Five Things I Miss From Indonesia

Hi, Nana.

s.

Now that I’ve been home for  a few days, I thought it might be fun to look at the top 5 things I miss from my time in Indonesia.  Here goes:

 Of course, FAMILY would be at the top of my list.  I miss spending time with Jason, Laura, and little Mika.

Taxis.  I know this might sound strange, since I really enjoy having my car again now that I am home but I did enjoy being able to flag down taxis and let them navigate us around the city.  And I have to admit, once I got used to it, not having to wear a seatbelt felt rather freeing BUT only when they were driving around in the city and then only because it was bumper to bumper and they couldn’t go very fast at all.  Otherwise, I hated not having seatbelts.

Jakarta.  I liked Jakarta.  It seemed to me to have the excitement of the big city without the feeling of having your life in constant danger, like I’ve felt whenever I’ve been in New York or DC or places like that.  I liked seeing all those skyscrapers coming into view when we’d take the train into town from Bandung or being able to walk from the apartment to a shopping center or taxi stand.

Warm Weather.  I’m a warm weather gal.  Coming back here to temps in the 20’s has NOT been fun.  I haven’t even been able to feel thawed out in the house.  And I hate having to put on all those layers of outerwear – heavy coat, gloves, scarf, hat.  Ugh!

Walking.  I DID enjoy the opportunity to walk much more than I do here.  With no car, we had to do a lot of walking and it felt good.  I know that I could make myself walk at home but frankly, when it is cold, I don’t set foot outside any more than I have to.  That just confirms my theory that folks in warm-weather states tend to be in better shape (think Florida and California, for example) because the climate is more conducive to getting outside and doing physical things. 

 

Top 10 Things I've Missed the Most

Now that I've been back in the States for almost 24 hours, I've had a chance to think about the things I've really been missing while I was in Indonesia.  I thought it might be fun to make up a list of my top 10 things for you.

1.  My Hubby - How can I NOT miss a man who gives me the freedom to be away for 5 weeks and who makes sure I come home to a clean house.  And how about this?  As I came out of the baggage claim area and saw my hubby standing at the exit, I walked up to him and apologized for looking so terrible.  I didn't have any makeup on, my hair had given up any semblance of style hours earlier, and I had dark circles under my eyes that made me look like someone had taken a Bingo dabber to each one.  He hugged me and told me that I was absolutely beautiful.  Now THAT'S a man who is a gem.

2.  My bed - I LOVE our bed and my body protests when I don't get to sleep in it.  It's been protesting for 5 weeks.  Last night I almost purred when I snuggled into that bed, between those flannel sheets, and set the Sleep Number and just let that mattress mold to my body.  Oy vey!  It was heavenly.

3.  Taking a Shower Without Having To Do a "Critter Check" First - It was so nice to jump into the shower this morning without first having to look carefully around to see if there were any lizards or other wildlife in there waiting to surprise me. 

4.  Good Drinking Water - I can just run a glass of water right from the tap and drink it without worrying about getting sick.  We take things like that for granted here but in certain countries (and where I was visiting was one of them) it is best to drink only bottled water and to use bottled water to brush your teeth. 

5.  Face Wipes - I know that this is such a "girlie" thing but I've really missed my face wipes that I use to clean my face in the morning and evening.  At my son's house, they didn't have a sink in the bathroom so I either had to lean into the shower area to get my face wet or go downstairs to the kitchen, clear out a spot in the sink and then wash my face.  Since towels and washcloths were also a scarcity there, I often just went to bed at night without cleaning my face at all.  Now it is a "lickety-split" operation and I'm ready to put on moisturizer.

6.  Newspapers and Television - It is great to have the daily newspaper waiting for me when I come downstairs in the morning.  I love reading the paper over breakfast.  In Indonesia, I think I only saw 3 newspapers during the entire 5 weeks and I saw no television.  I didn't have a clue as to what was happening in the world.  Because the internet was so slow and I had to borrow Jason's access, I didn't check the news sources on the internet because it was just too tedious.  I also missed my favorite TV shows.  Luckily, the Commander was "DVRing" them for me so now I can catch up at a leisurely pace.

7.  Keurig Coffee Machine - I LOVE my Keurig.  In Indonesia, I had to drink powdered coffee with cream mixed in with it.  I usually prefer my coffee black but it was hard to find instant coffee that way over there.  Today I put a "Pecan Praline" K-cup in the Keurig and had fresh, brewed coffee in seconds.  Aaaah!

