Jogja

On the way home from Pacitan we spent a long weekend in Jogjakarta, a popular tourist spot in Central Java. It's said to be the cultural heart of the island and also is home to 80+ universities. For these reasons we suspect it gets dubbed as a hippie town, attracting crazy Europeans, Australians, Japanese and Indonesians the like.

Highlights include visiting Borobudur (world's largest Buddhist temple, SO beautiful), Prambanhan (world's largest Hindu temple), shopping at the open air markets on Malioburo,the sort of Palace, and new friends Daniel and Tamara - IPB students also a part of the project, they needed a well earned break from hard work! Hot showers and a pool at the guest house were also supremely welcomed. Jogja has a great energy, delightful food and friendly bike cab drivers. I thoroughly enjoyed. Pictures below - some photo credit to Dan - my camera battery chose a sweet time to die.

Non highlights of the weekend: USA soccer's unispired play against Ghana. Not speaking of the WC again.

Happy to be home and in my own space again! Agenda for the next few weeks: attempting to explore more of Bogor/West Java, and perhaps make some sense of my travels...

"Business" as usual?

Following my experience in Pacitan and a few more weeks of office time in Bogor I feel the need to share some of my reflections on business in Indonesia. Or lack thereof.

All meetings (especially in more rural places like we experienced) start with tea. Always. Everyone gives you tea. And in a series of meetings one morning, I had three cups of tea and a cup of coffee pre 11am. This is more than my weekly intake of caffeine.

Tea is usually accompanied by snacks. Everything from delicious coconut crackers to fried cassava to peanuts to outrageous servings of white rice. It is totally rude if you don’t consume all of the goodies put in front of you. I had more than one uncomfortable encounter where food I did not want to finish was basically forced on me. Considering I’m treated like a celebrity everywhere I go, I’m encouraged to eat seconds and thirds and “not to be shy.” God forbid I try to explain that I’m going to turn into a freaking rice paddy or that spice and uncooked food could literally put me on my death bed.

All meetings start with tea and end with a picture. Not sure if that’s about the country’s facebook obsessions (EVERYONE at wifi zones is obsessed, expect to start seeing lots of random things tagged of me) – or if its just fascination with the American researcher. Who knows. My face is all over Pacitan. An assortment of these pictures is below.





Setting up a meetings is a far cry from what I grew accustomed to: stalking media planners via email and phone and sending obnoxious but necessary outlook reminders. Very, very different here. It’s completely acceptable to request a meeting less than a day in advance. This can be done via text message. No problem. This makes some things easier (less planning) but others infinitely challenging especially for me (lack of set scheduling).

Although sometimes it is easy to muck up to an office and chat with people, other times it was my observation that you’d be blown off just so that the office would appear busy. This happened at our first trip to the Regency Agriculture department, when they were too busy to see us, yet eight people were standing around doing absolutely nothing.

Computers are NOT the norm. We have them all over CCROM’s office – which also has a reasonably large fridge and AC, but these are all rare items for offices here. This is not incredibly surprising but leads to other major, major differences. Lack of computers is the only reasonable explanation I have come up with for the abundance of photocopy shops everywhere, whether in Bogor, a city with a population close to 1 mil or a rural farming town. Copy machines are abundant. Refrigeration is not.

This next fact needs to be shared with the world. When we finally got in to see the Department of Agriculture, I don’t spot a single computer. In our meeting, I asked about the recording of their rainfall data, a CRUCIAL dataset for our further analysis here. They tell me it dates back to 1964. I’m thinking I’ve hit the jackpot, we’ve got almost fifty years of data! A lovely woman goes to fetch this information and comes back with the below book.



The rainfall apparently has been recorded on the dead sea scrolls.

This less formal structure and lack of computerized work forced me to dig deep into my sales skills and work like a ruthless detective. This seemed to me the only way I could achieve one quarter of what I’d hoped for. I turned our house into somewhat of a war zone, tried to initiate evening meetings and created an org chart for all of the actors in the farmers lives here. I think this strategy proved somewhat successful.


Command Center


My handy and highly technical work of art org chart

Ending on the two most egregious and rude practices, in my opinion! People openly smoke – legit chain smoke – in meetings. Whether you're meeting inside or outside. Really??? And answering cell phones in the middle of the meeting is totally acceptable also.

