Tuesday morning was a busy one for me. Actually, the entire day was busy but one thing at a time. I went with Anggun to a little copy place on the ITB campus where the guy makes copies of textbooks and sells them for a quarter of the price. Textbooks here are much cheaper to begin with, about $20 a book. So this place basically sells textbooks for about $5 each. He even binds them so that they look like actual books. The only difference is that all the images are in black and white instead of color. I picked out several titles and he found one of them. So I got a book on soil improvement for about $4.
After this, we went over to the geology museum. It's a really nice museum since Indonesia has all the goelogical features you would ever want to see. We spent a lot of time hunting down a geology map for Padang though so we didn't get to walk through the exhibits. I got to the shuttle bus place with about 5 minutes to spare.
I walked around the airport for a bit trying to find cheap food. I settled on just getting some bread because everything else was too ridiculously expensive. I decided to go check in early. This was a good choice since I found out that the Batavia flies out of Terminal B instead of A. I had only taken Lion Air before and all of their flights go in and out of Terminal A. So I had to walk all the way over to Terminal B. Actually, there was no rush because the flight was delayed.
Batavia is much nicer than Lion Air. The seats were more comfortable and they handed out water and bread. But I ended up sitting next to this mom with a toddler who wouldn't stop moving around. He was extremely energic.
I didn't sleep very much during this flight because I was worried about not making dinner with Professor Febrin. He had invited me to come to dinner with him and a professor from ITB. I didn't know where it was and when they were meeting. By the time I got out of the airport at Padang, it was about 6:30pm. Fengky hadn't gotten any confirmation so I didn't get off when the bus passed near the construction clinic. As soon as we passed the clinic, I got a call from Fengky that dinner was at 8pm (in about 20 minutes). So I ended up getting off at my dorm and then Fengky picked me up from there. At this point, I am still carrying a ton of stuff in my backpack and haven't stepped inside the house.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Bandung! Part 1
--- written on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 ---
This past Sunday, we got up for another 6am flight to Jakarta. This time, we did not leave the airport and got on a shuttle bus to Bandung. We had to wait an hour and a half after we got to the airport though because these minibuses get full very quickly. Lesson learned, book the shuttle while waiting for your luggage. Better yet, don't check in anything because it takes forever. Lion Air from Padang flies into the international terminal and then you take a shuttle to the domestic arrivals. Your luggage takes a long time to get to the domestic terminal because they can't move themselves. I managed to write the massive amounts of updates that I posted last night while waiting.
The bus from Jakarta airport to Bandung takes about three hours. We managed to get from the shuttle bus location to Andi and Greg's hotel by angkot. The angkots in Bandung cost only 1500 Rp and does not offer loud music. It felt strange to be sitting in an angkot with no music and stuffed animals.
We wandered around Bandung for most of the afternoon, waiting for Anggun to come. She took a flight that left three hours later than ours. We didn't really know where to go and got on a few angkots just to get somewhere more exciting. Unfortunately, we seemed to have missed a lot of the more exciting parts of town by just one or two streets. We did managed to play in the lobby of the postal museum before some security guards came to kick us out. Such a shame that they don't open their msueums for longer hours on weekends. I think they have very good collections too.
One of the surprising things about Bandung is the weather. It was not hot and humid like Padang. It is at higher altitude and has more Bay Area like weather. Not quite but Greg and I enjoyed this a lot. The chilis for food also comes on the side. And after eating Padang food for a month, Bandung food is definitely not spicy.
Anggun took us to a place that is very popular with college students to eat fried duck. When I say fried, I mean deep fried. Everything here is fried in a big wok filled with oil. The duck was really good, which explains why the place was packed with people. I really enjoyed going to food places with her. She took us to some places that were really popular with college students, meaning it has good food for a cheap price.
I stayed two nights with her while in Bandung. She lives in a big house that the landlord has renovated to rent out to college students. The place houses several girls. Her room is pretty small but very cozy. One of those places that can really feel like home.
The second day in Bandung started off with us walking over to LIPI, a science research center. They have a caferteria that serves pretty good food. We got there pretty early and the veggies weren't ready yet. I think we all had a pretty good breakfast, which was followed by a really good meeting.
