Tuesday Feb 16-- Exhausting!!

The U.S. Embassy really knows how to drive someone to exhaustion. It is late in the evening and I have just arrived to my hotel room after a non-stop day that started very early this morning.

The day began with a presentation to the Ministry of National Education (MONE). MONE is the equivalent of the US Department of Education. The room was set up in a typical Asian style, a series of desks in a semi circle. Each desk had a small box of snacks and a bottle of water. There were about 35 people in attendance, coming from all over the country. The majority were from technical high schools.

My speech had to be interpreted into Bahasa Indonesia so I had to speak slowly and pause for my interpreter. It is always harder for me to speak through an interpreter as I lose my expression and I worry that the talk comes out flat. But, I think the message got through because of the large number of questions asked.

What is becoming scary to me is the number of folks who say "I have your business card and I will email you with my questions and requests." Almost everyone wants to develop a partnership. I have no idea how I am going to handle all of this --- there sure is a lot of interest in working with the U.S.

After this presentation we went to lunch at a truly beautiful restaurant. Indochine was located on the top floor of a large building. The restaurant was filled with large beautiful chandeliers. While the restaurant was beautiful, the service was slow.

The next stop was the University of Jakarta. This very large university is located in the heart of the city. I must admit that the University was not a beautiful campus. The campus looked old, dirty, and in ill repair. But there was the big banner welcoming me (However, they spelled my name wrong --Hagedron). As I walked into the building where I was to speak, I saw that two tables had been set up for registration to come hear me.

I entered the very large room filled with students and faculty. I estimate the crowd to be about 200. The meeting began with the President of the university giving a rather long talk, followed by a shorter talk from the U.S. Embassy representative. By the time I was told to start, I thought the audience would have been tired and ready for a break.

The talk went well. Lots of questions and lots of offers to work with me.

Next came a harrowing ride to a reception. The traffic is unbelievable!! Thank God we have a very good driver. The reception was held in a very nice restaurant. The event was listed as a "high coffee" but I would call it appetizers. There were about 20 people at the reception, some of them people I have met at my previous events. By this time I was totally exhausted. I did my best to talk intelligently. I am not sure I was successful.

The bottom line is that I had a good day but I worry that I made some promises that will be difficult to keep.