Kasey, West Sumatran Celebrity turns West Sumatran Star Athlete!

As if things couldn't get more strange here for Kasey Jacobs in West Sumatra, Indonesia, a whole new celebrity status was applied to me yesterday.

My day started at 5:30AM where I washed with my bak mandi and bak air (water tank and water scoop), ate nasi goreng (fried rice) freshly made by Bu Elly since she was already up after morning prayer, and waited for my ride. Mercy Corps was holding a School Socialization Workshop for Disaster Risk Reduction in Painan, probably my favorite coastal town here. It's a two hour drive and the workshop was starting at 9:00AM. 6:00-8:00AM slept uncomfortably in the car because of the windy roads, odd driving style of Indonesians, and at times unpaved areas where cows, small children, motorcycles, trucks, cats, monkeys, etc play in the street. Arrived at the school and learned about school DRR from my colleagues and our partner organization, Kogami (komunitas siaga tsunami-tsunami prepared communities). I went to the workshop to take notes and photos for documentation and to learn more about the way a socialization workshop operates but of course my foreigner status prompted the Head of the Education Department to insist I sit on stage with him, Bu Endang, and Tommy from Kogami, even though I played no role in organizing this workshop and could not offer any information about DRR in schools. He kept thanking me for coming. I felt really akward. It should have been Jupe or Yudi (Mercy Corps staff and school awareness officers) that sat up on stage.

After the workshop the plan for weeks was I was going to swim in a fun race that kicks off the Langkisau Festival, an annual festival in Painan. Pak Iqbal, head of local police and someone becoming a close ally here (he's the one that helped me set up the interview for the Bupati and Water Power Source Department in Pesisir Selatan) is an organizer for the event and when he told me about this weeks ago I immediately asked if westerners could participate. How much fun would it be to swim in the Painan Harbor surrounded by awesome fishing boats and finally get a workout?!

So I arrived at the Festival grounds with the Mercy Corps driver, Roni (who can't speak English and we were alone so communicating was difficult) and was immediately asked to change parking spots because the Governor (my friend Bapak Fauzi) was on the way. The race is going to begin in about fifteen minutes. After reparking we found our way to the docks and I asked to change my clothes. All these people are looking at me and a few are actually following me. I changed in the most disgusting bathroom (Jones Beach on the Fourth of July is marvelous compared to this)into my SCUBA skins. Its very important to be culturally sensitive here. I must always where at least 3/4 length sleeves and at least capris or long skirts when in public. I thought that meant swimming in a festival race with a western bathing suit would be inappropriate so I opted to wear my long sleeve, long pant thin SCUBA skin instead. Right after I change I pass my stuff off to Roni to put in the car and find Iqbal. He hadn't really registered me so I wasn't given a swim cap with a number. I didn't mind, because for a fun race, I didn't care if I was really registered or not. I just wanted to swim. The race organizer asked me which event I wanted to participate in, the 1km or the 2km. This means nothing to me as I am terrible at doing math in my head quickly so as a true swimmer/lifeguard who would not do the lesser race I said, "2km please". As we are walking to the starting line, Governor Fauzi and his wife, followed by an insane amount of cameras and reporters greets me. We shake hands, he tells the reporters who I am, his wife asks me questions, I talk a bit about Mercy Corps, and then he walks away after asking if I was swimming. WHen I said yes, he said "you must be the champion". I laughed and said, "oh please no pressure Governor". As he walked away, the race started without me! I couldn't believe it. I quickly handed my shoes to Iqbal, threw on my goggles last minute and dove into the water from the docks. I was a good 25 or 30 meters behind everyone else.

I swam pretty fast on the start and caught up to the pack. After about ten minutes though the pack seemed to disappear and the only way I could keep on pace was by occasionally looking up to see a few green caps. Then I would put my head down and keep swimming. About half way through I finally did the math and realized I am an idiot for agreeing to 2km when I haven't trained or even swam in a pool since March or April! 2 km is 2000 meters (my long distance event in high school was 500 yards), this is roughly 1.2 miles. In the photo above you will see the city of Painan and the blue water body is what I swam completely across.