8.  My family and friends Stateside - I miss my family in Indonesia but it sure is nice to be near not only my hubby, but also my daughter and her husband and my mom as well.  It was also great to pick up the phone and hear my good friend on the line and make plans to see her at church and to also know that I'll be seeing many other friends this coming week.  Yay!

9.  My car  - I did a lot of walking in Indonesia.  Even participating in the grocery shopping over there made me realize how handy it is to have a car.  I zipped over to the grocery store this morning (took about 5 minutes) and didn't have to worry about how I was going to carry the groceries home.  I just slung the bags into the back of the car and off I went.  No bone-jarring ankot traveling was required and I even got to listen to my own CD's on the car stereo.

10.  Ultra-fast Internet - We have FiOS here and it is blazing fast.  What a treat to turn on my computer this morning and know that I can instantly connect to all my favorite sites and that the "signal" isn't going to be dropped or slow down to a crawl.  And  related to #10, I'd have to add Amazon as another favorite thing I've missed.

What things would YOU miss if you had to travel to the other side of the world and live out of your suitcase for 5 weeks?  Tune in tomorrow to read about the things I miss the most about Indonesia.

I'm Back!

Winter in PA isn't as pretty as January in Indonesia.

Well, I made it back to the United States.  Apparently, it was "iffy" for awhile as to whether or not JFK would be open because of a pending snowstorm but the snow stayed mostly east of the city and north so we had no problem landing.  I'm really glad that I didn't know about this storm until I got back because otherwise I would have been really worrying.  The Commander and my friends were spending a lot of cranial energy trying to figure out where my flight might end up being diverted to if JFK was shut down.  Thank goodness this didn't happen.  Some of the possibilities were apparently Chicago and Toronto.  That would really have been a drive to get home after a long flight.

My time sitting around in the Hong Kong airport went quickly because I had free WiFi.  Yay!  I could surf the Web, write my blog, and watch people going in and out of the fancy shops in the concourse and that really made the time go quickly.  In fact, by the time I wandered down to my gate, my section was already boarding. 

The flight was long but non-stop.  I had thought it was going to fly over Siberia, Russia, the North Pole, and Europe.  Instead it flew in the opposite direction, flying over Japan, then across the Pacific Ocean, just skirting Alaska and then following the Canadian/American border until about Michigan where it cut down across the state and over into New York state and finally to JFK. 

We got two dinners on the flight and then it was lights out and most folks tried to sleep.  I didn't have much luck since I had another aisle seat so I think I might have gotten about 1 hour of sleep total from Jakarta to JFK.  I'm feeling it now.  I spent most of my time watching movies and TV shows.  I saw quite a few episodes of the "Big Bang Theory" and each one was good for another 20 minutes or so used up out of my total flight time.

When we arrived at JFK, we had no delay but came right in on time and then taxied right up to the gate.  As we walked into the airport itself, I kept hearing an announcement on the loudspeakers about being sure to pick up your luggage on carrel #1 or it would be staying at JFK.  I wondered why they weren't identifying which flight this was referring to.  Well, when we got to the Baggage Claim area, I was astonished to see that we were the only folks waiting to claim luggage.  The airport was practically deserted. 

True to form, getting my bags off the carrel didn't go smoothly.  The first big suitcase of mine was stuck up higher behind another suitcase so it wasn't right against the rail.  I grabbed it and tried to wrestle it off the moving track and finally got it, only to trip over the luggage cart that I was using.  I fell down plop right onto the cart.  A nice Asian man grabbed my one arm and a lady on my other side grabbed my other arm to help me up.  Then as I got to my feet, I dropped my purse.  As I bent to grab it, the lady also bent down to get it for me and we ended up banging our heads together.  Oh, my!  Talk about embarrassing.  The gentleman said to me, "Now when your next bag comes you, you be sure to point it out to me and I will get it for you."

That was really sweet of him.  Unfortunately his bags came out before my second bag showed up so he left the area and I was still on my own to try to get the bag.  I saw it coming around the bend this time and decided that I would get a running start.  I met it several cart-lengths away from me and gave it a mighty tug, dragging it over other suitcases which were in the way until I was able to slam it down next to my cart with a flourish.  Hopefully my display of brute force redeemed me somewhat in the eyes of my fellow travelers after my earlier klutziness.

