It's that time again!

Time to start operations again in Alor.  More on that later though.  Big news first off!  Sugi and I saw a whale while out on the speedboat the other day!  Like a huge whale!  It first surfaced and I thought it was one of our large speedboats that capsized or something.  Thought it could have been a whale then, but it was a stretch.  It dove down and then resurfaced again.  Sugi definitely saw it the second time and confirmed with me it was a large whale!  So cool!  There were divers down at the time too, but they didn’t hear or see anything, pretty far away.  I’m not too surprised though, he was right near our long lines and it can get to 150m deep under the lines.  Perfect whale territory.  Maybe a sperm whale?  Didn’t see much of the tail or anything though. 

The managers now have new work hours in Alor, from 6am-4pm with 2 hours a day on the cleaning boats.  So not too much time during the day to get things done.  Also pretty spent after work, so I usually just watch a TV show, dinner, and bed.  There has been lots of problems with the cleaning and how thorough they are cleaning the shells.  I think the crews are getting it now though, they look a lot better.  Maybe that’s just because we are there more often though, and they work hard when we’re around?  We have been have ridiculous cleaning hours too for these workers.  Rushing and working 24 hours a day to clean shells to send to another site.  But now we aren’t even sending the shells, as there is higher than normal mortality.  Ugh!  Poor guys, I feel bad, they have been pulling these ridic shifts for nothing really. 

I have been preparing for operations here in Alor.  Checking on the health of the oysters, getting the building cleaned and ready to go.  Oh we are so ready to start.  However!  The 7 Bali technicians that were meant to arrive today are stuck in Kupang as their flight was cancelled.  So we will take it easy and not operate too many nets tomorrow afternoon.  Just start off slow.  The ops will last for around two weeks here so I will be busy!  On top of that, its soon to be the end of the month, and lots of paperwork is due at the end of the month.  So it has been and will be a bit manic around here. 

In my few hours off though, I have been studying Indonesian with an electrician here on Mondays.  He may be teaching me a bit too formal than my basic course book is teaching me.  Maybe because I’m his boss?  Could be.  It’s a bit confusing, I just want to learn basic bahasa, I don’t want to have to talk to the government or anything.  On my Saturday nights off I have been enjoying one large beer and TV show and that is a pretty great Saturday night off for me.  I walked into the village the other day and just got one beer at the shop.  At the shop they all thought it was funny me buying just 1 beer for myself.  I’m just finishing the series Revenge and its pretty great.  I can download my shows at night from the internet and then watch them the next day now so it works for me.  I’m onto the 3^rd Hunger Games book already!  They are for children and are short, but I still enjoy them.  I thought the second book was great, and hope they don’t butcher the movie.  Mutiara kids is still happening on Sundays.  The amount of kids that come has really weaned down though.  Last week just 15 and this week 8.  We have been learning the names of flowers and singing children songs. 

I am getting excited for my leave in August/September.  I get to see my family in Seattle and explore some of NE with James on the boat.  I just ordered a yogurt maker online too and will pick that up when I get to WA.  Will be great to experiment with that and have fresh yogurt everyday.  Can’t wait!  I am feeling so out of touch with the world and the news at the moment.  I’m so wrapped up into work on the farm, definitely could use a break. 

Alor fam

Jackfruit and I. They are huge! Vegetable and boiled when green, and a fruit when brown.  Pretty good both ways!

 

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Jackfruit on the tree look so funny.  That is all I will say about that!  The star fruit tree next to my room is going crazy.  Picked 12 yesterday and made a fruit salad for everyone.  No one likes star fruit here though, too bitter they say.  I love it, there are plenty for me!







The windy isle

I’ve been bad about blogging once again!  Really meant to catch up last week, but I’ve been pretty busy.  Transfer went ok.  A bit manic.  I was out there on the boat every day but the last day, as I had to do work for the operations session coming up.  And of course on the last day we have all these problems!  We have had to go back and recount several lines again as no one really knows what is hung on the line at the moment.

My big boss has been visiting the farm twice in the last two weeks.  He was here once to meet with the government and the second time to bring our CFO out to see the site.  After his visits here, we found out we are doing a lot of small things wrong.  So now its essential Daniel and I go out first thing in the morning every day to the cleaning boats (6 am) and then again at the beginning of the second shift every day at 1 pm.  Each time for 2 hours and then I dive and carry on with the rest of my operations activities after visiting the boats.  A bit too regimented for me as every day I was getting out on the cleaning boats on my own time anyways.  So ya days are a lot longer now.  I try to catch a nap over lunch.  Up at 5 and try to get to sleep by 8.  Feel like my dad! 

