Indonesian safari

Sunday, we all went on safari, Indonesian style. Since arriving in Jakarta we have gone to Sea World (a very miniature version in a not-so miniature amusement park), Taman Mini Amusement Park, the zoo, and now Taman Safari. It is amazing how much this city has to offer, and that we've gone to this many amusement parks in such a short time! Amusement parks are not regular fare for our family, but it's something to do and we're trying to see what this place has to offer.

Taman Safari was quite impressive. It wasn't at all like a safari you would go to in Africa, but rather like a drive through zoo. Many of the animals were quite tame from years of being fed carrots out of car windows (there were stalls upon stalls of carrot vendors on our drive into the park), but hey! it was fun seeing zebras and blackbucks so close, and unlike a safari in Africa, we actually saw all the animals we were meant to see. We saw elephants, giraffes, lions, tigers, leopards, hippos, rhinos, brown bears, gazelles, llamas, orangutans, and camels. The park is outside of a town called Bogor, which is in the hills/mountains. The park was in the forest and it was very lush and pretty, and cool! For the first time since arriving in Indonesia we weren't all sweaty by mid-day. After the "safari" we ended up in the amusement park section, which had a ferris wheel, a carousel, bumper boats, etc. They also had a kids zoo, where we got to pet a baby tiger, baby orangutan and a snake. C was fearless. That is until the orangutan tried to take a bite out of his head. Then C dissolved into tears, quite understandably, and J got ready to rush him to the nearest hospital. He recovered quickly (C that is, I think J is still wary) but I think he will talk about this for quite a while. That was a little scary, but all in all I must admit I really enjoyed it. I've never had the opportunity to touch a tiger, hold an orangutan's hand or feed an elephant before! I think C is going to grow up with a very scewed outlook on normalcy. After all, he's been on 4 different continents, fed giraffes in Kenya, gotten a hug from an orangutan in Indonesia, and seen Big Ben before he turned 3. Not "normal".





Before we left the park we decided to check out the cowboy show. We don't know how this fits in exactly with a safari park...perhaps Indonesians have some fascination with the Wild West, I don't know. It was very odd. There were explosions (real explosions that we could feel the heat from - I think I've ranted before on the lack of safety here), gun fire (not real), horses, Indians, cowboys, a sheriff, and the "town" had a bank, saloon, etc. It was mostly in Bahasa Indonesian so we didn't understand most of it, although we didn't really need to understand the words to understand what was going on. Basically it was just very surreal. Why does it seem there are always these sorts of oddities in developing countries? Do they make sense to the citizens of these countries, or do they seem strange to them as well?

This week J and I finally started learning Bahasa Indonesian. We have both hardly learned any so far and I am quite embarrassed at times when I can't communicate something very simple. We've learned quite a bit already and hopefully over the next couple months we will make some real progress. It is a little strange to take "classes" with J. We work very well together as a couple, at our marriage, as parents, but we decided long ago we could never do anything like The Amazing Race. We can't even move a piece of furniture without getting annoyed with each other and without nasty looks flying between us. We seem to be doing well so far with the classes though. I think we're just both so relieved to really be learning the language. At this point in Mali, after 3 months of intensive language classes, we could already have a conversation in Bambara, bargain in the market, etc. But, at least now we can say a couple sentences in Bahasa Indonesian - it's a good start.

Also, I have added a new section to the blog (on the right side) - Come Learn Bahasa Indonesian. I plan to add a new word or phrase every time I post a new entry. Happy learning!

Singapore on speed

I am exhausted. Ok, I was exhausted, before I took a couple days off after my trip to Singapore, and now I feel recovered enough to actually write about it. I was more productive in 2 full days in Singapore than I think I have ever been in the US. The first day I toured 2 hospitals, visited 1.5 doctors (the second one was in a delivery when I went to my appointment), toured 2 temporary apartments, and shopped at 2 different malls. And the second day was basically more of the same. My 6 month pregnant body cannot take that kind of abuse and I was completely useless by the end of the day. I actually felt like an abusive mother to my unborn child at times as I felt the toll my body was taking. BUT, I got a heck of a lot done, made some important decisions and visited a new country.