Winter driving makes for very dirty cars.

 Another trip through the Customs area and then I was walking down the hall where I saw the Commander waiting for me.  Bless his heart, he had a bag filled with warm scarves and mittens for me to choose from, knowing that I hadn't taken any with me when I had left.  It didn't take us long to get the car loaded with my bags and to head for home.  I found out from the Commander that JFK had announced early in the morning that they were canceling all the domestic flights as they awaited the predicted snowstorm.  That's why there were so few people at the airport.  There were also lots of shut-downs and cancellations around Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York which made it an easy drive for George.  There was very little traffic out on the roads.  The great thing was that the snow never really hit as predicted.  There was just a few inches that fell but the bulk of the storm ended up hitting the New England States.

Home, Sweet Home!

We arrived back by 5 p.m. and I had the Commander go into the house first so that he could put the dog out into the backyard before I went in.  I knew that Fresca would be very happy to see me and I didn't want her to forget herself in the house.

Mommy's Home!

She sure was happy to see me.  I don't think she knew what to do first, give me a kiss, smell my bags and clothes, or just snuggle up against me.

Ah, pepperoni pizza!

I couldn't resist calling in an order for pepperoni pizza for supper.  I've been craving pepperoni and Italian sausage pizza ever since I got to Indonesia.  However, I found that I could only eat one slice before I got really full.  Guess I'm just not used to eating as much any more.

After supper, I went to take some pills and told my husband, "Oh, you can't imagine how nice it is to be able to just pour a glass of water straight from the tap and be able to drink it."

Won't be long now before I head up to bed and my own comfy mattress.  Oh, boy!  And I won't have to keep one eye open, looking for a darn lizard nor will I have to rub "Deep Woods Off" all over me before I fall into bed.  Thank you, Lord.

Heading Home

My first flight has successfully deposited me safe and sound here in Hong Kong.  It was quite something though getting me through the international airport in Jakarta and onto the plane.  My adventure started when Jason and I were picked up at the apartment in Jakarta by the airport taxi service.  I thought it was rather fitting that the same man who had picked me up when I arrived was now picking me up for my departure.

We had quite a lively discussion on many topics while navigating the traffic jams in Jakarta on our way to the airport.  I was so proud of Jason just listening to him speak so fluently in Bahasa Indonesia.  Our taxi driver also spoke fairly good English and between the two of them, I was able to participate in the conversations about 30% of the time.  He never stopped talking though, mind you.  When we finally arrived at the airport, I jokingly told Jason, “Well, I think I’ve used up my full allotment of ‘people interaction’ for the day and I’m not even on the first plane yet.” 

Jason smiled and said, “I know.   He’s a very nice fellow but sometimes I’d really like to just sit quietly and look out the window on these rides.”

Once we got my bags out of the taxi and into the airport, we could see the Cathay Pacific ticket counters in the next big room.  However, we had to go through a security queue first.  Jason and I got up to the guard and he asked for our boarding passes.  I was quite surprised since Jason was planning to help me with my big suitcases right up to the point where I would check them at the counter and then we planned to spend an hour together just talking and sipping coffee before I had to go through the final security check.  That was the plan.  However the reality was that he couldn’t go any further with me so our time together was really cut short.  He ran to get me a luggage cart and gave me some final instructions on how to maneuver the cart through the security checkpoint and then he promised to stand on the other side of the glass until I was all checked in and he saw me turn and wave at him.

Well, I got things a little flubbed up.  I don’t do too well with stress and unexpected changes in plans at the last minute so I was really feeling flustered.  I got the cart over to the machine ok, manhandled the bags off the cart, except for my carry-on bag which had gotten stuck in the rungs of the cart.   I pulled and pulled and finally wrenched it free.  Onto the pulley belt it went, followed by my two suitcases and coat.   As I started for the electronic arch to walk through it, the guard looked at me and said, “Purse.”  Whoops, I had forgotten to put my purse on the belt.  I slung it down on the belt and walked through the arch.  I beeped!  Sheesh!  I have no idea what was beeping although it could have been my watch, which they hadn’t asked me to take off.  Indeed, they didn’t have any trays to put little objects in so I hadn’t even considered taking off the watch.  You guessed it!  I had to stand there next while the guard wanded me all over.  I guess I passed because he motioned me over to the belt to pick up my suitcases. 