It has still been blustering windy and I still don’t have a sailboat.  The guy is a bit of a drunk, he prob forgot.  Glad I didn’t pay up front!  I have been downloading TV series from the internet now.  No viruses so far!  Knock on wood!  Getting into the show Revenge.  Last Sunday I made a huge twister game out of a large tarp for the kids to review our body parts and colors and we have been learning about.  We they really liked it, but were more into the game and not remembering the English words for the body parts and colors.  I would say right hand red, and they would look at me stumped until I said it in Indonesian, tangan kanan merah.  This Sunday off we have a break from the kids and next Sunday we will learn about flowers and make flowers by cutting up straws.  Going to have a water day for them at some point, I got some ideas off of teacher’s websites online.  We also bought them some chalk and dyed it with our printer ink, so they can draw on the concrete.  Kind of getting into the Mutiara Kids lately.  Still not too great with kids or anything, I don’t want to be a teacher anytime soon mom!  Just feeling like they have been deprived never playing a game of twister or never having done a field day or an obstacle course.  Gotta share the love right!  lol! 

This weekend there is a mini-festival or what we would consider a fair in the town of Kalabahi.  Nothing major, just the islands businesses get a booth to show their wares and the village people (like highland villages, in traditional dress) come and dance and things of that nature.  Well it is the thing to do and the place to be on Alor, let me tell you.  We heard we were invited on Wednesday and on Saturday we were meant to have a booth ready and prepared for the activities.  Well we got it together, Lita got it together, and it looked really great.  We had plans to go at 6 pm for the open ceremonies, and we got in our uniforms, put our pearls on and were ready to go.  Well Daniel was still asleep at 5 and couldn’t watch the baby, so we took Lita’s 2 month old baby to this grubby festival with all the locals and highland villagers in traditional dress with spears and all.  Not a place to a 2 month old baby at night being pushed around in a stroller.  Got home from the event late too around 9:30 and the baby is screaming and crying its eyes out.  Not happy to say the least. 

In other news!  I took another outing out to the supermarket in Kalabahi this week.  Got a ride in our car with the logistics crew while they were getting water refilled.  I waited a pretty long time for them at this grocery store, met the owner, and had 2 amazing yogurt ice cream bars.  Good to get out and about though.  On Tuesday I met with the electrician again to practice some bahasa.  Went good, again he was helpful with my grammar.  I get it all mixed up in Indonesian!  I explained to him about apostrophes and how to use them in English.  I’m definitely not the best English teacher in the world, don’t get me wrong. 

I have booked my plane tickets for my next leave in Aug/Sept.  I fly to and from Seattle, and it’s a pretty easy flight.  Excited about that.  Don’t lose too much time flying this trip.  I will stay in Seattle for a few days and then head out to Boston (I think?) to stay with James on the boat and maybe move it farther south.  Ready for my leave, to have some time off, see my family, spend some time with James, and see a bit of New England.  I’ve never been up there before.  Looking forward to the seafood!  He had 3 course meal with a whole lobster the other night for $15.  I guess lobsters are cheaper up there than in FL.  Only $5/lb in the grocery stores.  Well that’s all from me.  Today I will lounge about, watch some TV shows, and maybe do some yoga.  One of our workers is getting married this afternoon in the village, but I can’t really be bothered to go.  Will be quite a busy event and I had my share of that last night with the festival/fair in Kalabahi.  Also finished reading the Queen’s Fool and I am onto the second book in the Hunger Games series.  Can’t put it down!  Already halfway through and I just started it yesterday!

BBQ chicken, squid, and fish




Our group at the fair





King and Queen of Alor




Tini and I. I have a nice pearl necklace on but you can't really see it!



At work, group effort to sew nets

Roots and things used to dye the cotton for the weavings

The local Alor weavings

Traditional woman's dress

Babies! Babies!

