A price on my head

20 Oct Fri

Thomas tells me that Pak Biwa has learnt that Yogi at the village has made an offer to vso to teach me good Bahasia Indonesia in three weeks (dia sedang bercanda!?) for 5million Rupiah (£300)! Sounds improbable price (I think he is wanting to buy a motorbike) and Yogi though a nice enough bloke has a touch of the Mr Bean about him and I doubt he could teach a cow to moo in that time – must get an email of to vso with my concerns.
Waiting for Pak Biwa to return with his currently borrowed m’bike I prepare a salad sandwich lunch with boiled egg to take with us to the village. No Biwa though so T joins me for a picnic in the cool(ish) courtyard of the hostel. He is missing Alice, and her cooking despite frequent texting.
Off to village afterwards along the busy streets with all the traffic, mostly motorbikes and the scenery, mostly advertisements until we turn of the main road for last two kilometres through the paddy fields and little villages. We find Pak TO ensconced with a local policeman and a reporter. We inspect with TO the house intended for me once again and list the furnishings and fly-proofing that I want – all settled and TO texts the owner who rejects the suggestion (someone standing up to TO! Or just worried that the finance might not come through? So Pak TO to look elsewhere, and would living with a family be ok? Yes could be if I have my own private room and can cook my own food (I later hear from Biwa that residents are being offered up to 1.5 million Rph to take me on and that Pak TO has asked both vso and Biwa if they will pay!). Language training by Yogi, who allegedly has an agreement with vso already(?) – I say that for only the five or six months that I am here I cannot learn enough to get by without an interpreter for meetings etc and anyway a more specialist teacher in Jogya, used to training foreigners would be more effective if needed. I note that I want a further meeting with the parish chairman (dukuh) and also with TO himself about the five houses funded by the banks. TO happy. Has TO been invited by Ben to visit Tempi in Bantul district with me to see some prototype (bamboo) houses? Apparently not but he would be happy, end of discussion. Which bike do I intend to use? The big black one, it wll frighten other traffic. Internet access? “no” (despite what I saw on his computer while he was away) but Internet café only a kilometre away (I make it three but with the bike should be ok?).No dvd drive on his computer but he hands me a usb flash thing to use for transferring data. Invited to village fete affair on Monday, start of Idri whatsit holiday week – I will be collected at the hostel 9.30 am (any bets?).

Back to town before dark I hoped but in town centre its night-time and the bike lights are not working, “never mind, most of the streets here have lights”. Mrs Wati is waiting in some deserted car park to wish me a happy birthday and a few kisses. Back to the hostel for a surprise birthday cake and sit about with Biwa, Wati and Thomas to relay the day’s events – they are sad to lose me but understand that I feel it necessary to be in the village where I am working and I am welcome to stay whenever visiting Jogya city. *pm and with T and the suspect bike to ‘via via’ a Belgian run café fitted out by architect Eko in his Arts and Crafts meets Post-Modernism in a Java flavour style – attractive and with English being spoken in Gallic accents by the customers. Service friendly but not too good. Food good though, I picked Indonesian chicken curry. The live jazz had been cancelled, getting ready for next weeks holiday closure but we had a strolling latin American group standing in. And so to bed…..