Sara and Lee . com

This, in a nutshell (or maybe a timeline, whatever), was my first day of work at CD Bethesda. It’s very different from Intel (except in dress code….jeans and tshirts reign supreme here too), but I think I am going to like it a lot nonetheless. No offense, cubicle world, but now I have an office! Ha ha haaaaa….oh yeah, and I share it with 3 other people. It’s air conditioned and has fast internet….but we’ll get to that later. Here was my schedule sort of

11AM the day before — I text message my supervisor asking when/if I should come to work the next day and what I should bring.

9PM the day before — I get a message indicating that I should come in at 9AM the next day. Which is what I was planning on doing anyway thankfully.

7:50AM on day of work — depart on foot from our friend Sierra’s house, aka our temporary residence while she and her roommate are in Vietnam.

8:02AM — arrive at major street with buses, having heard “hello mister” several times on the street already today.

8:10AM — No buses are coming! Panic! Or rather, in the US I would have panicked. My first day of work and I am due there at 9 and there are no buses! Here, I was calm. And laughing. Time is a bit more…..relative. I was confident that nobody would care if I was late, even on my first day.

8:11AM — the A3 bus comes to save the day. It is large and slow, but as I haven’t seen any of the more agile bus-vans, I will take it.

8:15AM — we have not gone far (driving slowly, trolling for more passengers no doubt) and are passed by the D-something van-bus. I made a bad choice obviously

8:42AM — bus finally gets to where I get off. Now is the time for my ~15 minute walk to work. Thus, I get to work at 8:56AM. This is probably a greater crime than being late, this earliness, but I go in anyway. At Intel on my first day I would walk into the lobby and a manager would be there to meet me. At CD, not so much….I wander upstairs and ask if my supervisor is in yet. It appears that she is….great! She and one of my other office-mates are in the office eating little wrapped up breakfast bundles from nearby warungs (food stalls). My desk has a small pile of Sierra’s mail on it and nothing else. I say my good mornings and sit.

9:07AM — I am told where the tea is, if I would like some. I would! If for nothing else than to have something to do.

9:10AM — Don’t mind me, I’m just sitting here sipping tea! OK, I should try to look busy like the others are. I know, I will message Lee to let him know I am here and have nothing to do.

9:12AM — That didn’t take long. At this point, my two coworkers ask about my background. Upon hearing that it is in computer engineering, they are happy. Apparently, of the three computers in the office, one works, one cannot do internet anymore, and one can receive but not send email. So much for using the fast internet Oh, if I only had actual practical computer skills! I mention that since Lee and I are sharing a laptop, it might be nice if I could have a laptop to use at CD during the day. Sierra (predecessor) had suggested this to me weeks ago. This was met with “hmmm, well, our laptops are broken. We will be getting some new ones. hmmmmm”. I gleaned nothing definite from this.
9:30AM — nobody seems concerned that I am doing nothing, so I find an old powerpoint presentation in Indonesian and start translating it to English, just to try to teach myself new words.

9:45 — ok, I feel bad. I offer to try to look at one of the computers and see if I can fix it. I know I can’t. I text lee to see if he has ideas. He doesn’t, especially because he’s not there. But at least I feel like I’m trying to do something.

10AM — My supervisor says something about having her supervisor take me around to meet people. Regrettably her supervisor is not available.

10:30AM — Her supervisor becomes available and I go around meeting many people. I forget many names, but not Suparman, I was hoping to meet someone of that name. I am offered traditional cold medicine as my nose is running. My kingdom for a kleenex! How embarrassing to meet people with a running nose. It does not make remembering names any easier when you are concentrating on your own nose. Each time I meet someone, it is announced that I am a computer expert and perhaps could teach them how to use computers or fix their computers. I finally manage to say that actually, my work was in microprocessor design with “Intel Pentium”. If I just say Intel I get blank stares, but the Pentium part really seems to perk people up. This mention of microprocessors translates to “oh, so you worked with spare parts. You know how to change them! And you can recognize when parts are fake!” Sorry to squash your enthusiasm, but no, no, unfortunately no. I have no such practical skills. Sigh.

11:30AM — lunch with the females of the office. A tradition! It was a lot of fun, though I did not venture to try the chicken feet or head today. Mungkin nanti! (possibly later).

1 PM — back in office. I am given a book to read about CD Bethesda, written in the late 80s. It is actually a very good book, though very obviously translated from Indonesian, sometimes a tad awkwardly. For the record, CD Bethesda is a Christian organization, though they serve everyone. They work to develop good health practices in communities, sort of using a holistic approach. They are awesome! (says me, clearly an expert after just one day) Their approach to religion, at least on paper, is one that I can agree with. Maybe someday I will post an excerpt that I particularly liked from the book…..maybe.

During my reading, many people came in and out of the office to work at various desks, sort of like musical desks. Very musical in fact, as they played music on the computers employing the computers’ own speakers rather than headphones. They also sang along frequently (and well!) to passages from the songs, which were mostly in English. It was great, though it sort of made me snicker to think of people doing that in the US. Apparently this singing and music is common, as I have asked people from two different NGOs in town if they have observed this and the answers were both yes.

2PM — I am asked to revise the editing I did before (see prev. post) as new information has come in. In order to do this, I must use my supervisor’s computer. She says that she asked around about a computer for me and that it should be possible. That is all the resolution I have on this for now. I actually consider this to be a great amount of progress!

3:30PM — Done editing! I get the feeling people thought I would be faster at this, but of course they don’t say so because that would be rude.

4PM — People start leaving for the day. My coworkers ask me how I am getting home. I answer bus and they express concern. They all ride motorbikes. Consensus is that I should too. My Indonesian is not good enough to explain that a) I got into an accident just a few months ago in the parking lot for pete’s sake or b) In the US I often get nervous just passing a semi truck on I25. No, I think traffic is crazy enough here that I would die within a day of starting driving.

4:30PM — I have been reading my CD book for an hour since editing. The room is starting to get a little dim. My supervisor’s computer, the only one in the office that works, gets a virus. Suddenly I am sort of worried about the files I loaded onto my memory stick after editing….My supervisor suggests that as buses stop running around 5PM, I should leave. I agree, even though most of the others are still there. As I am leaving one of my other coworkers asks if my husband is coming to pick me up on a motorbike. Unfortunately no, I am taking the bus. “Be careful” she says. To residents of Jogja, the risk of pick pockets on the bus is much greater than the risk to life and limb that a motorbike might cause

5:20PM — I arrive back in Sierra’s neighborhood after a fun bus ride where I got to talk to Ignatius, a very nice older gentleman who was riding the bus with his wife heading home north of town. His english was excellent, though once he found out that I could speak a few Indonesian words, he started talking to me in very fast Indonesian. All I caught was the words for “tree”, “eat”, “drink”, “tasty”, “traditional” and “cassava”. I smiled and nodded a lot. He also asked where my ancestors were from, and I said that some were from Germany. This seemed to disappoint him a little, and he kept asking if they were from England because, as he put it, “when I looked at you, I think maybe you are from the country of princess Di”. I think this is a compliment, and I didn’t want to disappoint, so I “admitted” that perhaps on my father’s side of the family, they were from England. Yes, in fact, this was surely the case — mother’s side from Germany, father’s side from England. This made him very happy and excited, and he proceeded to very animatedly tell his wife all about it. Sometimes it’s not about accuracy, it’s about harmony. Actually, more times than not here I think.

5:25PM — I arrive back at house, floating on the natural high that can only be brought on by correctly guessing what someone on the street a block away asked you and giving an intelligible multi-sentence answer. A good ending to a good day……