According to C, I was out shopping for kiwis and bread the entire time I was gone...

The city is probably an urban planner's wet dream. It feels fairly small but with a population of 4.5 million it is actually quite large. It has all the amenities and niceties that you could want, it is incredibly easy to get around and there is almost no traffic. It is a very pretty city as well, with lush vegetation everywhere and nicely painted buildings. There is plenty of shopping, restaurants, sidewalks (sorely lacking in Jakarta!) and Starbucks to keep a girl moving. Aside from a lack of culture and having to spend 6 weeks in a small apartment AGAIN, the city will be a very comfortable place to live and there are plenty of things to keep us busy. The hospitals were also all first class, as were the doctors I visited, and I have no reservations about delivering a baby there. It's not a terribly cheap city unfortunately, or maybe my scale is off kilter after being in Jakarta, but it's not too bad.

I learned some interesting tidbits about Singapore. I stayed with my husband's colleague who lives there, and she shared a few things that she has learned. First and foremost, it is a police state. Not a dictatorship, as it is officially a parliamentary republic. However, in some ways it feels like a dictatorship...maybe a party dictatorship since the same party (People's Action Party) has been in office since their independence in 1965. I am guessing this is one of the most successful police states around, considering how efficient everything is, how pretty it is and how well off the citizens seem to be (per capita GNP is $26,600). Being an American I don't think this is worth giving up free speech and knowing that Big Brother is watching you in probably all public places, but the system sure runs well! Other oddities: gum used to be banned. You can now find it in stores although it is still difficult; presumably you would no longer be thrown into jail if you chewed it. Perhaps this change was made to become more tourist friendly...? I also learned that all domestic staff (and other blue collar workers? I'm not sure) have to take a HIV test every 3 months, and all foreign women who fit into this category have to take a pregnancy test as well. They seriously do not want their population to grow. If you are found to be HIV positive you are thrown out of the country immediately! Talk about civil rights abuses! My jaw dropped to the floor when I learned about that. As someone who has worked in international HIV/AIDS issues, I find so many things wrong with that it is offensive.

After a couple days back home relaxing and ignoring the unpacked boxes scattered about the house, I recuperated and actually put in a full day of work - my first full day of work since last December. I haven't explained this in the blog, but my company back home does some work here in Indonesia. I had hoped to work on one of their projects, a maternal and child health project, but they really needed someone full time and I have no interest in doing that since I don't have to. I do hope in the future to do some short term consulting work for them, but we shall see. The project I worked on back home is just starting to do some work here. Here in Indonesia we are working with USAID (US Agency for International Development) and other donors to move Avian flu commodities through the country. USAID is donating decontamination kits and personal protective equipment to several countries around the world. Given that Indonesia is at the forefront of this potentially scary epidemic, it's important that they have some safe equipment with which to protect their investigators, and that is where USAID and our company comes in. For example, these supplies have to be stored, distributed, tracked, reordered, etc. We call this health logistics, which is what my project specializes in. Back in DC my work was to evaluate our program, to see if the logistics systems in various countries were functioning well, what needed to be improved, provide feedback on how to make improvements, etc. A lot of the work that I will be doing here is somewhat new to me - that is, new in practice but not in knowledge. I am familiar with all the concepts and how it works, but have done very little of it myself (since I was evaluating rather than implementing). It is a great learning experience though and it is exciting. It feels good to do some work too. Although since Monday was a holiday here and Tuesday was spent working, I feel like the week is basically over and I have so many other things to do!

Oh, C would be very proud to tell you that he can pedal his tricycle by himself. We are a proud family and he is so very adorable as he shows off his new skill!






