TUESDAY 16 JANUARY:

Questions about houses

After breakfast, Ron and I head out to look at more of the houses that Ides have built with Festival money. They all look really good, and I am very pleased with them.

HOUSES THAT IDES CHARITY HAS BUILT IN ALOE AMBANG WITH GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL MONEY

I am wondering though, whether the time has not come to spend some of the Festival money on permanent housing rather than temporary housing. When I get back to Banda, I will ask Muslim Aid whether I can go and inspect some of their permanent wooden houses that I saw in April, and I would also like to visit some of the new brick and cement houses I hear they are currenly building. It is so important to work with agencies who are honest, open, flexible, fast and good value - Ides has certainly been all these things, and the houses they have built with Festival money (28 1/3 of them) are great and have served a real need.

There may be good arguments for spending a bit more money on temporary houses down here in Teunom, and I ask Ron to write me a brief proposal - but I think it might be good if at least £50,000 of the remaining £82,000 now goes to permanent housing. I will do some more research and see some more houses and then make a proposal to Michael.

Parachute wash

Back to the Ides house and we wash one of the parachutes that has become increasingly filthy - masses of grubby water pours out when Haggis stamps on it to wash it (like a grape-stamper!) We hang the parachute on a tall pole in the garden, to dry it.

Wedding celebration

A wedding celebration is taking place in one of the Ides houses in Alue Ambang and we are all invited. The wedding proper took place a few weeks ago (which happens at the bride's house) and now there is a further celebration (at the bridegroom's house). At least, I think it is this way round. I'll check. The men all eat together and the women and children all eat together. The food is really nice, and not too hot.

Then our party of Ron, Ellen, me, Hags and a Christian volunteer who is working with Ides, are summoned into the house to meet the bride and be photographed with her (there is no sign whatsoever of the bridegroom, though there is a strange, gay, young man, who we think is the stylist provided by the firm who rent the wedding outfit and room decorations - Indonesian Moss Bross!) So this is a simple Ides-built house, but when we enter the shady interior, one whole wall is covered in extraordinary yellow, padded, embroidered material with seats coming out of it and on one of these jutting seats is the bride, with pale, pale, painted face and an absolutely amazingly ornate costume. She looks lovely, but rather ill because of the pale painted make-up (I find it quite worrying that Indonesians all seem to want to be paler than they really are - in one barrack a very pale skinned girl was pointed out to me as a great beauty, and seemed to be being treated rather like a little princess - and all the adverts on the telly show Indonesians trying to look pale and European - this seems sad, rather like the Japanese having face operations so that they don't look so Japanese - goodness the telly and the media have a lot to answer for!) The Indonesians are big on ceremonies (we went to the equivalent of a Christening - a baby's first step on the ground ceremony - when we were here in March. It must have cost the bride and bridegroom's family quite a lot to hire the costume and decorations, a couple of sun shades had been put up and chairs brought in, and the meal was large and plentiful - it seems crazy spending so much on a wedding when they have so little - but hey, I suppose we do exactly the same thing in England. Rites of passage are important and should be celebrated.

Ideas for the parachute

Back to the Ides house to check on the parachute. It is still dampish, so we tie string to the handles around the perimeter and tie it to other trees, door handles and anything else we can find. It suddenly resembles a tiny Big Top and is spreading beautifully coloured shade over the grass. Goodness, maybe we could erect it more often like this? Mind you, it would mean travelling with a 6m pole, which might be a bit difficult - and it could be tricky if it was windy. Nice idea though! Several children and teenagers are attracted to the garden by the mini big top, and Hags starts an impromptu mini-show cum juggling workshop which goes down a treat. Then we set off for the next show in another little village, whose name I can't remember right now but will check. There is a tiny cafe shack and a road and a small bit of grass, but we are getting pretty good at being flexible. We tried to erect the parachute as a little big top (having bought the tall pole on top of the Kijang), but it looked as though the wind was coming up, so we didn't risk it.

Performance in the sun

Hag very kindly performs on the grass in the sun, and lets the audience of about 180 stand in the shade of the cafe and on the road. As Hags is in the sun, I have to be too, to operate the sound track for the show. Ellen, bless her, has a large coloured parasol and she positions herself in such a way that she shades me. Haggis emerges and the show is off. I see a pack of hounds and a couple of boar hunters with spears (like the ones we saw on the road to Teunom - apparently wild boar can cause absolute havoc and damage in people's gardens and are much feared, so they are hunted - though not eaten as Muslims cannot eat pork). To my sadness they turn right instead of walking through the show as I had hoped - I'm sure Haggis would have had some good fun with them! Mind you, it wouldn't have done to anger them - their spears looked pretty lethal!

Permanent or temporary?

Supper back at the Ides house and another long talk with Ronald about housing. He will write me a proposal about some more temporary houses that have been requested by local villagers. Ides have done a great deal of good with their temporary houses, and I think it would be nice if Festival money could continue to support them if the need is still there - but I would like to see some of the money going to permanent housing now, and am looking forward to inspecting some in Banda. Early bed as we will be getting up at 4.00 am to start our journey back to Banda.