A mixed bag

It is a funny ride, this roller coaster of moving. Every day seems to reach new emotional highs and lows, new loves and hates, new levels of excitement and distress. We have known for months that we would be leaving Indonesia. We haven't always known where we were going, but we knew it was time for us to say selamat jalan to the country we have called home for 4.5 years. It wasn't an easy decision, but we always knew it would be one we would make eventually. Almost 5 years is long enough to live abroad, at least in a challenging city like Jakarta and so far from our real home.

A few months ago this city and this country were driving me nuts. Everything about it was wrong, nothing worked, it was all frustrating and stupid, it was dirty and smelly, etc. Fortunately at the time I recognized this for what it was - my brain's way of detaching myself emotionally from a place and from people I have loved. If you accept the approaching departure, you must look forward instead of dwelling on everything that has been and everything that is wonderful. And in order to do that, it seems to me that many people going through a major move deal with it by hating the place they have to leave. It makes sense to me, and is probably (hopefully!) a very healthy process. And I got to the other side of it - I still love it here, I still recognize the wonderful things about this place, I know I will miss it immensely. But I also recognize all that is horrible and all the things I am looking forward to bidding a fond farewell!

In this light, a review of what I find lovely about living in Jakarta and Indonesia, and all that I'm looking forward to in America.

What I will miss...
- Indonesians are incredibly kind and gentle
- There is never a dull day here
- The challenges of living in a foreign country push you continuously
- All the color and richness of this place that make it unique and interesting (for example, I have never tired of seeing the carts on the side of the road selling food or house essentials, or of people wearing batik clothing, etc)
- Hearing foreign languages all the time
- Always seeing people who look different from us, it's not a sea of white
- My lifestyle here has been luxurious, in so many ways
- Financial comfort
- Our house staff who takes care of us almost every day
- My free time
- Our ability to have our nanny work almost any night we ask, with short notice
- The spas!!! (massages, facials, reflexology, manis and pedis, etc)
- The relatively cheap and easy travel around Asia
- Tropical islands, adventure travel
- Swimming pool in our backyard
- Our wonderful, safe complex which has loads of kids and playgrounds
- Our good friends
- So much time to get to hang out with friends
- Jakarta International School
- Premier movie theaters (lazy boy recliner, blankets, meal service)
- Nice indoor playcenters
- Great Asian food
- Bali is only a 90 minute flight away

What I will not miss about Jakarta/Indonesia...
- The traffic! The motorcycles!
- The pollution!
- Too many people, everywhere
- Constantly getting sick, weird diseases
- The threat of Dengue fever
- Not being able to return things to stores
- Being surrounded by people who don't use critical thinking skills
- Lack of nice parks and places to go outside within Jakarta
- Having nice parks and beaches within 60 miles but that take hours to get to due to traffic
- The feeling that this life is not normal
- Being so far away physically from family and friends back home
- 12 hour time difference between here and home
- The 35 hours it takes to get home in the US
- The constant challenges - nothing is ever easy
- Rotating stock outs in the stores - you never know how long something will be available
- Having to go to several stores to find what you need
- Having to go to duty free stores for affordable wine and liquor, but these stores aren't always open and there is always a limit on how much you can buy

What I am looking forward to...
- Fresh air!
- Change of seasons
- The ease of living in the US
- No real traffic in Chapel Hill!
- You can find everything you need in just one store (OMG - Greatland Target I love you!)
- Seeing my family often, talking to them any time of day
- Road trips
- Staying in one place - making friends who most likely won't be moving away
- Owning a house and making it ours
- Driving. Driving on big wide roads without food carts, motorcycles, and too many cars crowding them
- Bike rides
- Hikes, camping

I thought I would write a list of what I'm not looking forward to about America, but I think I should end on a high note! Plus what I love about living here is pretty much the antithesis of what I don't like about the US.

We are one day into packing up our house. The house is more than half boxed and reality has set in with a huge shove forward! Definitely no turning back now!

Kool Kalimantan

As our time in Indonesia draws to a close, we are furiously trying to fit in all the last minute, must see trips before we leave Asia. A few weeks ago we went to Phuket, Thailand, which to be honest was a disappointment. I don't see what all the fuss is about. I love Thailand, but I'd much rather go back to Koh Samui for a beautiful beach vacation or go to Chang Mai.

This past weekend, however, we went on a fabulous and comfortably adventurous trip to central Kalimantan! By Indonesian standards it was an expensive trip, but it was well worth all those millions of rupiahs! The flight from Jakarta to Palangkaraya was only 1.5 hours, and aside from the Lion Air pilot once again landing us hard upon touch down (seems to be a trend with Lion Air...), it was an easy get away from Jakarta. We went Thursday night and stayed at the Luwansa Hotel so that we would already be there Friday morning to get on the boat. The Luwansa Hotel was surprisingly nice - a very clean, comfortable and decent place to spend one short night.

The next morning we were picked up a bit late from the hotel (car problems they said) but then arrived a short 15-20 minutes later at the port which I assume was in the old part of town. We were greeted at once by an Indonesian woman speaking perfect English - Aini - and were welcomed on a gorgeous wooden house boat called the Rahai'i Pangun. We were taken to our comfortable cabins and shown a map of our route which would take us up the Rungan River past 3 orangutan reserves. As soon as the other tourists (an American couple living in Jakarta) arrived we shipped out! We drank coffee and ate some Indonesian snacks as we floated by the busy river life of Palangkaraya.

We spent the next four hours or so slowly making our way up the river, passing a few small villages in the midst of miles of jungle. At one point we asked how isolated a certain village was, as it seemed to us we were in the middle of nowhere. Much to our surprise we were just 15 km from Palangkaraya by road! So while our whole river cruise felt very "adventurous" and "isolated", surrounded by what felt like miles and miles of jungle and small river ways, it turns out we were never more than 50 minutes from Palangkaraya! During our whole 2 day trip; however, we never passed another boat full of tourists, and were instead treated to fishermen in small canoes, small villages full of waving children, quiet river jungle and mangrove forests, and of course orangutans!

The orangutan reserves are managed by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF), which is an organization that has been rescuing orangutans from illegal captivity or loss of habitat since 1991. Their mission is to Rescue, Rehabilitate, and Release orangutans from around Borneo. The reserves that we visited are where the orangutans are being rehabilitated - learning to fend for themselves in a safe jungle environment. Most of the orangutans were rescued from captivity where they most likely lived since they were young, so they never learned how to live in the jungle. BOSF teaches them how to do that, first at "Forest School" and then later at these reservations. We visited the Nyaru Menteng location in Central Kalimantan.

After a delicious lunch on the boat we soon arrived at our first orangutan island. Straight away we spotted a few orangutans up in the trees, and all of us crowded to the back of the boat to get the best view. We stopped nearby and readied ourselves to get in canoes in order to get closer to the orangutans and then continue on a canoe trip through the smaller river ways. The big boat wasn't allowed to get too close to the island, but canoes can get closer so we all piled ourselves into the canoes and were paddled the short distance to the island.

At one point there were about 4 orangutans on the ground near the shore, where the feeding spot was located. They were gorgeous! Even the boys had their eyes glued to them, as I continuously experimented with my camera trying to get "national geographic shots" in low light, with a telephoto lens, balancing on a rocky canoe! I took over 350 photos over 2 days, and fortunately I believe I managed a few good ones.

Once our appetite for Orangutan gazing was satisfied we took off on our canoe ride. What we thought was to be a short ride through the small water ways turned into a 2 hour long voyage. By the time we found our big boat dusk was well upon us and the rain clouds were threatening. The first hour of the trip was lovely though - cruising through jungle encroached river tributaries, mangrove forests and black water lakes (from the peat of the soil). It was completely quiet except for some bird and insect chatter, and the only hint of civilization we saw was a few fishermen shacks.

