I decided to share with you the things that I love the most here in Indonesia.
We all know that social media makes it incredibly easy to broadcast whatever image of ourselves and our lives that we want to. Don't get me wrong. Everything is not all gumdrops and lollipops here. The pictures I post on Facebook are of the GOOD moments. The memorable ones. I could gripe about the things that are hard and frustrating and disgusting - and there are plenty - but that's not going to make anyone feel better, is it?
So, instead, here are some of the things that make me most happy here.
Our Neighborhood
I can be in the worst funk, and all I need to do is step outside the gates of our complex. This little corner of road is filled with flower vendors, food carts, food stalls, newspaper vendors, toy vendors and bajijs. Right behind it all is a local school (the one we overlook from our balcony), and at several points throughout the day, school children flood into the street to buy snacks and toys. It's chaos. A bajij ride is the icing on the cake. I climb into the bajij, the driver starts it like a lawnmower, and we head off on a bumpy, loud, and sometimes terrifying ride. I cannot keep a smile from my face.
I Am Never Cold
If you know me, you know that I am always cold. For our entire marriage, Pat and I have joked that the only thing that would help me would be to move to a tropical climate. Turns out we were right.
Someone described Jakarta as 'A Big Sweaty Hug.' That about sums it up. You open the door of your air-conditioned home and it hits you like a wall. Hot, humid, and usually smoky. There are times when it is too much of a good thing (middle of the day, for example), but you guys, I have not worn a jacket once since we got here. I wear sandals EVERY DAY. Even when it's raining it's warm. Our kids can (potentially) swim in our outdoor pool everyday. *I* can swim outdoors and not freeze! Miraculous.
Nasi Goreng
Indonesian fried rice. It's just stupidly good.
Amigos
You may remember me mentioning a Karoake Bar just outside our bedroom window. Well, it turns out it's not Karaoke, although people do sing along loud and proud. It's the nightly live music at Amigos, the Mexican restaurant just inside the gates of our complex. Mexican because ... Jakarta... I have heard people refer to Amigos as God's Gift to Jakarta. Once I tried their food, I had to agree. All has been forgiven. Their Baja Burrito makes the nightly crooning music to my ears.
Satpams
When we went to Disneyland last Spring, we told our kids that if they got lost, to look around for someone with a name tag. That way they would know this person was a 'Cast Member,' and was a safe person who could help. At any given time, you could look around and realize there were always 5 or 6 Cast Members in your immediate vicinity, ready to whip out their walkie talkie and give the 'lost child' signal. Well, I feel the same way here.
They are called 'satpams.' They are security guards, and they are everywhere. From the lobby of our apartment to the lobby of the school, we walk past no less than 10. One greets us in the lobby, 'Selamat pagi Miss Laura,' three are at the first security gate, 'Selamat pagi Miss Laura,' three or four at the second security gate, 'Selamat pagi Miss Laura,' another one at the entrance to the parking lot, 'Selamat pagi Miss Laura,' one walks us across the parking lot, 'Selamat pagi Miss Laura'... You get the idea. I told one satpam my name one evening, and the next morning every single one greeted me by name.
They are outside of the malls, inside the malls, in the elevators, outside of businesses, guarding private residences, directing cars out of driveways. Everywhere. Watching out for us. Picking up one of our boys when he tripped, slowing the boys down when they run too far ahead of me. Do I feel safe here? Absolutely.
The Local Market
I haven't been in a few weeks, but there is nothing quite like it. This is Deedee, the vegetable vendor we go to. He knows our names, and has plenty of suggestions of which vegetables he thinks we need... The man is a human cash register - he can keep track of multiple peoples' orders at once, adding up their totals out loud, switching from one person to another, remembering what we each have in our bags. I'm too green to bargain like the locals do, but Deedee always throws something extra in my bag for me at the end.
The Absurd
It does not take long to be struck by the sheer absurdity and chaos of Jakarta. On the drive from the airport to our new home, Pat and I looked at each other, both thinking the same thing : 'Oh. My. Goodness.'
Lines on the road apparently mean something quite different than they do in Canada. Motorcycles seem to be immune to all traffic laws and logic. And speaking of motorcycles - it is no uncommon thing to see a family of four on one bike. I've seen a mother nursing her baby while riding a motorcycle (that is some serious talent). And we have an ongoing driving game: 'What is the most bizarre thing you can see on a motorbike?' Those big water bottles for water filters are delivered by motorbike - sometimes four massive bottles and a tank of cooking gas in one trip. One day, no joke, we saw someone with a toilet strapped to their bike. No big deal.
The 4am rooster, the 4:30am call to prayer, the nightly live music outside our window. The men who ride on peddle bikes, pushing around a sewing machine, mending clothes on the side of the road. Random goldfish, turtle and puppy vendors on the roadsides. Men on construction sites in bare feet, excavating their site one little sand bucket at a time. Street vendors who relieve themselves as they walk by. Vendors selling random toys bombarding car windows at stop lights. Chickens that run across the grocery store parking lot. Sometimes I think that the mayhem must match the chaos and the noise in my own head - somehow one cancels the other out and a sort of equilibrium is achieved.
Ok. I'll leave it there for now. I've heard that if you make your blog posts too long, people lose interest and stop reading. I think I passed that point about four favorite things ago :-)
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