this article has copy from alice blog, read her story :
In Lampung: Mar 10, 2008 (immigration woes)
I had a jolly good time at immigration today. I had to fill out all of these forms (which of course I had to buy...and the spiffy folder they came in), but then they turned out to be 6 different versions of the same thing, some in Indonesian and some in English. I decided to fill them all out. It really made no sense to write my name, passport info, visa info, birth date and place, nationality over and over again, but of course I did it anyway. Then the immigration officer, who had no idea that there was a huge national park in his province or that orangutans had not lived there for more than 10,000 years, insisted that my sponsor (the head of the research office in Jakarta) had to be there with me to sign this official letter. (It is official only when it has the special government stamp that of course I get to provide.) I explained that I had a letter in lieu of this other one from my sponsor’s office and that obviously he cannot come to the local immigration in Lampung office since he works in Jakarta. This partially worked and he agreed to call for confirmation and then, maybe, fax the letter to my sponsor to sign. They also went ahead and photographed me (on a velvety red background) and fingerprinted me. The fingerprinting was ridiculously thorough. I have never been arrested, but I did not know it would be quite so strange to have someone grasp your hand and firmly roll each inky digit across the paper and then redip your whole hand and slap that down on the paper as well. They then repeated with my left hand. It was like being born all over again, but in Indonesia. Actually, I think it is to have a record of me in case I become a criminal or die or something. The officer also mentioned something about the embassy, so maybe (in theory) they send them a copy. (They made two.) I also had to fill out my personal information on the other side of each fingerprinting card. I thought it was interesting that they asked for each of my parent's name, address, and date of birth, but then only asked for my wife's information, as though a female could not possibly be applying to live here alone. Well, at the end of all that I still have the pleasure of returning tomorrow in hopes of getting to pay around $70 and getting my KITAS (stay permit) for this year. Then, I just have to go to the governor's office and maybe the local police as well for more fun. Then there is the head of the parks office just outside the forest before I can finally escape.
In Lampung: Mar 13, 2008 (Immigration woes part 2)
I have been waiting for a fax for the last three days to be sent from WCS at Bogor to immigration here. They want a copy of the id card and signed letter from Ibu Yani (my scientific counterpart) saying that she is my sponsor. But, really a different office (Ristek) is supposed to be my sponsor for immigration purposes. Of course, when the immigration officer called that office they said oh no we are not her sponsor, it is Ibu Yani and Universitas Indonesia. Everyday I return to immigration and wait there for several hours, but still this fax has not come. Then, today I discovered that WCS staff had tried to send it, but it could not go through seeing as the power and therefore fax machine is not functional at immigration today. Grrrrr. It is really fitting that to describe something not working or not on you say that it is "mati," which means "dead," because I feel like I have been stopped dead in my tracks. I have already been here (Lampung) for a week and made almost no progress at all.
I exerted a lot of energy today and got absolutely nothing out of it, so I am a bit frustrated at the moment. I spent the morning (about 3 hours plus part of yesterday) riding Angkots (little, converted minivans used for cheap public transportation across Indonesia that are really more like clown cars for a giant American like me) from bank to bank trying to exchange my travelers checks for cash. When I finally found one that would do it, they said that they would have to copy and examine several pages from my passport. I was prepared with photocopies of my passport and visa, as well as three other forms of id, but this just was not good enough. I would have been happy to let them make copies from my original passport, but of course immigration still has it, so no dice. I hoped to finish with immigration today and retrieve my passport, but as I already explained that too was unsuccessful. I know that there is nothing else I can do to speed this up, but I really hate losing a month of my allotted 12 just hanging out in offices and hotel rooms.
In Bandar Lampung: April 11, 2008 (an Easter bunny in April)
So safe to say I did finally get to the forest after 3 weeks of buraucratic hell. As much as I hoped for some peace and quiet and hard work, the problems are still coming at me fast and furious.
To be brief, the agile gibbons still are not habituated, I am overwhelmed/bored by the leaf monkeys, and my friend Luca got seriously sick with Dengue fever. All very nice to kick off my fieldwork. Also, my dehydrator for drying food samples was zapped when the generator broke, so I will have to either fix it or construct some sort of drying device myself. Still working on this. Of course, I cannot really start my study until all of the groups are habituated so there is time. :/
I am afraid that I am going to be one of those people who is in the field for 3 years to get a good 11-12 months of data. I think my advisor will also kill me for this with some sort of Jedi/hyper-organized German mind trick. Of course there is also the problem of money, which I do not have (at the moment) to even cover 12 months right now. Even if I get the Leakey grant it is only another $ 9,500 or so. Oh, and did I mention that the assistants all approached Luca and me one evening to say they wanted a raise. Fantastic. I sure would like a raise too. Maybe I should just declare bankruptcy and stop paying my credit card bills. Any suggestions? I have already considered selling organs, but my giant ones would never fit in these tiny Indonesian bodies. There is of course also the option of charging for all of the "photos with white people" that people insist upon wherever I go. Last night Luca and I were eating dinner and first two guys insisted one taking pictures (on a camera phone) posed with each of us separately. Then after about 10 minutes they brought the super sweaty and possibly in need of a change baby. They just plopped the thing in my lap and I had to hold it for several photo attempts while they tried to get its attention to look at the camera. Am I Santa, the Easter bunny at the mall, or maybe this is Disney land? I mean seriously I might as well be wearing a giant fluffy costume.