This is not business as usual but trying to make the most of the new work environment - so far so good!

Thoughts from the field

I was right about my 10 day approximation. I’m planning to head back to Bogor on Friday but not after spending the weekend in Jogja - just google image search Borobudur. I am stoked.

After a whirlwind trip, full of flight delays and missed connecting buses, we arrived last Wednesday after 12+ hours of travel. During our trip Rahmi felt nauseous and I was unconscious from overdosing on Benadryl due to a delightful reaction I had to mosquito bites (all fine now though!). We were in bad shape and when we finally arrived at our house, we found no electricity. A situation we’d be in for two days. My last post about the world cup game should clarify.

With my team, no matter how different you may be, its funny the things you’re able to bond over: Music- They love Justin Bieber. This is legit the first time I’ve heard his music, I guess you never can say never. They also share my love for Lady Gaga. We’ve swapped stories about family traditions & holidays & weddings. Through this I am reminded that people are people, no matter what you wear on your head or what you practice, yoga or prayer.

I am happy to report that Pacitan did in fact bring me less bugs and more sunshine, and my first steps in the Indian Ocean!



I can also happily confirm the kindness of the people here. Simple farmers, more than willing to open their doors for hours to chat with strangers. We’ve met with several farmers, head of the farmers groups, a few of the selfless NGO workers in the community, bankers, Agricultural dept. I try to end each interview with a simple question: what do you think the farmers need the most? This leads to a variety of answers: easier access to credit, WATER + irrigation, better business development, more access to yield improving technologies. I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything we’ve learned in the last week and what climate adaptation truly makes the most sense here. Not easy questions to answer.

Behind the friendly faces, seemingly well built homes and decent (by “development” standards) infrastructure and roads, I think its easy to overlook the prevalence of poverty here. That’s because most people are doing fine. The tight knit structure of the community ensures this. However, people are not living nearly to their potential. For example, there is no coordinated garbage collection. Not a one person we’ve seen (here or Bogor) has a fridge and clean drinking water is unheard of. Children are still sick from 100% treatable issues that we absolutely take for granted. And why the hell were we without electricity for two days?? God, if Taft Lane (mom and dad’s house) went more than 20 minutes without electricity it would be completely unacceptable. I feel it’s a matter of recognizing that you need and then demanding what is needed. Thankfully, Ken and Maria taught me this damn well and I hope I’m not only teaching this lesson to others but in bringing a “celebrity” voice to their cause may help initiate small change. As an American here I’m treated uncomfortably like a celebrity. It’s a distinction I don’t take lightly and hope to put that to good use!

I believe in (small) miracles

When I wrote that I hoped not to be off the grid for too long, I didn’t really think I would be off the grid…

Much more to write about my time in Pacitan, but I’ll start with the events that led up to my watching of the US Slovenia tie and my commentary of this frustrating game.

In our first 48 hours in Pacitan, we had about four hours of electricity. We’re told that its not always this way in Pringkiku Village, where we’ve set up shop for the research site, but there was an explosion at the main tower and whole village had been on and off since Wednesday. This would have been acceptable – minus the fact that my netbook was fairly crucial to getting work done - but how do we not watch the US Slovenia game?? Galih, Rahmi and Ica (the team!) recognize how vital this game is to me, and hence the morale of the group. After numerous calls to the electric company we’re told Saturday is the earliest it will be fixed. I might be able to swallow missing this game however our water pump for washing runs on electric so if we don’t get power, we have no water. This is becoming an issue.

Starting at about 4:30pm Friday we start to contemplate the dire situation we find ourselves in. It’s going to be dark in about 45 minutes. Can we find a hotel in Pactian City? How do the four of us get there with one scooter? This is a problem. We continue to discuss potential scenarios when the electricity comes back on! We immediately sprint to start charging all phones and computers, and filling the water just in case… just in the case the electricity goes out again…. which it did AGAIN, after about 15 minutes of rejuvenation. We’re deflated. Morale is low. We again debate how we can escape this house for a night or two until the problem is fixed. After a frantic half hour, during which I retreat to my room to pout, dumbfounded as to what we should do, the team discovers that we are the only house on the street sans light. They recruit friends from outside who realize that we essentially just needed to flip a breaker to get the power back on. Voila. It’s a miracle. I’m going to watch this game after all.