Daniel’s wife and baby arrived this week.  Kiandra is the baby’s name.  She is pretty good, sleeps a lot, eats a lot, and is a little fussy, but not screaming crying or anything.  I wear ear plugs at night and I don’t hear anything, but Daniel says she makes a lot of little noises at night and keeps him up.  I crocheted her a soft little girl hat and she likes and needs for these chilly evenings we have been having.  A new pattern and everything, I am getting pretty good at this crochet business.  Wonder what I will whip up this week?  Tomek is back as well, so we are one big happy family again.  Tomek will only be here for a bit though, as he goes on leave in the beginning of July.  My big boss is here for the weekend for some meetings with the government too.  It’s a full house.  Daniel’s wife brought the new Modern Family and Game of Thrones series so that will keep us busy for a while.  My boss also brought me some granola from Bali.  It’s the little pleasures that matter out here!  Just found out today one of our boats got hit by a tanker and caused major damage, so we are down one boat to transfer shells.  That will delay the operations in Lembata and we might do the ops in Alor earlier then.  Oh it’s all up in the air as usual!  Sugi is on the way to Lembata now, but will just check the shells and then return back to Alor most likely.  I’m feeling stressed again as its nearing the end of the month and the stocktake is due and my end of the month report is due this week.  Ugh!  So I will be busy on the computer this week.  I have been stepping up and being a member of our one man dive team too.  Last week I did 4 dives and this next week another 2.  We only have one local diver now and Daniel or I when we can help out.  The plan next week is to move some oysters around and consolidate them on the lines.  A bit of a mission.  Then I will be preparing for operations at the end of the week. 

I met with the electrician’s assistant this past week to help him practice his English and he helped me with my bahasa.  Went pretty well really.  I was in a good mood afterwards like he made some things clearer for me and fixed the way I order the words around.  So it was helpful.  We will meet on Mondays after work to do some practice.  I am not making a big lesson or anything, I will just study from this course book I found online and he can practice his English from that.  It went well with the kids this Sunday.  It’s good to have Lita back in the game, she is really good with them.  We did some review of the clothes lesson last week, went over our recycling program here, and then talked about parts of the body.  I thought I was going to teach them that song…head, shoulders, knees, toes, knees, toes…. But they already know the song in Indonesian!  So that’s good we did it in both Indo and English.  Next week I will make up a game of twister for them from some tarps and we can practice our body parts, left/right, and colors.  They should like that.  Lita, her baby, the hatchery manager, her baby, and I all went on a walk this Sunday morning in the village to go see the office girl and her newborn baby.  Oh babies!  Fun to be with the girls and get out and go for a walk.  When we showed up at Mila’s house, the girl from the office, she was so excited to see us and have some company.  She has been pent up at the house now for a month and 2 more months to go before she comes back to work.  Oh and with all these babies, I am thinking I am not ready for a baby just yet.  It’s really 24/7, not sure I’m ready.  My boyfriend will be glad to hear that!  Let’s just get married first and think about babies later!  lol  My friends, Justin and Roric, from the states are in Bali this week and I would love to take off and visit, but its kind of a bad time, I can’t just up and take time off right now.  I need to be here for the operations and moving these oysters.  I wish I could go and explore Bali with them though!  Frustrating!  Almost finished with this book I’m reading, and I am not loving it, just want to finish it.  I want to get on with reading the next Hunger Games book!  That’s all from me!  The weeks are going by pretty fast.  I look forward to Sundays my day to relax and its usually just a day or two away.                

Daniel's wife, Lita on left. Hatchery manager, Mulia on right

Kiandra (Daniel's baby) on left, and office manager's baby, Kayla on right

At Mila's house. Mila on right and Mulia on left.  Everyone with their babies! Mila also has the 3 yr old boy in the striped shirt. 

Minggu bagus!

