It's been a good second week of work. This week went by fast. On monday we were back to weeding and hoeing, which isn't as much fun as it sounds. tuesday we had our first EAD (educational activity day). The topic was health, and we had a person from the local womens shelter come and talk about sexual health, and dangers. It was mostly about possible rape, so some people felt uncomfortable and others were very involved in the discussion. Afterwards, we went outside for some dance lessons. We are trying to learn a few on the Indonesian dances that they all know. Each province has it's own unique form of cultural dance, and all the Indonesians were briefed on them before coming. S far we aren't doing to badly and some of the results have made it to facebook. We played sports for most of the afternoon, which is always a good way to end.
An important part of that day was that the ban on alcohol was dissolved. There are rules of course, but it was basically what we wanted from the beginning, like asking the counterpart, and don't go overboard. Most people live out of town anyway so it was never a worry. We had a celebratory drink on Tues., but it took a long time for everyone to get organized at one place. It seems to be the curse of our group to never agree on one thing and meet at a specific time. By the time everyone was settled and drinks were ordered, people had to go. We are trying to have a more organized time tonight.
Wed. we harvested some stuff, probably going to be doing that a lot more soon. We are protected from the frost because we are right next to the ocean, but winter is coming. We had yesterday off to make a presentation for the schools as part of our work placement. Didn't do much so now its a weekend project.
This weekend my host family, who are very involved with the local acting crowd, are involved with a dinner theatre on Sat. and Sun. night. Hendri and I are going with them and helping with wardrobe etc. Should be fun, but very long.
I've been cooking a lot, invented a few new recipes. Apples and chicken go together, and turnips are edible with apples pie spices.
the more you know

Second week not quite over. We have started our work placement. It's about 7 min bike ride down the road from us, so not to bad. It's an organic farm, a few large sized gardens with a small orchard attached. We spent most of the first day weeding and hoes the herbs and leeks, then threw down some mulch, probably going to be the Monday story of the next 2 1/2 months. Wednesday we went to the school for the second part of our work placements, where we will be giving presentations for a bunch of different classes from gr. 7 social studies to grade 12 global history. I'd forgotten what high school was like, more angst than I remember. Also, I think little kids are losing their fear of large people, we need to work on that. Today was a short harvest. We'll be doing that every Thursday to help with the farmers market. Today it was snow peas, crab apples and tomatoes. It kind of works like a U-pick, so I got my fill. Not sure how long till the first frost comes in because that's when we really start farming. Till then the weeding will probably get tedious. Still easier than tree planting though.
We've been gaining attention in town, a few organizations that we're working for and a few that we reached out to. We may be involved in the Olympic torch party, a few groups on campus, theater groups (our host parents are pretty active on their own), etc. Hopefully we get free access to the campus gym, we already have library membership. People seem to love giving free stuff to volunteers, which works for me. Second weekend, I'm hoping things are going to be a little more exciting, no being able to officially drink puts a damper on things but we can have fun without alcohol.

I've been keeping a decent record in a fairly neutral journal that people can read should anyone wish a detailed story. Not sure who's reading this, so please drop a comment.