We talked to a getoech researcher about his liquefaction research in Padang. He had really great information and was willing to share with us. I think he was excited that someone was interested in his work. He had done field studies in Padang in 2006 and 2008 (right before the big earthquakes in 2007 and 2009). He presented his results to the government who didn't really care about them and asked him to prove his results. The earthquakes proved his results but his research still hasn't gained the recognition that it deserves.
I've been looking for soil data for this city for ages. It seems like various people and agencies have done their own studies but haven't shared them with anyone. Maybe I will make a database and share the information online somehow. In the US, we spend quite a bit of time finding “historical” geology and geotechnical information for a site before going out to do our own site investigations. Knowing the previous use of the site can help a lot as well. It really difficult to collect such information here unless you're running around gathering these things by angkot (more on this later!).
After this really useful meeting, we had lunch and then had a short meeting with a professor at ITB. We told him about our project and he gave us some references. He seemed interested in having a collaboration between ITB, Stanford, and Andalas but didn't offer any ways to proceed with this collaboration.
We accompanied Greg and Andi to the shuttle bus place that would take them to Jakarta. We walked around in this really cute mall since we got there early. We even took a photo in one of those photo booths. Anggun and I walked around for a while after they left. We went to dinner at this food court that gives you a binder of menus from all the places in the food court. You can choose which place you want to order from. And everyone at your table can order from a different place. Very interesting concept. No, the places are not owned by the same people because they all had different menus and very different foods.
For some reason, when I woke up the next morning, I thought about Boston a lot. The one thing that really reminds me of Boston is the smell of those peanut carts in Downtown Crossing. Undergrad happened so fast and it almost seems like a distant memory now. Where did those years go? Maybe this is telling me that I should go back to visit...
This past Sunday, we got up for another 6am flight to Jakarta. This time, we did not leave the airport and got on a shuttle bus to Bandung. We had to wait an hour and a half after we got to the airport though because these minibuses get full very quickly. Lesson learned, book the shuttle while waiting for your luggage. Better yet, don't check in anything because it takes forever. Lion Air from Padang flies into the international terminal and then you take a shuttle to the domestic arrivals. Your luggage takes a long time to get to the domestic terminal because they can't move themselves. I managed to write the massive amounts of updates that I posted last night while waiting.
The bus from Jakarta airport to Bandung takes about three hours. We managed to get from the shuttle bus location to Andi and Greg's hotel by angkot. The angkots in Bandung cost only 1500 Rp and does not offer loud music. It felt strange to be sitting in an angkot with no music and stuffed animals.
We wandered around Bandung for most of the afternoon, waiting for Anggun to come. She took a flight that left three hours later than ours. We didn't really know where to go and got on a few angkots just to get somewhere more exciting. Unfortunately, we seemed to have missed a lot of the more exciting parts of town by just one or two streets. We did managed to play in the lobby of the postal museum before some security guards came to kick us out. Such a shame that they don't open their msueums for longer hours on weekends. I think they have very good collections too.
One of the surprising things about Bandung is the weather. It was not hot and humid like Padang. It is at higher altitude and has more Bay Area like weather. Not quite but Greg and I enjoyed this a lot. The chilis for food also comes on the side. And after eating Padang food for a month, Bandung food is definitely not spicy.
Anggun took us to a place that is very popular with college students to eat fried duck. When I say fried, I mean deep fried. Everything here is fried in a big wok filled with oil. The duck was really good, which explains why the place was packed with people. I really enjoyed going to food places with her. She took us to some places that were really popular with college students, meaning it has good food for a cheap price.
I stayed two nights with her while in Bandung. She lives in a big house that the landlord has renovated to rent out to college students. The place houses several girls. Her room is pretty small but very cozy. One of those places that can really feel like home.
The second day in Bandung started off with us walking over to LIPI, a science research center. They have a caferteria that serves pretty good food. We got there pretty early and the veggies weren't ready yet. I think we all had a pretty good breakfast, which was followed by a really good meeting.
