It's been a very tiring, but enjoyable week. Tuesday was the big day, with the junior high school boys basketball team playing in the final of the regional competition (run by the Jawa Pos newspaper).

We'd shortened each period at school so that everyone could get to the stadium on the other side of town by the advertised opening time of 2pm. Our game was to start at 4pm. We had to wait for more than two hours, while the girls' final was played, because the stadium could only hold two schools.

The game eventually started at nearly 6pm. Our side of the stadium was packed solid, and the opposition, one of the Petra schools, had a large crowd also. For the entire game, the noise level was deafening.

The Petra team was a bit bigger than ours, and looked dangerous early. However, the Ciputra Team played very well as a team, and as individuals. With 2 minutes to go, we were 5 points ahead, and Petra 5 threw a 3-pointer. However, we rallied, and ran out winners by 5 points. The enthusiasm of everyone was wonderful.

The downside was that Helen and I had agreed to meet at a restaurant for dinner, and, because of miscommunication, she was waiting for an hour and a half.

Tomorrow, we are off to Bali for the weekend, for a touch tournament. This means that I will not be able to move on Sunday and Monday. Before we leave, we have to be at school for an Independence Day ceremony.

Back in Surabaya, from Italy, via KL, it's been hard to sleep properly. Last night we were in bed by 9pm, then both woke at 11pm, and had to read for a while.

However, it's good to be home, in the luxury of our house, even if we haven't really had time to enjoy it yet. I'll have to try the pool today, although ti looks a bit cold.

We went into school yesterday, and things seem okay. I'm extremely happy that all our National program kids passed their exams, and many of them did very well, particularly the Year 9 kids. Also, two of my more difficult teachers have moved on to greener pastures, so the staff morale should be even higher.

I've enjoyed going for a ride the past two mornings. The air isn't as clear as I'd like, but it's okay. We went for a long walk through the village behind us this morning, which is always good - saying "hello" to the locals. I also went to the gym yesterday, and pulled up very well. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back on top of things and lose the (at least) 3 kg I need to lose.

Unbelievable, that it's been more than a month since I've made time to write an entry. However, given how hectic work is, it's not that surprising.

Writing an entry from Sienna is a bit much, but, if I don't do it now, I won't have time for another couple of weeks.

Helen and I have been in Italy since mid-June, and have had a ball. (I'm not too keen on totting up the bills when we get home.) Some things have been expensive, but others have been "economic". We've travelled by train and bus mainly, which are pretty cheap and efficient here. We have found that it's cheaper to arrive somewhere and get a hotel through the local tourist information office than book on the internet. Also, if you are not constantly snacking, food is not too expensive.

The highlight so far was staying at Villa Santa Andreas, outside Florence. We had a 2km round trip walk to anywhere, but the farm house and surrounding countryside were beautiful. We had dinner for four nights beside the pool, overlooking the valey and surrounding hills.

Sienna, Florence and Perugia have been fabulous. It's never boring wandering around medieval cities. Naples was interesting, but it, and Rome, are very dirty. IT was great to visit Pompei.

I'll add an Italy page to my website when we get home.

Helen and I had a lovely morning this morning. We were up at 4.45am (only 15 minutes earlier than a workday) and were in the centre of the city after a 20-minute (world record) drive. We parked outside the Governor's palace, where there were already market stalls set up, and an extremely well-patronised ladies' aerobics session about to begin.

A bloke guided us towards the Balai Kota (city hall), where the World Food Program was beginning its first "Walk the World". I was extremely proud to see so many of my teachers and students there. Many of the Year 11 and 12 students were acting as officials, and other students were performing.

The actual walk was about 5km around the centre of town, and the lines of the more than 5000 participants were very impressive. Helen and I had our photos taken frequently, so we will have to peruse tomorrow's local papers. It was great to be able to walk in the centre of the city, and have the time to notice things that you can't take in from a car, or even a bicycle - we also noted an ad for a cycling event in a week or two, which we might join. We decided it is certainly time for another overnight stay in town.

We got back in time to see two of our girls playing violin. They were followed by some professional dangdut singers, who had the crowd going. I was accosted by the principal of one of the local primary schools. Our kids had provided tickets for 80 of his kids, and our Community And Service Coordinator had organised for our school buses to bring them. We talked to some of the primary school kids on the way out; they were really cute.

According to the organiser, our students sold 1000 of the 5000 tickets. He also said that his Jakarta office would believe that he could get any more than 3000 people out walking. It was certainly a great start for something big.