I was REALLY flustered now as I again tried to manhandle the suitcases off the belt.  Those things are heavy and I hadn’t planned to deal with them until baggage claim in New York so my mind just wasn’t in gear.  I grabbed the cart and finally got the suitcases and my carry-on bag on the cart and off I trundled to the check-in counter.  I handed my ticket and passport to the agent and manhandled the bags yet again onto the scale.  As I waited for the man to give me my boarding pass, I thought perhaps I should get a Kleenex out of my purse.  Oh, no!  My purse was nowhere in sight.  My heart about stopped as I gasped to the ticket agent, “I think I left my purse at the security checkpoint.  Can I run over there and check?”  He didn’t say “no” so I rushed back over to the conveyor thingie and said, “Purse.”  The guard looked at me and held up my bag.  Hooray!  They had picked it off the belt and put it aside.  I thanked them profusely and headed back to the ticket counter.  Oh, my!  I sure wouldn’t have gotten far with no handbag.

It took me awhile to have the courage to look in my handbag to make sure my billfold was still in there but when I did, everything was still in place.  Hooray!  After that, everything else was a piece of cake.  I turned and waved a final time at Jason before heading off to find my gate.  He waved back, I grabbed a tissue and dabbed my eyes as I trundled off, whereupon I promptly decided that I didn’t have a clue where I was supposed to be heading.  I found some ladies who looked like they were stewardesses and asked them where to find the departure gates and they pointed me in the right direction.  

The bright spot of the departure was that there were still a few shops that were open, including one batik shop and I was able to find several last minute items that I had been hoping to purchase.  The timing couldn’t have been better because within 15 minutes, the shops were locking up and the terminal was pretty quiet except for those of us who were flying out via the red-eye flights.

My flight to Hong Kong boarded right before midnight and to my delight, I discovered that I was the only one in my row.  I had the whole row to myself.  The flight wasn’t full at all.  Let me tell you, though, even though an aisle seat is nice to have when it comes to getting up to go to the loo, it is NOT conducive to sleeping.  It was miserable.   Sleep had to wait though because around 1 a.m. the stewardesses brought our meals.  

The flight was supposed to include breakfast.  Now I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t consider chicken and rice or fish and rice breakfast, would you?  I chose the chicken and rice since I simply couldn’t look a fish in the face at 1 a.m.  My first bite gave me a definite surprise.  If that was chicken, then poultry must moo.  I decided that the white rice looked pretty safe so I switched to that after a few more bites of the bovine chicken.

After the meals were cleared away, a stewardess came up to me and asked if I would mind filling out a survey.  Hey, I have a chance to win two tickets to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific by filling it out so I agreed.  While I was singing their praises, the lights in the cabin were turned off.  OK, folks wanted to sleep and that wasn’t a problem but I wanted to finish the survey so I looked around to try to figure out how to turn on my light.  It didn’t appear to be on the ceiling area by the actual lights so I concluded that it was on my armrest.  The only problem was, when I pressed the picture of a light bulb, nothing happened.  Finally I hailed a passing stewardess and asked her for assistance.  She tried punching my button and it didn’t work for her, either.  Then she tried punching the button on the seat next to me….that one didn’t work either.  

“I’ll have to turn it on at the control panel,” she said.  That was fine by me and off she went.  Let there be light.

Once I was done with the survey, I was ready to try to sleep.  I pushed the light bulb button and nothing happened.  Oh, wait.  That’s not entirely true.  Sometime during the survey, the light for the seat next to me had come on, so I now had two lights on in my row and neither one would turn off.

I again had to hail an attendant and this time ask them to turn off the lights.  Of course, they had to try punching my buttons first (no pun intended) and of course, they didn’t work so off they went to the control panel again.  The lights went off.

I snuggled down in my seat, pulled the blanket up to my chin and started to dose off.  Wham!  Suddenly the middle light came on and was aimed right in my face.  Half asleep, I almost yelled out, “OK, I did it.  I confess.”  Oh, wait……it was that pesky malfunctioning light again.  The stewardess came hurrying over.  

“Did you press the button with your arm?” she asked.

“No,” I assured her.”  “I could press that thing with my whole fist and it still wouldn’t work.  Try it for yourself.”  Again she pressed the buttons and nothing happened.  Off she went again and off the light went.