We talked to a getoech researcher about his liquefaction research in Padang. He had really great information and was willing to share with us. I think he was excited that someone was interested in his work. He had done field studies in Padang in 2006 and 2008 (right before the big earthquakes in 2007 and 2009). He presented his results to the government who didn't really care about them and asked him to prove his results. The earthquakes proved his results but his research still hasn't gained the recognition that it deserves.
I've been looking for soil data for this city for ages. It seems like various people and agencies have done their own studies but haven't shared them with anyone. Maybe I will make a database and share the information online somehow. In the US, we spend quite a bit of time finding “historical” geology and geotechnical information for a site before going out to do our own site investigations. Knowing the previous use of the site can help a lot as well. It really difficult to collect such information here unless you're running around gathering these things by angkot (more on this later!).
After this really useful meeting, we had lunch and then had a short meeting with a professor at ITB. We told him about our project and he gave us some references. He seemed interested in having a collaboration between ITB, Stanford, and Andalas but didn't offer any ways to proceed with this collaboration.
We accompanied Greg and Andi to the shuttle bus place that would take them to Jakarta. We walked around in this really cute mall since we got there early. We even took a photo in one of those photo booths. Anggun and I walked around for a while after they left. We went to dinner at this food court that gives you a binder of menus from all the places in the food court. You can choose which place you want to order from. And everyone at your table can order from a different place. Very interesting concept. No, the places are not owned by the same people because they all had different menus and very different foods.
For some reason, when I woke up the next morning, I thought about Boston a lot. The one thing that really reminds me of Boston is the smell of those peanut carts in Downtown Crossing. Undergrad happened so fast and it almost seems like a distant memory now. Where did those years go? Maybe this is telling me that I should go back to visit...
Crazy Week - Saturday: A trip to Painan
As if we didn't have enough adventures during the week, we decided to go to Painan on Saturday. Painan is a small city about 2 hrs south of Padang. It also has a high risk for tsunami but since the population is small and there is high ground very close, the government has been able to make vertical evacuation structures for the entire city. We met with the KOGAMI office down there and had a pretty informative meeting. We went to see their evacuation hill and then ate lunch in the city.
Then we went on another epic adventure to find the beach. I swear it was very easy to get to if we had stayed on the main road. Instead, we wanted to use the smaller streets in hopes of finding some shade and ended up walking all around the beach before we got to one end of it. The water was really shallow for a long way out and we sat at a platform for a while.
We walked out to a part of the coast where the water was more shallow. There were really interesting rock formations that looked like they have been thrust out of the ocean by some seismic activity. I was climbing around them when I heard a commotion by Andi and Fengky. Apparently Greg had jumped in the water and was in the process of swimming to an island in the distance. I don't know how he managed to do this and not sleep on the ride back. I think some pictures of this will surface soon (check Andi's facebook).
The day ended with us feeling like some kind of salted fish. We got back to Padang and found out that Ramadan is coming on the 10th instead of the 12th of August. Can things come earlier than expected in this country?? We then proceeded to get a haircut for Greg:
Greg to Andi: "Tell them I want to cut off 3cm."
Andi to Greg: "You want 3cm left on your head?"
No worries, he looks better this way. Just kidding! We managed to get it right at the end.
Then we went on another epic adventure to find the beach. I swear it was very easy to get to if we had stayed on the main road. Instead, we wanted to use the smaller streets in hopes of finding some shade and ended up walking all around the beach before we got to one end of it. The water was really shallow for a long way out and we sat at a platform for a while.
We walked out to a part of the coast where the water was more shallow. There were really interesting rock formations that looked like they have been thrust out of the ocean by some seismic activity. I was climbing around them when I heard a commotion by Andi and Fengky. Apparently Greg had jumped in the water and was in the process of swimming to an island in the distance. I don't know how he managed to do this and not sleep on the ride back. I think some pictures of this will surface soon (check Andi's facebook).
The day ended with us feeling like some kind of salted fish. We got back to Padang and found out that Ramadan is coming on the 10th instead of the 12th of August. Can things come earlier than expected in this country?? We then proceeded to get a haircut for Greg:
Greg to Andi: "Tell them I want to cut off 3cm."
Andi to Greg: "You want 3cm left on your head?"