Regarding C, I finally visited a couple preschools this morning. The one nearest our house, walking distance in fact, is fine but nothing very special. I was not very impressed with the facilities or the tour. The second one I went to, called Tutor Time, is an American company that has preschools all over the US and the world. I think C went to an excellent daycare back home, but it pales in comparison to this one (of course the teachers and instruction matter most, but I don't know about that yet). This center has an outdoor nature area, complete with stream and koi fish, a little bridge, lots of vegetation, rabbits, hamsters, turtles, and each class is growing some plants. There is an indoor gym and a playground (not as nice as the one back home but you can't have everything), and another room that is for "imaginative play". It is like a mini-village, with a little house that is the fire station, another little house that is a grocery store, etc. and a road in front where the kids can ride a tricycle or pushcar around. It's kind of crazy. The kids all looked happy and the classrooms are bright and cheerful and spacious. My neighbor's son goes there so C would be in his class, and the mother recommends it. I have one more place to check out, a supposed Montessori school that I have heard isn't terribly "Montessori", so we'll probably go with the one I described above. C can start in mid-April. It's nice to have one more big task almost accomplished!

It's been a busy, busy past several days!

Storm over Jakarta

Here is a photo taken a few days ago of a storm coming into Jakarta over the national monument.

Christmas in March

Christmas has arrived at the B-J-C household. How could that be, you may ask, in a predominantly Muslim country in March? Our sea shipment, aka the majority of things we sent from home, arrived yesterday. Three flatbed trucks carrying 5 crates arrived at the exact scheduled time to our house, with about 10 men to carry all the boxes inside. J and the woman in charge checked the number on the boxes to determine what was in them as the men brought them inside like a hill of ants, I mostly stayed in the house to provide further direction, and C watched on in pure amazement and wonder. He knew his toys were in the boxes as we've been telling him for quite some time that his toys were coming on a boat and would be here soon. Not surprisingly, as soon as he recognized something (his tricycle was the first I believe) we had to open it right then and there. It was an exhilarating morning, full of controlled chaos and relief that our things had actually made it.

Despite being quite sore from a day of unpacking and moving boxes around and the fact that we are still overwhelmed with full boxes, it feels so wonderful to be surrounded by familiarity and possessions from home. Our house is fuller and more homey and is on its way to feeling like "ours". We still have a furniture issue as we didn't ship as much as we probably should have, but at least now we have things to put on and in the furniture once we get it. And C of course is in heaven. He has been going through all his toys exclaiming, "remember this big truck?", or "look! it's my Winnie the Pooh", or "I don't remember this toy", etc. He has hardly wanted to eat or sleep with all the excitement and his overwhelming desire to play, play, play! It is so nice to see him so happy and comforted. J also spent last night putting together his new train table and that was definitely the toy o' the morning. We expect it will provide him hours of entertainment.

Today I am having lunch with an American women who delivered her baby in Singapore last November. I am looking forward to getting more specifics about this process and to hear her experiences. I am headed to Singapore tomorrow afternoon for 3 very full days of appointments and apartment hunting and shopping. And after C's nap today he and I are going to a neighbor's house for a playdate.

It feels like things are finally coming together.

Busy social calendar

When it rains it pours. My social calendar has been fully booked the last couple days and it has been wonderful and very enlightening. Yesterday morning I attended a Newbie orientation at the American Women's Association. The AWA, as it is known, is a center that sells publications on Jakarta, sells used English books and other things, organizes various events, has charity related activities, plans trips around Asia, etc. The orientation presented some useful information and most importantly I met a few women. One of the women has 4 boys under 4 (triplets and singleton - can you even imagine?!) and she was helpful in suggesting some child-related things to do around town. I also hope to meet up with her some time for a playdate, as it would be fun for Carter to be around so many boys near his age and I'm sure she is a wealth of knowledge concerning all things BOY. Equally wonderful was meeting a woman who delivered her baby in Singapore just last November. She has already provided me with some contact information on doctors and will also give me some info. on finding short-term apartments, the visa process, etc. I think she will be an amazing resource since she did this so recently. We plan to have lunch next week.

