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.