we all ate together. Dawna and I struggled to clump the rice and other food into a kind of ball and put it in our mouths without mishap. Also we were finding it a challenge to sit side ways instead of cross legged. Don’t know how the ladies do it. (So much for our ambition to go home and have a modest tomato and mayonnaise sandwich.) We must admit the food has been a challenge this trip. We’ve been in so many contexts and often the food hasn’t been refrigerated, maybe never- it sits out for hours after being cooked. Let’s just say hygiene is high on the list here.

Mr. Mukhtar reported that he heard back from several of the officials that they want to support the library as they saw with their own eyes how busting at the seams it is. New computers are also possible for the public as there is a project to distribute 100 in the town and the official saw the internet room and the potential there. So he was very, very pleased.

One fun thing from our point of view is that including the library as a destination for the planting and the governor representative’s attendance was just suggested a couple of days after we arrived. Not like trying to book pretty much any politician in Canada. It’s a mixture of very formal letters being delivered all over town on a day to day basis and rampant cell phone calls all the time between parties.

In one way it was a fluke that we focused on World Environment day when we did the planning of this mission a few months ago in Canada. We had our dates planned and basically looked at the calendar to see what festivals might work in Indonesia and there was World Environment Day on the Oxfam calendar. The staff wanted support in doing a community program although the do an annual storytelling competition they couldn’t get the idea of doing something more regularly using different topics, festivals on which to build a program. So it was a great coincidence that the Pidie government was putting a lot of energy into World Environment day here. So what a boost for the library.

Amazing Stats and Jackie O

We drove back to Sigli early Monday morning. The drive was not so congested, not as many cars but lots of monkeys and cows. We have yet to get a good monkey picture but keep trying.




Back at the library, our task was to review the performance measures that the staff had been keeping and to pull out some key messages to share with the Canadian ambassador when he comes for the visit. It was wonderful to see the growth in every aspect of library service over the past year. The staff were eager to share their successes with us and we all felt very proud. In January 2007, 70 books were borrowed during the month...compare this with 1400 borrowed in January 2008. There were 100 visitors in January 2007, this past January had 2264 visitors. The staff are also now collecting the visitor stats by gender and we are very pleased to note that this past April, there were 2290 visitors, 1242 were female and 1048 were male.




We continue to work together preparing for World Environment Day on June 5. Katherine brought over some paints for the library and the staff planned a poster contest to draw attention to the Day and involve the community. On Tuesday the staff ran a programme where the children and youth could work on painting their posters for the contest. Programming like this is all new for the staff. It was great to see over a dozen young people being creative in the libary and looking at books about the environment. We are all looking forward to the big day. Sigli is celebrating this day with many NGO's and its expected that the library will get 25 trees planted on the grounds as part of the official ceremonies. We'll keep you posted.




While the poster making was happening, we spent time assessing the collection layout and what can be done to shelve the materials in a more logical fashion. Everything is catalogued ala Dewey but as we have already mentioned, shelving had been done by size of book and interest, rather than by Dewey. For instance, books of interest to students are all clustered together. There is now a combination of old and new shelving and our task is to find a useful way to shelve the various collections and new materials. We shared our notes with the staff at the end of the day and they had pretty much come to the same conclusions. They are very eager to make any changes that make the library more inviting and functional and we're positive that the collection will soon get ship shape.




We had sad news today, Mr. Muhktar's brother-in-law passed away. He was a 45 year old farmer and he died of cancer, likely from the pesticides used in farming. The library staff offered that we could come along with them to pay our respect to the family. We had to wear head veils, a first for us. Katherine had a lovely silk scarf which she wore Jackie O. style and looked quite glamorous when she was able to keep it on her head. When we first arrived, Mr. Muhktar introduced us to his mother and to his wife. He stayed with us in the women's quarters and we were served a lunch.





We spent the evening working on the 'Kapok' tree puppets. Although we are lagging and tired most evenings, we made it until 10:00 last night. The art project helped keep us going. We did have a goofy Dewey moment when all words starting with the letter D made us laugh hysterically. This is when we knew it was time to hit the sack.

Paradigm Shift

We had our first ‘holiday weekend’ during a mission and it has been a relaxing and idyllic time. We took a 45 minute ferry ride to Sabang from Banda Aceh. We were met at the ferry and driven to Santai Sumur Tiga, aka Freddie’s. It is a beautiful traditional spot directly on the beach. We each have our own beach front cabin, complete with hammock on the front deck. There are about a dozen cabins. It is a photo perfect setting. Sosi has come along with us as well. The claim to fame is also that Freddie is an interesting cook and cooks western- in fact he cooks South African as that is his background.

