We went for a walk yesterday after Dave came home from work. It was the first time the girls and I had left the apartment, after spending the day lazily reading, or unpacking and swimming. Since we woke around 5am, the day was plenty long for each piece. Until this walk, I had never heard a negative word about Indonesia. But this current neighborhood made a very bad impression on both Lilly and Sophia.
The sidewalks are dirty are broken. Frequently, they smell. People don't wait in line at the playground. Well, my kids do but no one else does.
There is garbage everywhere. This canal was so filled with garbage yesterday that we could not see the water. No joke. Apparently someone cleaned it out before I brought my camera this afternoon. I guess that is heartening. But my girls simply find it disgusting.
I have plenty of memories of life in Asia, so none of this surprised me. In fact, I enjoyed the color and the difference. I found pleasant surprises, like how the heat doesn't seem particularly bothersome most of the time.
Lilly noticed the feral cats everywhere. I think she found it partly charming and partly disgusting, these wild cats roaming around like rats. She found our courtyard much more charming, and spent much of this afternoon reading on a blanket in the grass. They didn't join me on the walk today, and were much happier.
Amusingly, Lilly struggled with what she found unfamiliar. I expected the neighborhood to be difference, but have been frustrated by things which I expect to be simple. I suppose these are actually the same feeling. I went into Starbucks for an iced coffee, because at 2:00 this afternoon I could not imagine staying awake for another 7 hours. But although Starbucks looks nearly identical to the Starbucks in Arlington, I couldn't find iced coffee on the menu. And after I ordered, I couldn't find cream on the shelf. And it just felt wrong. It feels right that I can't give directions to the taxi driver. It feels wrong that I can't quite figure out how to get an iced coffee at Starbucks. It feels right to be worried about street food and shocked by the hygiene there. It feels wrong that I can't remember the words for hello, good-bye and thank-you.
1 comment:
Hey Lynne, a note of encouragement: I had a hard entry to life in Jakarta. The first few weeks we were in temp housing and I felt incredibly isolated because it was a stand alone house. We had no WiFi or cable (excrutiaiting for us to survive two weeks without internet) because of the temp thing. My gross-out, isolation/desolation thing was a bit more gripping than I had anticipated, which was a bit of a surprise to me. I'm a tried and true germ-a-phobe and Jakarta really pushed my buttons in that area. I'm also a picky eater and that didn't make life any easier, until I learned what I liked and how to order it. I'll say I wasn't charmed by the cool, exotic experiences that I encountered the way I had imagined I would- which caused me to feel pretty dissappointed with myself. There is a lot to get used to, like the many scrappy, scrawny bobbed-tailed cats running around. We decided to embrace it and now we have a collection of Jakarta's cats photos. :) it will get better! Hang in there! Everyone just needs to readjust their expectations, which will happen. I am glad that you guys are taking it at your own sweet pace. :)
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