Helen and I remarked to each other how sad it is that so many expatriates love the lifestyle, but rarely actually engage with Indonesians. To me, there seems little point in living in a foreign country if you only watch it from the window of your car.

We had a nice weekend in Jakarta. Even though we have both been many times, it was the first time that Helen and I had actually been together. We stayed at the Hotel Atlett, in Senayan. The room had a bit of a stale smell, at first, but it was good value for ~Rp500,00, and in a handy area. We could walk 5 minutes to Plaza Senayan.

After arriving late-ish on Friday, we walked around the corner to the busway "Halte". The bus was magic. We cruised north into the older part of the city. With the footpath warungs cleared out, the main part of the city looked great.

We had a look in a Wayng museum, and followed up with coffee at Cafe Batavia. We then trekked to Sunda Kelapa and had a look at the maritime museum. A taxi returned us to Plaza Senayan, and then I left Helen to peruse the new Senayan City mall.

In the evening, we made our way to TGIF. It was okay, but nowhere near as good as the one we went to in Mumbai. In the same area was a Bugils cafe. We intended to have one drink only, but we stayed until midnight to watch the Rolling Stones cover band. The singer, in particular, must have watched every Stones DVD - he had all the moves, and even had the accent right when he spoke.

We were pretty tired on Sunday, and I had breakfast solo, surrounded by female volleyball players - the hotel is across the street from the main sports stadium. We checked out the electronic goods place in Senayan City, and then returned to pack. A taxi took us to a friend's place in Cilandak. The house was amazing - the best teacher's house I've seen so far in Asia. We had a nice lunch, and then I caught a taxi to the airport. The trip was quick, and the flight wasn't too late in leaving. I was home by 8.30pm. Helen SMS-ed to say that she was staying in a very ordinary hotel in a very ordinary area, in Bekasi.

On Friday night we attended an informal gathering at a friends' house.
They are, unfortunately, heading back to OZ. The expat community is
losing Aussies and Kiwis, and the persons of alternative nationalities,
if departing expats are being replaced by another expat, that is, are not filling
the "social gap". The hosts supplied the grog and pizzas, and we had a
very pleasant smoke-free evening.

The elementary school had its Primay Years Programme exhibition yesterday, by Grade 6 students. It was very impressive, with all the kids being able to talk about the inquiry process, and how they ended up with their various products. It was great to see a good number of "significant" high school teachers, who, hopefully, will be able to improve the entry of Year 7 students to high school - they now have a better idea of the "starting point" of the students.

We've just had the Year 12 National exams, and the Year 9 ones are next week. The teachers are terrified that kids will fail, because, the government, in its "wisdom", has decided that there is no make up exam this year. Every school is in the same boat, but no-one knows which boat it is. Added to that, some schools clearly cheat, but nothing is done about it. To me, having kids fail a set of poorly-constructed exams can be dealt with, but having them repeat is a big problem. We'll keep our collective fingers crossed.

Helen, Martini and I went to see the "lumpur" early this morning. We dorve down the toll road and turned off, and then went the long way (according to the young lady at the petrol station) to the edge of the mud flow. The road brought us out through Tanggul Angin, the place where leather goods are made. It is suffering mightily, because the tourist buses can't really get to it. (Businesses on the other side of the mud must be suffering too.)

A couple of kilometres down the road the traffic was being turned back. We told the policemen there that we wanted to have a peep at the mud and asked where we could park. "Here", they said, and directed us to a spot in front of their post. Then, like all Indonesians, who seemed to have developed the view that westerners are incompetent, incapable, but fairly harmless dolts, they were concerned that we had to walk a bit to see the mud. Like all our dealings with the Surabaya constabulary, they were friendly and helpful when treated with respect (and a bit of Indonesian language helps as well).

For me, the drive there was more frustrating, because the inaction of all levels of government is obvious. Absolutely nothing has been done to create an alternative road system for the multitude of vehicles that need to enter and leave Surabaya each day. So, as well as the poor victims who have lost their homes, through no fault of their own, all the people who live in Surabaya, but work outside it, and all the poor people who live on the road that are now choked with traffic are affected. There is no political will evident whatsoever.

Indonesians are fabulous at making a rupiah out of any situation. On the outskirts of Tanggal Angin there is a host of motorcycle riders who will, for a small fee, guide you through the (previously quiet) backstreets to Malang. Then, as well as the men who will take you, by motorbike, along the levee banks to see the mud geyser, there are others selling DVD's of the tragedy for Rp15,000 (~ AU$2). And, of course, there is the proliferation of small warungs that spring up around any spot where people gather.

