THURSDAY 4 JANUARY 2007:

What a difference a good show makes

We sleep late to catch up and wake in very good moods - what a difference a good show makes to ones spirits! Haggis’s right eyelid is swollen – maybe he has been bitten by something or maybe he is allergic to the huge amounts of insect spray we are using? If it gets any worse, we will have to go to a doctor. We are both well generally, though tired – the intense heat really does take it out of one a bit. We both sweat most all of the time, and during the shows Haggis loses at least 2-3 pints of liquid. There is a fantastic drink called Pocara Sweat (charming name!) and he gets through 3 cans of the stuff after each show – we are thinking of asking Pocara Sweat (which I believe is owned by Coca Cola) to be our sponsors next Tour – it would be very truthful and appropriate sponsorship!

Goes down a storm

After breakfast, I do more laptop work and Hags puts more pins into badge backs. The family’s children arrive and Hags tries out lots of phrases from the phrase book on them – good learning on both sides! We decide to let the children make some badges, and this goes down a storm – soon lots of their friends arrive, and Haggis is besieged on the bench outside in the yard surrounded by children while I finish this diary. I’ve just got to get this and some messages for England onto the memory stick, and then we will go over the road and grab some noodle soup and head down to the Internet Office and try to get everything hotmailed off before Arwin comes to collect us at 3.00 pm. Feeling good. Very nice to be sitting here surrounded by happy children with hopes of a fine session this afternoon. I’ll write more soon!

No recycling

(Later) In the end I had to keep on with my computer work, so Hags went over the road and brought back noodle soup and iced milo in plastic bags for us to eat here (there is so much plastic here, and no attempt made at recycling at all. One driver blithely threw an empty plastic water bottle out of the car window on our drive between Banda and Sigli to our horror. There seems to be no understanding that plastic does not degrade and needs to be disposed of appropriately. The insides of people’s houses are kept sparklingly clean, but “outside” is “outside” and people throw rubbish around willy-nilly. This morning Hags caught two of the children from our house throwing plastic sweet wrappers and crisp packets on the ground in the yard, and made them take them to the rubbish bin – they complied happily enough, but it was very much as though they were just pandering to this strange but nice foreigner and his strange ideas!)

Frustrating internet

Arwin is meant to be collecting us at 3.00 with a car. At 2.15 I decide to go down to the Internet Office again to have a last bash at getting my files (now converted into Word and Rich Text Format, which should be possible to read on any computer) onto hotmails. I get a cubicle almost straight away – but when I try to open the files from the memory stick to the computer, they just look like gobbledegook again! Oh well, I’ll come back later and try again with the laptop direct to their phone line maybe. Communicating with England really is getting pretty frustrating!

Arwin is meant to be at the house with the car at 3.00. At 3.15 I ring him – “Where are you, Arwin?” “I’m on my way, Bella.” OK – we wait. He eventually turns up at 3.45 – 45 minutes late. He thinks it is 3.00 as that is what his phone says – when I tell him it is 3.45, he tells me I am wrong and laughs at me. Bad move! I drag him inside and show him the house clock and the computer clock and my watch – he still thinks it is quite funny. I am quietly fuming by now. To make matters worse, he does not have a car with him. “Do you want to hire a car?, he asks, although he knew full well that he was meant to bring a car with him. Grrrr! I am really upset – we like to get to shows and sessions good and early, so that we are really well set up and can give the children the best time we can. This will be the 3rd show and the 3rd time that we will be late – unbelievable!

Still in Sigli with Muslim Aid. This afternoon it was Barak Lhong Paru actually in Trieng Gadeng, like the first gig, about 1 hour drive east of Sigli.

THE PICTURE ABOVE IS OF HAGS THROWING HIS FIRESTICKS AROUND - THE AUDIENCES ALWAYS SIT IN A VERY SPREAD-OUT SORT OF WAY - ADULTS ALWAYS STAND VERY MUCH TO THE REAR - THERE WERE PROBABLY ABOUT 150 IN THE AUDIENCE FOR THIS SHOW IN THE END,

THIS PICTURE IS OF HAGGIS'S LITTLE IMPROVISED DRESSING ROOM!