Oh and for some more bad news, my computer completely died about a week ago. I was working on it one evening and it just went black with no warning, no blue-screened error message, no nothing. After that it could not even turn on. I think that this is an electrical problem caused by unstable power from the generator. I came out of the forest the other day and when I tried turning my computer on again in the hotel it started up like normal. I did not lose any data and everything seems to be working. This could also be related to humidity and or temperature, but I keep my computer in a dry box. I bought a 5 kg surge protector today in hopes of avoiding any further problems, but we will see. It should be fun carrying back into the forest.
In Kota Agung: April 12, 2008 (Rat diagnostics)
Concerning the computer, I ran every diagnostic I could find yesterday (It took hours.) and nothing failed. But I am still having trouble switching the computer on. I think that the problem may be the power button itself. If the contact is a bit off or something that could explain the problem. I may open up the top of my computer once I get back to the forest. It should be fun. Maybe a really tiny rat crawled under there and died.
You know the rats in my room actually stole one of my sarongs one night. I made the mistake of turning off the lights when I went down to eat and in that very brief window they had dragged it across the floor and very tightly pulled it into the bottom of the only piece of furniture (other than my bed) in the room. I already no that they nest in there and run in and out of the bottom of it, which is really convenient since I cannot use it to store anything. I do use the top surface, but have fully abandoned the rest (and now the sarong too) to them. I also have managed to avoid opening the bottom doors, lest I have to see what is inside. I am pretty sure that my sarong may result in new rat progeny. They later tried to steal a shirt to add to the nest's comfort, but I decided to draw a line and take it back. I do have a giant plastic box to keep all of my stuff, but I may have to request a new cabinet or repairs on the old one. You know you are living in the forest when this is all normal. When the generator went down for a few days and the rats got a few hours in the dark alone they really tried to take over. I actually tripped over one on its desperate way out when I came back to get something from my room.
In Lampung: Mar 10, 2008 (immigration woes)
I had a jolly good time at immigration today. I had to fill out all of these forms (which of course I had to buy...and the spiffy folder they came in), but then they turned out to be 6 different versions of the same thing, some in Indonesian and some in English. I decided to fill them all out. It really made no sense to write my name, passport info, visa info, birth date and place, nationality over and over again, but of course I did it anyway. Then the immigration officer, who had no idea that there was a huge national park in his province or that orangutans had not lived there for more than 10,000 years, insisted that my sponsor (the head of the research office in Jakarta) had to be there with me to sign this official letter. (It is official only when it has the special government stamp that of course I get to provide.) I explained that I had a letter in lieu of this other one from my sponsor’s office and that obviously he cannot come to the local immigration in Lampung office since he works in Jakarta. This partially worked and he agreed to call for confirmation and then, maybe, fax the letter to my sponsor to sign. They also went ahead and photographed me (on a velvety red background) and fingerprinted me. The fingerprinting was ridiculously thorough. I have never been arrested, but I did not know it would be quite so strange to have someone grasp your hand and firmly roll each inky digit across the paper and then redip your whole hand and slap that down on the paper as well. They then repeated with my left hand. It was like being born all over again, but in Indonesia. Actually, I think it is to have a record of me in case I become a criminal or die or something. The officer also mentioned something about the embassy, so maybe (in theory) they send them a copy. (They made two.) I also had to fill out my personal information on the other side of each fingerprinting card. I thought it was interesting that they asked for each of my parent's name, address, and date of birth, but then only asked for my wife's information, as though a female could not possibly be applying to live here alone. Well, at the end of all that I still have the pleasure of returning tomorrow in hopes of getting to pay around $70 and getting my KITAS (stay permit) for this year. Then, I just have to go to the governor's office and maybe the local police as well for more fun. Then there is the head of the parks office just outside the forest before I can finally escape.
In Lampung: Mar 13, 2008 (Immigration woes part 2)
I have been waiting for a fax for the last three days to be sent from WCS at Bogor to immigration here. They want a copy of the id card and signed letter from Ibu Yani (my scientific counterpart) saying that she is my sponsor. But, really a different office (Ristek) is supposed to be my sponsor for immigration purposes. Of course, when the immigration officer called that office they said oh no we are not her sponsor, it is Ibu Yani and Universitas Indonesia. Everyday I return to immigration and wait there for several hours, but still this fax has not come. Then, today I discovered that WCS staff had tried to send it, but it could not go through seeing as the power and therefore fax machine is not functional at immigration today. Grrrrr. It is really fitting that to describe something not working or not on you say that it is "mati," which means "dead," because I feel like I have been stopped dead in my tracks. I have already been here (Lampung) for a week and made almost no progress at all.