Sabang is a port that at one time was a larger port than Singapore. The main street has an old colonial feel, with large mossy trees that the Dutch brought over decades ago. It does seem like a resort town also with beachfront shops and fancy street lights.

Once we settled in, we decided to go for a becak drive (a motorcycle with a side car for passengers) around the town. It was fun and precarious at the same time. Some of the roads were quite bad so we couldn’t get to some places…we had intended to visit the ‘Zero Mile’ marker which is the most westerly tip of Indonesia but the road was too damaged. (Apparently there is also a 7-mile marker, which was the original 0-mile marker but a geographical survey proved differently.) We then went to see a waterfall. The road got rocky as it ran next to the river. We got out of the becak and walked on rocks across the river and tried to walk through the rainforest to the waterfall. There were cows in the forest and people doing laundry and bathing in the water. The walk up the waterway to the waterfall turned out to be longer and kind of dicier than we anticipated, so we turned back. This turned out to be the theme of the drive….everywhere we tried to go there was some reason it wouldn’t work out. BUT we had a lot of fun seeing the area. Some hills were so steep we had to get out of the becak and walk. We stopped at one point at a most picturesque place and had a cool drink and just soaked up the place. All in all, the ride had all the noise and fumes and insane driving as we are used to here. Going up hills we made an ungodly racket.

There is a lot of snorkelling going on around here – but to us it looked like you just go out there to get baked! So here we sit and sip wine and beer in the shade.

The locals also use the beach and that makes things quite pleasant – the level of tolerance for bathing suits and such is higher so it has been very relaxing not to be always aware of the amount of skin showing. Instead it is about getting burned that is causing us to cover up.

Food at Freddie’s is quite wonderful. Freddie does the cooking on the weekends and makes every meal as a buffet with Western inspired recipes made with all local food. He makes a special effort to welcome the guests and share his special part of paradise. At dinner we talked with Freddie…he has been here since the tsunami, working on entrepreneurial capacity building. He used to live in the house and now has made it something to share with everyone. He keeps putting the money he makes on it into to developing more of it, but being true to local traditions and ways. He also manages another hotel on Sabang and has just wrapped up the NGO work in March of this year.

Freddie has an interesting perspective to offer. We are finding we learn so much from the people around us. He has told us that 75% of the entrepreneurial projects funded have failed. He feels that the Acehenese are waiting for the conflict to return and are not able to buy into the plan for the better future when all they have known is conflict and a lack of control over their destiny due to the power structure. Freddie feels that what is lacking is a paradigm shift. We continue to learn – it is clearly a very complex situation and we just get glimmers when we talk about the government rules and regulations even for the library. Another example in the library context is the fact that we had to push for the library to start going to some of the locations that had been abandoned due to the conflict. Perhaps they too are thinking – ‘why bother, things will just go back to the way they were once everyone leaves.’ We understand from Indonesians here that the number of NGO’s is expected to drop to 25 from the 250 that were here immediately post tsunami.

On Sunday we lounged about. Katherine and I had a nice walk on the beach and a bit of a swim in the ocean before the heat of the sun became too much. We head back to Banda later this afternoon and then on to Sigli early Monday morning. We are having our taste of summer here at the thatch cottage and it tastes pretty Freddie good. O.k. ya that was a bit much but we did mention that we started drinking and it is 11:30 am.

Back in Banda

There was a hubbub at the library when we arrived this morning. The day before we did an intensive review of the building and how the new furniture and layout was working and what was needed.

When we arrived about 9:00 it seemed there were dozens of guys around. Wooden tables were being taken out and different furniture was being brought in. All the old furniture was in the backyard. The library got some cool new tables on wheels that are kind of like portable computer training tables. So we got right in there, moving tables around and rearranging things so that the main floor was a lot roomier and more inviting with the new furniture.

The upper room, which is the youth area, has a couple of work tables and some shelving. We have learned a few procurement lessons. It turns out that we got about half the shelving that we wanted because of the differences in standard sizing, the fact that there are multiple people involved in the purchasing process and the reality that we were half a world away. If nothing else, librarians are resourceful and know how to come up with creative solutions to stretch a rupiah. We have got a plan in place and we will be able to accommodate the collection with some old shelving. We went to the stationery store and we have a few bins now to help out with the children’s materials.

