Exploring Jakarta in Photos

Jakarta is not a beautiful city.  It is huge and dirty.  It is full of nonsensical traffic rules and rude motorbikes.  It has very few beautiful buildings and even fewer parks.  So much of the city seems to be under construction, and so many roads offer detours instead of a simple tour around the block.

 

It took some time, but I think we have come to terms with the fact that Jakarta's beauty takes some searching.  We went out exploring today, looking for the new and the exciting;  looking to enjoy our new city.  And we found plenty.  I didn't hear any of the girls complain about the garbage on the street or the noise of the traffic.  They didn't mind the crowds, although they still don't enjoy strangers talking to them.

  

Make no mistake.  This city is no less dirty now than it was when we arrived.  We found a park to explore this afternoon.  The lovely waterway above traversed the length of the park, and then kept going under a bridge and off through the city.  It was lovely, until you looked at the water...

  

No, I think we have just reached our new normal.  Riding in the car doesn't make us sick anymore, and we no longer expect our streets to be free of garbage or our sidewalks to be whole.  Thirty minutes in the car is a short drive, and we count stray cats out the window when we get bored.  We've discovered that the city is full of good food, and we have yet to find a restaurant that we don't all want to return to.  Sadly, the street food has not lived up to the restaurants.  We rarely choose to eat street food, because we can see where they wash the dishes.  But upon a recommendation, we stopped at this food stand.

 

The atmosphere was kind of fun - very urban tropical, there was no forgetting that we were eating in a big Southeast Asian city.  They offered one dish - chicken with sambal and rice.  No silverware, but plenty of napkins.  The girls were not impressed.  The chicken had bones, and how could they eat rice without a fork or spoon?  Dave and I got the hang of it pretty quickly, and were sucking the sambal off the bones by the end of our meal.  The girls finished their chicken only on the promise of ice-cream later in the day.  Things are still new.

 

Pockets of beauty showed up all over the place - in doorways and roofs, little statues in windows and plates piled into towers in restaurant windows.  The park was lovely, and led us to the animal market.  The animal market was wild.

 It was surprisingly easy to leave without a new pet.  With the exception of the placid piles of soft bunnies and the rows of cages of birds, it was hard to justify most of these animals spending any time in a cage.  And you had to wonder - how did they come by these monkeys and squirrels?  We saw a surprising number of animals we did not recognize at all, and a surprising number of fully grown cats.  We saw only two cages of puppies, and those broke our hearts.  The black lab puppies were sleepy and looked so much like our Millie that it made Dave and I sad.  When the little dachsund in the cage below noticed us paying attention to the Millie-looking puppies, he perked up and begged for attention.  The poor little fellow wanted some loving more than anything, and I couldn't even fit a finger through the cage to scratch his nose.    We couldn't pay for these puppies.

I am happy to say that the girls finished the day feeling that the outing was a great adventure.  It is nice to feel settled enough that we can begin to explore our city, and such a city for exploring!  There may not be much beauty, but there are surprises around many corners.

Funny Story

So, here's a crazy story for you.  Oh, its so wild I don't even know where to start.

Lets start with Saturday morning.  That is, this upcoming Saturday morning.  Saturday morning will be the first Free Demo Class! for my new music center in Jakarta.  Its super exciting and I'm wringing my hands in nervousness, because I really need this class to go well.  I need it to get well because my entire marketing strategy here is to run such a good class that everyone wants to bring their friends.  You see, I don't have supersized goals and running just a few classes a week will max me out.  Also, I keep my marketing small by necessity.  I am in Indonesia on a diplomatic visa, and as such I do not have permission to work on the local market.  My classes may only be offered within the diplomatic community.  Now the diplomatic community is fairly large in Jakarta, so the market is still satisfactory for my small goals.  But advertising becomes the challenge - no mass marketing anywhere, because no good to have someone call up interested in class, only to tell them that they're not invited.

