Cousins Nantucket

Ready, set....Starve!

October 15, 2004

Ready, Set……Starve!!!!!

Having only been in Jakarta for two and a half months, I have not yet gotten ‘round to learning the ins and outs of the country’s reigning religion: Islam. I am still trying to figure out how to make my driver understand where I want to go and my maids stop allowing Sophia to eat candy from strangers in the park!

I do know, however, that today marks the first day of Ramadan. It is a time for inner reflection, devotion to God, and self-control. Muslims think of it as a kind of tune-up for their spiritual lives.

Just a word about the religion I have experienced…we have two lovely girls who work for us: Sri and Asih. Sri is 23, married, yet estranged from her husband, who, I think has returned to Hong Kong. She is fiery, has pretty decent command of English, controls the discipline of Sam and Sophia, flirts with the neighborhood vendor guys on her off time, and always seems to be menstruating. I say this because when a female is menstruating, she may not visit a mosque or participate in prayer or other religious occasions.

Asih, who is about 18 years old (!!) is a practicing Muslim, never seems to menstruate, prays five times a day, tucked away in her closet, fully covered in a white shroud, and is never seen flirting…she was off last night to the mosque to help usher in the season of Ramadan. According to the rules, the girls were up this morning at 2:00 am, cooking a meal. They then prayed (except for Sri, who is off the hook for one bloody week), and returned to slumber until 6:30. They have not eaten today, and as of 6:00 pm, they can take their evening meal. This will continue for four weeks. I understand that by the end, the entire country is in a state of limp listlessness, yet somehow they will find the energy to start gathering families together a few days before the final day and prepare for the mother of all celebrations on Idul Fitri, which marks the end of Ramadan.

Scrapes and bumps….

The other day, I was in traffic with Herri, our driver, on my way to JIS, the BIG and prestigious international school in town, and in the middle of a chaotic traffic circle, another car began to scrape along the side of the car. I yelled at Herri to stop the car and the other guy was able to back up a bit and disengage from my passenger door. We all pulled to the side of the road, I kept my head down and let Herri deal with the situation. Both men got out, sauntered over to the side of our car and began to negotiate. 15 minutes later, after some argument and rubbing of the bruised door, money was exchanged and we were on our way. I could not wait to find out what had happened. It was obviously the other guy’s fault and lo and behold, he did admit to that. He paid Herri a fair amount: Rp 10,000, which is a bit over…….ONE U.S. DOLLAR! Herri figured it was enough to cover the cost of touching up the scrape. Sure enough, when he picked me up later, I could hardly find the spot!!!!

Another anecdote about cars….. because parking spaces are so few, people just park wherever there is space, even if it means totally blocking people in legitimate spots. But the obvious solution is to leave your inconveniently parked vehicle in neutral, so that those who are stuck can simply push your car out of the way. Some may ask WHY we need a driver in this city…. There you have two good reasons…dealing with fender benders and getting out of parking lots!

Animals, animals, hey…..don’t kick my car!

Last weekend we headed up into the mountains to the South of Jakarta, to the Tamin Safari Park. We had heard it was worth visiting and it actually turned out to be a great day!! After inching along in mountain traffic (we later learned the heavy volume was due to people traveling home for one last hurrah before the start of Ramadan), we headed up the last tiny road to the entrance. Along the road, vendors were selling huge bunches of bright orange carrots. They looked delicious, so I had Jared buy some. Little did I know that they were supposed to be food for the safari animals!

We entered the park and right away saw a bunch of zebras. We were in a line of cars and busses, inching our way up a steep incline. The busses had a tough time, because every time a car would stop to feed or look at an animal, the bus would have to hang on the incline, impatiently honking his horn for cars to keep it moving. The animals are quite well-adjusted to the loud snorts of car horns, I must say. Since the animals get fed yummy carrots by all the human gawkers, they are quite willing to come up to the cars, stick their heads in your windows and salivate all over you. We even had one excited zebra kick our rear light out!

The really cool part was the “African” section. We had to close all windows for this. There were beautiful Bengal tigers, lions, bears – a real Oz! Sam and Sophia loved it. After the 45 minute safari, we entered the amusement part of the park. Kiddie rides were available, animal shows, Asian style, where the well-being of the animal is only secondary to entertainment value.

