Now that I've been here a whole two weeks I am well over jet lag and starting to look around.
It's Halloween, something I had quite forgotten about after all these years. Stores are decked out as well as people's yards. The local discount store has about half an acre of space devoted to costumes, decorations, candy, plastic Halloween treat buckets, etc. There's been a definite shift to the realistic or should I say surrealistic and macabre.
It is cold and blustery (50 F or 10 degrees C.) At least I think it's cold. But locals are running around with just a vest. I've even seen several women still wearing capris.
Interestingly enough, I can buy mutton and buffalo meat at the local grocery store, both guaranteed to be antibiotic free. But fish is pretty hard to find. Maybe I need to look in the freezer section! People seem to eat very little vegetables, unless french fries and chips are considered to be vegetables???? Most of the fruit I miss is no longer in stores. It's mostly apples, oranges, bananas, with a few pears. No berries, peaches, melons, sigh!
TV is full of SEX and, well, blasphemy. Every other commercial seems to be about viagra. Many other drugs are also advertised in commercials. I guess the purpose is so that people will run off to their doctors and ask for those things???
Next project: count the kinds of cold cereal....
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
It's cold!
I have now arrived in the first of my worlds, am pretty much over jet lag, and can finally connect to the internet. (Now the challenge will be to try to keep warm enough that my fingers won’t be too stiff to type!) My first impression was that I was arriving in a police state. There were signs up as we approached the immigration hall announcing that we were entering a federal something-or-other zone and no cell phones, cameras, recording devices were permitted to be used while in the zone. We lined up and even the citizens’ line which is usually fast-moving was real slow. We also got to watch a couple of officials, hands on hip, chew out an Asian-looking guy. Real welcoming sight....
After being duly intimidated, we got to pick up our luggage and waltz thru customs and on out into the frigid rain. Brrr!
Did I mention that it was cold? One way to keep warm is to keep moving. And that is what I have done, getting back into the swing of driving at high speeds in the rain on the right side of the road, and visiting folk, going to a conference, grocery shopping, etc.
Not only is it cold, it is dark. Now that I am over jet lag I will have to use an alarm clock if I hope to get up at a reasonable time! After years of using the sun as a clock, it's a bit disorienting to have such a short day! And it will only get shorter!!
After being duly intimidated, we got to pick up our luggage and waltz thru customs and on out into the frigid rain. Brrr!
Did I mention that it was cold? One way to keep warm is to keep moving. And that is what I have done, getting back into the swing of driving at high speeds in the rain on the right side of the road, and visiting folk, going to a conference, grocery shopping, etc.
Not only is it cold, it is dark. Now that I am over jet lag I will have to use an alarm clock if I hope to get up at a reasonable time! After years of using the sun as a clock, it's a bit disorienting to have such a short day! And it will only get shorter!!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
World switch
I have been travelling so much lately that sometimes it’s a challenge to keep my worlds straight! I just arrived in world 3 a week ago after having been in world 2 for a month. Now I am about to leave for world 1 for a couple of months. This requires not only a major adjusment in packing because of climatic considerations, but also a major reshuffle of the mental filing cabinet.
If you think of the human brain as a sort of filing system, then you can think of information being stored in files. So a big part of this travel is to keep the appropriate file folders at the front. Since it's been two years since I was last in the first of my worlds I have to dig out and dust off the world 1 files. They no doubt also need to be updated.
The file folders for the first of my worlds are quite fat. I need to re-remember names of places, streets, and products and update what has changed. I have to try to get back into time-consciousness. I won't be able to depend on the sun for my clock. I will also be driving a lot more as public transportation is non-existant where I will be (but at least road-construction season should be almost over!). Plus the whole of social interaction is different.
Anyhow, I will try to update this blog as I land jet-lagged into the midst of world 1. Stay tuned! :-)
If you think of the human brain as a sort of filing system, then you can think of information being stored in files. So a big part of this travel is to keep the appropriate file folders at the front. Since it's been two years since I was last in the first of my worlds I have to dig out and dust off the world 1 files. They no doubt also need to be updated.
The file folders for the first of my worlds are quite fat. I need to re-remember names of places, streets, and products and update what has changed. I have to try to get back into time-consciousness. I won't be able to depend on the sun for my clock. I will also be driving a lot more as public transportation is non-existant where I will be (but at least road-construction season should be almost over!). Plus the whole of social interaction is different.
Anyhow, I will try to update this blog as I land jet-lagged into the midst of world 1. Stay tuned! :-)
Proposals
The latest rage in the second of my worlds is proposals. I do not know where all the money is coming from, but everybody and their uncle seems to be writing proposals for funding. Even in the village they recently made a proposal for government funding to repair a roadside canal that has been leaking all over the road for the last 10 years, and to repair the road that has been damaged by the water.
