In addition to lists of what not to forget (sunscreen) preparing for Indonesia and East Timor has several challenges that don't figure in more casual travel. One is the short time between approval and leaving. Then there's reading all about our partners and their work through documents that our Program Officer, Jess Agustin, is providing. And finally, because this is a trip in which I practice various new ways of documenting our partners' work, there's the research into what kinds of cameras, videos, computers and cellphones will be most useful, scrounging them, and then how and to whom I will send reports from the field.
Nevertheless, it's a great privilege to be able to do this, and I am looking forward to actually being there!
