A Few Moments for Reflection

It has been to say the very least, the most challenging, emotionally testing and rewarding week of my life. The earthquake happened a week ago, and it feels like no time and all time have passed. The weirdest feeling.

ACICIS, through the donations we received, I estimate spent about 100million rupiah last week on sending aid to some of the most remote areas of Bantul and other areas of the province of Yogya. Which is approaching 15 thousand dollars. However because of exams, that unfortunately still must be completed, we have to stop work until Thursday at which point we are going to reassess what would best be done with the residual money, of which there is still a lot. The reason I know so much about the money is because I was put in charge of finance during the week, which was hilarious to me as I loathe accounting, but gave me a good focus and something that I could do properly and well.

So until next Thursday, no ACICIS related activities, but there are a few organisations that need interpreters including AusAID, so I might do a couple of shifts with them starting tomorrow.

We had our ACICIS final dinner last night at Parsley, and it was a good chance to unwind and relax with a beer and our close friends together. Somewhere in all the chaos, Lauren, Sam with Lestari (ACICIS employee) managed to find time to come up with awards for all of us. Alana won the Tequila award (for drinking the most free tequila at Hugo’s) Ben won the Bad Luck Award (for having Typhoid, losing wallets, having hundreds of dollars a watch and a ring stolen, and other miscellaneous bad luck) and I won the Turkchaser Award. If you don’t know what that means don’t ask. ;-)

To end the evening, Katrina (ex pat Aussie married to an East Timorese guy & living in Yogya) and I sang the Yogyakarta Blues that we composed on Thursday night. When I get the lyrics from Kat I will post them, although they are full of in-jokes and token Indonesian words, so y’all might not find em that funny……. We then commandeered the band and proceeded to sing for another half an hour. No-one paid any attention to us, but it was a good stress release.

Anyway, it has occurred to me coming to the end of my time in Yogya and given all that has happened that I really don’t want to leave. I am settled in well, my Indonesian would benefit from another 6 months here, and it is an easy place to live. If my internship in Jakarta doesn’t bear the kind of fruit I am looking for then I am going to look for work with an Aid Organisation here in Yogya, they have already started advertising so I am sure that there are going to be a lot of opportunities. Don’t worry mum, I will come home first. Anyway, nothing may eventuate, but I am going to try anyway and see what fate throws up out of the cracks in the road that weren’t there a week ago…………..