A Tale of Two Islands

It's different in Flores. That's what lots of other volunteers who've worked in both South Sulawesi and Flores have said, and after a few days here it does seem like a different world. 

I'm in Maumere for a week training local government staff in spatial planning. Staff do actually seem to want to work, and every day when I arrive at the office, everyone there is either working or talking about work. There's still time for the usual chatting/smoking/drinking coffee/eating cake, but that seems to come after at least a couple of hours work has been done.

I do feel like a week's training in the office here has had more impact than my 10 months in Sulawesi - people know what they want to do, and just need some guidance in how spatial data can help them do it. In fact they're so on the ball I suspect they'd probably do fine on their own. 

Whiteboard, projector, pink nylon curtains, picture of the President, self

People here are up to the usual Indonesian standards of friendliness. In one incident I was dragged of the street by a group of teenagers, force fed fried banana (served with chilli sauce, of course) and introduced to the family and dogs. This is a Christian majority area, so dogs are actually kept as pets. And only occasionally as food. Beer is also widely available. Apart from the eating dogs thing, it's all good.  

It's blue - come back in a few years and it might be red

A colleague at work has also offered to lend me his motorbike to tour round the island, which is the sort of thing that just wouldn't happen at home, and today we had a trip to see the incredible coloured crater lakes of Kelimutu.

I had to pay this monkey several thousand Rupiah to get this photo

It's been hard work, fitting what was originally a 5 week training course into 7 days, along with some new stuff. But I've been enjoying it, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Flores for two weeks "jalan jalan" around the island. If I'd been posted here from the start I might have stayed.