Wednesday, October 10, 2007

A walk around the office

Welcome to my office...















This is just my office (that I share with one other person, and probably a third when a new intern starts next month). The whole building has about four of five of these smaller offices and lots of other spaces.

This is the bathroom. The basin/bath thing is called a mandi and you scoop water out of it with the red jug and wash your hands/have a shower/flush the toilet if it doesn't have a flush. It's a very versatile room this one and I think you'd be hard pressed to find an Indonesian house without one.














This morning I was greeted by this foul green water.















This is what comes out of the tap from the town supply, so you're much better off having a well in the backyard. Everyone has filtered water to drink and I've been advised to use it for cooking, washing food and brushing my teeth too. Stomach bugs are far too common here.

Did I mention that I get to work in bare feet?!















Every morning my sandals get taken off at the door and I get to wander around for the whole day with no shoes on. Life is so much better without shoes.

3 comments:

Lars said...

Pauls response to your statement about no shoes was to screw his face up. I laughed because I'd forgotten about how he thinks feet are yucky, and he also said 'more to the point I love shoes'. But I'm with you on the no shoes being a great thing.

Sushi said...

I make all my friends take off their shoes in my apt. (and you have to for any Japanese home). It keeps the place so much cleaner that way (but you also have to keep it clean or you notice it much quicker)

Anonymous said...

I too work with my shoes off! (Actually, I don't. I just kick my sandles off under my desk and let my feet breathe in secret. I've made one barefoot trip to the photocopier and my boss looked at me kind of repulsed, so I haven't tried that again.)
It's going to be 27 here today! It was about 8 on Friday! The planet's f***ed!