In case we haven’t mentioned, the Canadian ambassador to Indonesia is going to be coming to visit the library, about two weeks after we leave, to handover the bookmobile and to visit the library. This, as you can imagine, is a massive deal for the community and the library. So we have been doing a lot of talking and coaching about what might be said in the speech…."the key messages". We did a whole review of performance measures. So we are very sad not to be there for the special day, apparently all the VIPs at the event are going to get garlands of flowers. We will be there in spirit.

We headed back to Banda for the weekend. Katherine was delighted to have conquered the bank machine. Last weekend it rejected both of her bank cards and we tried two ATMs. This time it worked like a charm so we celebrated with three Heineken’s a piece.

We ate, we swam and then we lounged around the lobby. Our favourite staff person Rommel was on duty and he insisted we watch a big anniversary celebration on TV. We never did figure out what the anniversary was, but it gave us a chance to see all the different cultural groups of Indonesia and the costuming and dance. Right from Sumatera to Papua. And we were most delighted to see the clapping dance, performed by 600 Acehenese dancers. This was particularly exciting because we had heard about this dance as it was depicted on the new mural in the children’s section of the library. We have also heard that they plan to have the clapping dance performed for the ambassador’s visit. We are just such lucky ducks.

We are off to the beach tomorrow, which should be pretty cool. All the other FCM volunteers have gone to the beach and have told us great things about it. We will be staying at Freddies’ in Sabang. More on that in the next post.

Mountain stop

Today we journeyed into the wilds with the bookmobile. We left Sigl and drove perhaps two hours along a mountainous road, heavy on switchbacks to a subdistrict that was pretty remote. It hasn't been a bookmobile stop for over 6 years as it required the bookmobile to travel through a GAM conflict zone. The stop was in the village of Tangse and we stopped first at the Subdistrict leaders office. After the meeting was done we ducked through the trees and under the prickly flower bush to the elementary school where the bookmobile had stopped. The second stop was at a high school just down from the market and across the street from a pretty large mosque.

So, well the only to describe it is -it was a mob scene. First the kids were crazy to get a book to look at and then when they saw the white ladies, all hell broke loose. We were swarmed in a nice a way, although Dawna reports a couple of pinches on the nether quarters. We've been told that perhaps they have never seen any white people (boolies) before.

The leader of the subdistrict talked with us about the effect of the period of conflict and how disruptive it was on the population and their livelihood. He reported to us more than 70% of the population were living below the poverty level. It was evident in the children - many with very bad teeth, worn clothing and shoes with holes. Everyone was in uniform and presentable for school, mind you.

Community members were also visiting at the high school stop. Since the library hasn't been there in recent years everyone needs first fill out the registration form, so there was much disappointment when the books had to be handed back and everyone realized they would need to wait for next month before the borrowing could start.

The library introduced new stops after we went over scheduling options and talked about using the current bookmobile to the fullest. We said they would need to do that before they would be eligible to get a second van. They wrote a business proposal about their plan and the new bookmobile was approved. It has taken them a while to get it started but the new schedule is slowly being implemented and the 2nd bookmobile is expected mid June. So now after the CALGAP purchasing is complete they will have another slightly larger bookmobile van and the Province is also giving them something smaller more like a standard sized van. So between these different vehicles they should be able to get to all 21 subdistricts - perhaps for the first time ever. It looks to Dawna and I like the Pidie library might need more books if there is the same level of demand at other newly introduced stops.

There is a lot of excitement about the results with the bookmobile- it is just a huge need and the children especially are thirsting for books and knowledge. We travelled today with our consultant, translator and the head of the library Mr. Mukhtar and the sub head Ibu Nufrida and I think everyone was moved with the power of the service and response. The heads of the library were even nervous and apologetic beforehand thinking that since this was the first time for the stops it might not draw many people. So wow!

On the way back we stopped for lunch by the riverside at a cantina (probably goes by another name here in Indo). It was kind of fun - Mr. Mukhtar didn't think the food was coming fast enough so he started cooking. He's a hands on kind of guy. In fact, when the bill was being tallied Mr. Mukhtar took the calculator from the proprietor in order to check the math. He is a former headmaster. Dawna and I picked up the tab - $8 for 11 people. It was a deal.

We were so beat at the end- bit of sun can really do a number on your wakefulness or sleepyness as the case may be. So it's 9:30 at night now and we are talking about calling it a day.

