the plan, as far as I know it....

A quick update on what I have been doing, and on what it looks like I will be doing…

As of this moment, I am still in Bogor, sitting in my very comfortable air conditioned room with internet in the room and a beautiful forest and river outside my door. On Thursday, I will still have the river and the trees (or so I am told), but I will have electricity for one hour a night, no phone signals, and certainly no internet.

For the last few days I have been reading and talking about what I will be doing in Jambi over the next three months. In short, the project, officially titled “Collective Action to Secure Property Rights for the Poor: Avoiding Elite Capture of Natural Resource Benefits and Governance Systems”, is looking at how to encourage groups of people in rural areas to begin collective action to protect their resource rights, particularly women’s groups. I will be going into the two villages the program is running in and working with the local facilitators on beginning the collective action portion of the program, in particular Participatory Action Research skills and gender. I will also go to the capital cities of the district and lead focus group discussions on PAR for our district level employees. Of course, at this point, they are all words that sound very interesting, but not concrete enough to really know what I am getting myself into. We’ll see.

Basically, the schedule is as follows:
May 26th- June 15: Lubuk Kambing Village
June 16- June 18: (Capital City of Tanjabar province)
June 19- July 8: Sungai Telang Village
July 8-10: Muara Bungo (Capital City of Bungo District)
July 10- 17: Bogor (head office)

While I won’t be able to get email while I am in Lubuk Kambing or Sungai Telang, I will be heading out of the village at least once a week to send reports back to Bogor. So, email me! Goodness knows I will love to have the contact with the outside world.

I also have a new mailing address... best to send things to me c/o Yunety Tarigan, at:
CIFOR
P.O. BOX 6596, JKPWB
Jakarta 10065
Indonesia

I will have my laptop, so I shall be writing. And we’ll see what I’m getting myself in for this time!

The intrepid warriors set out for their journey. So what if both warriors look rather horrid in this picture.

One of the many, many propaganda posters all over Hanoi. This one was the backdrop for a concert the night before.

The incredible scenery of Nimh Binh.

The team: Me, Craig, and Moose. Moose spent the entire ride with his head sticking his head out of my bag. Here we are taking on a break on the last stretch to Cuc Phung.

Getting the bikes together after getting off the road at the border of Vietnam and Lao. Note the quality of the road.

The Vientiane Arch de Triumph

The sign on the Vientiane Arch de Triumph

The blue lagoon outside the cave in Vang Vien. The water was ice, ice cold.

Steps up to a temple at the top of the hill in the middle of Luang Prabang.

Gee and David. Just those guys you keep on running into. Every where.

Sunset over the Mekong in Luang Prabang.

Bikes onto the Bus!

Fairy tale mountains between Luang Prabang and Vientiane.

Bye-bye Craig! at the Vientiane Airport.

On the train on to Bangkok.

My bike, having arrived in Bangkok, and waiting to get on a boat (that it will, sadly, never get on)

The famed, and totally absurd, Khao San Road. Haven, hell, and hub of backpackers worldwide.