A lady who teaches at a public high school said that her school had recently put together a proposal for a computer lab for the school. She had suggested asking for flash drives as well and they got them. Another village wrote a proposal for 2000 cacao seedlings and got them. This has now gotten them all excited about writing funding proposals for other things.
Friends in other areas though, were more gloomy about the current rage of proposal writing, citing many proposals wrtten, projects started and not finished, people neglecting their jobs, neglecting the maintainance of their farms or other livelihood because of the glitter of easy money through writing proposals. They fear a big let down when the free money stops, which inevitably it will some day.
A particularly hare-brained proposal I heard about at the provincial level is the plan to build a sugar cane processing factory in the driest village in the province which also happens to sit right smack on the main tectonic fault line. There is plenty of hot sulphur water available but not fresh water. There is currently no sugar cane available so the plan is apparently to deforest a large remote mountain valley and convert the whole thing to 10,000 hectares of sugar cane fields. That valley is currently only accessible by 5 hours of hiking from the end of the road so massive amounts of money will be required to build roads. Then all that sugar cane will have to be transported over major mountains to get to the dry village where the processing factory is to be built. Instead of building the factory on the coast downriver from the valley where water is abundant, they decided to cross over two ranges of higher mountains upstream and build it 30 km inland and then will have to transport sugar another 45 km to the nearest seaport.
The factory is also supposed to produce biofuel and other substances for a total of 7 products. Biofuel is the latest rage in the west and apparently there is big money available for funding. Usually the budget for road building is twice the actual cost because of all the pilfering that is expected to occur. So I can see the attraction of all that money and all that, uh, opportunity.
A lady who teaches at a public high school said that her school had recently put together a proposal for a computer lab for the school. She had suggested asking for flash drives as well and they got them. Another village wrote a proposal for 2000 cacao seedlings and got them. This has now gotten them all excited about writing funding proposals for other things.
Friends in other areas though, were more gloomy about the current rage of proposal writing, citing many proposals wrtten, projects started and not finished, people neglecting their jobs, neglecting the maintainance of their farms or other livelihood because of the glitter of easy money through writing proposals. They fear a big let down when the free money stops, which inevitably it will some day.
A particularly hare-brained proposal I heard about at the provincial level is the plan to build a sugar cane processing factory in the driest village in the province which also happens to sit right smack on the main tectonic fault line. There is plenty of hot sulphur water available but not fresh water. There is currently no sugar cane available so the plan is apparently to deforest a large remote mountain valley and convert the whole thing to 10,000 hectares of sugar cane fields. That valley is currently only accessible by 5 hours of hiking from the end of the road so massive amounts of money will be required to build roads. Then all that sugar cane will have to be transported over major mountains to get to the dry village where the processing factory is to be built. Instead of building the factory on the coast downriver from the valley where water is abundant, they decided to cross over two ranges of higher mountains upstream and build it 30 km inland and then will have to transport sugar another 45 km to the nearest seaport.
The factory is also supposed to produce biofuel and other substances for a total of 7 products. Biofuel is the latest rage in the west and apparently there is big money available for funding. Usually the budget for road building is twice the actual cost because of all the pilfering that is expected to occur. So I can see the attraction of all that money and all that, uh, opportunity.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Fasting Again
15 September 2007
Once again it is the time of the annual fast. Economically, this time is a boon to merchants and a bane to household finances much as Christmas has been in the West. The local village market is already selling prayer clothes and Arabic-style month-of-fasting finery. Many people buy new prayer clothes at this time of year. This is sarongs for men and women, black hats and long-sleeved shirts for men and long white head coverings for women long enough to cover the arms too and leave only the face showing. Many people, especially professionals who have a lot of public events to attend this month, buy special Arabic-style finery to wear. This is ornate pantsuits with long-sleeved tunics or long dresses and fancy head coverings for women, and long fancy shirts for men.
Out in the village there aren’t many professionals so farmers at the local market would mainly be buying new sarongs, new headcoverings, new flip flops for everybody in the family plus a new outfit for everybody in the family but not necessarily Arab style. The women buy baking ingredients for the annual cookie baking: flour, sugar, shortening, eggs, spices, glass jars, cookie cutters and molds, maybe a new box oven to use on top of a kerosene burner. People often like to do home improvement at this time – paint the house, buy new appliances. Motorbike sales boom at this time of the year with special fasting-month terms of credit. Shops have later hours to accomodate the crowds.