As can only happen in a 2 hour long canoe ride, our 4 year old grew restless and began the constant barrage of "when are we there...?? (whine whine) where is our boat...?? (whine whine)". We did the best we could with LC while J and I simultaneously mouthed to each other "oh my aching back...! (whine whine) oh my sore butt...! (whine whine) where is our boat...?? (whine whine)". As the sun went down and the clouds grew darker I must admit to a creeping fear as well - what if our canoe capsized here in the middle of nowhere?! The thought hadn't crossed my mind until everything grew more ominous with the approaching night. Finally, we spotted the boat and we all cheered - our guide was also very happy to have finally arrived! Evidently there was a gold mining platform blocking the way that our big boat wanted to take to meet us, so it had to go farther up river than originally planned. We had made it safely, with just an aching back and bum to complain of, and with beautiful scenery to remember.

Our first night we parked near the side of the river, enjoyed another delicious meal, and listened to the rain overhead. Thankfully we tucked in early to bed as the jungle and our own little monkeys woke us up at 5:30 the next morning. We had a lazy morning as the boat paddled up to a larger village where we picked up another few passengers. We then headed to a second orangutan island and once again enjoyed watching them eat and swing from the branches.

After lunch we headed to a dayak village where we were entertained with a welcoming dance and music by some of the village children. After a little while LC got bored and wandered off towards some other kids and started making friends. He and C were definitely big hits in the village and were basically treated like rock stars. I'm sure they don't have many foreign kids visiting their village and they were a novelty. But they had fun and we enjoyed learning a bit about dayak culture and about life in the village.

After we left the village the boat found a spot to park for the night and we were treated to another great meal and stayed up a while chatting with our boat mates. We went to bed early again as we knew it would be another early morning and we had to get off the boat to catch our flight back to Jakarta.

In the morning we realized they had parked us right beside another orangutan island, and were delighted that we got to see another couple orangutans before leaving Kalimantan. We were happy we were able to see a mom with her baby at the first island, and then were able to see another one in the morning before leaving.


All in all it was a really great trip - easy flight out of Jakarta and everything was so well organized. Plus the boat was very nice, the food was great, the guide was very informative, and best of all we saw some amazing orangutans in Kalimantan!

A foodie I'm not, but just the same

Here is a post that I started last year, and just now finished. If you're feeling adventurous in the kitchen, here are some good recipes to try!

I realize that I've been remiss in writing very much on Indonesian culture, as most of the time I blog I am writing about a trip we took or about the boys. Both are worthwhile I think, but I'm sure you, kind reader, would also like to learn more about Indonesia! So with that, I am going to write about food, since so much of our lives (for good or bad) and our cultures are wrapped up in food. Now those of you who know me know that I am not a 'foodie' - I am not 'into' food, I do not like to cook, and there are many meals I'd prefer to just be able to inject into my body rather than sit down for. However, I do appreciate a good meal and recognize what a significant role it plays in a country's culture.

Indonesia is such a vast country and is made up of so many different peoples, that its food also varies depending on the region. There are Javanese dishes, Manodonese, Balinese, Sumatran, etc. and while all are typically Indonesian (meaning they share many qualities and are very different from say Mexican, Italian, Indian, Japanese, etc.) they also differ enough that many Indonesians can tell where a particular dish is from within Indonesia by simply looking at it or with a quick taste. For a very good explanation of Indonesian food, please visit this link. One significant difference is what sort of meat is used because most Indonesians are Muslim and so do not cook with pork. Bali on the other hand, being a mostly Hindu island, freely uses pork in many dishes as well as duck which is very popular (a well known and delicious Balinese dish is called Bebek Betutu). Regional dishes also differ on the amount and kind of chiles they use. In general Indonesians like some heat in their dishes (they also love sweet and fried foods), but the Manadonese are known for their extremely spicey dishes. I am sorry to say I'm a bit of a chile wimp, and so I've never tried Manadonese food, but this is what I've heard.

We are fortunate to be living in a foreign country whose food is delicious (NOT the case when we lived in W. Africa). My favorite dish is called Nasi Kuning (yellow rice) and Tempeh (a variant of tofu) Orek. It is a fairly common dish in Java but usually prepared for celebrations. The nasi kuning is made with tumeric, lemongrass and coconut milk, so it has a nice, but subtle flavor. The tempeh orek on the other hand is fabulously flavorful - a wonderful mixture of sweet, salty, and spicey.  It is sprinkled on top of the rice dish and the balance of flavors is divine.

Another popular dish, which I believe is found everywhere in Indonesia, is nasi goreng or mie goreng, which is simply fried rice or fried noodles. Most restaurants or cooks will add in ingredients to make nasi/mie goreng more interesting, such as carrots, shrimp, chicken or beef, chilies, peanuts, or egg. It is a basic dish that is difficult to mess up, and since it is fried it is one of the safest dishes to order in even the most basic of eateries.

I love a good peanut sauce, which I quickly grew to appreciate in Mali as it was one of the few appealing dishes among their traditional food. Because Mali is so poor, too often the peanut sauce, called tigadigana, is watered down. However, if you stumble upon a good tigadigana, it is heavenly. I looked on the internet for recipes but only found tigedigena recipes on blog sites - I suppose that isn't surprising. This recipe looks good, although I've never heard of adding broccoli to tigedigena. I don't remember ever even seeing broccoli in the whole country! Here is another recipe for tigadigana, along with a wonderful description of just how awful the food in Mali can be. But I, like this blog author, learned to appreciate what you learn from forcing down food you don't love - the simple fact that you have food to eat to keep you from starving, the quiet beauty of eating with people - whether they be friends or strangers, the importance of kindness in smiling at your hosts despite your discomfort, etc. (But I have led us on a tangent...) You can also find great peanut sauces in Indonesia, for example to accompany gado gado, which is cooked and raw vegetables dipped in peanut sauce, or satay, which is any grilled meat on skewers, but most often chicken or beef, covered in peanut sauce. Both are often served with krupuk, which are similar to shrimp crackers.

Another delicious and popular Indonesian dish is rendang, usually beef rendang, which is beef cooked in coconut milk and spices such as ginger, turmeric leaf, lemongrass and chilies. Many Indonesian curry dishes are incorrectly called rendang, for true rendang requires hours of cooking whereby the liquid sauce is cooked down to a paste, or disappears completely to make a dry beef rendang. Because of the long cooking time required, it isn't common to find true rendang in restaurants. But when you do, it is well worth it! Here is a good looking beef rendang recipe (I haven't tried it). Like I said, it's a long process so perhaps it's best to try on a cold rainy Saturday or Sunday!

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about sambal, which is Indonesia's basic chili sauce. You will find it in the grocery stores in the ketchup aisle and it is always served in restaurants along with the ketchup (fortunately it is a lighter red color so I don't confuse them too often!). It has a nice flavor and adds some heat, if needed. Hand made sambal is even better though, with more texture and richer flavors. While my husband still contends that I can't handle any spice, I beg to differ and think that living in Indonesia has heightened my tolerance for spicy hot foods and has taught me how to enjoy its flavor.

Indonesian food is flavorful and exotic and delicious, so give it a try if you haven't before! Here's hoping we find a good Indonesian restaurant in the Triangle!

Resurrection

Ha, seriously?!

I don't even know what to say, where to begin. I mean, it's been 16 months - why? what? how?! I never actually meant to stop writing, it just happened. One day turned into one week which turned into one month which evidently turned into one year and then some. And leaving it like I did, well it has just never sat well with me and so here I am. I think I just became bored of sitting in front of the computer so much, and so by the time I got back to writing all I wrote about were the trips I had recently gone on. And this is ok, but this blog wasn't meant to be a travelog exclusively. It is meant to be more than that. And so between not wanting to sit in front of the computer, not wanting to write a travelog, not wanting to feel like it was boring, I just stopped. Cold turkey stopped.

