Pilkada=Pilihan Kepala Daerah=choosing of the regional head=elections

Toraja Utara (North Toraja) is having elections for bupati (similar to county executive) this coming Thursday. Since Toraja Utara just split from Tana Toraja in the past few years, this will be the first election for bupati. The lead-up to the election is quite exciting. There are 7 candidates, and each roams around the region with a huge entourage of cars (usually SUVs or trucks that can handle rocky roads) or motorcycles, with everyone wearing campaign shirts, and with bigger vehicles blasting or playing music to attract attention. Sometimes a campaign stops on the side of the road in town so that the candidate can stump for a while. There are signs for the candidates everywhere. My students, even, are quite excited for the election, and each has a preferred candidate. My principal, incidentally, prefers candidate 1 (each candidate is numbered), since that candidate is his brother in law.

Anyway, while the elections are quite exciting, I will try to skip town next weekend. Apparently last election (in the joined Toraja, containing Toraja Utara and Tana Toraja), 3 people died in the post election riots. Also, apparently Makale (the capital of the joined Toraja and now of Tana Toraja) is much more tame than Toraja Utara. I don't want to die, so I will either skip town or stay in the school compound. Being barricaded in a compound for several days sounds rather boring though, so I would like to skip town.

Because of the tensions the election raise, the police are out in force. I even saw
one of these last weekend.



From http://www.primeportal.net/apc/shchang/barracuda_4x4_apc_walk_1.htm.

Living conditions

A lot of you have been asking about living conditions. I'll see what I can do to describe them.

I actually have quite the nice house (duplex?) Unfortunately, I still keep forgetting that I have a camera and thus I do not have pictures of it. I have more room than I know what to do with, which, I guess, is nice. Compared to many Indonesians, I think, I have a pretty good living situation. I have a western toilet (a godsend) and a shower (it has useless water pressure, but I have been using the squirter that you are supposed to use like a bidet as a shower head since it has much better pressure); most Indonesians use a cross between a bucket and a ladle. After visiting 3 other ETAs though, I think I actually did not do so well in the housing sweepstakes. All of us have similarly sized houses, but the others all have washing machines (though not driers), stoves (I eat at my school, which is actually quite nice), and, well, a lot of furniture. On the one hand, its a little awkward that we get such nice accommodations. Why should I, a first year teaching assistant, have a sit toilet, when the students and the office just have squat toilets? On the other hand, sit toilets are quite nice.

I live at my school, so I try to spend a lot of time outside of it. This means I either go mountain biking (I'm trying to get to know the region. Unfortunately, biking on rock or dirt roads does not work during the rain, which falls every afternoon) or I go to Rantepao. I live about 2-3 kilometers from Rantepao, the capital city of Toraja Utara. Rantepao, at about 45,000 people, is Toraja Utara's biggest (and only) city, if you even consider it a city. There is not much to do on the one main road or the few side streets, but you can buy oatmeal. Since it is hard for me to wake up and shower in time for 6:30 breakfast (and I could do with one meal a day without rice), I have been making myself oatmeal for breakfast. Rantepao is oriented toward tourists (Toraja is known for its funeral ceremonies graves), though there aren't many right now since we are in the middle of the rainy season. Unfortunately though, it's not a very exciting city.

Since there's not much to do in Rantepao and it rains too much to go biking much of the time, I spend a lot of time at school. The students are really into basketball, so I play that with them from time to time. Unfortunately, I have not played in a long time. It is taking me a while to remember how to shoot. Luckily, I am a good 6 inches taller than the tallest other person at my school, so I'm a master rebounder, and I don't really have to try to get open--I just put my hands up. I have also recently introduced frisbee (disc for the purists), but have not introduced ultimate yet. The students seem to like frisbee though.