About an hour later, I woke up to find the light was on again.  My arm wasn’t anywhere close to the controls.  That’s how it went the rest of the flight.  The two lights would come on randomly and the stewardess would have to go to the control panel to get them off.  Wouldn’t you know that I had turned in that survey at the start of the lights incident or I could have mentioned them.  

All in all, though, I highly recommend Cathay Pacific Airlines.   They are very nice to fly with and the staff are so courteous and attentive.  They really treat you like royalty.  I mean, obviously, they must have known that I was a woman with a theatrical background because they had seated me in the row with the spotlights, right?  It’s too bad that the seats didn’t come with built-in microphones.  I DO love karaoke!

So now I’m waiting here in Hong Kong for the last leg of my trip – my non-stop flight to New York City.  I’ll catch you on the other side of the pond.

Last Day in Bandung

My last day in Bandung finally arrived and it was bittersweet.  I can’t say that I was sad to say goodbye to the mosquitoes or the lizards that lurk in my bedroom or the incessant noise in the neighborhood beginning around 3:45 a.m.  However, I WILL definitely miss Jason, Laura, and little Mika.

I spent the morning playing with Mika.  We had so much fun as she would crawl fast as a little crab from the sitting area into my bedroom, giggling merrily as I pretended to “chase” her.  Then she’d throw herself into her little tent/crib and scoot around and wait for me to pretend to try to find her.

  

When I’d peek inside, she’d laugh and then come crawling out and head over to my table beside the bed where she’d get a mischievous look on her face as she’d try to reach some of my things that I had slid to the back of the table out of her reach.  Failing to grab something off of the table, she’d “walk herself” along the table edge to my bed, “walk” along the side of the bed and the end of the bed to the door where she’d get back down and crawl quickly back into the sitting room and the whole cycle would begin again.  Oh, did we have fun.

Ibu Uez was helping out and took her for a walk around the neighborhood after lunch so that I could finish packing and get a quick rest.  I’ve been feeling like I’m coming down with a cold (Mika had it first and now Laura has one) and have been trying to stave it off long enough to get back to my own house.  Laura had told Ibu to be sure to have Mika back by 2:30 so that I could spend some final time with her before I had to head over to the language school to meet up with Jason and the taxi that was to be there to take us to the train station.  Well, it got to be 2:50 and still no Mika.  I was beginning to think that I would have to leave without saying goodbye to her but just then they walked in the door.

It was so hard to hug that little one and say goodbye, even knowing that she’ll be back in the States in a few months.  I was crying and then Ibu Uez started crying and Mika was looking at both of us with big eyes.  To make a long story short, Ibu ended up insisting on lugging my carry-on bag and my purse to the school for me so that I could carry Mika there and have some extra time with her.  We made a strange little parade through the kampung…..the two of us ladies sniffling, luggage dragging over the rocks, and one baby trying to grab the Kleenex out of her Nana’s hand.  I didn’t care because I got to hold that sweet baby just a little longer.  I sure appreciated Ibu’s loving offer.  I guess a “grandmother” is a “grandmother” in any country and we understand each other’s heart even when we can’t understand each other’s spoken language.

The taxi was already waiting when I got to the school (now THAT was a miracle) and Jason was walking out with my other two suitcases as I walked into the compound.  Ibu Uez and I gave each other another big hug and I thanked her yet again in my limited Indonesian and handed Mika back over to her and then it was time to go.

Jason and I had another train ride back to Jakarta and this time he didn’t have to jump off the train once we arrived.  Hooray!  It felt good to be back at the team apartment and I had a good night’s sleep for a change.  I didn’t even hear the call to prayer this morning.  I’m really going to miss this view from the apartment, too.   For some reason, I have really come to love the look of this tower that we can see from the apartment.  Its architecture just really appeals to me.

Today we are just taking it easy before it is time to catch a taxi to the airport this evening.  There will be plenty of time for sitting once I’m on the two flights that I’ll be catching to get home.  Jason and I walked across the street this morning and are sitting in Starbucks where he is continuing to work on the essays for the grad school applications and I’m working on this blog and enjoying listening to Frank Sinatra, Cab Calloway, and Rosemary Clooney being piped over the loudspeaker system.  The fellow sitting across from us working on his iPad has been glancing over at us occasionally, probably because I was singing along (quietly) with Rosemary on the song “Smile.”  Hey, at least I didn’t grab a napkin, roll it into a pretend microphone, jump up on one of the upholstered chairs and start doing my torch song singer routine. It wouldn’t have taken much provocation but it probably would have taken a little more caffeine than I have in me right now.

