Still here at the Habitat office in Jakarta. Martha, the secretary, has phoned in to say if I need a taxi. I said yes, at 5.30 p.m., as usual. I have been here since Tuesday last week. The mission is simple enough; produce a proposal for EU funding. It will be similar to the Mindanao Peace Build project that Habitat Philippines submitted to EU last August.
Handoko, the Habitat National Director, assigned four staff to the project proposal team. We all thought at first that Manado would be the project area. When I checked the EU website last Wednesday, after a full day of taking down notes, I found out Manado was not among the five preferred sites for the donor assistance. Thursday we finally decided, after another day of reading, comparing notes and discussions, that we would zero in on Nusa Tenggara Timur or West Timor as the proposed project area.
More discussions last Friday enough grist for my mill during the weekend. I was not able to go the nearby Anggrek Mall. I just stayed in my room churning out around 30 pages of text. Today, most of the team members are gone. Vinon got married last Saturday. Pauline went back to Bandung. Handoko is on a mission to Manado. Glenn left for West Timor yesterday.
Fortunately, I was able to discuss things with Ricky and Lanny. They gave me fresh ideas. Now I have to revise substantial portion of my draft.
Jakarta is getting to be a ghost town. I was told when it's about the end of Ramadan, people go back to their hometowns for celebration, or in anticipation of the celebration of the fasting season. I read in the papers sales are slow in the shops because of low purchasing power due to the 126% increase in fuel prices here.
Now my taxi is here.
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