It is the custom here to pay employees an extra month’s salary at their special holiday time. So Muslims get it now, Christians at Christmas, and other religions at their main holiday. But even so, people are scrambling for extra money at this time of year. So there are lots of door-to-door salesmen selling sarongs, prayer clothes, footwear, medicines, plasticware, and gadgets. Women have not been left behind. In recent years there has been an increase in the number of small stalls springing up where women sell cooked food in the late afternoon for the convience of folks who fast all day and don’t feel up to cooking. (Not only Muslims take advantage of the extra foodstalls!)
In recent years the government has started getting into decorating. Usually it has been lights, asking every household to put up a bamboo arch with lights or something of that sort. But this year they have lighted artifical coconut trees in the center of main roads! In the land of acres of real coconut plantations, it seems to me just a little bit bizarre! But what do I know? The locals seem to think it’s pretty cool.
Once again it is the time of the annual fast. Economically, this time is a boon to merchants and a bane to household finances much as Christmas has been in the West. The local village market is already selling prayer clothes and Arabic-style month-of-fasting finery. Many people buy new prayer clothes at this time of year. This is sarongs for men and women, black hats and long-sleeved shirts for men and long white head coverings for women long enough to cover the arms too and leave only the face showing. Many people, especially professionals who have a lot of public events to attend this month, buy special Arabic-style finery to wear. This is ornate pantsuits with long-sleeved tunics or long dresses and fancy head coverings for women, and long fancy shirts for men.
Out in the village there aren’t many professionals so farmers at the local market would mainly be buying new sarongs, new headcoverings, new flip flops for everybody in the family plus a new outfit for everybody in the family but not necessarily Arab style. The women buy baking ingredients for the annual cookie baking: flour, sugar, shortening, eggs, spices, glass jars, cookie cutters and molds, maybe a new box oven to use on top of a kerosene burner. People often like to do home improvement at this time – paint the house, buy new appliances. Motorbike sales boom at this time of the year with special fasting-month terms of credit. Shops have later hours to accomodate the crowds.
It is the custom here to pay employees an extra month’s salary at their special holiday time. So Muslims get it now, Christians at Christmas, and other religions at their main holiday. But even so, people are scrambling for extra money at this time of year. So there are lots of door-to-door salesmen selling sarongs, prayer clothes, footwear, medicines, plasticware, and gadgets. Women have not been left behind. In recent years there has been an increase in the number of small stalls springing up where women sell cooked food in the late afternoon for the convience of folks who fast all day and don’t feel up to cooking. (Not only Muslims take advantage of the extra foodstalls!)
In recent years the government has started getting into decorating. Usually it has been lights, asking every household to put up a bamboo arch with lights or something of that sort. But this year they have lighted artifical coconut trees in the center of main roads! In the land of acres of real coconut plantations, it seems to me just a little bit bizarre! But what do I know? The locals seem to think it’s pretty cool.
Bureaucrats-in-training
14 September 2007
Communication is difficult in this place. It can partly be blamed on a lack of great infrastructure. But mostly it can be blamed on the human factor.
News flies faster by word of mouth here than it does on the internet. Yet, how accurate is that news? It would make a great research topic.
A friend of mine here has been applying to become a civil servant for years. She has submitted countless applications with countless supporting documentation. Yet it seems there is never an end to it. What people need to submit in the application process seems to be forever in flux. In fact it seems to be passed down word of mouth from the national capital, much like the old game “telephone”. Because no matter how diligent they are to submit all the requirements they’ve been told to submit, inevitably there is always some other thing that wasn’t submitted that nullifies everybody’s application. Perhaps the local bureauocrats weren’t listening attentatively and failed to pass on the complete list?
The central government claims there is a teacher shortage. So it agrees to hire temporary teachers at ¼ the salary with the promise that after a year they can appy to be civil servants after which they will receive full salary. But the years roll by and they are still hanging, having submitted their “folios” several times. If one was conspiracy minded one might just begin to wonder if it wasn’t all deliberate to save the government some money, as these people struggle valiently on at ¼ salary ever hoping, and at their own expense filing application after application, having to even make their own copies of the application forms and the folders to store them in at their own personal expense. Every time there’s another announcement about submitting new applications they spend more time running around getting copies and signatures and standing in lines than they do teaching. The local provincial level of government is very adept at diverting funds from the central government.
Finally, after 5 years one friend has been told that several of them have been accepted and will have a 20-day training next month (which they must pay for – 8 months worth of the “temporary teacher” salary they have been scraping by with.) After the training, it is said they will receive their official letter. For another whopping fee no doubt.
This is how new bureauocrats are trained. Is it any wonder if they too seek to milk the system to recup their losses when they finally get accepted?
Communication is difficult in this place. It can partly be blamed on a lack of great infrastructure. But mostly it can be blamed on the human factor.
News flies faster by word of mouth here than it does on the internet. Yet, how accurate is that news? It would make a great research topic.
