Dengue Fever

Hello everyone,

I've got some bad news from the Oasis. Last Thursday Inge and Ade decided to close the Oasis for now because there were just too many cases of dengue fever in the village. Since then, the number of sick people has been steadily increasing. Jagaraga is a really small village and almost 40 people are sick and 13 of them are kids from the Oasis. Many have already been hospitalised since this illness is really none to play around with.

In some cases the dengue fever turns into 'Demam Berdarah' and when the fever sinks the number of thrombocytes also sinks extremely. If the number of thrombocytes sinkes too much, the patient will need blood transfusions. And getting a blood transfusion is not easy here! Usually that means that the relatives of the patient have to start looking for donors themselves.

As you can tell, it is a serious illness, so in order to not get infected, too, and since not many kids would come anyway, the Oasis was closed down for now.

The 'bathroom'.

We don't know yet when we are going to open up again. That depends entirely on the villagers of Jagaraga. The dengue fever is spread by mosquitos and there are way too many in the village right now.

That't because it is so dirty. The people usually don't have drains and all the water from cooking, cleaning plates and washinig themselves can't drain away, which makes perfect breeding places for mosquitos. And all the trash that is everywhere makes it perfect for mosquitos.

No, this is not a junkyard. It used to be a lawn.

Before the village is cleaned thoroughly the number of mosquitos is not going to decrease and therefore the dengue fever will not go away either. Unfortunately the people don't feel responsible for all the trash and don't seem to want to clean up anytime soon.

 

Let's hope that everything gets better and that we can open up the Oasis again as soon as possible.



This Ibu just casually hangs up her laundry next to a pile of trash. Cleaning it up would never come to her mind or to anyone elses. Usually people here wait for the government to clean up because they feel that it is their responsibility.



I don't even want to know WHAT all this is! But this dirty water must've been standing there for a loong time!



Since there are no drains there are always puddles of water next to the wells, the cooking and the washing places.



The department of health already got involved. In this picture they are showing a cartoon movie about giant mosquitos who are attacking the village to the people. An important issue. The whole village was supposed to come but only women ended up coming. Apparently the matter wasn't important enough to require the mens presence.



Of cause we did a grand clean up at the Oasis! :)

Nasi for everyone!

 Before the Hollidays we had a special event at the Oasis. One of the sponsors decided to sponser a meal for every child. Every Tuesday a cook, Om Alwi, comes to the Oasis to teach the SMP kids how to cook. So this time they cooked a lot of Nasi Goreng, enough for everyone.

Cooking with Om Alwi.

The children are always looking forward to Tuesdays, because that means everyone gets something to eat. Not much though, of cause. But every child has to be able to try a little. Like this one time, when they made donuts with jam (Berliner), they made many very little ones, so that everyone could have a bite.

Astawa making the sauce.

And this is how it turned out in the end. Doesn't it look delicious?

Many kids means a LOT of Nasi Goreng!!!

Inge explains everything first.

The kids were very excited and liked it very much!

And everything was gone within minutes!

Isn't the little one on the left so cute! :D

Dear sponsor,

Thank you for this delicious meal. 

The children enjoyed it very much and were so happy about it!

Sincerely,

Lara and the Oasis

Happy new year!

Selamat tahun baru!

I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year!

While you guys probably enjoyed Christmas time by going to Christmas markets, decorating your house and eating delicious food from morning till night, I didn't get to do any of this. 

No Christmas decorations, no snow and no bratapfel for Lara this year.

Since most of the people here are muslim people don't celebrate it.

Fortunately Inge, Ade and I were invited for dinner on Christmas Eve by a muslim couple. I know, funny constallation, a muslim couple preparing Christmas Eve for christians. But it was really nice, the food was delicious and they have a piano we played Christmas songs on. Not to forget, they have a big pool in the backyard! My first Christmas on which I jumped in a pool. :)

Me, enjoying Christmas Eve.

Of cause we don't have Christmas trees in Indonesia, but some girls of the Oasis made one for me and everyone wished me a merry Christmas. This little tree made my Christmas! :)

Playing Christmas songs on the piano. This little girl has lots of talent!

So I, too, had a nice and calm Christmas.

New Years was very special!

We spend the night in the Oasis with the children from 5th till 9th grade. A big sleepover which they were soooo excited about! Inge and Ade wanted to surprise the kids and bought a New Years- trompet for everyone.
Ade was to shy to bring them with the motorcycle, so Inge and I had to take a taxi to the Oasis.

And that's what it looked like:

We decorated a lot, to get in the right mood.

Unfortunately some of the kids had the Dengue fever. Bunter did, too, and it was not only New Years but her birthday also. So we brought her a birthday cake with candels. She and many others are still sick, some of them even in the hospital. Since so many people in Jagaraga are sick, I got off for the rest of the week, because the risk of getting the Dengue fever, too, is pretty high and moscitos have always liked me!

She turned 15. Kadek and Ilu gave her the cake.

If you walk through the village there are always at least two kids that follow you. :) In this case, Ayu, Pandu, Leber and WK.

We had special visitors that day! Katharina and Bastian came from afar to celebrate New Years with us. Ida Ketut came also.

Dion and I.

The kids made Kolak. An Indonesian specialty. It is sweet and eaten warm. With bananas, coconut and jelly. Delicious, but you can only eat a little or you will get a sugar shock.

We told each other stories about the last year and talked about what we were thankful for and shared our hopes for the year 2012. Some of the hopes were that 2012 will not be the end of the world...they watched the movie 2012 and actually believed that the USA was already gone and that Indonesia would also be destroyed in 2012. Despite all the explaining some of them are still convinced that it was not just a movie.

Later we sang, played games and watched a movie!

Let's get the party started.We played 'journey to Jerusalem'.