Seeing the NEW library

Yesterday we went to the library in the morning. Our official first visit was to be in the afternoon, but we got to Sigli earlier than anticipated and couldn't resist going over in the morning.

It is hard to describe the combined effect of the many changes that have happened since January. First of all, the outside of the library is a marvellous, eye catching bright lime green. (And we mean bright lime green). There is now a new sign identifying the library and welcoming people. Upon entering the library, the first thing you notice is how packed it is with people. AND there are people of all ages...the regular students, but also adults and children.

The new shelving is in place and the collection is starting to get organized by Dewey, not as before where it was filed by size. (They had always catalogued by Dewey but they shelved by size of book, with little nod to non-fiction, fiction or adult and children's collections.) The library now has an internet room, with public access internet stations. The 3 workstations have been available for a week now; already there are some people viewing inappropriate material....so we will work on drafting an internet use policy together. Net Nanny was installed yesterday.

Distinct spaces have been added for children and youth. Currently the youth area is housing a lot of the new equipment and furniture. The children's area was painted with a wonderful mural, depicting local cultural dances and the community. The mural couldn't be more appropriate.

Mr. Mukhtar's office has been upgraded with new furniture too. Hard to know how to react to it since it is very regal and puffy vinyl. It made Katherine think of 'Beauty and the Beast' and the dancing grandiose chairs. They seem happy with it. The famous washroom with the 'If you unplug, it will blow up.' sign has been upgraded too. No more sign.

The staff were so proud of the changes and eager to hear our responses. We just kept conveying to them how wonderful everything looked and we applied a new Bahasa Indonesian word...jelita which means beautiful.

We returned in the afternoon for a more formal visit and to set the stage for the rest of the mission. The big focus is on the preparations for the VIP visit with the Canadian ambassador at the end of June. We will also work on an Environment Day celebration that will be held while we are here. At first, the idea of a community based program was hard for them to figure out but once they got started talking they were very engaged. We brought over paints and prizes and will make a fun day of it.

Last night we had a wonderful meal, cooked by Daisy, Simon's wife. It was a feast of tuna and beef and our favourite Tom Yum soup. It was a nice meal to share with Darrell and Caroline on their last night in Sigli.

A little sidenote on Darrell: on Friday he had the misfortune of jamming his hand into his suitcase and rupturing the tendon in his finger. It now bends all by itself and looks kind of weird. He had to go to a clinic and then the UN Dr. in Banda. The clinic Dr. didn't have a splint so Darrell was able to use a wooden ice cream spoon to set his finger.

In Medan

Medan continues to challenge us. We are here for the most part of a day. Every time we visit we have our adventures with the folks at the airport. It is extremely hard to tell who is who and of course we landed with someone who seemed to get what we were saying but then delivered us to yet another sketchy hotel in Medan. For the curious read our earlier posts about the Darma Deli hotel experience from a couple of missions ago.

Anyway we perservered and did end up going to the place that FCM recommends which is really quite fine. The Grand Angkasa Hotel is pleasing to the eye and has a business center that has more than one computer, fast Internet and no sketchy fellows loitering (as we saw earlier this morning at the first hotel where we were dropped).

Anyway we are caught up on emails and just really waiting to get to Banda for some chillaxing (Dawna's official term).

We've had many conversations about the project as we get closer to the library and hear everything that has been happening. They have new computers and will have public access so there is lots of policy work still to be done. We guess it couldn't be helped, instead of book trucks the proverbial shopping cart has been purchased. For whatever reason, even with pictures, we just couldn't get it across that this was important library furniture. Of course they may have been jealous of the Banda Aceh library and their shopping carts, so if it was good enough for Banda why not Sigli. We are just rolling with it. (ha) The library will probably look great but crowded with all the new furniture and stuff. It can be quite hard to get the approvals to get rid of stuff so that could be our challenge for the mission.

The best thing we heard en route was that Sosi will be with us for translation and support. Sadly we will only have a couple of days with Iwan as he is needed in Aceh Jaya for another project. He has been getting all the computer stuff set up and that sounded like no mean feat.

Hong Kong again

A wonderful and uneventful flight - it was some kind of wonderful as we experienced the upgrade to business class for this superlong flight.

Things have changed and shopping in the Hong Kong airport is not the draw it once was.