But now I'm back. At least I think I'm back, I'm intending to be back! I guess we'll see how it goes, but I have thought a lot about it. I considered starting it back up at the one year mark of when I stopped, but that didn't happen. Obviously. But I've continued to think about it a lot, and feel that it might just be the right time. I've had a lot on my mind, and so for selfish reasons I feel I need an outlet for all the thoughts, emotions, plans, and stress stirring around inside me.

You see, we're on our way out. Our wonderful, fabulous life in Indonesia is coming to a close, and since I began this journey with you all I feel I should end it with you all as well. Plus, with all that's entailed with a move of this magnitude, my brain is all jumbled up and maybe this will ease some of the craziness.

In a little over 3 months from now we will move back to the US, to Chapel Hill, NC, where we lived from 2001-2003 while I studied for my MPH. We thought we'd relocate to another overseas post or we'd move back to Washington, DC, so this comes as a bit of a surprise to us. We were disappointed that we are going back home to the US instead of to Africa where we hoped to go, and then disappointed we wouldn't go home home to DC. However, we always knew CH was a possibility since J's company is headquartered in the Triangle. Now that we've wrapped our heads around it we're excited, very excited, so excited that we're very antsy to leave Jakarta. And by the time I post this we will have told our friends in CH and I know this will make us even more excited.

We only have 3 months left. 3 MONTHS! Yikes. We have A LOT to do in that time - moving a family overseas is not an easy thing to put together, even when moving back to your home country. Matter of fact, in some ways it's even harder, and I'll write a post on that another time.

So for the next few months I'll be writing a lot about the move and what I'm feeling as we prepare to leave Indonesia and repatriate to the US. And once I'm back, a friend suggested that I keep it going because really, how interesting and funny will it be to go from my spoiled expat life here in a developing country to my full-time stay at home mom life in the "developed" US. Funny in a pathetic way that is. So that's the intention. Again, we'll see how I go...

So, again, sorry about the long and unexpected hiatus, but hopefully you're willing to start checking in with me again from time to time...

The Liquid of the Gods

This year I finally got around to joining the Indonesia Heritage Society, something I've been meaning to do since before we even moved here. They do a range of activities, including consulting with and giving tours of the National Museum, sponsoring a variety of lectures and study groups on some aspect of Indonesia, and organizing Explorer groups which explore places in and around Jakarta. I joined one of the Explorer groups, and now every other week a couple of the members organize a tour for the group to visit and experience something new about Indonesia.

Two weeks ago we went to the home of an Indian woman who has lived in Jakarta for 20 years. She owns a very good Indian restaurant nearby and loves to cook. She taught the group about different spices used in Indonesia and taught us 3 different Indonesian recipes (see a future post for more details).

Yesterday our tour was at the Equil Mineral Water bottleing plant. The factory is located at the base of Mt. Salak, about 1.5 hour drive from Jakarta. The drive there was typical of life on Java - constant traffic and end to end towns. But once we arrived at our destination we found peace, quiet and beauty - not something you'd typically find at a factory! The surrounding grounds of the bottling center were really lush and serene, in keeping with the equilibrium of their product. The factory was actually quite small. Most of the space was filled with cartons of water, while the space for bottling took up just 1/5 of the warehouse. It was immacutely clean and spacious, and the workers all wore gloves, masks and hairnets. The bottles and caps are sterilized and the room in which the water is bottled was a grade 3 clean room (or something like that) - meaning they had 2 separate disinfecting rooms leading to the bottling room, similar to a surgery room.

The main reception hall is of European design made of marble and filled with art. In front of the hall is a beautiful Koi fish pond filled with mineral water from the source (probably some of the most expensive and healthiest fish anywhere!). After the factory tour they gave us a presentation on mineral water and how Equil compares to other brands. I had not known beforehand that the term "mineral water" is a very select and protected description for water. In order for a brand to describe their water as "mineral water", they have to meet 4 criteria as set out by Codex, a joint standard as adopted by EU countries, WHO and FAO. The criteria for natural mineral water (as distinguished from any other drinking water) is that:
1) It comes from a natural spring source or a bored hole
2) It fulfills the Codex's criteria from the physical, chemical and microbiological points of view
3) It does not undergo any treatment except carbonation
4) It is bottled at the source

The water used in Equil mineral water is from an aquifer 80 meters underground that is fed from rain coming through Mt. Salak. The water is 150 years old and is not pumped to the surface, but comes up naturally. They don't treat the water in any way (except for carbonation for their sparkling water) and it is bottled at the source, so it meets the Codex criteria. During the presentation we also learned about the different mineral contents of popular mineral water brands. For example, Perrier used to be (I don't know how they corrected this if it's not allowed to be treated) very high in nitrates, which can cause cancer or Blue Baby Syndrome in babies and small children. Many of the mineral water brands are bottled in Europe. But when thinking about how heavily farmed Europe is and the wars that have been fought on that land (resulting in higher nitrate content and other pollutants), I wonder if drinking European mineral water would be so safe considering that it hasn't been treated. Equil marketers are finding it difficult to open up international markets for their brand because it is from Indonesia, which is considered in the world to be "dirtier". But really, perhaps Indonesian mineral water would actually be safer than any other brand!

I also don't think often about the taste of water, unless it's very noticeable. We do not drink tap water here as it's not safe enough, instead we buy the Aqua brand bottled water (owned by Danone). During the presentation they had us do a taste test between Equil and Aqua. I was very surprised at what a huge difference there was! Equil had a far smoother and slightly sweet taste to it, whereas Aqua had a less pleasing taste and even had a bit of an after taste. Now we're not going to change brands as it would just be too expensive to use only Equil water; however, I did end up buying 6 cartons of their sparkling water (I have had it before several times in restaurants so I already knew I liked it).

Another interesting thing about this company is the mystic beliefs of the owner. He used a shaman to help him find the water source and consulted a Feng Shui expert in designing the facilities. The water source is located next to the main building and has been decorated with a satue and stepping stones over the bubbling brook, as well as a Hindu type open air enclosure. The tour guide explained that many people have felt something especially "spiritual" or different when walking through the Hindu enclosure, or when drinking straight from the source. I have to say it did feel different to me - the air felt heavier and my heart sped up a little. So maybe there is a spirit protecting the water!

It was thoroughly enjoyable tour and I was impressed with the company and the facilities, and best of all their water tastes great! The owner plans to build villas nearby for natural living and an escape from our current hectic life styles - maybe we'll be here long enough to enjoy it.

Our little Balinese dancer

A couple weekends ago was Chinese New Year, a fairly big holiday here in Jakarta due to the large population of Chinese Indonesians. As it was a 3 day weekend and we didn't do much for x-mas this year, we decided to take a long weekend and head to Bali. There isn't one perfect place in Bali, so when deciding which part of Bali to go to for this trip we had to decide what we really wanted...best culture, go to Ubud...best nightlife, go to Seminyak or Kuta...best place for quiet, beauty and relaxation, go to Nusa Dua. There are other areas of Bali too of course, like basically the entire island since all the above places are in the southern part of the island. We haven't yet ventured to the north or east parts of the island, which are also supposed to be wonderful. In any event, we decided to return to the first place we went to in Bali, to Nusa Dua (it's on the southeast corner). We wanted quiet, beauty, clean clear beaches, and an easy place to take the kids. Nusa Dua Beach Hotel was the perfect place.