I’m in a really great mood at the moment.  Like really good!  Had a great day today.  Well its Sunday so that’s a given it was a good day off of work.  But also had a good chat with my boyfriend, did some yoga, lounged around all day, and had a great session with the kids this afternoon.  More on that later.  The weeks are going by pretty quickly.  In Bahasa...Minggu minggu jalan oleh cepat.  Ya its a weird language.  This week we were pretty busy.  Moving and consolidating shells one day, another day of Sugi and I recounting several longlines.  I did a dive with Daniel and our local diver to fix two twisted long lines.  On Friday I did another dive today with the diver to check out the number and color code on this long line.  The cleaning boats that clean the lines keep getting all mixed up on the colors and numbers of oysters that are actually on the line.  Its frustrating.  But we can either go with the cleaning boat and raise the line and recount, or dive the line to check the color code and number.  Daniel went to Bali to pick up his wife and their baby and won't be back until Tuesday.  Hoping he will come with my DVDs and some granola!  We'll see though!  Fingers crossed.  Not sure how our sleep will work out with a newborn in the next room, again we’ll have to wait and see.  I forgot to mention in my last post that I have finally made it to the two big supermarkets in our little town of Kalabahi.  No peanut butter, what I was really hoping for!  The way I see it on this island, supermarkets are for luxurious items and things you can splurge on.  Food staples, like chicken and fish, you get in your local village.  Like in these supermarkets there is a whole aisle of potato chips, and a whole separate aisle of cookies in the five aisles of the store!  I have bought a few nice boxes of apple juice and cans of fruit cocktail which are amazing.  It’s the little things!  lol 

I have become obsessed with the song Somebody that I used to know by Gotye.  Its stuck in my head all day every day!  Finally broke down and got the song for free on Itunes.  I think the song is on the radio at home?  I’m crocheting a new beanie now and starting from the top so we'll see how it goes.  I tried to learn from this other lady on youtube, but had to go back to my old standby Bob Wilson's channel on crochetting on you tube.  She is great.  I’ll stick with her from now on.  She always uses bright colored yarn so I can see the stitches and goes really slow.  The weather is getting really nice here.  No rain, less windy at midday, and the water is really clear now too.  

So with the kiddos today we learned about clothes and things you wear.  Thought about drawing a picture of a girl on the board and describing what she is wearing, but then I had a better idea!  First we went over the basic words, like shirt, shorts, pants, shoes.  Earlier I had cut some non-provocative pics out of my magizines and we pointed out what the people were wearing and what color things were.  They were really getting it.  Then!  I told them there was a small test and I would be right back.  I put on a good 7 layers of clothes in my room, and then they had to say and write down everything I was wearing.  They really liked it and thought it was funny I had a dress, pants, a hat, sunglasses, t-shirt, tank top, shorts, sunglasses, a scarf, and a jacket all on at the same time.  I have been helping Tini out with this recycling project we are starting.  We are just making the bins and labels for the different items.  Thanks for the fiberglass and epoxy lesson at home dad!  We bought some sticky paper with the back that peeled off, for the project and then printed pictures off the computer onto the sticker paper.  Well we had all these off cuts and scraps, and I thought the kids would just love to color on these and make stickers.  So we did that too, and again they really liked it and were all proud to stick them on their books and themselves.  What kid doesn’t like stickers right?  lol  Oh in other news!  I am getting a sailboat!  Made from this drunken fisherman in the village, Hasam Boleh.  Not too thrilled about the price, $55, I’m getting ripped because I’m a foreigner, but I will still be getting a sailboat next week.  Sweet!  It will have a nice sail, oar, and even a rudder.  Pics to come later!  Well that’s all from me!  Don’t forget about father’s day on Sunday!  My dad is off on his own in the San Blas islands braving the storms out there on the boat.

Working with the fiber glass guys on the recycling project

One of our cleaning boats

Our baby on the site at the moment, Adel, the hatchery manager's daughter

Hatchery girls at work

Unloading oysters to get consolidated into new nets

To recap the last few crazy weeks...

So I’m sorry it has been forever since I have blogged.  Sounds like I am in church.  I’m sorry father it has been forever since my last confession!  Haha!  Anyways I have been swamped at work and haven’t had the time after work to sit down and type.  So back to my birthday on May 23.  We had a bbq that night with all of the tech girls that I work with.  They made a new hot sauce (sambal) that I really like called bling ding.  Its like a sweet bruschetta more than a hot sauce.  The little things around here, like discovering you love a new hot sauce, make all the difference!  I didn’t get thrown off the dock like they usually do on your birthday, so that was a plus.  I have been wanting to try bettle nut.  Bettle nut is kind of like the local tobacco.  It’s a nut that turns red when you chew it with chalk and some kind of green twig.  It makes you feel a bit loopy and you can’t feel your mouth (kind of like novocain at the dentist).  Well I didn’t want to try it in front of everyone in case it made me do something stupid.  So the other night Daniel and I sat on our porch and I tried it.  Badly!  I don’t have bettle nut chewing skills what so ever!  You are only supposed to chew it on one side of your mouth and don’t swallow at all!  Tastes horrible.  Well ya I was drooling and chewing it all in my mouth and spitting it down my leg.  Tried 2 different nuts, first one was sour and bad I think, and the second was still bad.  I’m not a big fan of the bettle nut chewing.  Tomek is a regular pro chewing at work and stuff.  Lol! 