We heard that things are going great guns at the Library in Pidie district. In the last week or so the staff have gone for 4 days computer training, received what is being called Brodart-like furniture and we will be bringing them 60 kilograms of books that are waiting in Banda Aceh.

We are en route to Singapore and will post more when we next get the chance.

Starting again - tons to do

Dawna and I leave on Thursday for the marathon trip to get to Banda Aceh. More news later when there is something to report.

fish market in Tokyo

This is my attempt to capture the exotic nature of the fish market. By the way, that is where I found some cool boxer shorts purchased for my older son. He has a penchant for boxers from tourist locations so this was perfect. Sorry no snap taken of the boxers.

Leaving tokyo in an hour

We are once again on the move and this time we get on an Air Canada flight first to Vancouver and then TO. Funnily enough we are flying at 7 pm and arriving at about the same time in Toronto on the same day Tuesday.

We composed a whole posting in the Tokyo Reference Library only to have it evaporate when we pressed `publish post`. So this is a recap. If this post is a bit wacky we blame the keyboard which is basically set up for characters not so much for alphabet.

Thursday and Friday in Sigli were significant in that the Vice Bupati (Vice Mayor) invited us out to a dinner he hosted - and awarded us with the Sigli official plaques. At the restaurant it was hilarious when due to the size of the group it was deemed that a wall partition should be removed in order to accommodate the entourage and then the nails sticking out from the floor were hammered down with a handy rock. So that was a big wow.

We are very pleased to have the help of the translator Iwan, while we are away this time as he transitions into a local resource for the library project. So basically we spent a couple of hours teaching him everything about the project and bob is your uncle. What a great guy - we are blessed.

Let`s face it we travelled a lot this trip and Saturday was no exception as we went from Banda Aceh to Jakarta and then overnight to Tokyo arriving at 7 am. We really lucked out on the flight and each had 3 seats over which we could sprawl out.

In Tokyo on the way in we saw one of the dressed up `maid girls` with the frills and high heels. Little did we know the shots of her shoes would be some of the best we got of weird getups。 We valiantly attempted to do Tokyo in 36 hours - shrines, temples, shopping, fish market, museums, sushi, and mastered the transit system in the process. Or so we claim.

The post would not be complete without a nod to the bathrooms, specifically the toilets. They are amazing - what can be achieved with technology. O.k. they have heated seats, various bidet options, the sound of gurgling water and even an odor button which we didn`t try. Given the context of coming from Indonesia where all bathrooms have pools of water on the floor and the usual squat, we were so enamored that we visited more than our fair share of washrooms around the city.

Right now we await our flight in a business lounge and we are crossing our fingers that indeed time will fly and get us home in less than an hour.

Emperors palace looked great in the winter

Unexepected trip to Banda

Just when we were getting used to the idea of being in one place for more than a few days, we got a phone call inviting us down to Banda for an evening reception. Turns out that there were a lot of FCM Canadians in Banda and it was felt to be a good opportunity for people to get together and network and talk about the different projects. There was also a lot of members of the Banda FCM team too, so it was nice to see a lot of familiar faces. There were a couple of birthdays thrown in the mix too. So our day ended with a nice dinner in Banda.

But we still had our two sessions at the library and we had Yuni and Yurni over to the house for lunch.

In the morning Katherine delivered a presentation on 'Children's Services'. It was a chance to really get behind the nuts and bolts of why libraries program for children. We ended the morning by handing out all sorts of puppets that we brought from Canada...many of the animals are found in Indonesian folk tales. In fact Dawna found a deer and there is a trickster figure that is the little deer. We thought that was mighty nice to have found that. I think the tortoise was the favourite....they called it Johnny.

At lunch Yurni and Yuni came over to the house. They wanted to send a picture of the library to OLA for the superconference and the bandwith at the library just couldn't manage sending a photo. While we were at the house Yurni also got a Facebook account. It is a marvel to see how much technology has become part of the routine now.

Then we went back and talked about the layout of the library and brainstormed ideas about how to make displays for teens. It was a good afternoon.

We left the library and headed directly for Banda. It was a crazy drive...there are road works going on and not much coordination among the road crews. At one point we were inches between the edge of a cliff (let's just say a drop) and a HUGE truck....we all breathed a sigh of relief when we got past. I was glad of my I-pod which we all could enjoy through the car speakers...(Thanks for the Cake Alex.)