No worries, he looks better this way. Just kidding! We managed to get it right at the end.
Crazy Week - Friday: Another epic day
This day started off with Greg and I waiting in front of a souvenir shop for Andi. He usually isn't late but he it took him a while to get down to the city that day. We really should've waited for him at the Garuda office like he suggested because it had air conditioning. But we didn't know where it was so we agreed to wait in front of this souvenir shop on a very busy road, inhaling all the fumes from the cars. Greg says he saw some buses passing on their route two or three times.
We finally met up with Andi and went to the a city planning office to get some drawings. They shuffled us through many offices before handing us the drawings. We made copies of them and gave them back. When we were done with this, I was pretty tired out. We went back to the construction clinic, decided on our flights, and went to a travel agency to book them. We really should have booked them online because the prices changed in the 10 minutes we were walking over. It is very common for people here to go to travel agencies to book things. This is necessary if you don't have a credit card. So we ended up booking the 6am flight to Jakarta again, just to save about $10 for each of us. Keep in mind, $10 is about a day's worth of food and transportation for all three of us. This works out to be three days of living in Padang, so totally worth it.
Andi went out to get a few things done while we stayed at the clinic to do some work. Anggun stopped by at around 6pm and we chatted about our plans. Professor Febrin made it to the meeting this time. He was just a bit late. We did not managed to eat before he got there and our meeting went until 9pm. We got a ride from a couple of people at the clinic who had motor bikes back to the dorm and made leftovers for dinner.
We finally met up with Andi and went to the a city planning office to get some drawings. They shuffled us through many offices before handing us the drawings. We made copies of them and gave them back. When we were done with this, I was pretty tired out. We went back to the construction clinic, decided on our flights, and went to a travel agency to book them. We really should have booked them online because the prices changed in the 10 minutes we were walking over. It is very common for people here to go to travel agencies to book things. This is necessary if you don't have a credit card. So we ended up booking the 6am flight to Jakarta again, just to save about $10 for each of us. Keep in mind, $10 is about a day's worth of food and transportation for all three of us. This works out to be three days of living in Padang, so totally worth it.
Andi went out to get a few things done while we stayed at the clinic to do some work. Anggun stopped by at around 6pm and we chatted about our plans. Professor Febrin made it to the meeting this time. He was just a bit late. We did not managed to eat before he got there and our meeting went until 9pm. We got a ride from a couple of people at the clinic who had motor bikes back to the dorm and made leftovers for dinner.
Crazy Week - Thursday: A Day of Tunggu
It was really bad. We got to the office for disaster planning for the city and waited the entire morning. Greg and I got there at 8:30am like we had planned. Andi showed up late because he was trying to get some stuff printed out. We had all thought that there was a big meeting between us and other government agencies to discuss our project. Turns out, there was indeed a big meeting of government officials but with a different NGO, not us. So we sat in this trailer thing for an hour before having a 5 min meeting with the guy we wanted to see. Then he went off to his meeting, came back after a while and we talked some more. At least we had good internet access and got stuff done in this trailer. We also got a letter from him for permission to do site investigations at one of our potential sites.
During our wait, we got notice that city planning wanted to have a meeting with us to give us a book with geology information. We weren't far from their office so we caught an angkot over. On our way over, we got a text message from one of the people that the guy was canceling on us, someone else had the book with her, and she was in a meeting in the mayor's office (very far from where we were).
So we got off the angkot and got on one going the opposite way and sat in it for nearly an hour. We got there only to wait some more outside of their meeting. We waited until the meeting was over and went in and got the book. By then, it was 1pm and we were supposed to be out by the old airport (1 hr away) for a 1pm meeting. So we rushed to get another angkot to get out there. We have not had anything for lunch.
The address we had was for a house and Andi wasn't exactly sure where it was. So we had to ask some elementary school boys who were on the angkot with us for directions. Luckily their directions were correct. Unfortunately, no one was home. We asked a neighbor and she informed us that he was in Bandung, his wife is teaching at Andalas, and his kid is at school. Andi had left his notebook at home with his contact information so we couldn't call him. Very strange. We decided to eat lunch and treat ourselves to some juice.