Unfortunately I was recovering from a virus and was pretty miserable the first 24 hours or so. Our first full day there was also cloudy and rainy, and we didn't have many plans for rain, so we were a bit stuck. To fill the time we took walks and played at the playground, and for dinner we headed to the area mall. This is a bit sad, but with the rain there aren't a lot of options with kids. Thankfully the following morning was bright and sunny, and we headed straight to the water after breakfast. One thing we love about Nusa Dua are the clean beaches and calm water - perfect for kids! And as usual, the kids had a great time playing in the sand and C enjoyed getting in the ocean. LC, on the other hand, is still very hesitant about the idea of all that water, and water that moves and makes noise! He preferred to be held the entire time he was anywhere near the ocean. Both boys preferred the pool to the sea, so most of our water time was spent poolside. Nusa Dua has a beach pool, so the kids could play in the sand both outside of the water and inside the pool. They both loved this, especially LC. We love it too because for at least part of the time we parents could just sit back and watch them play in the water. C also had fun paddling around the pool with his floaties and jumping into the pool. LC of course had to copy C, so he was jumping in as well (big difference being we have to catch him).

For dinner that night we took a taxi over to Jimberan Bay, which is on the southwest side of the island. It's a great spot for watching the sun set, as it is a wide open beach with several restaurants that all have tables and chairs right on the beach to provide everyone with a front row seat. These restaurants serve fresh seafood, which you get to hand pick and they bbq for you. We came here with J's parents in Oct. '07, and we ended up at the exact same restaurant (our taxi driver picked it). When we arrived at the restaurant, C informed us that this is where his grandpa hurt his finger in the car door. Mind you, this happened 16 months earlier and we probably haven't mentioned it once since then. C's memory is unbelievable! Unfortunately the beach was far dirtier this time; it was filled with all kinds of trash. Other than that though, we had a nice time enjoying the beautiful sunset, salt air, and good fresh fish and prawns. There was also some Balinese dancers giving a performance at the restaurant. We just saw a bit before we had to leave, but LC was totally transfixed. Balinese dance is quite interesting. The dancers tell a story with their bodies as usual, but they also use their eyes a great deal. It's amazing how expressive they are with just their eyes. The dance is also unique due to the arm and hand movements, which remind me of Egyptian or Thai movements (if that helps at all...). Here below is a video I got off of YouTube.

We spent our last morning in Bali in the pool. J stayed in the room to pack and I took the boys to the pool. All I have to say is thank god for floaties! It makes a big difference with the ratio of 1 swimmer to 2 non-swimmers! From there we got ready and went to the airport and had another easy, non-eventful flight home (we love Air Asia, but some of our friends have had bad experiences with flight delays, etc. ). All in all another successful Bali trip!

This past weekend at home was much less interesting. One fun thing though is that LC started to dance a little differently. Every time we played music he would start doing this funny thing with his arms, almost like he was doing a jig. It took me a few days (duh!) but I finally realized that he was dancing like a Balinese dancer! So now our little 19 month old Bahasa Indonesia speaker can also dance Balinese!

Update: For the last 2+ weeks (since I wrote this post) I have been trying to take video of LC doing his Balinese dance. However, it seems I realized what he was doing too late...he hasn't done it again! And he won't do it. So sorry folks, I can't get my little Balinese dancer on film to demonstrate his wonderful dance...

Christmas in Indonesia - Top 10

Top 10 Reasons to love x-mas in Indonesia:

10. Low demand for x-mas hams

9. The ants take care of the cookies left out for Santa

8. Seriously low risk of Santa coming down a working chimney

7. You don't have to water a plastic x-mas tree

6. You can convince the kids that the minor earthquakes are really Santa's sleigh landing on the roof.

5. Hours of fun listening to Indonesians attempt to sing the word "Wenceslaus"

4. Mosquitoes don't just spread malaria; they also spread holiday cheer

3. Prayer call is still at 4:30 a.m., but the mosques blare Jingle Bell Rock

2. New this year: Bird flu-free egg nog

1. After the Hanukkah blow-out, x-mas is soooo mellow

(Courtesy of my husband)

Happy holidays!

Ho Ho Ho!!!

C has been so much fun this x-mas season. He's singing x-mas carols, talking about Santa daily, writing letters to Santa, counting down the days until x-mas, etc. He was excited for tonight, x-mas eve, to sing songs and leave cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer. And of course he is beyond excited for tomorrow morning (and J and I fear the early hour the morning may start).

I have a feeling with him that the Santa ruse won't last many years. He's already asking so many questions about Santa and x-mas eve - why does he go down the chimney? will he still come even though there's no snow? how does he fit all the presents into his sack? - that I guess he may figure it out early. I hope he doesn't, but he's too smart for his own good sometimes. I already think that next year we'll need to make sure to wrap Santa's presents in all different wrapping paper; I can just imagine him asking us how the gifts from Santa and his family are wrapped the same.

LC on the other hand doesn't have a clue. But I'm sure tomorrow morning he'll have a grand time ripping open the presents and playing with all the new toys. Unfortunately he has no patience whatsoever though so I'm imagining some temper tantrums as we wrestle with the god awful wrapping manufacturers cement their toys in.

And now J and I need to finish wrapping a few gifts, fill the stockings, and have a night cap.

Wishing you a lovely x-mas eve and a very merry x-mas (or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever you may be celebrating this time of year)!

Climbing Krakatau

The adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" popped into my head last weekend. I thought of this as I was hot and sweaty and dirty and tired, and climbing up the side of an active volcano. Because, if you live on the ring of fire, why not climb an active volcano?! If you're surrounded by volcanoes and scraping tectonic plates, why not tempt fate just a little bit more.

So that's exactly what we did. We joined a group of friends for a long weekend out of Jakarta, about 4 hours southwest of Jakarta on the west coast of Java. We spent the weekend at a sailing club on a peninsula called Tanjung Lesung. The beach was pretty nice, quite a bit of coral but plenty of sand for nice walks and sand castles. The water was also quite calm so C was able to play in the ocean by himself, which he seemed to really enjoy. The lodging at the sailing club was very, very basic, and overpriced in my opinion. But it was roomy and the open air restaurant had good food and was a lovely place to sit and relax, have a cold beer, and lose yourself in the sound of the ocean. The place was also extremely quiet and we didn't have to listen to traffic or the mosque for 3 glorious days. There were also huge grounds, and C and LC had a fantastic time running around and exploring.



On Saturday morning 8 of us headed off in a speedboat for Krakatau; we left the children behind as this was definitely a non-kid friendly outing. The boat ride there took about 1.5 hours. It was a bit choppy and most of the way I was fantasizing about big boxes of Dramamine. Fortunately though none of us lost our breakfast and we all recovered once we landed. One of our friends on the boat is a geologist so lucky for us we heard some history of Krakatau and lava and magma pipes, etc. Krakatau was quite striking, to say the least: an island fully consumed by a volcano and as barren as a desert, with hardened lava at it's base, rising out of the ocean 100 miles from land. Knowing its history made it even more amazing.

Anak Krakatau

Actually, Krakatau doesn't really exist anymore - it blew itself up in 1883. The explosion was heard as far away as the island of Rodriguez, more than 4600 km away (and is the loudest sound ever recorded), and sent up ash 80km high which fell on Singapore 840 km to the north and on ships as far as 6000 km away. In the explosion most of the island fell into the ocean, which sent tsunamis to Java and Sumatra, destroying 165 villages (Lonely Planet). Before the explosion Krakatau was estimated at 2000 meters above sea level with a radius of 9 km.

What remains of Krakatau today is about 1/3 of the original island, called Pulau Rakata, and Anak Krakatau, which means child of Krakatau. Pulau Rakata distinctly shows visitors just where the rest of her broke off (see below) and is covered in heavy vegetation. Anak Krakatau is the growing, active volcano you see above. Anak Krakatau has been growing out of the sea for the last 80 years, and regularly belches smoke, ash and lava. Rumblings from this volcano can be heard in W. Java, 50 km away. It is about 200 meters above sea level and has a radius of 2 km (wikipedia).