We decided to check out the Wild West Show for kicks and grins. It was hilarious! There was a scratchy audio tape in Indonesian which screamed out the loose plot line of the story, but the real action involved people riding across a plot of sand on horses and pretending to shoot at each other. There were good stunts of people falling off of balconies, off of water tanks, explosions of fire inside banks and saloons. Good stuff. But I think the most entertaining part of the show was…..the Rodgers family! We were the only white people there, and everyone around us was transfixed on our tableau. Sam and Sophia were perched on Jared’s lap and there must have been hundreds of photos taken of us during the show. If I had a rupiah for every shutter click…..

It is late on a Friday night and I am burning the midnight oil and Aircon here at school. Time to mosey on home, and take in some slumber in order to gear up for another day of fun and adventure in lovely Jakarta!

Ohmygoddidyouseethat?

Omygoddidyouseethat?

September 25, 2004

I just realized recently that we have been in Southeast Asia for a long time. The “OOH, AH” factor died out long ago. This I know from the new arrival of Rob, a nice American, fresh in from Boston. He is one of the new teachers at the school this year and every time I go out with him and his seasoned traveler wife, Laurel, we are both amazed by his view of the world. He sees EVERYTHING!
Just yesterday, during a ride back from the drivers license bureau (a story in itself), Rob noticed the following phenomena: we were inching along in highway traffic and suddenly a man crossed multiple lanes of the highway, with a tray full of eggs. Rob could not believe his eyes. I, hardened woman that I am, did not even notice…of course people around here roam the highways in traffic. They are hard at work, earning money selling water, peanuts….eggs..
Then further on down the road, we were inching along under the highway, and we saw a man on a motorcycle with two car size tires around his waist. I am really glad Rob pointed that one out, because it was the first time I’d seen that. The guy must have stepped into the two tires, pulled them up around his waist, climbed onto his cycle and motored off.
Then, moments later, Rob exclaimed, “No way, did you see that!? That guy just jumped off the bus in moving traffic?” Yeesh! Tell me something I haven’t seen thousands of times. Busses never actually stop here, and there have not been doors on the public busses since they were built, say 15-20 years ago. The only way to get on or off is to jump when the bus goes slowly enough not to get you injured.
The third phenomenon was something I was told about. Another amazing motorcycle sighting: this one had two guys on the motorcycle: as extra passengers they had tied three live, bleating, angry sheep onto the vehicle. Two were fighting to get out from between the men and the third one sat in front of the driver, while the guy tried to maneuver through nasty village traffic.
Finally, I offer a snapshot of the drivers license bureau: about 8 of us went down to get our licenses. We paid BIG bucks (about $10 each) to have a guy go with us and help facilitate the chore. So we sat around, and moved from window to window while he delivered papers, and yelled at the men doing their jobs. It took an unprecedented 60 minutes only from start to finish. Amazing. But even more amazing was that no one asked any of us if we had existing licenses from our home countries. It appears that if you have the money, and perhaps a white face around here, you can just get whatever you demand.
The nastiest thing about the drivers license bureau were the rows of pictures depicting injured victims of car accidents. From far away they looked like food offerings from a Chinese restaurant – you know how they show you the pictures of the food, so you know what to order? But as you got close, you realize they are pictures of smashed heads, bloodied limbs and other assorted broken body parts. I guess this is meant as a last ditch effort to make one rethink getting on the roads around here. By the way, did I mention that none of the motorcycle drivers here wear helmets? Life in Asia is far less precious a commodity that it is in the West. Sad, but true.
One of these days I will write about the beautiful sights of Indonesia, but I have not yet encountered one, living here in Jakarta… this morning we woke up and discovered a pile of mosquito netting and some of the rubber edging around the screen door on the floor near the kitchen door. In our house, we actually have a screen door and a wooden door, separating the living area from the kitchen. It became clear that a rodent of some size had eaten through the rubber edging and the mosquito netting, and attempted, unsuccessfully to scratch his way through the wooden door into the kitchen. The most disturbing part was that this creature was chewing FROM our living area. How the heck did he get in? We searched all possible entries and sure enough – next to the front door, he must have pried open a section of door which was a bit loose, chewed through the screen and entered the house. After cruising around, and unsuccessfully exiting, he found another screen to chew through and escaped through a cantilevered window. So now the mosquito infestation becomes secondary to rat proofing our happy home. Luckily, due to aircon and mosquitoes, we always sleep with our doors shut, so wandering rodents will not be able to visit my sleeping beauties.
And finally, to end on an upbeat note: a tale or two about those beauties. Sam and Sophia have been watching inordinately large amounts of TV as of late, in part, I think, because their toys are still locked in storage in Manila. Yesterday, however, after a marathon bout of vapid cartoons, I implored Sam to turn off the nasty machine and play a game with me, and he said: But mom, I don’t want to have to think.” Ah! Four years old and he already knows that TV is mind-dumbing machine.
At a bit over four, these are some of the cool things Sam can do: he can whip my butt in UNO, he can do an array of jig saw puzzles, he does flips (and has for months now) into the swimming pool, plus he can now dog paddle the entire length of the school pool. Just the other day he managed to climb the entire height of the climbing wall at school, and he is a great “goalier” when we play floor hockey in the gym.
He can write an m and M and r and R and explain how it is done. And finally, he is learning some Indonesian, and shouts out “Selamat Pagi” to all he sees each morning as we walk to school. Good stuff.
Sophia, on the other hand, in the depths of toddlerdom, has a wicked pout when she does not get her way. She and I go head to head on who can come up with a bigger pout, complete with crossed arms and loud “harrumphs!”. Physically, she is doing great – she tries to keep up with Sam and is becoming a fast runner, is working on her flips – she stands on the headboard of our bed and tries to hurl herself over onto the bed. At the moment it looks like a fast summersault, but given a few more weeks of practice, I think she’ll start getting some air!
She, too, is learning Indonesian. I dread the day she begins to speak better than I do! Some of her favorite foods are a “wamwish” which means, licking butter off of a piece of toast, “chicken on the bone”, which shows her cannibalistic side, and hard boiled eggs! Sam is just starting to eat vegetables – he seems willing to do many things if I tell him it will make me proud of him – is that considered child abuse?
As for me and Jared, he is discovering golf again. A game of nine holes can take up to 6 or 7 hours, as the travel time to and from the course can be a bit unruly. I am making do with running and have recently started heading up Wednesday night community nights, during which time we play badminton. I brazenly challenged ANYONE in the upper school to beat me, so I am hoping for a decent game one of these nights. So far, I am undefeated.
It is election day here in Jakarta, and we have no school. I have saved a mountain of work for this day, so I better get to it!