Car hire

I have a bit of a rant at poor Arwin. I then get a phone call from Farid trying to placate me. Off we set to hire a car – it only seems possible to hire a car at a daily rate, so it is going to cost 350,000 rupiahs – about £20 – I know it is not much in English terms, but we are trying to spend as little money as possible. Hey ho! Eventually we are sorted, and set off in the car at 4.35 – 20 minutes after we were meant to have arrived at the venue. We eventually arrive at Lhong Paru Barracks at Trieng Gadeng at 5.25 pm – I hour and 10 minutes late. Luckily no one seems to mind too much! There are 3 or 4 more Muslim Aid workers and they have erected the banner in the balai (not actually in the best place for the show, but hey, we can live with that). I notice that the banner says "Muslim Aid and Children's World International Tour for children affected by the Tsunami and the Conflict". (Well that's fine by me - many NGO's have told me that the Conflict that lasted for so many years between the Goverment and Gam actually caused more trauma even than the Tsunami!) There IS power – hooray! I start the badge-making while Hags gets ready for his show. I use Linda’s translation sheets and announce what we are doing – hooray, they seem to understand! There is no time to run any parachute games – it’s going to be almost dark by the time we get through the show – still the fire swinging and juggling at the end will look all the better for dusk!

Never mind the quality, see the size

The balai is a fine size, but the floor is incredibly feeble. The thin ply wood has deteriorated and because some of the wooden supports underneath have rotted in two years of muggy weather, portions of the floor are in serious danger of collapse. We try to note where the worst sections are and avoid them. A mini dressing-room is created by Muslim Aid workers holding up bits of tarpaulin. We gather the designed paper badge bits back from the children and I make them up while Hags does the show. Thanks to Iscmal being able to explain to the children that they will get their completed badge after the show, this goes well.

Hags is VERY funny in the show – very over-the-top and foolish, and it goes down a treat. At the end with the firesticks, he runs really fast round and round the balai, making ridiculous faces to loud music and the children go wild! Another successful show – good! We take some group photos and have a talk to the barracks chief. There are 180 people living in this barracks and they have been here 2 years – it seems unclear what is going to happen to them. So sad.

Back to Sigli in the dark

We drive back to Sigli in the dark. Farid rings from Muslim Aid in Banda to check we are OK, also Fadlullah, the Director of Muslim Aid out here rings from Kuala Lumpur (his daughter’s wedding will take place there on Saturday and Sunday – he has had malaria really badly recently and apparently lost 20 kilos!) Fadlullah is the man who has made this whole Tour possible, and it is really nice to talk to him. He asks how it is all going – I say it’s great, except that for the first 3 shows we have been at least an hour late 3 times. Hmmm, he says. I don’t think it will happen again!

Saiful, a nice guy

Back at the house we meet up with Saiful who has just arrived from the mountains and who will be in charge of our gigs from now on. Very nice guy – well they all are actually – just not very good at time-keeping! I am pretty confident that there will be no more lateness now, so I make special efforts to be really nice to everyone when we all meet up for dinner (at our favourite Kentucky chicken stall) to show that we are more than prepared to let bygones be bygones.

Home concerns

I talk to Chris in England – none of the files I sent have been able to be opened. Rather than risk our computer catching the viruses from the Internet Office, I will send them all again once we return to our room at Green Paradise in Banda on Saturday night as there is WiFi there and everything will be easier. Chris has spoken to the Fairbairn Foundation, and as long as we get the application in by Wednesday 10th January, all will be well. So now I can just slowly keep trying to improve the application, send it Saturday or Sunday, Chris will get it Monday first thing and will have Monday and Tuesday to type up nicely and do last edits and Fairbairn will get it on Wednesday – fingers crossed that this will all work – this funding for the Light to Sound Beam Teacher Training is very important to Children's World – hopefully all will be well.

Banana punch

Nice dinner with all the Muslim Aid workers, with an extraordinary drink called Banana Punch as a pudding/drink. Not entirely sure of all the ingredients, but they certainly included whizzed up bananas, condensed milk, heaps of sugar and, mushed-up rice crispies. Strange but quite nice!

To bed early – I really do seem to need more than my normal six hours of sleep per night out here – I suppose it is the heat.