Well, we arrived safely in Indonesia, and we've been here for almost a week now. Jetlag took a while to get over even though it wasn't too bad at any one point. Alisha took mildly sick right before we left, which made the already extended flight less enjoyable, but she's recovered fairly well now. I didn't realize how spoiled I was by only having to fly into Singapore for all those years—the last leg of the journey is really what gets you.
The weekend after we arrived was scheduled the retreat for the Central Java team of my parents' organization. We got to come along for that, and they really made us feel like part of the team there even though we'll only be here for a month. There are some really amazing things happening through them here, so it was very encouraging to hear their stories.
The retreat was held in the city of Ungaraan (between Salatiga and Semarang) at the Joglo Villas. We got to stay among these beautiful bungalos situated in the midst of rice paddies. The environment felt soothing and relaxing, and it was a great opportunity to get reacquainted with Indonesian food and culture in addition to the time with the team. I'm working on the language—I can understand about 90% of what I hear, but I often have a hard time coming up with the right word when I try to speak. I believe the rest will come with time. It's also stretching my memory to try to explain words and phrases to Alisha, who is trying to pick up what she can of the language.
One of the nights at the retreat I had some fun with the low levels of lighting around the complex and played with some trick photography. I set the shutter speed to ten seconds and put the camera on a chair, then I ran out in front of it and stood in two places for five seconds each. If you move quickly with a slow shutter, the camera will only catch you where you stand still, so you can end up with two ghost images. It took some practice to get it right, but the effect is pretty cool. This wasn't digitally altered in any way!
I took many more photos, but the network connection here is not what you'd call stellar. It works, but it's going to be a while before I get the photos uploaded to Flickr.
Today I started working at the software development company that I'm going to be helping at. I'll mostly be training with Free Software tools and trying to introduce helpful practices. It's a little strange for me to stand back a bit from the day-to-day production of code and think a bit more high-level. I must say my people skills aren't as strong as my technical skills. The cultural differences don't help much either, though the Javanese culture is very forgiving and tolerant. We'll have to see how things go. I've been preparing a reading list for ensuring some of the foundational skills of programming are in place.
Alisha has been able to help at Mountainview, the international school in town. (I attended the school eight years ago when it was called CJIMS.) She's been doing some tutoring and helping out some of the teachers that are more short-handed.