Until next time, CHEERS!
Mimi

Taking the Indonesian Plunge

Taking the Indonesian Plunge

August 15, 2004

Here we are in Jakarta, Indonesia, embarking on adventure # 2 of our international school teaching careers. We arrived on the afternoon of August 1, bleary-eyed from about 36 hours of straight travel, yet excited to have arrived. Our arrival was made easy by a friendly luggage porter, who whisked us through customs and out to the waiting throngs of the Jakarta International Airport. In the distance, I could see an upside down sign with the letters NJIS on it – our welcoming crew was there.

We piled in a car and took off for our northern suburb of Kelapa Gading, which means “coconut” something. We got to our house to find very sparse furnishings – luckily beds for all of us were there, with sheets and pillows, which was all I really needed in the first day. The first week here was spent setting up house and getting acquainted with the school. Poor Sam complained of tummy pain on the second morning and sure enough, as we piled into the van to head for school, Jared saw a funny look in poor Sam’s face and he hurled his breakfast all over the street, in front of the other new teachers who were waiting in the van. Jared set off with Sophia, while Sam and I regrouped at the house. After about 10 minutes, he was ready to go – what a guy! Now that we have our refrigerator stocked with YAKULT, a nasty sugary drink full of bacteria-killing bacillus which the kids LOVE, we’ve had no further problems.

