Back in Indonesia

I’m going to attempt to start updating regularly again. When I was in Ghana over the summer I simply didn’t have reliable internet and updating wasn’t an option.
After Ghana, I returned to the US for about a month and had a wonderful time catching up with family in PA and friends up in Syracuse. I also got in engaged to my long time boyfriend, so all in all it was a great month that went by way to fast.
I spent the first two weeks in September in France. Syracuse offered a one week seminar in Strasbourg (in Western France, near the German border) which gave me enough credits to graduate in December. After the seminar, I spent one week in Paris since I’ve never been before. I’ve put pictures of all my time in France up on Facebook, so I’m not going to upload any here. I enjoyed the city but at this point I was anxious to unpack and get settled somewhere more permanent. I’d basically been living from a suitcase since I left for Ghana.
So now I find myself back in Indonesia.
I’m an intern at IOM, the International Organization for Migration, which is the same organization I interned for in Ghana. The work here in Indonesia couldn’t’ be more different though. In Ghana I was on the ground in a tiny village working hands on with children who had been sold into modern day slavery. Here in Indonesia I’m working at a much more distanced level. I’m in the main office in the capitol of Indonesia, Jakarta. It’s a huge city, one of the biggest in the world and this is my first time living anywhere nearly this urban.
My office building is in the business district, to the south of the city, and it’s a very wealthy area. The interesting thing about Jakarta, however, is that wealthy areas and slums are literally pressed up against each other so on my walk to work I see skyscrapers and Mercedes as well as tin shacks on the river bank.
I stay in a boarding house about a 20 to 30 minutes walk from the office in what is definitely NOT a wealthy area. The house is at the very end of a winding dead end alley off a mid sized street. There are a few other residences along the alley but for the most part it’s just high narrow walls. I can’t complain about my room though. For less than $300 USD a month I have a decent sized bedroom and a small bathroom to myself with all the utilities included, even internet and air conditioning. I could probably find somewhere even cheaper without going down too much in quality but people in the office are familiar with this boarding house and have stayed there before and I’m comfortable there. I don’t think I’d change. The women who run the place are really sweet too. It’s a large operation, with several floors of rooms and a lot of staff members.
I’ve worked for almost two weeks now and I’m beginning to get into the swing of things. The work isn’t much different than what I’ve done in offices before - a lot of data compiling and editing. My contract for the internship lasts until December 9th but I’m hoping to find permanent employment so I can stay in Indonesia awhile longer. Hopefully something that would start in January so I could be home for the holidays. Who knows though, I’ll just have to wait and see.
That’s plenty for a first post, I think. I’ll try to update again soon, maybe with some photos.