The power stays on unbelievably until pregame starts. They show the team walking through the tunnel with those little kids, the luckiest kids on earth at this moment, and suddenly, the channel goes black. I’m not kidding. Galih tries to fix this with the satellite for a few minutes. I step in sad and frantic and angry. Rahmi tries to help and keep me calm. Galih scoots down the street to the house behind the bodega on the corner and discovers a pack of friendly Pringkuku-ians watching the match. He insists its OK for us to go watch with them. I’m desperate and already feeling like an animal at the zoo with the amount of stares I get around the village, so I might as well be happy and watch the game.

We realize at some point that the satellite tv at our house blacks out the WC games. There are no words for how I feel about this. Looks like we’ll be back at the bodega for the Algeria game.

Wow. If we win that game, I’d believe in big miracles. Let’s start there.. we could have won the game but the officiating, per the usual US luck, sucks this time. I’m not sure what happened on Edu’s goal.. along with several other questionable calls. I guess we used up all of our good luck in the England draw. And now being slightly connected to the world I understand this ref is getting the boot.. GOOD!

It’s a small miracle I didn’t embarrass myself in front of the house full of Indonesians who let us in. Again, I can’t breathe anytime the ball comes into our defensive zone. I am certain they think I’m crazy here.

THANK YOU Landon. And THANK YOU Michael Bradley for two beautiful goals. Indah. I take back what I said from the England game.

And it seems that the sh*t's really hit the fan in England camp. I. Love. it.

Maybe small miracles- like having electricity and water for bathing and squeezing out 2-2 ties – is the best we can hope for. After the highs and lows we’ve experienced in Pacitan, I will gladly take the small ones.

On the road again

Just starting to feel settled and its time to pack up and go! After a meeting Monday with the head of our project it was determined that we would depart for our field work Wednesday, tomorrow. If you’re confused I posted a few days ago about what I’m actually doing here… So for me this means a 2am wake up call to board a 3am bus to Jakarta for a 6am flight to Yogyakarta followed by a few hours drive to Pacitan City. Sweet.

Thankfully I’m travelling with Rahmi, the undergrad tasked with translating and babysitting me. I managed to learn a few essential Bahasa phrases for this excursion, nothing remotely useful in conversation unless talking about kedelai (soybeans) or curah hujah rata rata (average rainfall).

I *should* be there about a week, depending on how quickly we are able to arrange the appropriate meetings with farmers, bankers, municipal and community leaders. However, being that we’re on Indo time and most things seem a few days delayed, I anticipate I won’t be back for 10-14 days. Not to worry, I’ve confirmed that the house we’re staying at will have a TV for soccer viewing.

This loose timetable made my packing a little difficult. I’ve got all medicine covered.. and stuffed the rest of my bag full of fruit and the closest items I can find to granola bars. I get hungry and rice more than once a day has gotten old, very very quickly.

Also spent some time today ensuring that we would have adequate funds on our sim cards for proper phone and internet service while in the rural districts. Cell phones here are far more affordable than in the US but infinitely more difficult to figure out. What a nightmare. My hatred for Telkmosel is right up there with the likes of Vodafone, AT&T, the Yankees ticket office, and New York Road Runners. I took some pictures of my packing extravangza this evening which I would post but I’m conserving my megabytes used.. again, thank you Telkmosel for creating an impossible system. Fingers crossed I won’t be off the grid for too long! And that Pacitan will bring me more sunshine, fewer bugs and far less traffic/air pollution than we’ve found in Bogor.

A tie is a win for the US

I’m incredibly relieved that this game is over. The physiological response I have while watching a game like this makes me wonder how I survived Germany 2006. It also makes me wonder how the Poda boys are going to survive in South Africa.

Highlights of our evening:

We cooked and purchased more food than would have been humanly possible for us to eat. Too stressed during the game to eat.

Walking to KFC at 12:30am to get coffee… Yes, KFC. It was the closest available locale open to serve us. Christ knows I do not need to caffeine that late but this was a special occasion. No joke. There is a live band at KFC and the place is bumping. Asia again is a funny place.