After this frustrating and long morning, we got to the construction clinic and worked out some stuff for the next few days. We got settled to wait for a meeting with Professor Febrin at 7pm because he was too busy on Monday and had agreed to this late meeting. We even ate dinner right before so that we wouldn't be hungry and got back in time for the meeting. We got a text message at 7:30pm that he was too tired and wanted to reschedule for Friday evening, at 7pm.
But we made use of us staying late at the clinic and skyped with Veronica at around 8:30pm. We left the clinic at 9:30pm and waited a while for an angkot to show up. We started walking towards our dorm (very far away) when we got an angkot going to the market. It got to the market and there was a light blue one (the only one that goes to our street) waiting there. We were about to hop off and catch it but it started leaving. The angkot we were on wanted to wait for more passengers so the driver promised to catch up with the light blue angkot. He drove really fast and even took a short cut. We caught up with the other angkot but that driver wasn't taking on any more passengers. So we got off somewhat close to our dorm. But it was dark and we weren't exactly sure where we were. We asked a couple of people for directions and started walking. We were looking confused at this one intersection when a car pulled up and the guy asked where we were going (in English). He offered to take us to our place and we hitched a ride with him. Epic end to our day of tunggu-ing.
During our wait, we got notice that city planning wanted to have a meeting with us to give us a book with geology information. We weren't far from their office so we caught an angkot over. On our way over, we got a text message from one of the people that the guy was canceling on us, someone else had the book with her, and she was in a meeting in the mayor's office (very far from where we were).
So we got off the angkot and got on one going the opposite way and sat in it for nearly an hour. We got there only to wait some more outside of their meeting. We waited until the meeting was over and went in and got the book. By then, it was 1pm and we were supposed to be out by the old airport (1 hr away) for a 1pm meeting. So we rushed to get another angkot to get out there. We have not had anything for lunch.
The address we had was for a house and Andi wasn't exactly sure where it was. So we had to ask some elementary school boys who were on the angkot with us for directions. Luckily their directions were correct. Unfortunately, no one was home. We asked a neighbor and she informed us that he was in Bandung, his wife is teaching at Andalas, and his kid is at school. Andi had left his notebook at home with his contact information so we couldn't call him. Very strange. We decided to eat lunch and treat ourselves to some juice.
After this frustrating and long morning, we got to the construction clinic and worked out some stuff for the next few days. We got settled to wait for a meeting with Professor Febrin at 7pm because he was too busy on Monday and had agreed to this late meeting. We even ate dinner right before so that we wouldn't be hungry and got back in time for the meeting. We got a text message at 7:30pm that he was too tired and wanted to reschedule for Friday evening, at 7pm.
But we made use of us staying late at the clinic and skyped with Veronica at around 8:30pm. We left the clinic at 9:30pm and waited a while for an angkot to show up. We started walking towards our dorm (very far away) when we got an angkot going to the market. It got to the market and there was a light blue one (the only one that goes to our street) waiting there. We were about to hop off and catch it but it started leaving. The angkot we were on wanted to wait for more passengers so the driver promised to catch up with the light blue angkot. He drove really fast and even took a short cut. We caught up with the other angkot but that driver wasn't taking on any more passengers. So we got off somewhat close to our dorm. But it was dark and we weren't exactly sure where we were. We asked a couple of people for directions and started walking. We were looking confused at this one intersection when a car pulled up and the guy asked where we were going (in English). He offered to take us to our place and we hitched a ride with him. Epic end to our day of tunggu-ing.
Crazy Week - Wednesday: Why it takes the entire morning for one meeting
The plan for this morning was to meet with the contractor who did the design for a mosque at UNP (Padang State University). But we didn't get a confirmation from him so we scheduled a meeting with someone at city planning. We stepped out of the angkot at her office and promptly got into her car. We were all very confused at this point and Andi tried to translate while talking with the official.