Pulau Rakata

We boated through where the mighty Krakatau once stood, and it was hard to imagine there once stood a volcano there 2000 meters high. We circled around Anak Krakatau, seeing the crater from where smoke and lava emits, and seeing where the lava spills into the sea. The boat landed on the eastern side where there's vegetation. Our group hiked up the side of the volcano, which was HOT! The sand is grey/black, and the intense heat emanates both from the sun above and from the sand below. The steep gradient, the heat, and the sand made the hike challenging, although mercifully not very long (1/2 hour). We couldn't hike all the way up the volcano; it is too dangerous to get too close to the crater. In the end it was worth the climb, but it wasn't exactly "fun" while we were doing it.

The crater on Anak Krakatau

Midway up the volcano, looking out at Pulau Lang

J's legs after the climb, covered in black sand

After the hike we had a picnic lunch and then the boat took us over to a nearby island, Lang (I think) for snorkeling. It felt great to get into the water after the sweaty, dirty hike. The snorkeling itself was fine; the coral was nice but we only saw a few interesting fish. Then it was time to return back to Java. We had been warned that this stretch of water can be rough and that we'd have to return a bit early because it was expected to be bad. But none of us was quite prepared for the crazy 2 hour journey back. The boat was constantly hitting waves that sent it airborne before crashing back onto the sea. We all had to continuously hold onto the boat for fear we'd be thrown out. Many of our friends' rearends were sore for days afterwards. We were also all wet the entire ride home from the sea spray, and our friends in the front of the boat had to stand most of the way so their backs wouldn't get broken. We were actually enjoying about the first 15 minutes. It was just so crazy and ridiculous and we were all regularly crying out "ohs!" and "ahs!". But then we hit a wave that sent us sideways and suddenly it stopped being so fun. I never felt like we we were in danger, but I was very happy that we had a good, sturdy boat and experienced drivers, and that the sky was clear.

All in all it was a great adventure, but definitely only a once in a lifetime experience.

Ramadan again

I was about to write a whole post on the holy month of Ramadan, which we are 10 days into here in Indonesia (and for all devout Muslims around the world), and then I realized that I've been writing this blog for well over 1 year and probably wrote about it last year. And I did! Yippee! That's one post I don't have to write because if you're interested to know more about it you can go here to see what I wrote last year. Not much has changed since last year. The biggest change is that we moved to a new house in a complex last year, so our neighborhood isn't nearly as noisy. We can still hear the mosques, but they aren't as loud and we can no longer here the neighborhood "festivities". Since we're non-Muslims and we're in a huge cosmopolitan city, Ramadan doesn't change our lives in a big way. There are a few minor inconveniences here and there, but compared to what our Muslim neighbors are doing it is nothing. This year for Idil Fitri we will be staying in Jakarta. We were late in our planning this year and by the time we looked into getting away airline prices were already pretty steep. Jakarta will pretty much shut down for the 2 days of Idil Fitri, as in, I don't even think we can order a pizza or go to the grocery store. So it's a good time to get away, but on the other hand it will be nice to live in such a quiet city for once!

If you want to read more factual information, you can click here. I "get" the principles behind Ramadan; I can see how fasting all day and sacrificing sleep could make one more humble, more patient (maybe), more faithful. But, I also think it's crazy. I can't imagine not being able to drink a glass of water for 12 hours straight, all the while working, taking care of children, tending fields?! Plus, in order to eat enough calories to last throughout the day, you have to eat a lot during the night. So, you're eating at the expense of sleeping. I understand that during the month of Ramadan people will eat on and off from 6-9 p.m., and then sleep until 3 a.m., when they will wake up and start eating until the sun rises about 6. That's 6 hours of sleep every night for 30 nights.

That's gotta take a toll! There have been plenty of sleep studies showing that people need an average of 8 hours of sleep/night and that sleep deprivation makes people overly emotional, less capable of working machinery and doing general tasks, influences the brain's ability to make memories, etc. It makes me wonder just what a month of fasting and sleep deprivation does to people and to their country as a whole with regards to productivity, incidences of traffic, home and industrial accidents, etc... If anyone comes across any studies looking at this, let me know!

So, as you're enjoying your 8 hours of sleep every night (hopefully!), your morning coffee, your lunch, that refreshing glass of water during the day, just remember that during the entire month of September millions of people around the world are not...

Sports and such

Wow, wasn't the Olympics fantastic this year?! So many amazing athletes and exciting races, so many great events. The summer Olympics are my favorite because gymnastics is by far my favorite event, plus the swimming, diving, and track and field events are so good too. I just spent hours in front of the tv because it was just so exciting.

Oh wait! No, that wasn't me. I must have been dreaming about seeing the Olympics. Because, even though I am just one time zone away, even though I could have watched the Olympics in real time, I didn't see any of it. Not one single event. Not one flip, not one relay race, not one breathtakingly close finish. Why you may ask? Because Indonesian cable did not carry the Olympics this year - too expensive is the reason I heard. So while you were all glued to your tv sets watching the US of A take home the most medals of the Olympics (although China took home the most gold) I was here languishing in my pathetic pity party wishing that I too was enjoying the sacred Olympics. So alas, I will have to wait another 4 years before I get my fill of Olympic fever (winter Olympics doesn't do it for me nearly as much). Boo hoo hoo!

NBC has exclusive broadcasting rights in America to the Olympic games and pays dearly for this right - 600 million dollars! This amount makes up 40% of the total Olympic committee's budget. I'm not exactly sure what Indonesia would have had to pay, but I think it's about 1 million US$. Definitely not pocket change, but you'd think they would be able to make it up in advertising, especially considering Indonesia's favorite sports are represented in the summer games.

On to some little tidbits of sports trivia. Indonesia took home 5 medals this year. Two of these medals (both bronze) were in weightlifting. The other 3 (a trifecta - gold, silver and bronze) were in badminton. Had no idea, did you? Indeed, Indonesians are brilliant badminton players. They have won a gold medal in badminton ever since the sport became an official event in the 1992 Olympics. They also regularly win championships in badminton around the world, such as the All England Open Badminton Championships, the Thomas Cup, and the Uber Cup. I have yet to see a game here, but hopefully I will before we leave.

Indonesians also love soccer and it is the most popular sport. The Indonesian team has always qualified for the Asian Cup but has had only limited success. I don't think the Indonesian soccer team has ever made it into the Olympics. They also play Australia Rules Football here, although only in Australian clubs. No Indonesian team has ever played in the Australian Football International Cup.

And evidently they are good at weightlifting - that was news to me. There are a few stables around Jakarta and I know there's a polo team so equestrian sports is somewhat popular. When we went to Bandung a few weeks ago we saw a bunch of cyclists riding up the mountain, so I think cycling is somewhat popular here as well. Then of course there's golf. There are tons of golf courses in and around Jakarta, and really all over Indonesia. It's a popular sport, although I don't know how popular it is with Indonesians. The courses are pretty cheap too, so if you're a golfer this is a good place to come!

Course at Bali Golf and Country Club, rated one of Asia's 5 best courses in Fortune magazine

Happy Independence Day Indo!

Yesterday, August 17, was Independence Day here in Indonesia. This date marks the declaration of Indonesia's independence from the Netherlands in 1945. The Indonesian National Revolution lasted for 4 years between Indonesia and the Netherlands, as well as some internal conflict. Fighting during this time was sporadic but violent and was one of the largest revolutions of the 20th century. The Dutch military was able to prevail in the urban areas of Java and Sumatra, but unable to do so in the rural areas throughout the country. Outside forces also influenced Indonesia's eventual success. The Netherlands was crippled by losses during the second world war and were therefore unable to pour a great deal of resources into their fight to hold on to Indonesia. In addition, the United Nations and the United States both supported Indonesia in their quest for independence. The revolution came to an end in 1949 when The Netherlands officially recognized Indonesia as a sovereign nation. If you're really interested in this topic, you can go here for a lot more information.


