the fun part of my job

· the band of dusty skinny kids who trail after me like the Pied Piper on my walks down the pebbly road from the house to the office
· the opportunity to show the benevolent face of America in an interview with Al Jazeera
· the colorful array of spicy shrimp, pineapple, fried noodles, peanut chicken, papaya, steamed rice, cucumber salad, potato and vegetable cakes, gado gado, and satay that greets us twice a day in the dining room
· knowing that I’m missing all the crummy reality TV in the US that would most likely be rotting my brain, too, if I were home
· dozens of striped and spotted frogs jumping around our porch after dinner, and their invisible giant bullfrog cousins who entertain us with their high-decibel symphony late at night
· meetings with ministers, mayors, professors, directors and other important Indonesians who are asking for our help
· understanding more and more useful snippets of the language
· seeing Dr. Baldizon’s picture in the local paper, shaking hands with the provincial health director over our gift of new motorcycles (I use the term “gift” loosely here)
· watching the heavy white fog settle in the foothills around Banda Aceh before a rainfall
· the fact that I brought my own laptop and can do some writing at night, or look at my pictures
· silhouettes of bats with 3-foot wingspans floating through the dusk sky
· the “how cool is this!” factor that still gets to me every time I walk into the UN compound
· the JFK inauguration poster I bought on e-bay and hung up in my room here