It was still early in the day, about 2 hours after leaving the house, we were already in Pangkep.
I sitting on the passenger side of Huey's Honda jazz as i took in the breathtaking view.

In a moment, i felt a sense of deja vu. The view was not exatcly the same (how can it ever be?) but so similar..rocky beach side to my left, as we drove a narrow barrier-less road, with sloping greenish hills to my right. I was taken back to my road trip in NZ with my sis. The only thing different was my companion, and the music playing in the background.

Sulawesi is a cyclist's paradise; or so i read in an article once. It was writteb by a norwegian cyclist who travelled this very road i was on with his son more than once (i believe he said four). driving away from the hustle and bustle (or dust and noise) of Mkassar, i found the rest of the southern island to be peaceful and beautiful. Pangkep is a small, clean and organised. Pare=pare; my point of destination was a bit more of a complicated town with winding hills and increasing traffic. But cleaner, and more peaceful to the eyes than mkassar was.

Anyway, the drive to my post was only 4 hours long, and it turned out that the village i was posted to was one of the few modern ones. At least more than 40% of the residents had functioning toilets (be it indoors or outdoors), access to clean water and good sense of hygiene to keep away diseases. However, my post was known for experienceing endemics of DHF (dengue High fever) and HIV positive patients. Wasn't i scaredwhen i found out..

All in all, we are sent to do our jobs and help the residents to overcome the health crisis and educate them towards a better understanding of how everything SHOULD be. And we are given 8 weeks to do so.

Its been 3 weeks now, and the most i got to learn is that these people are pretty hard headed. Some would accept your help, and knowledge but most would choose to live ignorantly. This is definitely a challenge. And i am still trying to find ways to reach some of them.

We have planned programs that includes:
- public toilets
- sewage lines
- bird flu and DHF awareness
and etc.

4 weeks. that's how much time we have left to act upon our research and evaluate the outcome of our actions.

so far, i have to admit. it has been fun.