I literally can’t breathe everytime England brings the ball across midfield. I yelled kind of a lot, but really tried to keep that to a minimum. Fairly certain our Indonesian friends don’t know what the hell to do with my lunatic behavior while watching. At least they agreed (a neutral party) that the US played well and it was an exciting game.

Some of my thoughts on the game:

Really, really proud of the team’s ability to turn around a pathetic start. At 20 minutes in down 0-1 when Tim Howard got the wind knocked out of him, I swore our tournament was over. Four years ago after allowing an early goal to the Czechs the US team did lose a ton of their steam. But not this time.. we kept the pressure up surprisingly well in the first half.

Tim Howard for President. Period.

Our defense needs work. A lot of work before the next two games. That first goal four minutes in was atrocious. Gooch thankfully -minus blowing his coverage on the goal- played a hell of a game. As did Clint Dempsey (my boyfriend) who got beat up but played his heart out. And Landon Donovan who I hate on 95% of the time made me proud and actually earned some of the hype.

Where was Michael Bradley? He needed to be way more involved in making offense plays happen.

Why did we wait until 10 minutes left in the game to make substitutions? I don’t get it Bob Bradley. We dragged ass in the second half.. fresh legs in the mid-field could have done us some good.

For the FIRST TIME I can remember, I actually felt the officiating FOR THE US was LEGIT! This never, ever ever happens to our team. We always end up with the WORST refs in important games.. I want to give those refs a high five or better yet a Diego Maradona-esque hug and kiss. I hope others witnessed the way he embraced his players after that win. Amazing.

The commentators I had to listen to were British and more biased for the England squad than Fox News talking about Sarah Palin. It was nauseating. If they mentioned that botched goal one more time, rather than praising a tough US side.. I sincerely hope everyone else watching from America got more fair and balanced analysis.

Time for bed, pics to come soon, particularly of the KFC incident.

Happy World Cup! Senang kejuaraan dunia

No matter where I would be this weekend the most important thing happening is clearly the start of the World Cup. June 12, 2010 is four years… I believe to the day.. that Helena and I arrived (barely!) in Dusseldorf only to watch the American boys get EMBARASSED by the Czech Republic. I have realistic but higher hopes for this year’s start of tournament. In exchange for the dudes in our house letting us watch the late game on their tv’s we have promised to make dinner and provide snacks. Vieiwing on a tiny screen in a hot crowded room wasn’t exactly how I envisioned watching this game but I am still looking forward to it. Ideally Helena, Anyah and I would be gearing up for the game in Rustenburg.. still so sad not to be there in person!

Thankfully soccer is one of the country’s biggest sports (along with badminton, ha) and everyone is stoked about the start of the World Cup.. soccer really does unite the world. Pictures of my viewing parties to follow! Oh and if anyone caught the opening ceremonies yesterday, please explain to me why the hell R. Kelly performed. Seriously FIFA, we couldn’t have gotten better talent for this??

A hot weekend

My weekends for the better part of the last year have been spent selling shoes, running and studying. It is an absolute pleasure not to rush around in my free time here! As soon as our field work timing gets finalized we can strategize more weekend excursions but for now, the slower pace is suiting me absolutely just fine. This morning we enjoyed a run through the Botanical Gardens, which was even more beautiful the second time around. Indah. Beautiful in Bahasa. This is right across the street from our house and IPB.





As I captured here, the gardens were bustling with odd sporting events and a grammar school graduation- so adorable!! Jess and I (yet again) were stared at incessantly. I thought perhaps a public park would be a better place to exercise free of judgment but clearly I was mistaken. I had a few school kids start to run along with me, lots and lots of laughing and pointing. Is running really that strange?? Maybe I have no room to talk if I’m stopping and snagging shots of the odd things I see too…






It hasn’t rained since Tuesday here and the humidity is absolutely oppressive. Bogor needs the damn rain!! The heat the past two mornings running was a real challenge, clearly my body is going to need more than 10 days to adjust to this. It’s been above 90 the past few days and this is not only draining during a run but just in general, it’s hard not to feel constantly sluggish and dehydrated. Regardless I got in a solid 17 miles this week- maybe not as fast as I’m used to but it’ll take a little more time.