I exerted a lot of energy today and got absolutely nothing out of it, so I am a bit frustrated at the moment. I spent the morning (about 3 hours plus part of yesterday) riding Angkots (little, converted minivans used for cheap public transportation across Indonesia that are really more like clown cars for a giant American like me) from bank to bank trying to exchange my travelers checks for cash. When I finally found one that would do it, they said that they would have to copy and examine several pages from my passport. I was prepared with photocopies of my passport and visa, as well as three other forms of id, but this just was not good enough. I would have been happy to let them make copies from my original passport, but of course immigration still has it, so no dice. I hoped to finish with immigration today and retrieve my passport, but as I already explained that too was unsuccessful. I know that there is nothing else I can do to speed this up, but I really hate losing a month of my allotted 12 just hanging out in offices and hotel rooms.
In Bandar Lampung: April 11, 2008 (an Easter bunny in April)
So safe to say I did finally get to the forest after 3 weeks of buraucratic hell. As much as I hoped for some peace and quiet and hard work, the problems are still coming at me fast and furious.
To be brief, the agile gibbons still are not habituated, I am overwhelmed/bored by the leaf monkeys, and my friend Luca got seriously sick with Dengue fever. All very nice to kick off my fieldwork. Also, my dehydrator for drying food samples was zapped when the generator broke, so I will have to either fix it or construct some sort of drying device myself. Still working on this. Of course, I cannot really start my study until all of the groups are habituated so there is time. :/
I am afraid that I am going to be one of those people who is in the field for 3 years to get a good 11-12 months of data. I think my advisor will also kill me for this with some sort of Jedi/hyper-organized German mind trick. Of course there is also the problem of money, which I do not have (at the moment) to even cover 12 months right now. Even if I get the Leakey grant it is only another $ 9,500 or so. Oh, and did I mention that the assistants all approached Luca and me one evening to say they wanted a raise. Fantastic. I sure would like a raise too. Maybe I should just declare bankruptcy and stop paying my credit card bills. Any suggestions? I have already considered selling organs, but my giant ones would never fit in these tiny Indonesian bodies. There is of course also the option of charging for all of the "photos with white people" that people insist upon wherever I go. Last night Luca and I were eating dinner and first two guys insisted one taking pictures (on a camera phone) posed with each of us separately. Then after about 10 minutes they brought the super sweaty and possibly in need of a change baby. They just plopped the thing in my lap and I had to hold it for several photo attempts while they tried to get its attention to look at the camera. Am I Santa, the Easter bunny at the mall, or maybe this is Disney land? I mean seriously I might as well be wearing a giant fluffy costume.
Oh and for some more bad news, my computer completely died about a week ago. I was working on it one evening and it just went black with no warning, no blue-screened error message, no nothing. After that it could not even turn on. I think that this is an electrical problem caused by unstable power from the generator. I came out of the forest the other day and when I tried turning my computer on again in the hotel it started up like normal. I did not lose any data and everything seems to be working. This could also be related to humidity and or temperature, but I keep my computer in a dry box. I bought a 5 kg surge protector today in hopes of avoiding any further problems, but we will see. It should be fun carrying back into the forest.
In Kota Agung: April 12, 2008 (Rat diagnostics)
Concerning the computer, I ran every diagnostic I could find yesterday (It took hours.) and nothing failed. But I am still having trouble switching the computer on. I think that the problem may be the power button itself. If the contact is a bit off or something that could explain the problem. I may open up the top of my computer once I get back to the forest. It should be fun. Maybe a really tiny rat crawled under there and died.
You know the rats in my room actually stole one of my sarongs one night. I made the mistake of turning off the lights when I went down to eat and in that very brief window they had dragged it across the floor and very tightly pulled it into the bottom of the only piece of furniture (other than my bed) in the room. I already no that they nest in there and run in and out of the bottom of it, which is really convenient since I cannot use it to store anything. I do use the top surface, but have fully abandoned the rest (and now the sarong too) to them. I also have managed to avoid opening the bottom doors, lest I have to see what is inside. I am pretty sure that my sarong may result in new rat progeny. They later tried to steal a shirt to add to the nest's comfort, but I decided to draw a line and take it back. I do have a giant plastic box to keep all of my stuff, but I may have to request a new cabinet or repairs on the old one. You know you are living in the forest when this is all normal. When the generator went down for a few days and the rats got a few hours in the dark alone they really tried to take over. I actually tripped over one on its desperate way out when I came back to get something from my room.
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