The end of more than one world

Meeting in office


Girls at watercourse


Big Man, Big Bike

17 April


Resistance to the provision of kitchen areas and toilets for the five vso houses continues, not of course from the intended recipients but by the builder in chief Bapak Ratiman whose own new house nearing completion must surely be the biggest in the village and one of only a handful with enough confidence in their construction to rise two stories high. Following a confrontation with him I had a word with Pak T.O. who arranged a meeting with Ratiman and the reconstruction team. I waited in case called upon, in the veranda outside the office where I could hear the discussion, which was inevitably in the Javanese language so quite meaningless to me. At all events Ratiman appeared to leave the meeting a very unhappy man so we wait to see the consequences. Mind you, a delegation led by T.O. has now gone to Bali for a vso/spark meeting and could be doing some lobbying – I hope Lily at HQ keeps me informed.

On the star-ship Enterprise there is a rule about not getting involved with life on other planets, simply to study it, record it then go home. With vso I guess there is a deliberate attempt to get involved, sharing knowledge and skills but there is much to be said for not getting too involved for everyone’s sake. As with China I have effortlessly been able to ignore the beggars at the traffic lights and in the shopping streets, telling myself that they are part of another world and I should not be involved. These thoughts all arise from a looming disaster at the laundry, not from original doubts about being able to attract enough customers but from the technical limits of how many customers can be dealt with. At present there is a bottle neck caused by the time taken to dry clothes between the washing machine and the ironing table, a tumble drier would solve that problem, with the next problem probably being the time needed for ironing and packing. Hurried calculations suggest that the income necessary to pay for the lease and all the essential outgoings cannot realistically be achieved by the next big payment date in October and to save for it they need 2 or 3 times their present takings before even paying for food and running expenses. They are considering the tumble drier option but it looks unlikely and it may prove better to agree with the landlady a departure date before October by which time other employment may have been found but we will see.

So, on to Senang Hati, the residential disabled training centre in Bali where they are asking me to visit and advise on their planned new buildings. Advice remains easy, it’s the consequences that can bite you in the bum, but the offer to visit Senang Hati again is too great to refuse so I am likely to call in on my way to catch my flight back to England (not that vso have managed to arrange the tickets yet or even the malaria tablets which are about to run out)

So now I have very mixed feelings about my departure and am drawing up a list of things that must be done (closing the bank account, sorting the vso property, composing a farewell speech etc) and things I would like to do (try to get up close to Merapi again, see the bamboo cabins I was involved with and so on)

Maybe only one more report from Java – its hard to believe, sad but inevitable, I should be old enough and wise enough by now not to get emotional at such a time but some people never grow up.