Leber obviously had fun playing this game.

Not yet twelve o'clock and everybody fights sleepyness after watching a movie.

YAYY, finally New Years!!! Everybody, grab a trompet!

Ranti, Moni, Mayang, Ayu and I at the berugak. We were too loud trompeting, so Inge send us away. ;)

Budi. Tired but still trying to make as much noise as possible. After all, when will they get a chance like this again???

Inge and I slept in the berugak. Or at least tried to, the kids weren't really ready to sleep...ever.

Still resisting sleep by trompeting from time to time.

The troulemakers Budi, Made G and Astawa FINALLY fell asleep, too.

It was wonderful and the kids had a lot of fun!

I hope you all enjoyed New Years just as much as we did!

Have a great year 2012!

Indonesian Hospitals

 Hello everybody!

Last week one of the kids in the Oasis, WK, had Dengue fever and we had to go to the hospital with him. Dengue fever is an illness transmitted through mosiquitos, just like Malaria. In the worst case, if you have Dengue fever, your thrombocytes drop dangerously low, which was the case with WK. When we arrived at the hospital, he was already so low on thrombocytes that he had to stay in the hospital for several days.

If the thrombocytes are too low, it is a lifethreatening situation.

This visit in an indonesian hospital left a deep impression on me. I hope through describing the circumstances there a little closer you will all appreciate your European or American hostpitals more.

First of all, WK was in a modern hospital that was newly build. On one end it is still not finished yet, on the other the ceilings are already moldering.

Me in action, swapping the two beds.



He also got a VIP room through Ade and Inge. That means an airconditioner and two beds. Only one of the beds were actually functional, the backrest of the other couldn't be lifted. WK of cause took the functional one, which was right under the airconditioner. WK had a high fever but the hospitals doesn't give out any blankets for the patients to cover themselves with. In the end WK covered himself with a bedsheet that Inge really had to fight for! In the end Inge and I had to swap the two beds ourselves so WK wouldn't have to sleep under the airconditioner.

The nurses in this hospital also don't do anything but measuring the bloodpressure every morning. When I was there the other day, they took blood from him to check the thrombocyte level, but they didn't even bother to wear gloves when touching the patient or taking blood. The hospital is so dirty that the cleaning staff wears mouthcovers!

Because the nurses don't do anything there always has to be a relative to take care of the sick person. The nurses don't wash the patients, don't help them to the bathroom and you don't get anything without paying for it in advance. I had to go to the farmacy in the front of the hospital to buy WK's infusions he needed.

Is there a case of emergancy there always needs to be a relative around, to buy whichever medicin the patient needs quickly. And often enough, the farmacy doesn't have all the medicin the patient needs. Because even in cases of emergency, you don't get anything without paying in advance.

So this was our experience in a VIP room. I don't even want to know what the 'economy class' is like!

I hope you gained a little insight into the indonesian health system.

I wish everybody a merry Christmas!



WK under his, hard-fought for, bed sheet.




The same food everyday. Smelled good though...




Update on Ipang

 News on Ipang!

He has gotten a lot bigger now and is a really intelligent dog. He speaks indonesian, can sit and give you his paw. And when you say 'hop' he jumps into your arms. Last Sunday he was hit by a motorcycle. We took him to the doctor immediately; fortunately he said Ipang didn't have any major injuries. Nothing is broken and he only has some scratches. His leg was swollen really badly, but it's already a lot better. I still worry though, because he still doesn't use his leg. It also doesn't hurt him anymore but he still won't even try using it to walk. Makes me think there might be something broken afterall...:(

Ipang, hobbling around Inge's and Ade's backyard.

He was so shocked by the accident that his second ear went up, too!

He especially likes to lay in peoples laps. He still does it, even though he is so huge now. Sitting on top of me while I am trying to sleep is also one of his favorites.

Sejarah Dunia - World History

 

Hello again!

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their wonderful comments to my posts on this blog. I really enjoy reading them and I am always very excited when I get new comments. I receive so much good feedback it always encourages me to continue this blog, as it is not easy for me to post regularly. At the same time I want to apologize for not answering to all of the comments, but be assured that I do read them and I appreciate every single one of them. Thank you. :)

And now to my actual post.

Starting last week we have been working on a special project with the children of my class.

It is a project about world history, or sejarah dunia in Bahasa Indonesia. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling very well during the last week so I had to stay home for three days but on Monday I will certainly be able to go to the Oasis again, to make sure I learn something, too. ;)

In this project the children make a timeline with a long fabric. The timeline will contain all major events around the world from 3500 B.C. until today. So you can imagine that it is going to be very long. Afterwards we will hang it up in our little assembly hall. It should be long enough to wind it around the room in a spiral several times.

Later, we might let every child make a little presentation about one or more of the events and let them thus teach each other about the world’s history.

For most of the children, their world is pretty much limited to their own village. They don’t travel or anything, like almost every European does once in a while. Therefore learning about world history is important and interesting for them. Also because most of these things they never learn in school.

You can tell that many people here are pretty uneducated when it comes to history because there are many of them who, for example, actually like Hitler. Then again, people here also walk around in t-shirts with Osama bin Laden faces on them and some admire Gaddafi because “he was always so brave against the USA.”

You see that it is very important to teach the children history properly.

Enjoy the pictures. :)

The different years are seperated by colors.

Bunter and Ayu (picture above) sew the hem of the fabric, so it will hold longer.

The beginning!

 

Ida Ketut had to start because of his neat handwriting. :)

Ida Wayan and Budi

Made G and Toktek

Eka and Ani

 

Putu in full concentration mode.

 

For this project, teamwork is very important.

So much already! Everybody has got the hands full. :)

This is our little assembly hall in which we are going to hang up the timeline.