So, that's fun.  But here's where it gets funny.  Because of this crazy work situation, there are actually two people on staff at our embassy for whom a large portion of their job is helping folks like me find and keep gainful employment.  In short, its on their job description to help me market my music classes to the broader embassy community.  Nice, right?  So, I made ads and I made a release strategy and I asked for their help with the ads and the release strategy.  And they said the ads were so beautiful.  And then my ads were never shared anywhere.  No joke - not anywhere.

So, that's fun.  But here's actually where it gets funny.  You see, having a successful demo class for me means that enough families walk away wanting to register for the class.  Because this is the only demo class I have time for before my session begins.  So far, I do have families coming to the demo class (hooray!!).  But so far, its a small class.  So, I need these families to walk away from Saturday morning's class thinking That class was fabulous!  I need to find some other folks who want to sign up!  So, I need to run a really super-fabulous class.  Now, I've got to say - this doesn't make me too nervous.  The music curriculum I use is top-notch, and it is hard to go wrong with them.  I've run classes before, and I get energy from interacting from the kids and the parents.  I can be charming and musical and fun.  And I've got boxes of brand new, high quality musical instruments stacked in my office alongside the pretty songbooks and CDs for the upcoming session.  I don't have a lesson plan, though.  You see, I left my lesson plans in Venezuela.  That is to say, I have built a strong demo class and my notes for it stayed in Venezuela when we left.  Now, don't worry.  They were packed up and shipped out, spent the better part of the past year in a port in Miami, and are now in Indonesia.  I was expecting their delivery today, when we received the rest of our shipment and moved into our house.  We did move into our house today.  And we did receive the bulk of our things.  But our shipment from Venezuela did not clear customs.  And so although I have our beds and our plates and our towels, I do not have my music class notes.

So, that's pretty fun.  But here's the funny part.  You see, building those notes takes time.  And I only have one day between now and my demo class on Saturday morning.  In that day, I need to find the cereal, the cups and the bowls before the kids can eat breakfast in the morning.  I need to (no joke) move the furniture around in the office so that I can use both the computer and the printer at the same time before I can print the handouts for the flyers.  I need to run to Carrefour for plastic bins before I can take my instruments out of their boxes.  And all this with Annika by my side, because each time we move she is afraid to be left alone.  Which leaves precious little time for writing a super spectacular lesson plan for Saturday's class.

So, that's fun, too.  But the really funny part is still coming.  You see, we're doing all of this on empty.  There was no time up until now to prepare for the class, because there has simply been no time so far.  Last week, we kept kids home sick 4 out of the 5 school days and then we lounged around watching movies over the weekend because the kids just hadn't kicked that nasty stomach bug yet.  This week, that nasty stomach bug jumped over to Dave, our housekeeper and myself.  While we were moving.  And this little move meant packing everything from our luggage, everything that we had ordered to be shipped here directly, and everything from our air shipment into a few provided boxes and hauling them across town in a miniature mini-van and a luxury shuttle bus as well as accepting our shipment from Virginia and giving back all of the sheets and towels and bowls the embassy loaned us originally.

So, that was really fun.  But here comes the funniest part.  I am no longer sick.  I woke this morning with a solid stomach, and although I have very little appetite I also have no bad feelings when I do eat.  My energy level is slowly returning to normal, and clearly my mind is alert.  Those of you paying attention will notice that I'm posting this around 1:00am Jakarta time, even though my alarm will go off at 5:30 in the morning.  The sun will be up, but only just barely.  Just to make your picture complete, I'm sitting in my pajamas on top the boxes stacked to completely fill the floor space in my kitchen.  I'm doing that because it was the only place I could find to plug in my laptop.  So, I'm hunched over the counter in a box-filled corner of my kitchen wearing my pajamas and staring red-eyed at the screen.

No, the really truly funny part is that I have entirely lost my voice.

Gado Gado Nearly Beat Me

I've been telling you about Sumi's cooking the last couple days.  Quick, healthy, cheap and tasty - its been a big win for everyone.  A few days ago, Sumi brought in gado gado, a traditional Indonesian dish which I have since noticed on more street hawker stalls then any other dish.