Lord willing (and the internet cooperating), my next post might be from the Hong Kong airport.  If not, I’ll hope to continue this tale from home.

Winding Down

Just a few more days here in Indonesia and then I’m heading home.  Jason and I will be taking the train back to Jakarta tomorrow afternoon after he finishes his language class.  We’ll stay overnight at the team apartment there so that I can be rested before we head off to the airport Tuesday evening where I’ll be catching the “red-eye special” to Hong Kong.  From there, I’ll catch another plane which will fly non-stop to JFK Airport where, Lord willing, the Commander will be waiting for me.

This morning Jason, Mika and I headed off to the Bandung International Church for their worship service.  Laura wasn’t feeling well enough to go so we left her at home resting.  She’s been hit hard by morning sickness so anything we can do to help her feel better, we are happy to try to do.  

We headed back after the service in time for Jason, Laura, and Mika to attend the first birthday party of a little neighbor girl.  This type of party is called something else in Indonesia.  It’s called “syukuran .”   It started at 11:00 a.m. and sure enough, suddenly we heard lots of children singing.  Jason wasn’t too sure if he should go since it looked like it was only mothers and their children but he headed off with the family and I guess it was OK, because he stayed until they all came back.  

It certainly didn’t take long for them to return.  Laura said that the guests presented the birthday girl with presents.  Then the mother of the girl brought out little presents for all the guests which included a balloon, a box of KFC chicken, a bag of potato chips, and some candy for each child.   There was a cake but it was just brought out to be shown and not cut and served.  The whole thing lasted about 20 minutes to a half hour and then it was over.  I’ll bet there are a lot of mothers in the West who would like to be able to get birthday parties over with that fast instead of them being half day ordeals.  

I started packing in the afternoon and have most of my things ready to go.  The challenge is that I can’t have the front section of my big suitcase fully packed until we are in Jakarta because it has to fit in the overhead of the train. That means I’ll have to take a large plastic bag along with some of my things in it in addition to my two suitcases and my carry-on for our journey tomorrow.  Thank goodness that I’ll have Jason to help carry all of this.  I’m doubly glad about that because we are going to have to lug it all up from the kampung to the main road and then stuff it into an angkot, since taxis are VERY hard to catch up in our area.  Sometimes you can have up to 20+ people crammed into these little old mini-vans so this should be quite the adventure but Jason says we’ll at least get to the train station quicker this way.

We all had lots of fun playing with Mika the rest of the day.  She continues to change so quickly.  I had started a little game with her to try to encourage her to eat where I’d pretend to feed one of her toys and then offer some food to her.  Now she has started “feeding” her toys on her own, making the little munching sounds that I was making.  It’s pretty cute.  She was also taking a few more steps on her own today back and forth between Mama and Papa.  She gets this mischievous little smirk quite often these days, tries out new sounds and words, and has definitely gotten used to having me around.  I sure will miss that little cutie.  I find myself making up little games to play with her that I remember my own mother  playing with my children.  Today we took an empty pizza box that Mika was quite enthralled with and when she kept crawling into it, I turned it into a choo-choo train and gave her rides around the room in it.  She thought that was a lot of fun.  Her little play cellphone has one ring that sounds like an Asian “dance party.”  When she pushes that button, I start dancing around, much to her delight.  Jason said to me today, “Mom, this is a talent of yours that I’ve never seen before” (and added under his breath) “and I could probably have lived happily having NOT seen it.”  Laura threw a plastic frog at him.  Hmmph!  And to think that this is the son whose own grandmother taught him to pick up his cereal bowl and blow bubbles in the milk.  Who does he think I learned all MY tricks from?  