What I'm actually doing here

Believe it or not there is a fair amount of work happening here. We’ve joined onto a larger, ongoing initiative at IPB and CCROM called IMHERE (unclear what that acronym means) – the mission is to understand how agriculture can better adapt to seasonal climate variability. We’re particularly focused on two districts in Java, which again is one of the largest islands in the country, home to half of the population and a great deal of its agricultural productivity. Another fun fact: Indo is the 4th largest population in the world, behind China, India and the US.

Our particular piece of the project will be to investigate how best a weather insurance program could be structured in these districts, as each serves as a representative sample of cropping patterns (irrigated rice and rain-fed rice + other staple crops such as soybean and maize) seen across the country, should such a program be scaled up to this level.

We already know many of the answers to help farmers deal with climate variability, it’s just a matter of how to make these solutions simple, reliable and affordable. If it’s going to be a dry year, for example, coping strategies include harvesting water and planting different variety of seed better adapted for less rain. But if you don’t have those technologies… how do you get them? And how is it paid for?

The idea behind this type of insurance is to link a pre-determined weather “index” (rainfall level, for example) to a payout. If the season doesn’t provide enough rainfall and crops fail, the payout is automatic: no BS with claims and waiting for money to arrive. Our job, in discussing with farmers, extension workers, local agronomists and municipal leaders is to start to figure out when and how much those levels should be set.

The plan was to travel this upcoming week to work start conducting interviews, but being that we’re on Indonesian time and not New York City time, it appears that our field work will be delayed another week or so. I’ll be working in the Pactian District of Eastern Java which should take about 12 hours by bus to reach. Apparently the beaches there are beautiful and my site manager reports that we will make time for this!! Just for reference...


View Indonesia in a larger map



Farmers are in essence small business owners. Behind all the details of our complicated project, the question we’re trying to answer is pretty basic: how can we provide a safety net in order to allow these business owners to take bigger risks in planning, so they’re planting more to get ahead rather than merely survive? This becomes particularly important as climate patterns continue to change, and in the case of my little farmers in East Java, the dry seasons grow even drier.

We spent week 1 in the office (my first full week in an office in almost a year and a half) researching more background on the districts and understanding the many existing weather insurance programs already in practice. It is highly amusing to me that *I* am one of the senior researchers on the staff… and that there are many other undergrads/grad students/staff in place to help make plans for me. It is an exciting challenge to actually infuse my own ideas into the project and offer recommendations that might for serious make a difference. It’s also been rewarding thus far that I’m actually applying lessons learned in the last year to practical use. Rare that this happens. I hope that will be the case in wherever I land next!

My first run! (saya pertama lari)

This is Putra and Jess, post run, the famous Botantical Garden in the background.

Putra lives below us at the cosi (residence house) and also is a graduate student at IPB. We met him when he helped translate with the owner about an unfortunate bathroom water issue on Friday evening. Of course I immediately start questioning whether or not he likes to run. He tells me he does. Jackpot. I lock him in for Sunday morning. I'm proud of this accomplishment on my first full day here.

Saturday night Jess and I agree to run at 7am. Putra pushed for 6am. We settled on 6:30am. Putra was right. By 7am it is blazing hot already and the roads, even for a Sunday, are full of people walking - and running! I'm not really sure why or where, but the town of Bogor is out and about. They shut down a stretch of road (very close to us, with PERFECT hills for repeats... this is what I'm sizing up on our run) about a mile long to all car traffic before 9am. A few shots from the run. Notice the large crowds gathered and soccer game pre 7 oclock.. I've seen Central Park pretty busy on a Sunday morning, but nothing like this.

We went about four miles and the heat wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be. I *believe* there is a running group in Bogor, another question to tackle but for now I am most pleased with this start!

Yay for my new Brooks Defyance 3s!

Our new home

This is the outside of our house, Taman Malabar No. 11. Below are shots of my cozy little space and the soccer that's regularly played across the street.