Indonesians take a great deal of pride in their independence and there are flags and banners all over Jakarta. Indonesians celebrate with food and family like Americans do, but grilling out is definitely not a part of the tradition. Most of the neighborhoods (and I suspect villages) in Jakarta organize their own small celebrations, and have many games for the kids to play (like potato sack races, water bobbing, etc) and have music and parties. You can also hear kids lighting fireworks throughout the night, but I don't think there's a large fireworks display hosted by the city or national government.


For us it's been a quiet and relatively lazy long weekend. Saturday we took C to see the movie Wall E, which he seemed to enjoy quite a bit. He got upset whenever Wall E was in trouble, but for the most part he laughed a lot. Saturday night J and I spent the evening saying goodbye to our very good friends in Jakarta who are moving to Oman. We're extremely sad to see them go as they're amongst a very small handful of friends who we really enjoy and can relate to, and who we really like all members of the family. Sunday we took the kids to Ancol, where Seaworld is, and had fun going through the tunnel (where you're surrounded on 3 sides by water with fish, manta rays, sharks, tortoises, etc - LC especially loved this!) and then taking a gondola ride over the beach and amusement park. And today is a lazy day (both boys are taking a nap, how wonderful!) and later today some friends will come over for a bbq. All in all, a good weekend.

Loss

I'm tempted to use words like "devastation", "crushing", "disastrous", and other equally extreme words to describe the way I feel right now. And then I check myself because these are not appropriate words at all, considering the truly devastating, crushing and disastrous events that happen in people's lives. So, more appropriately, I am sad, I am feeling a great loss, I am shocked, and I am disappointed and concerned about the immediate future.

Our wonderful, fantastic, nearly perfect nanny E quit today. I just said goodbye to her 20 minutes ago. This was a bombshell this morning; I didn't see it coming at all. I was pretty sure she was happy here, I knew that we got along well and she was friends with our other staff, and I knew we paid her well. On the other hand, she speaks English better than any other nanny/maid I've met here, and she is smart and uses common sense, which is also hard to come by here. Knowing this there was always a thought in the back of my mind that it wouldn't last forever. But, I had hope that she would be with us as long as we stay in Indo. I had plans that if she had a baby she could bring him/her to work, or once LC was going to school some mornings we could help her pay for classes if she wanted to further her education, etc. Just random thoughts and plans for helping her reach whatever goals she has for her life. Instead, however, she had an offer we can't compete with.

She worked for a family in Taiwan for 3 years long ago, so she speaks Taiwanese and some Mandarin (in addition of course to Javanese, Bahasa Indonesia, and English - like I said, she's very skilled). Some agent contacted her a couple months ago to ask her to move to Taiwan to work for a family who was having a hard time finding a good maid who speaks Taiwanese and English. She debated for a long time, as this move means leaving her husband and family, and a job she likes. But the extra money she'll earn (almost 4 times what we pay her) will go a long ways toward helping her and her husband to buy a house and hopefully start a family soon after. I understand this, and I'm happy for her that she'll be able to earn more money. I'm not excited for her exactly, because I know she's giving up a lot to go.

Life is tough. Is life ever easy for any adult? I suppose if you compare hardships on this planet then yes, of course, life is easy for some. Losing family members, struggling against starvation or HIV/AIDS or poverty, losing the life you know due to war, etc...these are hardships. This is when you use the terms devastation, disaster, crushing. However, life is totally relative. In comparison, some of us live very blessed lives, which if we are honest with ourselves and aware of the world around us, we are thankful for. But this doesn't mean we don't experience hardships relative to the life we live. E has had to make a tough decision, and it will be hard on her and her family for the next couple years until she returns. This will be their hardship, and ours to a lesser degree as well. But hopefully it will be a relatively easy hardship, and in the end she will attain the goals she wants for her and her family.

We will really miss her. She had become like a member of our family. And maybe, just maybe we will be able to find a replacement who is almost as good.

Lombok and beyond

I can't remember if I've talked about this before (or if it was just a post milling about in my head that never got put down on "paper"), but one thing I really appreciate about Indonesia is the government's recognition of the multiple religions that are practiced here. One way they recognize this is through national holidays. Two of these holidays were last week (creating a very lovely 4 day weekend): one was Muslim, and the other Christian (good friday). The downside, in some respects, is this creates so many public holidays it can be difficult to get work done. But overall I think it is very smart to be so tolerant, at least officially (and in practice, in all my interactions in Indonesia so far).

J and I have decided that we need to try to get out of Jakarta more often. It is such a huge, noisy, cumbersome, polluted city that we need to get more "breaks". Having a 4 day weekend was therefore too great an opportunity to pass up. We had hoped to tack a trip to Thailand on to my planned but at that time unconfirmed work trip to Bangkok. Unfortunately confirmation was very late in arriving, and by that time the flights were already either booked or expensive. So, we decided to go instead to Lombok, the island east of Bali. We had heard good things about it, that it was beautiful with nice beaches, and quieter and less built up than Bali.

By the time we booked our trip many flights were already sold out. So, we were forced to extend our holiday to 6 days rather than 4 (oh, poor us!). With 5 nights available we decided to stay 3 nights on Lombok and 2 nights on an island off of Lombok that I had also heard about, Gili Trawangan. Our quick assessment - skip Lombok and head straight to the Gilis!

Lombok is indeed quieter than Bali. This is a good thing in general, except that it felt slower in a bit of a sad way. There were still hawkers, and they seemed a little desperate for business. Streets were pretty bare and shops opened late. But, it is low season and it was a holiday, so this might not be a very good assessment given the time of year. It's also not as unique as Bali. The Hindu religion gives Bali much of its flavor and since Lombok is predominently Muslim it didn't exude that extra color. On the other hand, the beaches are more beautiful and less crowded. On our drive between our hotel and the port to go to Gili T, we saw some gorgeous postcard-perfect beaches. And they were totally undeveloped and empty - just beaches that butted up against people's farm land or where local fisherman docked their boats. Lombok is also somewhat mountainous, so the views really were amazing.

We stayed at the Holiday Resort in Senggigi, which was a good deal. It was a bit run down, but nice enough for a good price. We stayed in a 2 bedroom apartment, and the resort has a big pool, kiddie pool, playground and kids club (staffed indoor play area) so there were plenty of distractions for C. I also have to admit that we brought our nanny along. With a 3.5 year old and a 9 month old, vacations don't tend to be very relaxing and it's hard to do anything around a baby's nap schedule. So, the vacation cost a bit more but we had a much better experience. We'll be doing that again.



We spent a half-day touring around the island near Senggigi. There's a lot to see actually, like Mount Rinjani and Kuta, but we elected to stay closer to our part of the island so we would spend less time in a car. After all, C tolerates car rides for only so long... One of our destinations was the "Monkey Forest", which consisted of a roadside stop where we could feed monkeys peanuts (or bananas, which oddly enough they seem to really like! Who knew, monkeys like bananas). I think the word "forest" is taking it too far, but C had a good time feeding them peanuts and they were quite civil and polite monkeys - unlike the monkeys we've come across in Bali. Those Bali Monkeys, they're so naughty. Bad Bali Monkeys, Bad! (okay, I've had way too much coffee today) I fed some of them peanuts as well, and always tried to give them to the pregnant monkeys or the new moms. And this is why I can't sit through an episode of Oprah without crying. I even started crying today at one sentence written in a fictional account of Heath Ledger's (very tragic death) last few days in an article in Esquire magazine. I'm guessing there are few tears ever spilled whilst reading Esquire magazine, but leave it to me... (I know my mother is now grinning ear to ear because she can just imagine the day when my kids tease me mercilessly because I won't be able to sit through 2 minutes of some sappy show like Little House on the Prairie, without crying). So hear I am, miss bleeding heart, making sure the more vulnerable monkeys are fed as well. We also stopped by a traditional Indonesian market on our drive, which was similar to the markets you find all over Africa.