“Oh, we're going to KOGAMI.” (other side of town)
“Oh no, Pangeran Beach Hotel” (the other corner of town)
Turns out, the city official was invited to a KOGAMI seminar held at the Pangeran Beach Hotel and wanted to have our meeting there. We weren't going to refuse a ride back down to the city (well, we couldn't since we were already in the car) so we went along for the ride thinking we would end up at the hotel. Instead, she and her husband got out at the immigration office to apply for their passports and had their driver take us to the hotel. We sat around at the hotel for a while and then decided to crash the Kogami seminar.
The entire first floor of the hotel was full of government officials attending seminars. Many people go to these seminars just for the food. They always have a coffee break with some snacks and then a buffet lunch at the hotel. The lunch is a big deal. Very nice food. Some people (like us) even leave after lunch.
At some point during this seminar, I had this bright idea. We had heard about this national seminar for structural and civil engineers in Jakarta. But it's in the middle of the week and we were concerned about not having enough time to do soil investigations. I realized that I could stay behind in Padang and take care of the soil investigations with help from Fengky while Greg and Andi go to the seminar. We all thought this was a good plan so we started to look at the flyer for the seminar again. And then we heard back from someone we had been wanting to meet in Bandung. He replied to say that he would be in Bandung the day before the seminar and was willing to meet with us.
After many discussions and plan changes, we finally decided (a couple of days later) that all three of us would go to Bandung on Sunday. We would have a couple of meetings in Bandung on Monday. I would fly back to Padang on Tuesday while Andi and Greg goes to Jakarta and stay there until Thursday. We booked the flights on Friday and left two days later.
After crashing the seminar, we went around to look at some construction sites. We visited a senior high school that is built for vertical evacuation. The street that it is on is a small street so it is not accessible by angkot. Andi wasn't sure how far it was so we took a becak motor (PICTURE NEEDED). Greg and I were stuffed into the seat thing next to the driver. We tried to take a picture but it was difficult.
We visited a few more sites that day. It's really cool to be walking onto construction sites and seeing things happen. Really hope I get to do that more often when I get back to the States. This might be an advantage of working overseas, particularly in Asia. There is so much construction happening and people are more lax about letting other people onto construction sites.
“Oh, we're going to KOGAMI.” (other side of town)
“Oh no, Pangeran Beach Hotel” (the other corner of town)
Turns out, the city official was invited to a KOGAMI seminar held at the Pangeran Beach Hotel and wanted to have our meeting there. We weren't going to refuse a ride back down to the city (well, we couldn't since we were already in the car) so we went along for the ride thinking we would end up at the hotel. Instead, she and her husband got out at the immigration office to apply for their passports and had their driver take us to the hotel. We sat around at the hotel for a while and then decided to crash the Kogami seminar.
The entire first floor of the hotel was full of government officials attending seminars. Many people go to these seminars just for the food. They always have a coffee break with some snacks and then a buffet lunch at the hotel. The lunch is a big deal. Very nice food. Some people (like us) even leave after lunch.
At some point during this seminar, I had this bright idea. We had heard about this national seminar for structural and civil engineers in Jakarta. But it's in the middle of the week and we were concerned about not having enough time to do soil investigations. I realized that I could stay behind in Padang and take care of the soil investigations with help from Fengky while Greg and Andi go to the seminar. We all thought this was a good plan so we started to look at the flyer for the seminar again. And then we heard back from someone we had been wanting to meet in Bandung. He replied to say that he would be in Bandung the day before the seminar and was willing to meet with us.
After many discussions and plan changes, we finally decided (a couple of days later) that all three of us would go to Bandung on Sunday. We would have a couple of meetings in Bandung on Monday. I would fly back to Padang on Tuesday while Andi and Greg goes to Jakarta and stay there until Thursday. We booked the flights on Friday and left two days later.
After crashing the seminar, we went around to look at some construction sites. We visited a senior high school that is built for vertical evacuation. The street that it is on is a small street so it is not accessible by angkot. Andi wasn't sure how far it was so we took a becak motor (PICTURE NEEDED). Greg and I were stuffed into the seat thing next to the driver. We tried to take a picture but it was difficult.
We visited a few more sites that day. It's really cool to be walking onto construction sites and seeing things happen. Really hope I get to do that more often when I get back to the States. This might be an advantage of working overseas, particularly in Asia. There is so much construction happening and people are more lax about letting other people onto construction sites.
