Nationality: Germany
Contract Began: January 2009
How did you find out about PBI and what attracted you to the job?
After I finished my studies I looked for possibilities to work abroad in a field that really interested me. I liked PBI’s general philosophy and its field of work: HR and peace building. I guess two of the things that really made me become interested in PBI as an organization and its work were the principle of non-interference and the idea of a (rather) non-hierarchical, small organization working at grass root level. Those points were important to me as – out of my experiences working for NGOs and studying politics and cultural studies – I have become really suspicious of big INGO or other international agencies going somewhere and telling people how to solve their problems (by that often creating a whole bunch of new problems). Also I think that in the kind of work PBI does – accompanying Human Rights Defenders - it makes sense to have foreigners working in the field rather than nationals. So I started to get in touch with the German Country Group of PBI and volunteered for them for a while learning more about PBI and what it meant to work for them. Honestly, I chose the IP mostly because my Spanish was not good enough for any other project and also because I am more interested in Asia than Latin America. I had no prior connection to Indonesia though and would have gone to a different country as well.
Describe your average working day
8.15 am Get up. Shower. Trying to get awake.
9.00 am Info share: how – what – who – when.
9.30 am Finish meeting notes from the embassy meeting the day before; hack in a couple of articles for the ‘political and news analysis’ (PNA).
12.13 pm Ibu’s amazing lunch, chat with the teammates.
1.04 pm Calls between teams to check on status of the monthly activity report.
1.10 pm Going over WAST’s security survey for their next peace education activity, adding comments.
1.34 pm Short team-brainstorm about upcoming meeting with local NGO: topics, strategies.
2.09 pm Leave the house and catch a taxi to the other NGO’s office – get stuck in traffic jam for the usual amount of time. The taxi driver has no clue where we are going so my very basic knowledge of Jakarta geography gets tested.
3.09 pm Meeting with local NGO.
5.43 pm Arriving back at the PBI house after dropping of the Bi-weekly update at Komnas HAM (Commission for Human Rights) on the way.
5.45 pm Finish comments on security survey from WAST while getting updated about what happened while we were away.
6.13 pm Put in another few articles into the PNA and fill in the shopping list for team shopping the next day.
7.09 pm Do some personal emails then shut down the computer and leave the office.
How have you found ‘life in the field?’
Haven’t found it yet ;-) Jakarta does not feel so much like ‘the field’. I think that is one of the difficulties the volunteers in Jakarta face. Sometimes it does not feel like you working ‘in the field’ but are more supporting the Papuan Teams that are. Jakarta grants quite a few advantages though: not sticking out soooo much as a foreigner, being able to do a lot of activities outside the house and the team, being able to buy anything you want to as long as you have the money and last but not least being able to meet really interesting people and players on the national human rights scene. It has some disadvantages as well though: living in Menteng you don’t have much of a ‘neighborhood’ feeling and you are definitely more detached from the ‘active fieldwork’ and the grassroots organizations we are working with in Papua.
What are the positives about the work?
I like the close cooperation within the teams and between the teams even if it can be the most challenging aspect of the PBI work at the same time. It is inspiring to live and work in an environment with people who are all (or at least in the majority) passionate about the work they are doing and giving their best to achieve a good result even if their ways of working and thinking might be really different from each other.
Although we in Jakarta are not as ‘close to the action’ as the teams in Papua, I in general still feel that I am doing work that helps people – even if sometimes you have to remind yourself of the fact that your report writing and internal discussions and meeting notes writing really serves this purpose in the end; if only indirectly. Meeting our Papuan clients at the Face 2 Face meeting and on other occasions and being inspired by their stories and passion helped me a lot to see the impact we are having and the necessity of our work in Papua.
Actually I really appreciate the opportunity to do useful work while at the same time fulfilling my personal wish to make new experiences and get to know new places and different cultures.
What do you find most challenging?
As I said above the close cooperation within and between the teams can be very challenging as well. The idea of consensus decision making is a major challenge – especially when the whole project is involved. Actually the contact to the IP ‘outside the teams/coordination office’ has proven to be quite a challenge because of time difference, limited time resources and only having to work – at some points quite closely - with people you have never met and that live in very different circumstances than yourself.
Also the high turnover of volunteers within the teams will become a problem for me, I think.
Work wise I would say that doing high profile external meetings and effective networking are the two big challenges for me in the work and the tasks I am still not feeling too comfortable about. This is largely due to fact that actually we are all no experts in the field we are working in which nor in the language we are having meetings in and not feeling too insecure about myself because of this is a major challenge for me.
Any advice to others who may be interested in applying to join the IP?
Be aware that applying for the IP takes a long time so be patient! Make sure you are willing to dedicate around two years of your life to being in Indonesia, because if you include the language school that is how long you are going to be here! Also take into account that you have to pay a big part of language school and living costs while you are in language school. Only apply if you are willing to do all that because otherwise it can create a lot of frustration!
Other than that: go for it!