We also visited a Hindu temple called Pera Muru and the Water Palace, which was a pavilion-like building in the middle of a man-made lake where the king would conduct business. We then headed to a pottery making village (in Bali and Lombok villages specialize in one craft, so especially in Bali you see shop after shop of the same thing). The pottery is special to Lombok so the designs were different than most of what I see around Jakarta. And that concludes our busiest day during our vacation.



Getting to Gili Trawangan (Gili T) is not an easy task. We got on a chartered minibus jam packed with people and luggage for about 1 hour. Then they dropped us off at a cafe near the port for us to have a drink while we waited for our boat to arrive. We then had to go a short ways to the port - J started haggling with the driver of a cimodo (horse and buggy) about the price to take us and the luggage to the port. He haggled over 50 cents. While his wife, baby, and 3 year old were waiting in the late morning sun sweating to death. We're not in Peace Corps anymore HONEY! After convincing J that it was worth an extra 50 cents, we arrived at the port to find that our boat wasn't there, so we waited. And waited. Until they told us we would take a public boat, not a chartered boat like we had been told.


Let me take a quick break and tell you that Indonesians don't generally get mad. At least they don't show it, and in the view of an American they don't stick up for themselves. If there is an injustice done to them by a business, for example, they won't argue very much, and they definitely won't raise their voices. You can see where I'm going with this. For those of you who know my husband, these 2 perspectives don't mesh very well (and don't very well with me either for that matter). So, there was some arguing, maybe some yelling, and finally we boarded a public boat that wasn't quite full but that we got to leave anyway.


The boat ride was fine. We made it to Gili T, stepped out into the water, and waded to shore with our suitcases and children dangling from our arms. I wish we had a video of it, I'm sure it was a miserable site. We were then whisked away into a cimodo (also a hilarious site - 5 people, 2 big suitcases, and a few bags stuffed into a cart) for a 3 km ride to our hotel. We stayed at Alam Gili, a sister hotel to the place my mom and I stayed in Ubud. It just opened in December so it was in perfect shape. The staff were true to the Alam hotel chain style - absolutely lovely. And best of all, it was so beautiful and serene and quiet. It's so quiet because there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island. The only means of transportation are the cimodos, bikes, and feet. As soon as we arrived I started planning when we could return.




We mostly just relaxed. We walked on the beach, looked for seashells and coral, played in the water, and read magazines. J and I also went snorkeling and had a quiet dinner alone on the beach. We took C into "town" once for dinner and walked around a bit - not much there but a few decent restaurants, hotels, and dive shops. There were other families at our hotel, including a British family with 3 boys who had just moved to Jakarta the week before. They were fun and C helped them to hide Easter eggs for the hotel staff to find. I think the staff enjoyed the Easter egg hunt more than kids usually do!


All in all a very successful vacation.



And now I promise to give the travel blogging a rest for at least one post.

Barbie

You may be wondering why I would post something with the title "Barbie". Well, I did a pretty fun thing this morning. All of the Mattel Barbies in the world are made in either China or Indonesia. Mattel Indonesia grants one tour/month, and one of those tours every year is granted to the AWA. Only 20 people get to go and I was lucky enough to have my name drawn in the lottery. So, this morning I drove to eastern Jakarta and toured the factory.

This one factory employs between 5,500-10,000 employees depending on the production demands and, if I'm remembering correctly, ships up to 1,000,000 Barbies/week. The factory only has an export license so all of the dolls have to be shipped out of the country and then imported back before they can be sold in Indonesian stores (stupid, I know). The place was immense, as you'd expect. And just thinking about the organization of producing all these little parts was mind boggling, even to my Virgo self. What I was most astonished by was how much hand work is involved in each doll. Every outfit is sewed by a woman on a sewing machine and all the hair is stitched on by a woman on a sewing machine. Then there are the "groomers", the women (I keep saying "woman" because over 80% of the production crew are women) who actually brush her hair, braid it or tie it up, and put on the hat or crown or sunglasses or whatever accessory she's shown with. Then there are the painters, the women who paint on the make-up by using a cut-out face mask over the face and running the face under a paint sprayer. And finally at the end there were the women who hand fixed the dolls to the packaging. It was incredible. I just assumed most of the work was done by machines, but instead so much of it is by hand. They say that producing one Barbie takes 3 minutes of actual work, and from design phase (headquarters are in California where all the Barbies are designed) to engineering to finished product takes about 1 month.

In the factory there was a huge map of Indonesia with a Barbie doll affixed to every part of the country. Each doll was dressed in clothes that were typical of that part of the country. It was quite cool. But the only Indonesian Barbie they sell is the Sumatra Barbie. It was definitely not the most interesting one though. The Barbies now wear underwear (I really don't know why, they don't have bras on and its not like they used to be anatomically correct) and their size proportions are much more realistic. She now looks like a shapely but fit young woman. If you remember, the first dolls, which debuted in 1959, had measurements that were nearly impossible.

And after the tour they fed us lunch and gave us a Barbie doll!!! I have to admit that the little girl in me is thrilled. I haven't owned a Barbie doll in like 20+ years and with having 2 sons I assumed I'd never have any girlie things in my house. But here I am with a Princess Barbie! Well, C has a Princess Barbie. I of course gave it to him and he loves it. My wonderful little boy loves his Barbie doll. I couldn't be happier! Of course he laughed like crazy when I took her gown off and she was naked. But I'll take it. And now she's taking a bath with him (all I could think about was that her beautiful ringlets were going to be ruined! I guess I'm still such a girl inside).

Bali sunset

Ahhh Bali...what's not to love?

Ramadan revisited

We are one week into the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan, when Muslims refrain from eating and drinking between sunrise and sunset. They therefore have to wake early to pray, eat and drink before the sun rises, and then wait 12 hours before they can even drink a glass of water again. Frankly I don't know how they do it. They tell me that they are so used to fasting one month every year since childhood that it isn't as great a hardship as we'd imagine. Although, I have noticed they are VERY eager to drink and eat as soon as the mosque announces that it is time at the end of the day.

The first night of Ramadan we were awoken at 2 a.m. by drumming coming from the street in front of our house. Fortunately we were warned this would happen. Evidently people came around drumming the first few nights to help wake people up in time to cook, eat, drink, and pray. We were quite worried because we find this neighborhood to be pretty noisy, and were afraid the drumming would be intolerably loud and would go on and on. We're already being woken up enough with an infant in the house, we don't need any more disturbances! Fortunately, even though the drumming woke us up, it didn't keep us up and honestly the sound of drumming reminded me of Mali. On a side note, why they would need to get up almost 4 hours early is beyond me. I don't know when they sleep!

The only other time I've lived in a country where Ramadan was widely observed was in Mali. However, I don't remember the routines changing as drastically as here. I suppose they got up earlier, but I remember hearing women preparing breakfast at horribly early hours all year long. And there certainly wasn't any drumming at 2 a.m. to wake the village up. Perhaps since rural life tends to wake and sleep according to the sun anyway, the month of Ramadan doesn't alter the schedule as much.

Other than hearing the mosque announcements more often, the drumming and a slight disruption to our evening routine, it has affected us very little. Most of the restaurants are still open for lunch, school is in session, etc. My mother will likely remember her experience in Mali riding the bus back from Mopti when the bus driver didn't want to stop for lunch because everyone on the bus was fasting. I became a typically rude American and demanded that we stop, pointing out that not everyone on the bus was Muslim. If I remember correctly it took some convincing though, and it was at a point in my experience when my tolerance level was at a low point. And plus, we were hungry! My husband will attest to the fact that I become quite crabby when I'm hungry. In any case, I suppose that might happen here as well. I don't know. I won't be taking any long bus rides any time soon.