It's extremely difficult lately to get around to posting anything. I seem to spend my life in front of a computer, but no longer have time to do "personal" things.

However, life is pretty good at the moment. Helen and I had a wonderful time in Myanmar, which I hope to be able to document on my website, very soon. We've been back at school for a week, and it's going smoothly. I am currently busier than usual, because I am teaching an IB  Diploma Maths class, because the regular teacher, one of my Vice Principals, has just had a baby girl, and our expat Mathematics teacher doesn't begin work until next school year. The 19 kids in the class are pretty good. The content is quite difficult, and I'm learning a lot about using a graphing calculator. They are an amazing piece of technology.

The main thing is trying to make sure that everything that is supposed to happen happens, the way it is supposed to happen. There are set backs ( when I have to try not to "lose it"), but they are becoming rarer. We seem to be going through one of those times when things are falling into place. It's a matter of attention to detail and persevering.

We went to a book club  meeting on Thursday night, to discuss "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time", by Mark Haddon. It was an easy, enjoyable read. Next month's one is an epic ("Shantaram"), and I want to get through my current book first.

As well as reading what I want to read, I need to find time to play guitar, do some art stuff and generally unwind.

We had a lovely
weekend in Bali. Helen has a workshop today and tomorrow. I couldn't manufacture an excuse to stay past Sunday. We stayed at
the Hyatt, in Sanur. It was overcast, but warm, with little rain.

We went
shopping in Denpasar - fabrics and touristy stuff from the main market, which
is always a great place to poke around.

 Both mornings,we
walked around Sanur. Yesterday morning, we wandered around the produce market, where
we encountered Ibu Dian, Helen's ex-teacher assistant.

 Apart from
that, we spent some time on the beach, and ate and drank a bit. Saturday night, we
had a fabulous meal at The Village restaurant, now located just down from Jl.
Bumi Ayu. We met Ketut Kasih who owns surf shops. His boys, whom we had taught,
were sent to Geelong Grammar to finish their schooling. The older one is about
to start at the Victorian
College of the Arts
(after a year of sorting himself out) and the younger one is a prefect, in Year
12. It made me realise the resources that the great private schools can draw
on.

 We then
migrated to Café Batu Jimbar (now opposite Alas Arum - now Hardy's) to listen to
Tropical Transit (who used to play at Kafe Wayang). They still play brilliant
Latin stuff, including "I will survive" in Spanish! We had a chat
with Monos, the band leader/percussionist/singer (who was surprisingly lucid,
considering his substance-enhanced lifestyle) and two long-term expats.

Yesterday afternoon
I wandered around a bit, and had a good, cheap massage. After afternoon tea,
again at Batu Jimbar, we returned to the hotel where I packed, headed for the
airport and caught the plane back to Surabaya.

Welcome to Jakarta (almost). Yesterday
afternoon, we were out at Galaxy Mall, in the east. It is an older mall, but
they’ve built a new section, with Starbucks, Sogo, etc. Our school has a stand
at a “fair” in the ground floor of the original bit. The idea is that innocent
passers-by stop and you reel them in. In the past, because the uninformed girls in
our “marketing” department ran them, we got no-one. This year, Helen and I
organised videos, powerpoints, a roster of teachers to talk to people,
booklets, etc. We might have a few extra bums on the seats as a consequence
next year.

 
Anyway, our Indonesian colleagues declined the offer of going home early, because it was bucketing outside. We left at about
8.30pm, and ended up driving through water constantly until we got
to the central city, about 4 km away. Then, passing over to the western side, we hit
more water.

We drove for more than two kilometeres through water that was up
the side of the car, with the “surf” literally lapping over the bonnet as cars
went the other way. Helen was a bit scared by it. We got through, but it was
pretty “hairy”. There were not as many disabled vehicles along the way as I would have expected, although a lot of motorbikes had "conked out"

Today should be a big one. We have a school "expo" at the Shangri-La hotel, so we hope that there are plenty of new punters through the door. The down side is the realisation that, if Helen and I didn't do most of it, very little would happen. The low level of productivity of a few colleagues is very frustrating.

The very big positive is that we have developed a pretty damn fine school. The Maths Coordinator ran a great session on Wednsday night, and he told me that, three years ago, he never dreamed he would be able to teach expatriate kids, in English. He mangles the English language, but he speaks well enough to get the ideas across, and he's getting better and better as a teacher. He is just one of about one hundred and something.

Even working with the office staff and technicians, we find that if you treat them as equals, and give them responsibility, they far exceed your expectations.

We'll see how it all goes. I hope the coffee is good.