Crazy Week - Tuesday: the beginning
--- written on Sunday, August 1, 2010, Jakarta Airport ---
I had high hopes of updating more regularly but those were dashed around Tuesday or Wednesday, can't remember which. This week has been a really crazy one with lots of last minute changes to the schedule. For a more visual description, see Selamat Datang di Indonesia , on the work blog.
Tuesday
After a normal-ish Monday, we decided to get up early to go to the Construction Clinic so that we can skype with Veornica. We had a nice chat and then went off to a meeting with KOGAMI. The meeting took about two hours and we were all very exhausted by the end of it. We got some good information as always but this was just the start of the day. We refueled with some lunch at the same place we ate lunch the last time we had a meeting with KOGAMI. We even sat at the same table.
In the afternoon, we went to assess some more mosques. On our way to the first mosque on our list, we passed by one that looked like it could be an evacuation structure. So we visited that one too and took some notes. Even though this sounds like it's chill work, it's really not. Imagine it being 80 degrees, humid, and wearing long pants, long sleeved shirt, and a head scarf. This head scarf thing is really a cultural experience in itself. Try it out when you get a chance!
The next mosque we visited was inside a senior high school. This mosque had a plague with the person who designed it. Hoping to get more information on this person and possibily some drawings, we wandered into the admin offices. They were very excited to see us (Greg) and one of the admin ladies chatted with us for a while, basically telling us that no one knows anything. She took us to the home of a retired teacher who had worked at the school for a long time but he wasn't in. We met the vice principle on our way out and she told us that the person who designed the school is teaching civil engineering at a nearby university. And this is why you really need to be on the ground to do this type of work. There would have been no way to do such things over the internet or even phone.
After our mosque vists, we met up with Anggun, who is a current student at ITB. We talked about her ideas for TEREP and possibility of other students also working on tsunami evacuation projects. We went to a satay madura place nearby our dorm for dinner. There is apparently many different kinds of satay. The difference is the sauce. Brown, red, and peanut sauce. Satay madura is the peanut sauce one. Pretty good stuff. Still don't know what kind of meat it was. Might have been chicken.
I had high hopes of updating more regularly but those were dashed around Tuesday or Wednesday, can't remember which. This week has been a really crazy one with lots of last minute changes to the schedule. For a more visual description, see Selamat Datang di Indonesia , on the work blog.
Tuesday
After a normal-ish Monday, we decided to get up early to go to the Construction Clinic so that we can skype with Veornica. We had a nice chat and then went off to a meeting with KOGAMI. The meeting took about two hours and we were all very exhausted by the end of it. We got some good information as always but this was just the start of the day. We refueled with some lunch at the same place we ate lunch the last time we had a meeting with KOGAMI. We even sat at the same table.
In the afternoon, we went to assess some more mosques. On our way to the first mosque on our list, we passed by one that looked like it could be an evacuation structure. So we visited that one too and took some notes. Even though this sounds like it's chill work, it's really not. Imagine it being 80 degrees, humid, and wearing long pants, long sleeved shirt, and a head scarf. This head scarf thing is really a cultural experience in itself. Try it out when you get a chance!
The next mosque we visited was inside a senior high school. This mosque had a plague with the person who designed it. Hoping to get more information on this person and possibily some drawings, we wandered into the admin offices. They were very excited to see us (Greg) and one of the admin ladies chatted with us for a while, basically telling us that no one knows anything. She took us to the home of a retired teacher who had worked at the school for a long time but he wasn't in. We met the vice principle on our way out and she told us that the person who designed the school is teaching civil engineering at a nearby university. And this is why you really need to be on the ground to do this type of work. There would have been no way to do such things over the internet or even phone.
After our mosque vists, we met up with Anggun, who is a current student at ITB. We talked about her ideas for TEREP and possibility of other students also working on tsunami evacuation projects. We went to a satay madura place nearby our dorm for dinner. There is apparently many different kinds of satay. The difference is the sauce. Brown, red, and peanut sauce. Satay madura is the peanut sauce one. Pretty good stuff. Still don't know what kind of meat it was. Might have been chicken.
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