I managed to (easily) convince my boss to allow me to go to the
‘Konferensi Aceh Hijau’ (Green Aceh conference) in Banda Aceh this week.
It was all about sustainable fisheries, and not at all related to my
job, but definitely relates to my background and interests!
I
only managed to get to lunch on the first day when mum rang with the
news that my nanna had passed away. Nanna Symonds has been in the
nursing home in Jamestown for around 2 months, she had recently suffered
from renal failure, and things had really gone downhill the last few
weeks. She was unable to do anything herself any more. She apparently
died peacefully, not in any pain, and with someone by her side, early on
Wednesday morning. While I was relieved that her demise was
short-lived, it still came as a big shock and I was really upset. I had
spoken to Nanna a week or so before, and even then I knew she wouldn’t
be around for much longer. But I never got to see her or spend any time
with her before she died, which is really sad. But in some ways I am
glad that my last memories of her are when she was in good mental and
physical health, rather than on her deathbed.
What was
even more stressful was that I only spoke to mum around 2pm Wednesday,
and the funeral was only 48 hours later. At the time I was worried that I
wouldn’t be able to get there. The expense didn’t worry me – it was the
time I had available to do it!
I was lucky enough to
have the support of my country manager and admin team in Banda, who
pulled a bunch of strings to get me home for the funeral. This in itself
was a mammoth journey, one I was almost not prepared to do when I first
found out: a nine hour, security-cleared, overnight drive in convoy
from Banda Aceh to Medan Wednesday night, because there were no seats
left at such short notice; a flight to Jakarta, to get my passport – I
had sent it there to get a visa! D’oh! – another flight to Singapore;
and 5 hours hanging out in the airport until my 8 hour flight back to
Radelaide. Then it was a 2.5 hour drive home to Jamestown. Phew!
But
I was really glad that I made the effort to get home. It was my first
family funeral, and I would have regretted it forever had I not. I felt
good to give my Pappa, Dad and his sisters support, as well as to see my
other family members who I don’t see all that often. It was nice to be a
part of a celebration of the life of someone as special as my Nanna.
Enroute
I wrote a poem for her, with some input from Ange by phone from London.
After two of my Aunties and my Dad had read their pieces at the
funeral, I read the poem, and was so tired and emotional I burst into
tears quite a few times ‘on stage’. I felt quite embarrassed at the
time, but was helped along by nods of agreement from all of the other
grandchildren sitting in the front rows of the church, as I read out our
memories of our amazing Nanna. And hey, if you can’t cry at a funeral,
when can you?!
What I was most disappointed about was
the lack of time that my family spent in Jamestown for the funeral. Mum
and dad had organised a lunch before the funeral at Nanna and Pappa’s
house, and on the morning of the funeral they called and said they
wouldn’t come, and would just come straight to the funeral from
Radelaide. Mum had spent a lot of time preparing food for everyone, and
had it all set up, and they pulled out at the last minute. As usual, Mum
didn’t say anything but I know she was disappointed. And once the
funeral niceties were over – in fact even before everyone had left the
church hall – they had to rush back to Radelaide, one family to fly back
to Melbourne, one for a wedding, and the other because they were busy
arranging the sale of their house.
I just felt that
they don’t place much importance on their family. Maybe it’s just a
different way of looking at things and different priorities to me. But I
would have thought that they could have at least stayed around after
the funeral was over to spend some quality time with each other,
especially for Pappa’s sake. And I also feel that they take for granted
the amount of work, time and effort that mum and dad have put in to take
care of Nanna and Pappa, especially over the last few years as they
have become older and more frail. It’s a thankless task, and while I’m
sure they do appreciate it, I don’t think they realise just how much of a
strain it is on M&D, and the size of the commitment. And Pappa
will need extra care now that Nanna is no longer with us. It just makes
me so sad that they don’t seem to care. Surely it wouldn’t have been
difficult for them to take a few days off from their jobs – they’re all
wealthy enough, not to mention working for themselves – to spend at
‘home’ with their family.
Anyway, enough griping. The
fun part of all of this was hanging out with my brother Dan on the
journey up to and back from Jamestown. It was bloody freezing in
Radelaide, and I only had summery Indonesian-weather clothes. And I was
wearing sandals! So I raided Dan’s beanie and jumper, but I had my feet
up on the dash to get the heat from the heater vents, because the
passenger window of Dan’s car is missing! And has been for about a year
since someone broke into our little Suby. In fact I must say that Suby
looks a lot worse for wear since Ange and I sold it to Dan. It looks
like five cars have rammed it simultaneously.
So in
summary, I had freezing cold air blasting in, and the heater going full
bore in order to try and stay alive, all the way to Jamestown. Gold!
And
then back to Indonesia on Monday. Only a short visit, but well worth
the effort. And on my return to Indo, yet another travel fuck-up to make
me more stressed. On Friday, when I was in transit to Australia, I
specifically asked the admin team in BA for advice regarding renewal of
my visa, because I knew it was single entry. I was informed that I
actually didn’t need to get a new one; given the timing of the funeral
with the request, I was in transit to get to it, and the fact that I
think the team knows how to do its job, I thought nothing further of it.
Maybe I should have checked it again, but it’s the reason I asked in
the first place.
Anyway, so I rocked in to Medan’s
Polonia Airport with a bit of a strange feeling of a new talent –
future-telling. I had that sinking feeling and just knew that when I got
to the customs desk they would ask my where my visa was and not let me
through. And that’s exactly what happened. And it’s all because the
admin staff in BA didn’t check my visa status properly – it was just
assumed that I had a multiple entry visa because the other delegates do.
So, on arrival in Medan airport and getting entry refused, I directly
called them for advice on the type of tourist visa to get – and one week
was advised. Sure, it would only take a couple of days to get the new
one. So I paid up.
Then, when speaking to them about it
later, and finding out that they even asked each other and all agreed
that I had a multiple entry visa, but didn’t actually check it (stupid
idiots), they said it didn’t matter because I had a month to get it all
sorted. Directly after advising me to just get a one week tourist visa!
What is wrong with these people? It really makes me worried that they
are responsible for organising so much… Anyway, so now I have to get
back to Singapore in a short timeframe to avoid getting another transit
visa (or overstaying in-country and having to pay a fine later!).
What
makes me so frustrated about this whole thing is that I was just IN
Singapore and could have stayed a bit longer to get the visa. And then
when I rocked up at the hotel I didn’t have a room booking, even though
I’d already had it confirmed by admin. Totally not a big thing, but all
the little things had added up by then and I was mighty tired, not to
mention pissed off! And I then I couldn’t get hold of my admin staff in
Simeulue to assist me and find out if I should stay in Medan and get a
flight at short notice, or fly all the way back to Simeulue, only to
then fly back to Medan AGAIN in order to go to Singapore AGAIN. So I
spent a frustrating day in Medan stressfully waiting to see if I should
take the afternoon Susi flight back to Simeulue, or stay in Medan.
In
the end, they managed to find me a flight on Sunday to Singapore, so I
cruise there on Sun, get the visa Mon, and come back to Sim Tues
morning. At great expense to ARC, all because of stupid idiots in Admin.
Ahh why can’t things just be simple. At least they got it right when
they sent me home for the funeral. If they’d stuffed that up, I would
have gone stark raving mad.
Right, from now on I won’t
air my dirty laundry. But I just had to do it to get it out of my
system. Humble apologies, faithful readers.
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