Eid ul-Fitr marks the end of the month of Ramadan, which will happen in mid-October. This is a very important holiday when everyone who is able will go to their home villages to be with their families. The holiday is celebrated with festivities and lots of eating and drinking throughout the day. It's like Christmas and Thanksgiving rolled into one. From what I hear Jakarta will become like a ghost town. In some ways it would be a good time to be here. The streets will be empty and the town quiet. This year we won't be here though. We are escaping with J's parents (who arrive in only 6 days!) to the mostly Hindu island of Bali.

I really enjoyed this holiday while living in Mali. Everyone was joyful throughout the day, there was lots of music and conversation and good food. I roamed throughout my village visiting my friends and eating with them. Everyone donned their best outfits and gifts were shared. There was a big celebration with drumming, kora playing (similar to a guitar), and dancing. People from the surrounding small villages and compounds came for the celebration. I know that our Indonesian friends are looking forward to this holiday just as our Malian friends did.

I don't know how much blogging I'll be doing during the coming month. As I mentioned, J's parents arrive next Saturday and we'll be in Bali for 10 days of their stay. I imagine we'll be pretty busy so I'm not sure I'll be posting too much before November (not that I've been blogging all that much lately anyway...).

Orphanages

The last couple weeks have been filled with getting involved and rekindling old friendships. It feels good to get out of the house more and to start doing some of the things I've been wanting to do since before even coming to Indonesia. And an added bonus? More interesting things to write about! I'm still tired, but LC is having more good nights than bad nights so my energy level is improving. And my to-do list is still unbearably long, but I'm whittling away at it little by little.

Last week I was able to catch up with an old friend. When I was in high school I was an exchange student in Australia for one year. The program (AFS) organized us into groups so that we'd have a group of other exchange students with whom we could share experiences and lean on. There were 7 of us in my group: a Venezuelan, Japanese, Thai, Italian, French Canadian, Dane, and me. I've kept in touch with a few of them, have visited a couple of them (in Caracas and Montreal and Milan) and been visited by a couple of them (Venezuelan and Japanese). My Japanese friend now lives in Bangkok and had to come to Jakarta last week for business. She generously braved the Jakarta traffic to come to dinner at our home, meet J and take a peek at my sleeping boys. It was great to catch up with her and hear about her family and her life now. Thailand is very high on my list of places to visit so I'm sure I'll be seeing her again in Thailand.

Last week I also attended a meeting of the American Women's Association (AWA) Social Welfare Committee. This group grants money to different social causes in and around Jakarta. For example, they give money to several orphanages, provide scholarships for children to go to school (public school here is not entirely free - you have to pay for school uniforms, workbooks, pens, school fees, etc.), give money to mentally and physically disabled homes for adults and children, etc. Some of these places receive money from the government, but of course it's never enough. And some of them are started by generous and philanthropic individuals or churches (I'm not aware of us working with any mosques but we may) to meet the needs of their communities. To help them make ends meet these places make an application to the AWA, for example, which is reviewed by the committee and funds are awarded (or not). The committee gets its money from membership fees and the majority from corporate donations. It was a very interesting meeting and I'm excited to become part of this group of women who are doing some really wonderful things in the communities.

Part of the committee's responsibility is to visit the group that has submitted an application for a grant, and to make follow-up visits to ensure that the money is being used for the stated purposes. This morning I went with a group of women to visit an orphanage and home for pregnant women in Bogor. This place was started by an Australian woman (doctor I think) and doesn't receive any government funds because it is Christian (I asked if it is the same for Muslim sponsored places but they didn't know the answer - I suspect not). The pregnant women are single or married women who do not feel comfortable or safe remaining with their families. There were 4 women there at the time. While staying in the home they are taught a skill like knitting, and while they are there they make various crafts that are sold in the community or at bazaars.

The orphanage had about 8 children under 1, another 15 1-4 year olds, and about 10 preschoolers/kindergartners. They teach the older children themselves in the orphanage because its actually cheaper to hire a teacher than to pay school fees and related costs for all of the children. Many of the children in the orphanage are not actually up for adoption. This is quite common in Indonesia and in many other countries. The families bring the child to the orphanage because they can't afford to keep them at that time, but hope to be able to afford to later in their life. And families do sometimes take their children back when their financial situation improves. But other times not. And unfortunately some families only take the children back when they're old enough to work. I suppose in most cases this is fine because realistically not all the children would be adopted anyway. However, I hate to think that there might be children out there who are desired by other families but their biological families have them on "reserve" until they're old enough to work. I also heard that it's difficult to adopt a girl from a Christian orphanage because there aren't enough up for adoption (they're in higher demand). You can only adopt a child from an orphanage of your religion, so a Muslim can only adopt a Muslim child, and a Christian can only adopt a Christian child.

The place I visited was quite well run and evidently one of the nicest ones I will see. It was very clean and the children had their own beds and it was spacious enough. There are about 20 staff so the staff don't seem too overwhelmed, although they welcome volunteers. The toddlers seemed to have quite a few toys to play with and they were reading books when we came. There was a backyard and it was in a very quiet, nice neighborhood. And most importantly, the children seemed happy and the staff very loving. It was nice to learn that the vision in my head of what orphanages must be like is not always true, and that sometimes the children are actually in a better situation in an orphanage than they would be in a home. However, I know they aren't all as nice as this one and that there are others I will see that will break my heart.

Holidays abound

Apparently we've moved to the land of holidays. It seems like there's a holiday every other week (that's not actually the case, but it does seem that way). We've had 3 holidays in the last 2 weeks: Jakarta mayoral elections, a religious holiday, and Independence Day.

The mayoral elections went smoothly, as far as I have heard. There were demonstrations and marches in the weeks leading up to the election, but nothing too contentious. The streets were quiet the day of and nobody expected there to be any problems. We saw a couple polling places in our neighborhood, so I have the impression that there were numerous polling stations and they were easy to get to. And notice - it was a holiday! People could go and vote and many did not have to take off of work to do it. What a concept! I think it is ridiculous that we don't do the same in the US, not even for the presidential election. I'm sure our economy can survive if we add another holiday every 4 years. So the winner of the election, with an easy win I believe, was the former vice-president of Indonesia. J and I thought this would be a step down, but evidently not. Maybe the vice-president of Indonesia has even less power than the vp of the US, and governing Jakarta is like governing New York City.

The religious holiday was a Muslim holiday. Most of them are; however, there is also a Hindu holiday and a Christian holiday. There is a holiday for the new year, and a holiday for the Chinese new year. Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, but it seems pretty smart and progressive to honor other religions and other traditions. We hear the call to prayer a few times per day and there are many mosques, but otherwise it isn't readily apparent that just about everyone is Muslim. I also expected that I would always need to wear long pants or skirts and shirts with sleeves on them, but this does not seem to be necessary here in Jakarta. Matter of fact, we have been shocked at the tiny short shorts we have seen women wearing in the shopping malls. We'll see how things change when Ramadan starts in a few weeks, but for the most part the fact that this is a predominantly Muslim society isn't prominent in every day life. I imagine outside of Jakarta this would be different...

Last Friday was Independence Day. My understanding is that celebrations are very neighborhood centered. There were decorations everywhere (red and white flags) and evidently there was a parade and games in the kampung (neighborhood) near our house. We didn't know what time the festivities took place (nobody seemed to know the day before) so unfortunately we didn't observe the celebrations. From what I heard though the festivities mostly consisted of games for older kids and adults, and it doesn't sound like we missed out on a lot. But it would have been interesting to see. It made me miss our own Independence Day. I'm sure we would have taken C to a parade and had a bbq with our friends. That would have been nice...

Jakarta becomes noticeably quieter on these long weekends. Many of our friends get out of Jakarta, and many Indonesians as well. The roads are less congested and it is wonderfully quieter in the city. Once LC is older we'll start to get out of Jakarta for these long weekends as well, although it's also nice and relaxing to stay here when the whole city vamps down a notch.