Nyamuck: A fitting word, I think for mosquito. Whereas I babbled about the prolific ants in Manila, here is it an abundance of mosquitoes. They are a different beast from the kind, slow-moving creatures of Manila. There, we could grab them with one hand. Here, it is as though they can read your mind. They seem to anticipate our every move and as the hands come crashing together, the ‘nyamuck” deftly moves aside and I swear, I have heard one laugh out loud at my pathetic attempt to end its life. We could not figure out how they were getting in the house, although it is clear that they begin their lives in the nasty open sewer drain running in front of our house – YUCK! On the third day, we discovered a window which was wide open with no screen! We took care of that, but still they came. Just yesterday, we discovered yet ANOTHER window with no screen and no glass – add that to the list of items to be taken care of. The maintenance dudes have managed to lock down the opening to our well, which sits prominently in our back terrace. I could see Sam and Sophia prying it open and plunging to their deaths. The myriad of other death traps about the house are being taken care of…huge gaps in the stair railing to the second floor for Sophia to squeeze through, low railings on the four second floor balconies for her to climb over, an incredibly steep back staircase for her to fall down head-first, and more! A good chance for mom to take a deep breath and call upon the Gods of safety!

Sam and Sophia: They are settling in really well, I must say. Thanks in large part to the yaya culture of Manila, they have taken to our two “pembantu” or maids and upon being left with them, manage to have a great time playing at home and on the school playground. There are a few other kids of teachers with whom Sam and Sophia have bonded as of late, which makes the transition all the better.

Asih and Sri: Our household saviors! Asih, I am almost ashamed to say, is all of 18 years old and Sri is a mature woman, divorced, of 23. They are great! Asih speaks no English, which makes it even more imperative for us to learn Indonesian, but luckily Sri has a good command of the essentials, so we can survive day to day. I said to Jared the other day – there are not many places you can just settle into, without having to know when or where the trash in emptied – it just gets magically taken care of, along with many other daily household chores.

The other side of the coin is, of course, that Jakarta really is a third world city. The electric power supply to our house is minimal. This we discovered the other night, when the pizza delivery boy informed us, while dropping off a tasty pie, that the electric cable connected to our house was glowing! We quickly shut off all power and let Sri deal with the emergency. She deftly handled the calls to the school and the electric company. Two hours and many mosquito bites later, we were up and running again at a cost of five dollars, paid to the electric company dudes to put some tape around the wounded cable. That ought to fix the problem! Since then we have managed to blow out an entire electric socket and two power strips. Needless to say, we have also invested in two fire extinguishers and some smoke alarms, not to mention the small saw blade Jared has under his pillow, in case we need to carve our way out the doors. Every door has its own lock and key and all the screens are reinforced with iron bars, so escape from the second floor is a challenge!

Le Club Casablanca: We have sunk in a chunk of change to join this club which offers a gorgeous swimming pool, a fantastic workout room, massage facilities, a play room, yoga/dance room, tennis courts, badminton, and a small golf course. It is a five minute drive from our house and will become, I think, our home away from home.

So although school has not even officially begun, we are getting settled quite nicely. I signed Sophia up for an American-based school just down the road, which I think she will like. The folks at the nearest Starbucks already know our names (and probably cringe when they see our kids in tow – after a visit with S & S, piles of muffin crumbs are sure to litter the area!).

Unlike my first month in Manila, oh so many years ago, arriving in Jakarta has not afforded me the culture shock I experienced back then. The only differences are left-hand side driving, a foreign language which must be learned to communicate properly, and less Western products. We are definitely living a more “local” life here. MacDonalds and Starbucks cost almost more than they do at home, and Indonesian food is cheap and delicious. Most expats live about 1 hour away, although in distance it is only a few miles. Traffic here is even more horrendous than in Manila, plus the distances are greater.

It is Sunday afternoon, and I am FREEZING in the computer room at school. I’ve managed to lose my house keys and classroom key, which I’m sure will impress the powers that be. It’s time to close this installment of tales and I apologize if they are a bit long-winded.

Until the next time, selamat pagi, selamat siang or selamat malaam, depending what time it is as you read this!

Cheers - Mimi