Another 15 minutes later I realized it was just me and this one guy left in my direct vicinity. I was starting to worry since there were no buoys around. Were we way off mark? Can I trust the guy next to me to know where we are going? A few minutes later my question was answered. We were right on mark but soo many of the swimmers gave up and were on the rescue boats being brought to the finish line. After what felt like an eternity we came up to a really cool catamaran fishing boat (very old, kind of look liked Kevin Costner's in WaterWorld) and then I swam under an anchor line for a smaller boat. That's when I could finally see the finish line. I picked up speed at this point as best I could but the SCUBA suit was starting to really fill with water and was giving me a lot of drag. Oh I should have mentioned earlier, that all the women in the race were wearing modern swimming suits, just with tight shorts so they didn't show too much leg. If I would have gotten to the line earlier I would have ditched the huge drag suit. Silly me and being culturally sensitive.

I finally make it to the docks and I see Roni, my driver, running to the end. There's a very excited Indonesian woman with a clipboard yelling at me to run becuase I came in 8th place. I looked around me and there was no one to fight to for the finish line so I walked akwardly while everyone stared at the weird westerner in a SCUBA skin. As soon as I was handed the 8th place tag and signed my name cameras were in my face. Pak Iqbal came up and translated for me. They immediately wanted to know what handicaps I had, I am guessing they all saw my late start. I took photos with the 1st and 2nd place women (I feel bad for 3rd through 7th place who were shafted because of the westerner). About twenty minutes later there was a ceremony where we all took photos and stood by a podium and the big surprise was I was given 500,000 Rupiah ($50 USD) for winning 8th place. The first place woman got 4 million rupiah ($400 USD). If I knew this was NOT just a fun race but for that amount of cash I would have made sure to not talk to the governor, to wear my modern racing suit, and to haul ass and win. I know I could have beaten the others. So bummed! My time was 43 minutes which is like a nice and easy swim. Haha, I'm totally kidding in my disappointment. I was the first foreigner to ever compete in the Langkisau Swimming Competition and so I think I will donate the money to the Padang Swim Club since there are far too many people here who don't know how to swim. What happens when a tsunami comes? This weekend I will stop by the local pool and give them my winnings. Kind of funny though how out of all the American swim competitions I ahve been in for school and for lifeguarding and never was money offered as a prize, but in Indonesia, developing country, I make $50 for a leisurely swim and 8th place!

As I walked around the festival with Mercy Corps and Pak Iqbal tons of people wanted to take photos with the "foreign swimmer" (since I was forced to keep my skin suit on while waiting for Roni). Such a nutty feeling. I really felt like Dara Torres or Michael Phelps and realized I am soo glad I am not them. I am not someone meant for the spotlight. So uncomfortable and difficult to smile so long while people are taking 3,4, or 5 photos of you each.

We went up to see the paragliding event (and I think because Pak Iqbal so how uncomfortable I was and wanted to get me out of the main area). I meet my first other American up there. His name was Ray, originally from Jacksonville, Fl and living in Bali now. He spoke fluent Indonesian and had competed earlier in two paragliding events. He was also getting a lot of attention. Nice to see it inflicted on someone else actually, haha.

The day ended with a Dorian party at Iqbal's house with Mercy Corps (and black rice and coconut to complement the fruit, a divine dessert)and playing with his kids. Then headed back to Padang where we all passed out in the car, the windy roads, cows, children, and dogs on unpaved roads not bothering us at all. Arrived at the house, attempted to watch an old 80's movie on the couch with Poppy, and fell asleep soon after. Pak Iqbal is going to check the newspapers for me for photos or at least ask the Tourism Dinas for some photos since I left my camera in my other swim suit.

Mercy Corps Internship and Research Update

Hello everyone,

I apologize for the delay. I have been soo busy with my internship and with my research. Today I will update on both. Actually wait, I should mention I am fine and was not involved in the bombings at all. I am on a completely different island and other than being traumatized by the grotesque images allowed to be shown on Indonesian news channels I am perfectly OK. I might delay my return to Jakarta but that's the only impact this bombing has on me. Please keep the victims and their families in your thoughts and prayers. Really terrible what happened.

My Mercy Corps work has really started getting interesting. Before I was attending most of the community meetings, trainings and workshops, documenting them all, and compiling for a case study report for the international community and potential funders. I am still doing this for two MercyCorps Indonesia projects: Public-Private Partnership for Disaster Management in West Sumatra (P3DM) and the Jakarta Flood Risk Reduction (FRR) Program that is now completed. Additionally, I am supposed to help the office bring in at least one more business to the P3DM program (the private sector part of the partnership). Those are my deliverables in my contract for before I leave Indonesia.