A friend of mine here has been applying to become a civil servant for years. She has submitted countless applications with countless supporting documentation. Yet it seems there is never an end to it. What people need to submit in the application process seems to be forever in flux. In fact it seems to be passed down word of mouth from the national capital, much like the old game “telephone”. Because no matter how diligent they are to submit all the requirements they’ve been told to submit, inevitably there is always some other thing that wasn’t submitted that nullifies everybody’s application. Perhaps the local bureauocrats weren’t listening attentatively and failed to pass on the complete list?
The central government claims there is a teacher shortage. So it agrees to hire temporary teachers at ¼ the salary with the promise that after a year they can appy to be civil servants after which they will receive full salary. But the years roll by and they are still hanging, having submitted their “folios” several times. If one was conspiracy minded one might just begin to wonder if it wasn’t all deliberate to save the government some money, as these people struggle valiently on at ¼ salary ever hoping, and at their own expense filing application after application, having to even make their own copies of the application forms and the folders to store them in at their own personal expense. Every time there’s another announcement about submitting new applications they spend more time running around getting copies and signatures and standing in lines than they do teaching. The local provincial level of government is very adept at diverting funds from the central government.
Finally, after 5 years one friend has been told that several of them have been accepted and will have a 20-day training next month (which they must pay for – 8 months worth of the “temporary teacher” salary they have been scraping by with.) After the training, it is said they will receive their official letter. For another whopping fee no doubt.
This is how new bureauocrats are trained. Is it any wonder if they too seek to milk the system to recup their losses when they finally get accepted?
My favorite airport
September 10 2007
Well, I made it to the village about midnight. It took three flights to get here. The airport just before this place is one of the noisiest places in earth. Just sitting in it for 6 hours is enough to exhaust you for a week! People jabbering, suitcases clackity-clacking, cell phones ringing and beeping - all on extra high volume. People don’t seem to know how to change their ringtones or maybe they just all like the default so it’s easy to tell who has a Sony-Erickson, who has a Nokia and who has a Motorola by the tone. Because it was so noisy, people had to shout to be heard on their cell phones. In addition kids were screaming, televisions and radios blaring, and of course the endless announcements: “For operational reasons flight XYZ will be delayed...”. And don't forget the noise of the jets outside.
When I first arrived there was no place to sit. Several plane-loads of passengers were still sitting there, their flights delayed because the vice president had been visiting and was leaving and as a matter of "respect" no other planes were permtted to land or take off until his party had finished their leave-taking ceremonies and departed. So I toured the bookshops with my heavy carry-ons. The coffee shops were full too but finally I spotted somebody leaving and managed to scoot in and grab their table and was able to have some coffee and swap my cellphone SIMs around. Finally planes started taking off and I was even able to find a seat right in front of the air conditioner! (It took over an hour before I got cold enough to move.)
Not only is that airport noisy but it is minimally cooled. They have a special smoking lounge but the air seems to get recycled into the general atmosphere anyway. So it is not the most pleasant place to have to spend 6 hours and today my respiratory system is feeling it. However, there has been a small improvement, they painted the translucent glass partitions in the women's bathroom! It is no longer see through!
Well, I made it to the village about midnight. It took three flights to get here. The airport just before this place is one of the noisiest places in earth. Just sitting in it for 6 hours is enough to exhaust you for a week! People jabbering, suitcases clackity-clacking, cell phones ringing and beeping - all on extra high volume. People don’t seem to know how to change their ringtones or maybe they just all like the default so it’s easy to tell who has a Sony-Erickson, who has a Nokia and who has a Motorola by the tone. Because it was so noisy, people had to shout to be heard on their cell phones. In addition kids were screaming, televisions and radios blaring, and of course the endless announcements: “For operational reasons flight XYZ will be delayed...”. And don't forget the noise of the jets outside.
When I first arrived there was no place to sit. Several plane-loads of passengers were still sitting there, their flights delayed because the vice president had been visiting and was leaving and as a matter of "respect" no other planes were permtted to land or take off until his party had finished their leave-taking ceremonies and departed. So I toured the bookshops with my heavy carry-ons. The coffee shops were full too but finally I spotted somebody leaving and managed to scoot in and grab their table and was able to have some coffee and swap my cellphone SIMs around. Finally planes started taking off and I was even able to find a seat right in front of the air conditioner! (It took over an hour before I got cold enough to move.)
Not only is that airport noisy but it is minimally cooled. They have a special smoking lounge but the air seems to get recycled into the general atmosphere anyway. So it is not the most pleasant place to have to spend 6 hours and today my respiratory system is feeling it. However, there has been a small improvement, they painted the translucent glass partitions in the women's bathroom! It is no longer see through!
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