I also met a woman who invited me over for lunch today, along with about 6 other women. I had a very nice time at this lunch, and it provided a great insight into what I think the expat community is going to be like, at least the female side of it. None of these other women work and all of their husbands work for oil companies. I had heard before coming that there are a lot of oil and mining companies here, so it didn't really come as any surprise. What I found surprising though is that none of them really know anything about international development. Many of these women had lived in other countries and yet they didn't seem to know anything about USAID (United States Agency for International Development), international development, etc. It was very eye opening. I'm not used to traveling overseas and having to explain to American expatriates what USAID or int'l development is. In Africa, at least where I've been, that's what most of the expatriates there do and so you automatically fall into the lingo, you know some of the same people, know the companies that do that work, and just basically have a lot to talk about on the topic of work. Here, I was clearly the outsider in that respect and I really had no idea what they were talking about when talking about some aspects of their husbands' work or some of their work benefits, etc. They were very nice women and I enjoyed being in their company, and it was interesting learning about expatriate life that has nothing to do with int'l development, but it was also kind of weird.

The other strange thing about the experience is that not once did they ask me or talk about what they do or did for a living. Not once. I'm so used to that almost always being one of the first topics of conversation. But with this group I guess it is assumed that the wives don't work here, and if they worked before it's not interesting? I don't know... Eventually in a round about way I found out that one of the women is a Montessori certified teacher and is hoping to get some substitute teaching work, and another woman is a physical therapist and is doing what she can by volunteering with physically disabled children. Indonesia, to its discredit I think, has laws against any foreign medical doctors from practicing here. They can consult, but they can't prescribe medicine or work alone. So this woman has this amazing skill that is probably hard to find here, and yet she can't practice it.

I have to admit that I had a preconceived notion of what "oil wives" would be like. Basically, I thought they would be only interested in living it up here and not be interested in the culture, be sort of closed minded, and other basically unfavorable behaviors. But instead I thought these women were very worldly, very down to earth, and very welcoming. I hope I will still think this after getting to know them better.

This evening C, his nanny and I took a walk around the neighborhood. We met another 2.5 year old boy with his nanny on the street and we invited them over to play. They came for a bit and aside from a meltdown on C's part when his new friend started playing with his lawnmower, C enjoyed having a friend his own age. The child lives around the corner and his mom is German and just had another baby boy, and his father is Australian. I just received a call from the mother and C and I are headed to their house tomorrow afternoon. And tomorrow morning we are going to a drop-in preschool to meet up with the family who just recently arrived. Our playdate last week with them fell through so we are trying it again.

So, for the last 2 days, I have had to put the grocery shopping on hold because I've just been too darned busy! What a change!

Indonesia's woes

Indonesia hasn't had a very good past 24 hours. Last night there was an earthquake on the island of Sumatra with 70 people reported dead. I just saw this morning that a plane burst into flames after landing in Yogyakarta in Central Java (Jakarta is in West Java). They're not sure what the casualties are yet. But, I wanted to let you all know that we're fine, despite the floods, earthquakes and mechanical failures...

My mother sent me a nice list of the recent disasters in Indonesia from CNN's website. It's not a pretty picture. Between all the natural and transportation disasters, Indonesia is having a hard time of it of late. And my parents were worried when I went to Mali in the Peace Corps. Ha!

C stands for Cute

I thought I'd better write some about C today so the grandparents and others who love him don't start writing me nasty emails. Basically, he's doing great. He is still the sweetest, most adorable little boy on the planet, as well as being charming and smart and funny. He is going through a very polite phase as well (or do I dare hope that this will remain???) and is almost always ready with a "thank you", "excuse me", "please", "bless you", "I love you" and "I'm sorry". He is always ready to laugh and is very social, although he tends to be shy at first when meeting new people. That passes quickly though and he is soon telling people all about his trains and cars, or what bug he saw that day, etc. He has always had a great sense of humor. Even when he was a baby he would laugh easily and make the funniest faces. Well, the face making has become even more elaborate since then and his humor more refined, and it is obvious he loves to make us laugh. His favorite toys are his toy cars and trains. He also enjoys his toy animals, kitchen set, baby doll, play-doh, coloring, reading books - all typical toddler things I imagine. He spends most of his days now outside, taking walks around our neighborhood, finding bugs, playing hide and seek, and cutting grass with his toy lawn mower.

He has his 2 year-old moments of course. In recent history he had his Great Sulking phase, but that has largely passed. Getting him dressed in the morning, getting his diaper changed (we actually just started potty training today - we'll see how that goes...We welcome any advice!) and cleaning up his toys are constant struggles, but he gets very few time-outs so it is usually easy resolved.