A friend of the family that reads this blog was asking for more details about the process and what actually goes on to seed oysters to make pearls.  Well I’m sorry but I don’t think I can talk about that part of my job freely on the internet because of trade secrets and all.  Its all confidential.  Not even sure if I can be writing this blog really!  So I try to keep it brief when it comes to what I actually do at my work.  Just give you guys an overall idea.  Sorry I can’t divulge more!

The xray session is now finished in Alor.  The machine is packed up and sent back to Bali.  There were a few mistakes along the way like mixing two separate groups together and things, but overall it went pretty well and we finished on time.  Now it is just business as usual with the normal cleaning schedule until we start operations here in August.  My new vacation time is now in Aug/Sept so I can be in Alor for the ops session here.  I plan on seeing my family in Washington and spending some time with James in New England (somewhere?) over my break.  I may be staying in North Bali when I come back from leave, as they have a few crazy months of operations there.  More on the work front, we had one of our ships come to Alor last Sunday and bring us oysters.  They have already been seeded so they will just be grown out here.  Was quite a day, my first unloading.  Started at 4am and finished about 2pm.  At the first it was easy, one tank got unloaded and hung on one long line.  And then towards the end it got super sloppy with lots of small groups hung where ever!  We will sort it out in the coming months.  So these early mornings at work have left me sick.  I have a bit of a cold and I don’t even think I caught it from anyone but myself.  We didn’t have a day off last week so we have been working non-stop.  I am just all congested and tired.  Rested some this weekend though as we were back to our normal schedule with half day off on Saturday and the whole day off on Sunday. 

I have still been doing Mutiara Kids with this girl Tini helping.  It’s a bit manic.  Loads of kids show up and they are just naughty.  Yelling, kicking each other, crying.  Just bad.  They wanted to celebrate my birthday and we gave them each a little package of rice and they were all hitting each other and crying because they thought they wouldn’t get one.  Even though there was enough for everyone.  I made them an obstacle course that day and it was the first one that they had done ever I think and they liked it.  I just got done with them today and I sent this boy home early because he was being a brat.  He hit someone when we were playing a game so I had the 2 boys sit out, and then during another game he kicked someone after he said he was going to be good.  Well I set an example of him and had security escort him right out.  I said, “Dua kali!?”  Ya dua kali, kamu pulan.  Sampai jumpa minggu depan.  Means…2 times!  Yes 2 times, you go home.  See you next week.  Oh I was pissed!  So ya he better be good next week. 

I haven’t had any luck getting a sailboat.  In March it was going to be cheap, and now in June they upped the price because they found out a foreigner wanted it.  So it was $25 and now its up to $70!  Def not worth $70 and I don’t want them to feel like they can rip off a foreigner, so I can just do without.  Its super windy here in the afternoons and it kind of kills me a bit that I can’t be out zooming around the bay in the wind.  Grr…. Maybe later I will get one.  I haven’t been studying my Indonesian either.  I should be studying more, you can tell my vocab is slacking.  Just takes a lot of effort after sitting behind my desk all day to sit down and study.  I’m not in school anymore you know!  I have been crochetting up a storm lately.  I have made a hat, a scarf (until I ran out of the yarn!), and a head band so far.  Really enjoying it too.  So grandma of me!  I have been getting along with Daniel well, Tomek is still in Lembata covering for a guy that works there who is on vacation.  Daniel and I have been watching this TV series called Homeland and really getting into it.  Its pretty good.  Today we took a boat out and snorkeled near outside of bay.  It was a great snorkeling/dive spot, beautiful colorful healthy reef.  Our compressor is broken at the moment so we just went for a snorkel.  Below are some pics of people at my work.  Enjoy!  I will try to get better at keeping up with this blog.  Sorry!

Birthday loot!