If you google it in English, its described as a salad with a peanut dressing.  It seemed fairly distant from a salad to me.  But it was a mix of primarily raw vegetables.  In Sumi's gado gado, we had long beans, bean sprouts and wilted kangkung.  She made a sort of potato pancake on the side. 

When you google it in English, the recipe will likely include one or two chiles.  Sumi's peanut sauce had way more than one or two chiles.  It was crazy spicy, and I was glad I waited to eat until she had left for the day.  Feeling strong, I had covered my veg with loads of this truly delicious peanut sauce.  When I asked how she made the sauce, she gave all the credit to her mother.  In fact, I believe her mother makes a base back at her home in Solo and then sends it back with Sumi when they visit.

It was delicious.  And the fire from the chiles did not beat me, although it threatened to.  But this lunch used up a full glass of milk, a bottle of Heineken and a whole lot of tissues.

I will absolutely eat it again - it was delicious.  But I may put on a bit less of the sauce.

Illness in Temporary Housing: Pros and Cons

Our family has been living under quarantine conditions since Tuesday.  This is because on Monday night, Lilly spent the evening with her head over a bucket.  And then on Tuesday night, Sophia spent the evening with her head over another bucket. 

Luckily, we spotted the upcoming sequel in Sophia early enough for me to walk over to Carrefour and buy that second bucket.

See, here's the funny thing.  We are living in temporary housing.  We have our small air shipment, but we do not have our primary shipment with the bulk of our household things.  We didn't have two buckets.

Cons:
When you're sick in temporary housing, you don't have a stocked linen closet.
Lucky for us, we brought bedding for each of us.  Since our embassy-provided "Welcome Kit" also provided bedding for each of us, we had 3 spare sets of twin sheets in the closet.  But with the first disgusting discovery, the sheets came off and one of those spare sheets was already in purpose.  Only 2 left to go, and they went fast.  It wasn't until the last pair of sheets flew onto the bed that I thought to layer our few towels under and around her pillow, for quick peel-off purposes.

Pros:
When we leave temp housing, we leave those linens behind.
This is not always true, but we are lucky enough to have our shipment arrive and clear customs around the same time that our house will be ready.  We plan to finish off this stomach bug in the next few days, and then move out of this apartment.  We have washed the sheets, of course.  But its still nice to leave them behind.  Along with the couch and the rug.  Cuz who knows what kinda germs got up in there.

Cons:
The incomplete medicine cabinet
My medicine cabinet here consists entirely of the cute little red bag that Target gave me for free if I bought enough Band-Aid brand products - that little bag and the children's medicine I could fit into it.  So, I do have a bottle of Children's Tylenol, Children's Motrin and Children's Benadryl.  And I did to have a few packs of powdered Pedialyte.  But thats it.  Well, and a box of purple Band-Aids which I keep finding stuck to the legs and elbows of household stuffed animals.  We plowed through that Pedialyte and had no other tummy or dehydration solutions. 

This problem is compounded by the nature of temporary housing - it is new, and so are we.  We don't know what is available on the local market.  We don't know what Indonesian moms use for their upset bellied babies.  And we don't know what other things even work, because we have never seen our kids so dehydrated or listless or ill.  Ever.  We never needed more than one packet of Pedialyte in a week.  Or a month.  Or possibly even a year.

Pros:
The little shop downstairs
We are in a high-end apartment building, with a handy little shop downstairs.  I've learned this week that they stock Saltines, Vitamin Water, Lemon Hydration Water, Pocari Sweat and Ginger Ale.  Through this handy store, I've also learned that Ginger Ale is the rehydrator of choice in our household.

Pros:
Keys to two different homes
The girls are slowly getting better, primarily only suffering from exhaustion at this point.  So, they're still sick and tired, but they're well enough to be bored.  After spending the entire week cooped up in our apartment, we journeyed down to our new house today and cooped ourselves up there.  We hooked up our new TV and our new DVD player, grabbed lunch at the little cafe down the street and watched Star Wars in our new family room.  It was pretty exciting.


