Why Am I (Suddenly) Hesitant to Go on Assignment to Indonesia?

It is less than two months, and I will not be surprised if one day I will find myself heading to the airport and boarding a plane to Indonesia (no, actually to Singapore). The original itinerary I received is that I will land in Singapore first, spend two hours there, then take the plane to Jakarta.

Picture from Expat Service Blogspot

To be honest, I am not excited at all. I got some personal obligations that I need to attend to while on assignment, and I just found out last week that due to assignment proximity, I will not be able to attend to it.  I wish I could just share everything in here, but this is something that I cannot share to even my closest friends. When I posted a status message in Facebook, it was funny that my friends thought I were pregnant.

There are actually very few people who can understand. I have a few regrets on how I chose my preferred geography during the application. I thought that placing Asia as my second choice will enable me to attend to my personal obligations, but it looks like it was such a bad idea. Second, I just thought that to be assigned in Asia, or South East Asian country is too close for comfort. Somehow, I have already explored some culture in other Asian countries, and reading the booklet that was sent to me makes me feel like I was reading a nursery book. I am not saying that there is not much to learn and discover in Indonesia. It is actually a very interesting country. It reminds me so much of Philippines because it is also an archipelago. I just thought that it would have been more meaningful if I would be assigned to a country with really different and diverse culture. I honestly hate myself for feeling this. When I submitted the application, I told myself that I will accept whatever country of assignment that will be offered to me.

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