Heaving violence upon the violently ill
I've been here a week and have been going nuts since I touched down. I've never joined an organization that so quickly threw you into the fire. Having just got off the plane, a thoroughly-enjoyed wonderful and culturally-sensitive handshake, and a short trip to the office, i shook a few hands and was then cornered by someone who went off talking about integrating the database (of which I knew nothing as yet), with his GIS/GPS/blah blah blah data and producing some 8 layer 3-D smello-vision graphical display of where houses are going up, complete with what's on the telly at the time. My inside voice said, 'Dude, First off...I just got off the plane, I have no idea what you are talking about, and second, on a more technical note, the database is in Access, we're not building Google friggin Earth!" Of course, my outside voice was a lot of uh-huhs with a soupcon of jetlag to taste.
Fortunately, after 20 minutes of that (Welcome to Banda Aceh!), I found out that I might just feed that system and not have to manage all that. Whew!
That was one of the first things you realise - everyone is really motivated about what they do - enthusiasm is rampant and can be a little frightening!
Since then, I've been learning the ropes, checking things out, drinking kopious amounts of kopi and working. I seem to have adopted the 10-12 hour standard.
I've also experienced a few tasty treats, and have learned a valuable lesson:
When you eat what everyone else has, and drink what everyone else does, there is no guarantee you will react the same as everyone else does...
Last Saturday's day-old tuna-sushi and a couple of strong Gin & Tasties, seemed to react and cause a volcanoe of heretofore unexperienced eruptions, at least in my life. I seriously thought I would end up seeing my intenstines themselves pour into the porcelin by the end of it. Those fun times knocked me out for the whole of Sunday until the bodily functions finally completed the deal Sunday night with a final purging whimper before I was back to 100%.
Other than that, it's been good to be hanging out with Kelly (and having someone pack the bags while I was incapacitated and needed to switch houses). The people in the office seem good too. Haven't had time to figure how life works here yet, as it's been all office->home->office all the time.
I must say, some days have been tough, some things are annoying, but it's soooo much better when you realize that any b.s. going around still sucks, of course, but at least you're part of helping people get their lives back together. The damage done really is incomprehensible.
Went to a local village the other day to see a town hall meeting at the mosque to discuss points about the program - really really interesting, odd and helpful... more on that later
Off to Singapore for a couple of days and the Taiwan to see Kevin for a couple more days before getting right back into the grind.
Fortunately, after 20 minutes of that (Welcome to Banda Aceh!), I found out that I might just feed that system and not have to manage all that. Whew!
That was one of the first things you realise - everyone is really motivated about what they do - enthusiasm is rampant and can be a little frightening!
Since then, I've been learning the ropes, checking things out, drinking kopious amounts of kopi and working. I seem to have adopted the 10-12 hour standard.
I've also experienced a few tasty treats, and have learned a valuable lesson:
When you eat what everyone else has, and drink what everyone else does, there is no guarantee you will react the same as everyone else does...
Last Saturday's day-old tuna-sushi and a couple of strong Gin & Tasties, seemed to react and cause a volcanoe of heretofore unexperienced eruptions, at least in my life. I seriously thought I would end up seeing my intenstines themselves pour into the porcelin by the end of it. Those fun times knocked me out for the whole of Sunday until the bodily functions finally completed the deal Sunday night with a final purging whimper before I was back to 100%.
Other than that, it's been good to be hanging out with Kelly (and having someone pack the bags while I was incapacitated and needed to switch houses). The people in the office seem good too. Haven't had time to figure how life works here yet, as it's been all office->home->office all the time.
I must say, some days have been tough, some things are annoying, but it's soooo much better when you realize that any b.s. going around still sucks, of course, but at least you're part of helping people get their lives back together. The damage done really is incomprehensible.
Went to a local village the other day to see a town hall meeting at the mosque to discuss points about the program - really really interesting, odd and helpful... more on that later
Off to Singapore for a couple of days and the Taiwan to see Kevin for a couple more days before getting right back into the grind.
Comments
Let me know if you want stories about the big 'D' though, and I'll be happy to comply
Let me know when you get that Access db integrated with Google Maps via geocoding; sounds perfect.
We're still waiting for you to track down the mystery of the Safaris, so we can put our minds at rest -- but that can wait 'til you get your feet firmly on the ground.
Somehow, the idea of you working a 12-h day is ... a little disconcerting.