Last week the Country Director, Sean, came for three days and did field visits with us. Weeks ago I had recommended a private sector survey be complete but it seemed we were understaffed and it wouldn't be possible. One night I was helping Cynara, my Indonesian sister, edit her CV, and I learned about a program at Andalas University for Governance Research that worked with GTZ and Munich Re in 2007 doing risk assessments through household surveys and in-depth interviews. Discussing this program more with Cynara I learned that they have students trained for doing surveys and each student loves to help becuase they get a certificate and can put it on their CV's. This got me thinking about how we can do the survey quickly and cheaply without utilizing Mercy Corps resources. I brought this idea up to Sean while in the car to Pesisir Selatan and he loved it. We all brainstormed (Bu Endang, POPO, and Sean) about the project and after getting back to the office late that night I was so excited that I created the survey and a brochure to be handed to each business.

Yesterday we finalized all the planning and on Tuesday (Monday is an Indonesian holiday) we will begin. The Andalas University Governance Research Program has recruited 9 students. Each student will be required to complete 10 surveys per day in each nagari (village). We will canvass for three days in four villages for a total of 360 surveys (360 times the amount agreed to in my contract, haha!). Each business will also be left with a brochure about the program that includes how they can get in contact with Mercy Corps, and 10 things they can do to be a disaster prepared business. I am so excited about this project because it will help jumpstart the private sector engagement here in the villages, will create a communication network for disaster risk reduction work, will increase awareness of the private sector, and at the end of the month I hope to create a Private Sector Engagement in DRR Tool Box for Mercy Corps. Additionally, I am going to meet with the Trade and Industry Department of the Provincial Government here to get their data on small, medium, and large businesses to improve our data collection. All of this will not only result in the tool box but also a private sector matrix to keep information about all the businesses in our field sites. When we do trainings or need support for a disaster risk reduciton or mitigation infrastrucutre project there will be a user-friendly database ready for the West Sumatran Office's use. Wish me luck. Lots to do before Tuesday to make sure this runs smoothly. How funny is it that I leave CCE and leave the country and still I find myself running a canvass. Once a canvasser, always a canvasser. Never leaves the blood I guess, haha!

Research Update: I have completed 20 in-depth interviews about climate change adaptation for the coasts with heads of departments at the Provincial Government such as Fisheries Dinas (Department), Social Dinas, Health Dinas, Environment Dinas, Public Works Dinas, and Forestry Dinas. On Friday at 2:00PM I have a meeting scheduled with Governor Fauzi to interview him as well. That will complete my provincial level interviews. While the canvassers are doing the private sector surveys next week, my translator, Redian, and I will be conducting interviews at the district-level and village-level. Hopefully I will complete enough of these next week and be done with interviews in West Sumatra so I can finish up my Mercy Corps projects and go SCUBA diving and surf every evening (but I highly doubt that. I can dream though, lol).

The part of my fieldwork that I know I am terrible at is keeping organized and up-to-date field notes. A good researcher makes sure to spend about four hours every night writing up what they did for the day and trying to make sense of the data so they can tweak things as they go. Living with a host family makes this just about impossible unless I want to start doing that at 11:00PM. I am telling you this because I figure that if I mention to everyone the flaw in my research then maybe I will be motivated to correct it as best I can.

Climate Project Update: Somehow I also managed to get myself invited to give presentations on climate change and so on Wednesday I spoke to an international high school, about 70 students, to motivate them about education and future careers, and also on climate change. The speech was about one hour with lots of questions. A reporter was present and so I was in the newspaper on Thursday (Singgalang is the name of the paper) - an article and a photo! The next day I gave a presentation (through a translator, my first presentation with one) to the local disaster NGO, KOGAMI (Komunitas Siaga Tsunamis). There were about 20-25 facilitators present and it was on Environmental Management and Climate Change in Disaster Risk Reduction. This went about 2 hours and 20 minutes. They said they will incorporate what they learned into their action plan. Sweet! I have noticed here a big misunderstanding between global warming, change in the weather, and the ozone layer. So hopefully I cleared that up with the students and with the KOGAMI facilitators and they will spread the word.