So as I sit here tonight watching Jason spraying ants who are crawling in a steady stream from the window to the door and keep an eye on the cicak (lizard) crawling on the wall, I can’t believe that I’ve survived  5 weeks in Indonesia.  I’m the girl who has always liked her creature comforts.  I thought I’d be on the next plane if a bug flew past me at night.  But I’ve survived multiple mosquito bites, ants all over the place (including two in my water today), a huge cockroach that I had to get Laura to come kill, flying bugs that I haven’t identified, lizards crawling around on my bedroom walls and floors, and assorted bug body parts that I’ll find here and there.  I’m not keen about any of them but my love for my family here has apparently been stronger than my fears.  Go figure!  I’ll sure miss my little family but this time around, I know that they’ll be heading Stateside in a few months to await the birth of their second child.  That makes it much easier to have to say “goodbye.”   

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my adventures.  One thing that I’ve learned from all this (and I hope you can also take encouragement from) is that you can do more than you think you can do, no matter what your age or your past life experiences.  And as I’m mentioned before and still firmly believe, when you go through something on your own, things can often seem quite daunting but when you have someone along for the journey, those same experiences become an adventure.  I know that Jason and Laura have really been instrumental in making this trip one that I’ll be laughing about and savoring the memories of for years to come.

The Quest For Solitude

Where do you go when you want to find some solitude time on an island that is the second most populated area in the world?  It can be a challenge.  In Jason's case, he usually just tries to close the bedroom door for his solitude while Laura watches the baby but lately he's been heading off to local malls to find a spot in Starbucks or one of the other coffee shops as soon as they open up during the week, when they aren't full of people.  That is because he really has been needing to concentrate in order to work on essay questions for some applications for graduate course work that he would like to take and when he’s at home and hears the baby fussing, he feels like he should turn off the computer and go rescue Laura.

Laura has been so gracious about giving him some hours in the day to do that even when she isn't feeling totally up to par herself because of morning sickness and I've been trying to take up the slack, helping with the baby as I can.  Sometimes I DO sneak off with Jason myself to enjoy some internet connection time and modern conveniences but I generally try to stay around closer to home when she needs me.

Today Jason headed off to a mall which I hadn't visited before.  It is quite upscale and Jason wanted me to assure you all that he doesn't frequent this mall on a regular basis.  He only went there to try to squeeze in some work time on those applications.  Laura and I stayed home in the morning and then took an angkut to the vicinity of the mall to meet up with him for lunch.

Jason had told Laura about a shortcut he had found from the point where the angkut drops you off to where the mall is located so Laura and I set off through a kampung's winding passageways.  Oh, my!

I have to tell you that I am from the Great Plains area in the Midwest. On my grandparents' farm, where I spent every summer, you could step out on the front porch and look out over a wide rolling prairie as far as the eye can see.  The vista was dotted with groves here and there which surrounded farm houses and outbuildings and tall grain elevators marked the town of Lismore, two miles away.  Nothing else marred my solitude.  I could sit under the old pine trees by the side of the road and watch the wind ruffle the grain in the fields.  The mooing of cows would occasionally carry on the breeze and the whistle of the freight train cutting through pastures might greet me but other than that, it was the perfect environment for someone who enjoys quiet.

A kampung is just not the kind of place where a prairie gal is going to feel comfortable.  Today we twisted and turned so much that I had no idea which direction we were going.  Sometimes we came to dead ends and had to ask people standing nearby which way we should go.  They were quite happy to give us directions even though they all seemed quite surprised to see two foreign women walking in their area.  I was really starting to feel claustrophobic in some spots where the buildings were so close together that it was as dark as night.  Jason's shortcuts have a way of really challenging my sense of security.  However, we finally made it up a set of stone steps carved between two walls and found ourselves on a main road looking across at the mall entrance.

This mall had quite the selection of stores.  There was a Marks and Spencer, which I hadn't been to since I was in London some years ago.  There were upscale fashion stores, lots of different restaurants, including an Australian Pancake House where we had lunch (and I had maple syrup which I haven't had for ages, it seems), and there was even a Cold Stone Creamery. 

We popped into one store which is similar to our K-Marts in the States and as we came out, Laura pointed out a shop across the way where you could go to have fish nibble the dry skin off your feet.  No thanks!

As we were heading out, we stopped at one small food area so Jason and Laura could pick up some food to go.  To our delight, there were a bunch of big "snowmen" set up in the concourse with some type of fake snow pellets sprinkled around them.  Children were running around and through the display, laughing delightedly.  One small child plopped down and was enthusiastically making a "snow angel."  We let Mika play in the "snow" for a few minutes and then she tired of that and decided that she would rather head over to the escalator.  She kept her momma hopping as she pointed again and again to "walk" that direction.  I think she would have crawled onto the thing and ridden it up to the next floor if we had let her.