Normal scene of me in the office



Traditional dress for a government event in Kalabahi




At xray



Our carpenter team





Tomek and the hatchery crew





My tech team




Our big bad security guys




Local market on site



Oh the bettle nut!

Birthday Week!

My birthday is on Wednesday and it won’t be much of a hoopla as it has been in years past.  I have a few gifts to unwrap but that’s it.  Just low key.  Usually they throw people off the dock for their birthdays so I am trying to keep it under the radar so I don’t get tossed off the dock either!  Xraying the oysters has been going well this week.  Had a small report due too.  We also had Thursday off for some holiday.  Was windy and rainy in the afternoon but no worries to me it was nice to sleep in and have a relaxing day.  Sugi will leave next week for Lembata to prepare for operations there.  I will be running the xray and operations show here for a month.  Hoping she can come back and forth from Lembata but she might have to stay there as its expensive to fly her to and fro. 

I finished the Hunger Games.  Great book!  Watched the movie with Tomek and it was a horrible copy from Bali recorded in the theater but the movie was still crap.  It didn’t do the book any kind of justice.  You just didn’t get the same feeling as reading the book.  But I did speed through that book so I will take a break before reading the next one.  Now I am reading a book by the author of the Other Boleyn Girl.  Its pretty good so far.

I also finished crocheting my beanie.  Turned out pretty cute.  Had to do it two tone orange and blue (War Eagle or Go Gators!  lol!).  I was searching for a scarf pattern on youtube and I found a great one.  Has all these hard double crochet stitches, but I did it step by step with this woman and I figured it out!  I’m a regular crochet pro now!  The scarf is going to be pretty awesome!  There is a pic of the woman on the front of the yarn label with a scarf on and the instructions are on the back of label.  So I need 2 balls of the stuff to make a scarf!  Dang it!  I’m still a newbie at this!  Frusturating I won’t be able to finish it, but I will do as much as I can and then finish it in August on my next trip back to the states when I can buy more yarn.             

News on the small sailing canoe I am trying to buy.  I have seen the perfect one that I want just off our back yard and I saw a young boy in it today.  A sailing canoe is called a kapal liair it turns out.  So I think I managed to figure out that this boy’s dad made this canoe and he will ask his dad to come to the site and ask for me so I can see about him making one for me.  Baby steps!  Has been really windy here in the afternoons and perfect sailing weather.  No one really sails for fun, they just sail to get to their fishing spot or to get across the bay quickly. 

I did yoga this morning on the porch.  It was so nice and peaceful this morning.  Mutiara kids this afternoon.  Only about 20 so manageable for just Tini and I.  I did this great antonym lesson that I thought was a good idea.  We went over words like big and small in Indonesian and English.  Its hard because it’s a good mix of kids older than 8 and younger than 5 so the little ones struggled and the older ones kind of got it.  Went over a lot of words and then they got to draw a picture explaining 2 words.  Like tall and short, big and small, or thin and fat.  About a handful of kids got the picture drawing.  The ones that did, did a good job though.  One girl is really good and drew a really great detailed picture but I guess she won the prize last week too, so I had to skip her this week!  I gave this other little girl a set of legos for the winning drawing and she was really happy.  We tried to play freeze tag after the drawing but it was some weird Indo version of freeze tag I don’t really get.  More like Red Rover, Red Rover, Send ___ right over game.  Still they had a fun time I think.  Will have to think of something else easier for them next week!

The vacation is over..

Sorry for not blogging for a while but I was back home in Florida visiting James and parents who were also home.  It was really a quick trip and very exhausting, but def worth it to have a break and see everyone.  Next time I am on leave I will have to practice my bahasa every day because it is lacking now that I didn’t speak it for that month back home.  At home, the boat James works on was down in Riviera Beach and kept in dry dock for a few weeks.  So we were commuting an hour a day to and fro to do work on the boat.  We did go to a music festival downtown and had a good night out with friends.  A couple good days of fishing, went to a baseball game, spent some time at the beach, and met up with friends.  I did get all my food cravings in as well!  Mexican, Indian, Italian, BBQ, sushi, steaks, etc!  It was great! 

