Save the Children

I am currently sitting in the offices of Save the Children, UK. It turns out there are twenty some Save chapters, creatingthe Save the Children Alliance, worldwide. Crazy. I am spending my day at the office, with every half an hour scheduled. First, the regional director. Second, the Health Director, Then the Child Protection Manger. Amusingly enough, the regional director is from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. We spent the first half of my orientation talking about biking around rural Wisconsin and swimming in the Wisconsin River.

The rest of the orientation (so far), has done little more to clarify what I am doing in Indonesia. The common refrain is that I will learn more details when I actually get there. Here is what I know so far: When I am in Jakata (for how long, no one knows), I will be living in the staff house, which is very pretty, and where all the staff lives. I may possibly be taking over some of the roles of a woman named Laura Conrad, who was their Emergency Specialist, and who just left Indonesia. But no one is sure. I now know that the staff nurse, Gay, is the sweetest person in the world, and will be more than happy for me to call her if I am burning out and need to talk. I have two meetings left, one with someone from payroll and another with people who know more about Indonesia. I look forward to that last one.

Things that I still do not know: 1) How long my contract will be extended for. My contract is for one month, but no one seems confidant that it will end then. The HR officer seems to think it will be extended, and the Child Protection person says that I should be able to stay there for much longer if I want. Everyone else acts on the assumption I will be there a month. Or they mention nothing. 2) How long I will be in Jakarta/when (if?) I will be heading to Aceh. 3) Anything about what we are actually doing in Indonesia right now. I think this will be better answered in one of the later meetings.

What I do know is that I am the only Information Officer out of SC UK to go to Indonesia. This is all very interesting.

Going back one day, yesterday was brilliant, as they say. I played tourist through and through. I went on a long walk, from my hotel to Covent Garden (which smelled very good), to Trafalger Square (and climbed on a Lion), to the houses of Parliament (and took the obligatory picture of Big Ben), across the river (with great pics of anti-war grafiti on the bridge), all the way down to the Tate (with stops at the street performers, mucisians, and dirt bikers, who were out in force despite a slightly chilly January day), explored the Tate (which is just incredible), ran into a pedi-cab driver who I knew from New York as I wandering