So it's time for another update.
The past week we've been doing a lot of little seminars and group work. Not a whole lot of fun to be had, kinda like going through RA training, just stuff they feel we should go over like positive space and recycling programs. Besides that, we've been figuring out peoples work placements. Mine and Hendri's came with our house so we were saved the drama of the selection, though some of the other places seem like they'll be fun. It might have been nice to switch things up as the program progressed so everyone gets a chance to do a few different things, even if it is a little complicated.
The other thing that had to be decided were rules for the group. We got through the basic ones that we all had to agree to when we signed the contract like the no driving and no hitch hiking rules. Then we got the alcohol rule and things turned sour. There was apparently some confusion among the group because the Canadians were told that we would have choice in the matter, and the Indonesians were initially told that it would be a dry program. When Krista brought up the subject we were then told it would be a group decision. Which led to a long discussion in which the arguments for were many, and the arguments against were basically tradition of the program and religious discomfort. Halfway through the discussion we decided to take a break and when we returned and got a few minutes more into the debate we were told that it was already decided, and we were to be a dry program. For whatever reason, being misled, losing personal freedoms, or simply the lack or a decent case against, this sparked considerable distress in the group. I was more than a little perturbed and, with most of the group disliking the decision, we argued for long enough that the supervisors chose to "experiment" for 2 weeks with a dry program.
Having finished the week with little learned from any of the seminars and finding some of the group family building a little unsettling I'm looking forward to starting work this Monday, and the group itself has been coming together pretty well. Hendri and I are getting along very well in our host family. We had a few people over last night for chicken satay, an Indonesian food Hendri really likes. We've been doing that a lot recently, cooking foreign foods, if not always Indonesian. So other than being bored at points and a little angry at others, things are going very well.

I've been told that my last post had a few grammatical errors so I will be sure to proofread more carefully (thanks mom). It's Monday, which means I've been staying with my host family for 3 nights. Everything has been going very well, our family is very friendly, welcoming us to their home very graciously. My counterpart, Hendri, and I have have been shown a good portion of the town and some of the surrounding area. We aren't in Antigonish proper, but out in Bayfield about 20 min away.
I've discovered that I'm not exactly cut off like most people in our group. My brother will be in the immediate area, just down the street and I have a couple friends in the town and family not far from here. I can tell a few people, especially among the Indonesians, are feeling pretty homesick. I'm doing pretty well so far, but I'm expecting any feeling of displacement will dissipate as we get on a real schedule.
We've been introduced to our work placement. We'll be working on an organic farm, fairly small, just 6 medium gardens and an apple orchard. No one seems to be sure what we'll be doing, but the owners are very nice, gave us their own small tour and offered to drive us around when we need it.
Tomorrow we start our activities, not really sure what we'll be doing, but it'll nice to be back together as a group. We've bonded quite well in our short time together, I missed them when we first got to Antigonish. We all went to the Expo on sunday, which was basically a big country fair. It was funny, apparently Indonesian horses our very small, so when I showed Hendri the clydesdales, he was very impressed. Also, didn't know muslims can't touch dogs, which must be weird for them in Canada where most people have them as pets. Both our host family and our work placement have very big dogs which I love, but may be somethng we have to work out.
Till next time.

So it's the fourth day of the program, and so far we've been doping a lot of "work". We've met our counter parts, and are slowly starting to get to know them. There is a pretty big language barrier but they all have at least a inimal level of english so we get by with relatively fe w translations. So far so good, we should be meeting our host families tomorrow, though I don't know where I am stayting just yet. All the families sound pretty interesting, most are out of town in the country. The one I"m going for is a very liberal couple whose children have moved out of the house. They work on an organic farm and if Hendri (my counterpart) and I go there, we will be working there, voluinteering at a bunch of different place including a school and dinner theatre. More on that if we actually get it, but it's what we're hoping for.
Most of the things we;ve been doing so far are seminars on how to interact with another culture and preparing for the changes as well as how to deal with being in the groupo and having counterparts. From what they say, this may hurt a bit, lots of culture shock and issues to work out betyween cultures. It's all very PC, and the way everything is being run is kind of childish. I was hoping for a crash course in indonesian culture so that we know what to expect and can learn to handle any problems as they arise. Instead we are colouring a lot and putting everything into artistic and simple ways to ensure everyone is energized and understanding. It gets tedious, though with the limits of language, it's kind of understandable. I still think it could all have been summed up in a couple hrs instead of 3 days.
L:iving here otherwise has been fun, the food is pretty good, the rooms are like hotels, and everyone seems to be getting along very well. Once away from the "structured fun" people seem more willing to actually have fun, leading to volleyball games, bon fires, and general chatting. I think that most of us have found some common ground, so it should all work out very well.
I'll try and post more this weekend with more information on what we're doing.
Miss you all
Justin