First day in Sigli

We got to the library and had a quick look around. It is so different! The layout has changed, it is tidy and inviting. The shelves are clean and you can feel a sense of order when you walk in. The morning was spent reviewing what has been done since we were here in August and then some brainstorming about what was learned in Sleman and Singapore.
At the break the staff wanted us to see the library. It was FULL of people, 90% students. I mean people were everywhere. It was quite a contrast to the sleepy place we first visited in June. They are averaging about 150 visitors a day…compared to less than 50 when we first arrived. We credit much of this to Mukhtar’s leadership, the increased hours and the welcoming environment. Kudos all ‘round.

In the afternoon we worked on some skills training. We wanted to ensure that all of the staff have email accounts so they are able to communicate with the contacts they have made during the exposure tours. There is a new staff member named Nufina…she had never used a computer before…she now has a gmail account and has sent 2 emails. Other work involved creating a brochure to promote the library…we picked up a lot of samples during the tours and with a template they will be able to create something for Sigli. We also discussed the ‘Thank You’ letters going over step by step the content and structure. These letters will be sent to both Sleman and Singapore libraries. We will work on the draft tomorrow.

We talked about how the library can connect with the community and gain further support from the government. The library is very low on the awareness scale for the local politicians.

There is an easy camaraderie now amongst us and we are getting asked a variety of questions. We spent quite a bit of time today talking about motivating staff to work, stating expectations and the role of the supervisor. It seems that some staff were blaming others for work not complete- imagine.

Back in Banda and then on to Sigli

We had two flights to get to Banda…by this time we feel like old hands at the process. Once we got to Banda, the Sigli staff went on to Sigli, while Katherine and I stayed on in Banda. It was good to get to the hotel, where we know the staff and felt quite welcome. We booked massages and took it easy for the rest of Saturday. We met up with some other FC volunteers (Jim, Mansur and Ted) and caught up on the various projects.

On Sunday we drove to Sigli. We have a new translator this time…Iwan….pronounced E1. He had spent 4 months in Alberta through Canada World Youth; his English is perfect, complete with Canadian idioms. We got to the house, chose our rooms (we are sharing the house with E1 and two other FCM/Indonesian staff), ate the pizza we got in Sigli and called it a day.

Singapore – Day 2

The day began at the Library Supply Centre, where all of the materials are processed for all of the library’s internal and external clients. We were given an overview and then a tour. It was fascinating to see the conveyor belts and assembly lines…the staff process 5,000 items each day. They use an automated system, complete with cherry pickers to select specific titles that are stored on the myriad of shelving throughout the warehouse. It was a site to be seen for sure.

The Sigli staff were able to see materials being processed and ask questions first hand and get demonstrations of how it is done in Singapore. The Singapore example showed the precision system that may be far removed from what the Sigli staff were going for, but they still were able to take some good ideas away from it. For instance, maybe they won’t want to drill the books like they saw in Sleman and perhaps they will opt for some reinforcement tape to do the same thing.

Since it was Friday, the next stop was a mosque where the men could pray. The women were free to go shopping…which we did. Yurni and Yuni wanted to buy fabric. It turns out that they make most of their clothes for themselves. Katherine and I opted for some ready made clothes and found a kinda sweet Persian designer shop. Lunch was in an Indonesian takeout restaurant….which was a welcome change. Dinner the night before was in an Indian restaurant and felt to be ‘too spicy’ by many.

Next stop was a neighbourhood library, Bishan. It had 5 floors and special attention was paid to the youth and children’s floors. The collections were full and immaculately shelved. A storytime was being held and we were able to quietly observe it. This all helped the puzzle pieces fall into place….we had been talking about Children’s programming and now they could see it happening.

The final library we visited was Woodlands library, where Roy works. He was able to give us an insider’s view of the collections. It was a spectacular library, complete with a theatre space, reference floor and the largest Children’s department I have ever seen. There was space dedicated to community exhibits, which is something we are wanting to develop more in Sigli. Just like in Sleman, it was good to see so many of the concepts that we have been talking about in action.

We were given an hour break for dinner and then we went to the Night Zoo in Singapore. (Nazir missed the zoo…ask us if you want the long version….) The night zoo was fun. There was a show and then a tram ride in the dark where you get to see the nocturnal animals - lions, elephants and of course water buffalo which are a common sight throughout Sigli. We got back to the hotel by 11:30…and reserved wake-up calls for 4:30 a.m. the next morning to get us on our way back to Indonesia. We were completely beat but we still managed to have a glass of wine and a beer in the lobby…we couldn’t believe how long this day was.