Tomorrow and Monday I will be in Bukattinggi, THE tourism attraction in West Sumatra up in the highlands near a volcano. This is where I will buy everyone's postcards and souveniers most likely. I have seriously tried five places now for postcards and still no luck (2 places I tried this afternoon after buying supplies for the survey next week like clipboards, pens, ID holders, etc). Please be patient and know that a postcard with your name on it is on the way!

Love you all and miss you lots. Please comment. Keeps me sane.

Ps. The top photo is of Sean, our country, director, Bu Endang, my boss, POPO, our engineer (with the map), and the others are Kogami facilitators. the second photo is at the Uni and Uda Pageant (basically a competition to be Tourism Ambassador). The former winners are wearing the traditional minang clothes. The third picture is in a traditional fishing boat at Pantai Air Manis after a surf session.

Indonesia's Presidential Election and Shopping with the Girls

Yesterday was the Presidential election for Indonesia. A National Holiday so no work, yay! Kind of exciting the last few weeks to watch the debates and campaign commercials, which by the way are much more fun than our campaign commercials) and then watch as Bu Elly is voting for SBY, while her husband, Poppy, is voting for JK. Political tension in the household, love it!

To celebrate the day off, I had a girls day out with Bu Elly, Cynara, and Livia. We went to vote where I took photos of them in the voting booths (afterwards they have to get ink on their finger so they can't vote twice) and then we went to the traditional market for shopping. I am going to buy a custom-tailored Kebaya (will only cost me between $25 and 40 USD) so we went to about four or five stores looking at fabric. A kebaya is Indonesian traditional dress that has a sarond (although I am going to have a dress made becuase it's hard to move in a sarong) and then a unique ornately designed jacket to go over a tank top. I looked at numerous designs and now know what I want so on Friday or Saturday we are going to go buy the fabric and show the design to the tailor. So excited!!

Livia got her hair cut (for $1 USD) and Cynara was on a hunt for a really nice all- black outfit to wear for professional photos she is going to use to submit to the Miss Putrih Indonesia competition. Black outfits are very hard to find here. I jokingly asked her if they have any gothic stores like Hot Topic. Once I told her what gothic was she laughed. Nowhere in Indonesia has that! Cynara sadly left empty handed as here you negotiate all prices and after trying a strategy of telling them no and then leaving with the intention of going back later and getting the price you want, the garment was sold. I bought a really nice green and black dress (to be worn over jeans of course). Bu Elly negotiated for my and brought the price from $16.50 down to $12.00. I am wearing it right now as I type at work. My first outfit bought in Indonesia. Can't wait to do more shopping. I also bought a really cheap phone card in the traditional market so Mom, expect a phone call soon!

After shopping we went to eat fish (ikan) at the beach. I had squid on a stick that tasted amazing with the spicy sauce, seaweed vegetable dish, and huge prawn that were perfectly cooked. Everytime I eat seafood with the family or coworkers they want me to eat fish head or the kind of fish that is cooked whole. I tried the body of a whole fish once and there were so many freaking bones that I refuse to eat it anymore. Indonesians are really skilled at eating it quickly and spitting out the bones, but I can't do it so I am being cautious and will no longer eat that. Plus, eating the body of something while its face is looking at you with wide eyes is not my idea of yummy food. I'll take my fish impaled on a stick instead, thank you!

After the fish Bu Elly bought 2kg of either a barracuda or a Wahu that we watched the fishermen chop with a huge butchering knife. Kind of cool to pick out the fish though while the small boats (perahu) are behind the fishermen being unloaded and still have today's nets on them. Very fresh.

We then went home where soon after I realized somehow I seriously hurt my back and was doubled over like a 90 year old all evening. This morning it is still hurt. I have NO IDEA what I did. I wish I could say I hurt it while surfing or something exciting, but my board is in the shop and all I did was walk around all day. It's a mystery. Just FYI, "sakit" is the word to use for pain and being sick here. So if you are sick with influenza you say "Saya sakit" (for "I am sick") and if you are in pain you say "Saya Sakit" or my back is "sakit". I find it kind of confusing. Requires too much explanation to actually tell someone what's wrong with you.

well back to work. The Country Director, Sean, is coming today from Jakarta so I should be prepared to show him my progress.