Our rooms feels very dorm-ish, with a mix of about 10 other undergrad and grad students renting space. Doors are always open, the "dudes" here are incredibly friendly.. whether that's a dorm thing, an Indonesian culture thing, or just a stoked to have American chicks living next door thing, we're not sure. Thankfully, our friends a few doors down have a TV and already welcomed us to watch Friday's USA England match with them. I think I've asked nearly everyone I've met where the World Cup games will be shown, but with a 1:30am start time here and an extremely minimal bar scene, no one seems to have a solid answer. Hallelujah for the dudes. Being in college has its perks sometimes.

We're situated right in the heart of Bogor (as far as we can tell), across the street from the Botantical Gardens - Kebun Raya - fun fact it is the only site Georgie W. visited in the country when he dropped by in 2006. We're five minutes walk from work/campus and extremely close to a large Western style mall, Botani Square. Despite its conveniences, I'm heavily conflicted about its presence here. Thankfully we're uncovering many of the more authentic and traditional spots nearby, and there are plenty of gems!

Lessons learned in first few days:

-Bring umbrella at all times - when it rains it freaking pours here. Bogor is said to average 322 thunderstorms a year. Yes, 88% of the time you can expect a downpour. Through Saturday we were 3/3 and as I write Sunday evening looks poised for the same.

-Be prepared to be stared at. Sometimes its an expression of excited curiosity, other times not as friendly, but clearly, we are different. In our tours of town and the Kebun Raya yesterday, Dan and I in total had six different people ask to take pictures with us. Not a joke.

-Being cautious about health and food safety is paying off. It seems the three of us are adjusting well. And Em, if you're reading, I have heeded your advice and am taking my vitamins daily :)

-Life's activities fall with the sunlight: the action starts early in the morning and ends early in the evening. The lack of nightlife is quite a contrast to my last eight years in New York, but a welcome one. Certainly the opportunity to snag more sleep and take advantage of a simpler, slower pace.

The Journey...

As expected, the trip was LONG. A few stats to put things into perspective:

-Door to door total travel time: 42 hours

-Left Manhattan Tuesday, June 1, 8am EST, arrived in Bogor Thursday, June 3, 2pm local time (we're +11 from East Coast, check it at the top here)

-It's hot here.

In order of the flight paths:

JFK to Tokyo: 13 hours. Surprisingly, this leg of the trip went quickly. Dan sits down in his cozy window seat (we've discussed flight seating arrangments for at least 6 weeks prior to this) only to find that the former passenger left a pleasant puke surprise in the seat. They promptly move him and his neighor, a lovely nameless fellow who Dan fell in love with because of their shared joy for all things Bahston. Dude sniffed me out as a Yankee fan almost instanteously. He turned out to be OK in my book because he ran in college with Bill Rodgers. Also they shared their free "sorry about the puke" wine with me, so I'm not complaining. Jess zonked out for 12/13 hours, I kept busy with some preparatory work reading and learning to count to ten in Indonesian. A few SCREAMING babies on this flight... You better have a damn good reason for flying an infant from New York to Japan. My calf compression sleeves (THANK YOU ZENSAH!!!) yet again demonstrate their versatility, saving my legs from the pain of a long flight.

Tokyo airport 4 hour layover: Super clean and organized but this is no surprise. This is a shot of their musical toilets, something I can't imagine you would ever see in the US. Sushi was nowhere to be found.. weird. Time goes quickly and we board for Singapore.

Tokyo to Singapore: 7 more hours. By this point I've been awake close to 24 hours and manage to be in and out of consiousness the entire flight. Good thing, somehow we ended up with middle seats. NOT ok on a trip like this... I attempt to watch Alice in Wonderland and Invictus, but fell asleep not more than two minutes into each.

Singapore: THANK YOU TO PATRICK MAHER (pictured here, with Dan, in his awesome condo) for entertaining us to pass the time. Having a familiar face and leaving the airport for about 12 hours was essential in surviving our marathon journey.

Singapore is an interesting place. I'm not sure there are many places in the world where you can find right smack in the middle of a shopping mall a spot that has karaoke and hoards of women dancing on the bar. Welcome to Asia. We enjoy a little of the nightlife followed by a delicious hotel breakfast buffet, play on Pat's jungle gym (see below), and promptly make our way back to airport just in time for our last flight.. at which point both Jess and I are charged over-weight fees for our two bags. Thank you Air Asia, the Ryan Air of this part of the universe.