I was sad to leave home with my parents there and James actually in the same state for once.  But have to remember that was a fluke, they all don’t live there all the time.  I left from Orlando and I did finally make it back to Indo.  It did take three days of flying though.  On the second day of flying we flew over Alor (last flight of the trip) and it was too stormy to land, so we had to turn around and head back to Kupang.  So I was stuck in Kupang for a night at a semi sketchy hotel.  I’m not really a fan of Kupang, a bit rough around the edges for me.  When I did arrive in Alor I made it just in time for the Saturday meeting.  These meeting with all the department heads are now taking about 2 hours.  Its good though that everyone is talking out their problems and work is getting done.  I have been messed up from the time change for about a week now.  When I first got here it was to bed at 9 pm up at 5 am!  I’m back in the groove now though and wake up without my alarm these days. 

The next day after I arrived we all spent Sunday morning at the beach.  A smaller crew than last time and a beach closer to us near the airport.  I rode with Tomek (he is a better driver now after more practice) on the motor bike/dirt bike.  We only spent a few hours there and then half hour drive back home.  Its not that nice of a beach.  The water is murky and there isn’t much of a beach.  Very local though, its packed every weekend.  For Mutiara kids on Sunday about 40 kids showed up.  So much for the 10 kids I was expecting.  Attendance has been falling over the past couple weeks I’ve heard.  But I think the word is out that I’m back.  I had a bunch of old magazines I was finished with so I let the kids tear them up and glue bits together to make collages.  At first they had a hard time ripping up magazines like they wanted just to look at all the pictures in the pretty book, but in the end they were loving it.  I had to pick two of the best (hard to do!) and gave them prizes from my mom back home.  The staff here wanted to keep the collages as evidence that they did something with the kids that day, but I said oh no!  And let the kids take them home to their families.  They were so proud, they had never made anything like that before.

My first week back at work went well.  We are busy xraying oysters for another two weeks.  Just found out we have to cram more oysters into the plan too.  I am planning operations in Lembata and Alor for June and July.  I was stressed at first, but Nic helped me get it all sorted.  Nic wants me to take care of seeing these operations run smoothly as he is busy in Bali with ops there.  Think Sugi is glad I am back.  I’ve been helping here out and overseeing the xray room some of the time as well.  She is taking an English communications course at the school in the town here.  She wants to get better at English for talking to Tomek and I. 

Tomek has been super busy making budgets and things, so I went to a meeting for him this past week.  It was to see the ibu-ibu (mothers) about why we no longer have a local market that comes here anymore.  It was at 4 pm when I had been working all day and I wasn’t enthused to go, but it turned out to be a cool experience.  The human resources girl and I met with about 15 of these farming ladies on the porch of this old lady’s house.  They were all chewing and spitting bettle nut and had their young kids laying on the ground while they picked out the lice from their hair.  Cute!  The head lady spoke to me like I was someone of privilege and was saying all these things…well I had no idea was she was talking about!  The human resources girl I went with told me later that there was a problem with the kitchen on site and when they brought things to sell the women in the kitchen would say, oh no we don’t want that, we don’t need that.  Also a problem setting the prices of things so that was sorted out in a shouting match between all the ladies for a bit too.  Glad I went and got to be a part of it actually. 

Had a pretty productive weekend this weekend.  I am reading The Hunger Games, and just loving it!  Hard to put it down.  I am about to finish it and I only started reading it a week ago.  That is fast for me!  I don’t zoom through books usually.  I bought a bad copy of the movie that was recorded in the theater, but its still something so I am looking forward to watching that after I finish the book.  I have also been crocheting a beanie.  Its turning out pretty good too for my first one.  I’m not doing it the ordinary way I guess (thanks you tube videos!) and starting from the top.  I started from the bottom and was able to close it up at the top.  Will post pics when its finished.  Daniel bought a fancy mountain bike and said Tomek and I could use it while is gone.  I went on a bit of a bike ride today on our horrible rocky roads.  Went down the road a ways and then bought some things at the local shop.  All the kids were out and about and were hollering at Ibu Tanya!  Haha!  Speaking of Daniel, his wife Lita had her baby, Kiandra.  She looks just like Lita too.  Will be fun to have her back here in August with the new baby.  No Mutiara Kids today as it was rainy.  I hung out with a few of the kids earlier on our swing out back.  They are so cute and just wanted to play.  I really thought this was the dry season now, but it has been monsoon raining here in the afternoons the past few days.  I like it rainy though when I’m cooped up watching TV, reading my book, or crocheting.  Well that’s all from this side of the world.  Hope all is well where you are!