And it looks like the Pros have it!  Best to suffer the inevitable first bout of stomach bugs in temporary housing!  Lilly and Sophia no longer seem sick, they just seem tired and struggle to regain their appetites.  They have no energy.  Just as we thought we were out of the woods, Dave watched their same symptoms appear in his body and is now holed up in bed.

The hope is that he recovers quickly, because we expect to receive our shipment and make the final move from temporary to permanent housing within the next few days.  But to avoid any possibility of catching this bug myself, I'm sleeping on the couch.  Because of one last con: no guest bed. 

Sumi's Cooking

When Sumi began working for us, she cooked a lot of western food.  She made tasty spaghetti and surprisingly good chicken nuggets.  But after a few days, we noticed the packages in the garbage.  When Sumi cooked for us, she was buying frozen chicken nuggets, heating them up around 3:00 in the afternoon, wrapping them in plastic and them leaving them sit for us to eat at dinnertime.

This wasn't great.  I am not above feeding my children processed food, but I would prefer to throw it in the microwave myself, when it is time to eat.

So, we though, maybe she does not know how to prepare Western food.  No problem, because we know how to prepare Western food.  She should prepare Indonesian food.  We asked her to switch, and she made some fried noodles that the girls found too spicy.  The next day she made some fried rice, low on the spice.  The girls loved it - Dave and I thought it was bland.  The following day she made beef rendang, what wikipedia describes as a "West Sumatran caramelized beef curry."  We are one curry loving family, so it was a hit.  I was dismayed to learn the next day - it came out of a box.

So, Sumi doesn't cook, we decided.  We will be fine - I cook and Dave cooks.  Sumi preps and cleans.  And when we need a meal in a hurry, she can pull together something tasty from a jar or a box.

Fast forward to earlier this week.  Sumi had been chatting with another housekeeper in the building.  This other housekeeper receives money from her employer every day to go downstairs and buy food from the street vendors.  Sumi thought this was a great idea, and asked me for money as well.

Okay, I replied.  I'll talk to Dave about it tonight.  But why do you not just eat the food in our house?

I frequently invite her to share what I have, or to take advantage of anything in the fridge.  On every trip to the grocery, I ask if she needs anything.  I could not figure out what she had been eating for lunch.

She laughed.  She always laughs, which is so lovely.  She laughed and said that she needs rice.  Your bread is very delicious, missus.  But I have not eaten if I do not eat rice. 

me: What do you put on your rice, Sumi?

her: Just vegetables, very simple.  I bring it from home.

me: You have been bringing your lunch from home, Sumi?  Oh no - I am so sorry!  Would I like your lunch?

her: I think Missus no like my cooking.  I think my cooking has too many chiles.

It was my turn to laugh. 
me: I like chiles!  I want to try your cooking!

her:  Really?  I think you no like my cooking.  It is too spicy!

I made her an offer.  She cooks lunch tomorrow - whatever she would prepare for herself.  If I like it, she will fix me lunch every day.  If it is too spicy, I will give her money to buy her lunch from the street vendors.

This is what she made:

It was lovely.  Long beans and tempeh cooked with green chiles, ginger and lots of garlic.  Healthy and simple.  And I feel as though I have hit the jackpot.  Not only is my housekeeper fabulous at keeping my house clean and under control, but she cooks healthy, simple and delicious food.  She fixed some greens with tofu the next day.  Today she is fixing green mangoes in a traditional sauce, along with some greens.  I could eat lunch this way every day - and now that Sumi's cooking, I probably will!

Like Disneyland for Teachers

 Lilly celebrated her 9th birthday today.  Its hard to believe she is so old.  Actually, its only hard for me to note that I've been with her for an entire 9 years.  But she carries herself like a much older child and has for years.  She treats others with respect, strangers and adults as well as other children.  She is caring and worries about other people's feelings.  She is mature and she is brilliant and she is still child-like and sweet and loving, and we are so lucky to know her so well.

