Yesterday was a whirlwind. After a greeting fit for a king (or a queen, I suppose, given my gender) by the research team of six people, we drove to the hotel, where I dumped my baggage and jumped on a motorbike to get to the immigration office before it closed. My temporary visa expired yesterday, so I had to report to immigration in order to get the permanent version and not be kicked out of the country!
Luckily we arrived at the office in time to do paperwork. The office was trippy – I felt as if I’d stepped into a movie set in Southeast Asia in the 1950s. The building was filled with men smoking cigarettes, men in uniform, and there wasn’t a computer to be seen, only typewriters (and ancient ones, at that!). They seemed confused as to why I was at the office, even after they read the letters prepared by the government offices in Jakarta. Luckily my counterpart Dessy was able to explain my purpose and we spent the next couple hours filling out paperwork in triplicate. Yup – they apparently don’t have photocopy machines in the Pontianak immigration office (even though “fotocopy” stores, the equivalent of kinkos, can be found on almost every street here).
After the immigration office ordeal was over (unfortunately I have to return next week to do more paperwork, but I get a break for now) we motorbiked to the SIMPUR HUTAN (the NGO I’m working with) office. It was filled with people – children, parents, employees – and had a really nice ambiance. I brought “oleh-oleh” (souvenirs) from Yogya with me – little bean cakes, and brem, a fermented soybean snack. Everyone snacked on these treats as I tried to communicate in Indonesian, and as they tried speaking English with me. The office includes an air-conditioned (yahoo!) room for computer work, and a “guest bedroom” where I will sleep once I move out of the hotel on Monday.
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