It's that
lovely time of the year - vacation time once again. Actually this
is the end of the first week. We are now at the end of the third
week without water. Things are actually somewhat better now because
we have electricity which we didn't have for some time as well.
The story is that we will have water in the next few days. The
water problem was due to a broken pump or some part which had
to be ordered from America. The electricity problem was due to
a lack of diesal fuel to keep the village generator running. This
has something to do with the raise in gasoline prices nationwide
which is supposed to happen tomorrow. There have been daily demonstrations
in the large cities, but the government is not backing down yet.
So far things haven't become violent. The increase is going to
be large - 50% or more. Prices for basic supplies have already
started to increase because once fuel increases here, everything
else is affected due to transportation costs. The thing is the
government really does need to raise fuel costs because the subsidized
gasoline that they provide us is costing the government billions
of dollars a year which they can't afford.
On other less irritating
topics, we were called to a special meeting that the local school
board was holding about "important issues" which were
unnamed. Su said, in her usual somewhat cynical style about anything
to do with any government agency here, "they want money for
something." I get invited to just about every ceremony in
the village which I usually skip as I'm either at work or tired
from just getting home from work, but I do make all the school
related things if I am not actually at work. So the school board
meeting seemed interesting. When we arrived (on time which is
usually early in Indonesia), the room was already filled. That
was a big surprise. Folks were surprised to see me, but made sure
that I was given a seat in the front row. There were three items
on the agenda: a fiscal report from the last school year; a discussion
of kids coming late to school, and sure enough, a request for
money. The fiscal report raised no issues with the parents, but
the second two items did. There was a lot of heated discussion
about the kids coming late to school - whose fault was it, how
to fix it, and what was the school's responsibility.
I put a little guest book here so you can leave a message here
for us if you are having trouble reaching us by email. Thanks
for the messages in the guest book. I like hearing from you all.