Singapore to Jakarta: 1.5 hours, I have an entire row to myself, delightful.

Drive to Bogor: 60-90 minutes. I fell asleep. So exhausted. Jakarta is hot. Sadly my first impression of the city is of the miles and miles of informal housing settlements. All I can think of is the poor construction sitting on a dangerous fault line.. You can also see the heat/pollution/humidity pouring out of the ground.

Although upon arrival we hoped for a nap, that was not the case.. we end up running around all afternoon taking care of our rooms, setting up internet and cell phones, and getting ready to start work the next day.

Preparing for the Journey

Today is Monday, May 31 (well, technically June 1 by posting time) and I’ve spent the entirety of Memorial Day Weekend 2010 packing. Not just for the next 2.5 months I'll spend in Indonesia -more to come- but also to move into storage until I return. Why am I moving again, barely ten months after I arrived on the lovely Upper West Side? A brief journey of what got me here. And some shots of what my entire life looks like in boxes.


My WHOLE life

My life for the next few months, even Ken Basche told me I did well packing






In Winter 2009, despite being assured what a vital part of the team I was a few short weeks prior, my cozy Account Manager position with Smithsonian Media was eliminated and I found myself a victim of this recession. In retrospect this is the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Although it sounds totally cliché it is completely accurate in my life. It kicked my ass into gear to go back to school and find more fulfilling work. Work that hopefully took into account my childhood joys of bugs and dirt and my undergraduate sufferings through Fordham’s Bio dept and more semesters than I would have liked in physics/organic chem.. By some miraculous feat I applied and was accepted in CU’s Climate and Society program, a one year “intensive” MA program geared to train individuals to utilize climate information in improving human livelihood. After coming out the other end nearly alive, I can say that intensive is an understatement.

Every day since September was grueling, requiring a tremendous amount discipline and sacrifice. More sacrifices than I would have liked or anticipated. I want to apologize now for:

Any phone calls, texts, emails I've failed to respond to.

Any special events - birthday celebrations, weddings, kickball games, happy hours, gossip sessions, concerts, or general fun with friends - that I couldn't attend.

I know at times for many people close to me it’s probably seemed that I’ve flaked out, but this was not the case! I hope that in the end my friends can see this: its been a challenging year but never felt like I was making difficult decisions because I believe in the value of what I am learning.

Although I finished with exams in the beginning of the month, the work’s been nonstop ever since: everything from renewing my passport, securing a visa, ensuring I had one of about fifteen shots and medications, jumping through Columbia’s "cover their own ass" hoops, and who knows what else.. I am pooped. Exhausted. Tired from the whole year, or year and a half of rapid change. Topped off with a move right smack before I depart for a LONG journey. The timing of my lease did not mesh with the trip, so I’m saddling into storage until I move to the other side of the park in August. But I’ve got a whole South East Asian adventure ahead of me before I need to think about move #2 of the summer.

What exactly will I be doing in Indonesia? I'm completing the internship requirement of my degree working with CCROM, the Center for Climate Risk and Opportunity Management. CCROM is based at Bogor Agricultural University, a large and prestigious national university about two hours from Jakarta. See map – its ok if you don’t know where Indo is or that the language spoken there is Indonesian.


View Indonesia in a larger map

Our specific project will investigate the impact climate has on agriculture and the challenges that local small scale farmers face in this tropical climate. Over the past year of study I’ve grown fairly obsessed with the intersection of climate change and food systems, not only because agriculture is central to development but because it can play an important role in mitigating dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. I am also fairly convinced my food obsession stems from the constant hunger I feel as a runner. Hence why the opportunity to work on this project was so appealing to me.

I’m hopeful that West Java will provide a slightly slower pace of life, allowing for adequate sleep and reading for pleasure. Stay tuned on this one. Other wildcards for my new home:

-How will I deal with the flight path? Tomorrow’s journey includes: 14 hours to Tokyo, 3.5 hour layover, 7 hours to Singapore, 12 hour overnight layover, 1.5 hours on to Jakarta, 2 hour drive to Bogor. Yikes.

-How will 90 degree daily temperatures suit me?

-If I can endure the heat, will I be able to run comfortably and safely?? This has been a big concern since I committed to the trip.

More to come!