For her birthday, I brought muffins in to school.  Her teacher asked me to bring them at the beginning of lunch, and the kids could all sing to her in the lunchroom and then Annika and I could stay and eat with them.  It was loads of fun being in her school during the day, and watching her relate to the other kids and the environment around her.  Most of the boys crowded around one end of the table, and although they weren't very chatty with the girls, they did join in singing Happy Birthday nice and loud.  The girls chatted with me while I waited for Lilly to buy her lunch, and they were so excited to learn it was her birthday.  They were a lovely group of kids, and I feel so happy with where she has landed.

I was in her classroom yesterday morning as well, at the coffee morning for 4th grade parents.  This is where the grade level teachers invite the parents into the school for a chat about how the class works this year, and to answer any questions.  Her teacher came across as a seasoned and confident teacher who is very open to new ideas and updates.  They are integrating iPads into their classroom on a one-to-one scale, and finding exciting new ways to use them.  We will watch our kids grow as writers and mathematicians, and her teacher adds an extra focus on geography.

One parent asked a question about rotten language.  He's been hearing swear words from his 4th grader, and wonders how the teachers and the school manage language.  Lilly's teacher took the question very seriously, and made it clear that he does not put up with foul language.  Whenever he hears it, he says that language is not appropriate for the classroom.  Upon saying that once, the kids will police themselves.  From his desk, he will sometimes hear a child whisper to their neighbor that language is not appropriate for the classroom.

The kids sometimes run in the halls, he said jokingly.  This is the worst behavior they face.  Of course, kids lose focus and can't sit still, but that is part of being 9 years old.  These kids may lose focus, but they always stay well-behaved and respectful, compassionate and resilient.  He said that this school is like Disneyland for teachers.  Teachers stays here for ten or even twenty years, which is rare in the international school circuit.

I marveled at the kids over lunch.  Many of them spoke to me quite comfortable and confidently.  When they heard it was Lilly's birthday, they clear the space of honor for her at the lunch table.  Everyone sang out loud and clear.  And as they cleared their things to go to recess, probably half of the children went out of their way to thank me for the delicious muffins.

Jakarta may prove challenging in many ways, but this school has already made life here smooth.

More Like It

We had a good weekend, filled with shopping and rarely getting lost.  Labor Day is an embassy holiday but not a school holiday, so we did more shopping as well as some business yesterday.  We made great strides toward a location for music classes, which I need to begin within a few weeks.  And we found a preschool for Annika - a lovely, play focused little preschool within walking distance of our new house.  If all goes well, she will begin at the beginning of October.

With a bunch of successes over the weekend, I looked ahead at a full calendar for the week.  A bunch of coffees were scheduled; one for meeting the second grade teachers and one for meeting the fourth grade teachers;  one for meeting a friend from Virginia and today for meeting the other spouses.  Today's brunch was at the Ambassador's residence, hosted by his wife.  The spouses of new employees were invited to share some treats and share our hidden talents - it was a lovely forum to spread the word about my music classes, and to learn which people go hiking during the week or want to volunteer.  I wore my new linen pants and my strappy heels, and felt well pulled together.  Then I chatted the room until I was one of the last to go, leaving with a whole slew of new numbers in my phone.

The wonderful thing about moving is this new discovery phase, where you meet amazing people who want new friends, and you find incredible new places to hike and to shop and to learn.  Jakarta is a tremendously large city with a long history and an enormous expatriate community.  The opportunities here seem never ending.  I've already registered for a Southeast Asian cooking class and am eyeing the first few events of the Indonesian Cultural Society.  I'm trying to find my place at the school, and may be talked into leading the 4th grade girl scout troop.  The pace has quickened, and I like it.

This first month was a tidal wave of new-ness, and everything felt overwhelming.  But now that I've got August behind me, my September calendar is quickly filling up.  In August, I felt like a crazy mess most of the time, often exhausted and wanting to curl up with a book.  September has me feeling much more in control, more put together.  Sharper.  And it promises to be full of success.