There have been definite changes over the past 2 weeks, since we moved into our house. I believe C knew the hotel was just temporary, and I think this caused him some feelings of being unsettled, which was completely understandable. It's hard to know just what C understands about this move, but in the least I think he knew that while we were in the hotel he was not in any sort of "home". He would remind us daily about things from home..."remember my toys? remember my friends x,y,z from school? remember the park?". Since we moved into our house, however, he rarely mentions these things and we can just tell he feels much more settled. Our sea shipment is due to arrive this week, god willing, and it contains the rest of his toys and bedroom furniture. Once he has these things I think the settling in process for him will be near to complete.

Many of C's funniest moments have been certain looks he gives us, so unfortunately I can't really convey to you just how cute they are. He does say funny things too, although my miniscule memory can't remember most of them. One that I do remember that I love is when we're playing and we tell him, "we're going to eat your ear" and proceed to nibble on his ear, he tells us "don't eat my ear mommy, it's not lunch time!". Another recent gem is if he sees a man (or woman or kid) sitting alone, he tells them they're in a time-out. His nanny loves that one.

So this is a bit about C and his life right now. Like I've mentioned he is showered with attention daily and seems to be relishing in it. He is a busy boy and a good boy, and seems to be enjoying his Indonesian life.

Traffic, glorious traffic

It was bound to come up, so I might as well get it out of the way, even though I'm sure the frustration will get the better of me many more times and you will have to again endure my rants. Everyone warned me about the traffic problem here in Jakarta. At first I hardly ran into it and I foolishly hoped they were just exaggerating. After all, Washington, DC is no picnic. Now that I have been here over 2 months however, I have come across it a few times, and it is indeed bad. The worst traffic episode was due to flooding, and it was when we were moving our stuff into our house. Mercifully C was not in the car with us, as it took us about 2 hours to get from our house back to the hotel, when it should have taken about 25 minutes. And this was at the end of the day, after J had been moving boxes to the house all day and we had spent a couple exhausting hours shopping. This past Friday night we ran into traffic again, and a 10 minute trip took 30. Then again on Sat. when we went shopping. The problems arise unexpectedly and for no apparent reason. J tells me that the population of Jakarta is supposed to grow by 50% over the next 30 years. I don't know how this city could possibly handle that. It is busting at the seams as it is.

Part of the problem stems from the sheer number of people and cars, of course (Jakarta has a population of about 13 million). However, I think the Dutch, the last country to colonize Indonesia (following after the Portuguese, and other influences such as the Indians and Arabs and other SE Asian countries), are also to blame for their idiotic road system. It is one of those designs where if you are on the north side of a main street and want to go south, you have to travel north in order to get to an overpass or roundabout to get to the southbound side of the street. Basically, you can't get across many streets here without first getting to an overpass or roundabout. This causes more cars to have to merge into traffic and get off exit ramps, which leads to more congestion. We have wasted 20 minutes in this situation before, just trying to get to the overpass to go the opposite direction.

Given the bad traffic, low wages and expense of cars, there are millions of motorcycles and scooters on the roads. And they are incredibly brazen. Evidently size doesn't matter to them, because they will dart in front of a bus without a second thought. They also seem to think they have the right of way, because they rarely slow down if the car in front of them slows down for a pedestrian or turning vehicle, etc. I am scared to drive just about anywhere in this city, mainly because I am so afraid of hitting a motorcyclist. They come out of nowhere! And yet despite the millions of cars and motorcycles on the road, the terrible traffic, the audacity of the drivers, and the disregard for lane markers, I have yet to see an accident.

Since we're on the subject of driving and roads, the numbering system for shops and houses is also very frustrating. Even with an address it is very challenging to find your destination. One road can end up having several different names. Evidently a slight curve in a road is enough reason to change the name. The numbers are also not necessarily sequential. A shop with an address number 30 can be next to a shop with a number 50. It is terribly confusing and time consuming to find a destination.

J and I have already suggested that it will likely be the traffic and congestion of this city that will drive us home.