When we finally made it out of the mall, we could not find a taxi no matter what we tried.  Jason suggested that we head back through the kampung shortcut and try to find a taxi on the other side of the area.  That's just what we did.  Surely I should have earned my honorary "mountain goat" status today because I really did my fair share of scrambling over loose rocks, up and down steep stairways, over curbs, and across potholes and small ditches.  Again we had no luck finding a taxi so we ended up flagging another angkut and riding it back to our neighborhood where we hoofed it the rest of the way. 

As we walked in the door, I told Jason, "If you don't mind, I'm going to go take off my shoes, grab a diet coke, put my feet up and read and that's about all I'm going to be able to manage for awhile."  That's exactly what I did.  I even shut my bedroom door.  It was a blissful forty-five minutes of solitude.

The Inertia of the Tropics

When I was a teenager, I was captivated by the TV show "Adventures in Paradise."   The  episodes were was set in Tahiti and it seemed to me that this was certainly the place to go once I was free from the confines of my parents' supervision.  Of course, the fact that the star of the show was Gardiner McKay and that he was VERY easy on the eyes could have played a big part in my opinion.  Nevertheless, I turned my Midwestern bedroom into my idea of a South Seas bungalow and I listened to Hawaiian ukele music a LOT.  It's a wonder that our neighbors survived my "Red Sails Over the Sunset" phase with their sanity intact.   My mother thanked her lucky stars when I discovered Rudolph Nureyev and switched into my Russian phase.  My dad just spent a lot of time in his recliner downstairs with the TV volume turned up. 

Since I grew up in Michigan and Minnesota, I certainly had no first-hand experience with life in the tropics.  In fact, it wasn't until I was the mother of two small children and living in Charleston, South Carolina that I first came face-to-face with oppressive heat and humidity.  I remember the first  summer that we lived there.  I would get up in the morning, shower, dress, and then walk outside to the curb to get the morning paper.  The curb was maybe three car-lengths from our front door.  By the time I would get back inside our air-conditioned house, I would be hot, sticky, sweaty and ready to shower again.  Ugh!  How did anyone get anything done in that state in the summer?  I guess I gradually got acclimated to the climate because by the second summer there, it didn't feel quite as oppressive.

Fast forward to my time here in Indonesia.  Mentally I know that it is January and it is cold back home.  I also know that I HATE winter.  However, sitting in a non-airconditioned house here in Bandung has me yearning for some cold air.  Mind you, this is one of the cooler areas of Java.  At least we had air-conditioning in Jakarta.  But once you stepped outside, Jakarta was stifling unless there was a nice breeze.  I can definitely understand why you see so many people sitting in the shade during the heat of the day here.  Who has the energy to do anything else?  The heat is just draining. 

Here in the kampung, you'll see people sitting on their porches or on benches along the alleys in the heat of the day just resting or visiting with neighbors.  In Jakarta, I noticed lots of little stands/benches with thatched roofs over them along the roads and people sitting cross-legged on them just resting.  Of course there are the modern office buildings with air-conditioning and work goes on in these just like it does in New York or Philadelphia.  But for those who don't have the benefit of air-conditioning, there is a definite rhythm to work in the tropics.

Honestly, I go to bed here at night and the sweat is just trickling down my torso.  Gosh, I know that's not a very genteel thing to admit but it's the truth.  I wake up with a dull headache and I'm sure it's from the heat and the fact that I've slept poorly.  That headache is usually lurking just below the surface most of the day as I try to find a spot where there is a bit of a breeze.  I have to make a conscious effort to drink, drink, drink fluids throughout the day to avoid dehydration but since ice cubes are a luxury at the house, I find it hard to find lukewarm water very refreshing.  I also don't enjoy fishing the occasional ant out of my glass so I know I don't drink as much as I should and that also contributes to the headaches.

I can see where it would be easy to come away from a  trip to the tropics with a stereotype of people who are somewhat lazy.  Believe me, once you've spent a decent amount of time living in a climate like this without air conditioning, you have a much better understanding of the lifestyle.  I am realizing more and more that 1.  The tropics....Tahiti or otherwise....are not for me.  2.  People who live in the tropics are not lazy.  They have just learned to adjust their pace of life to what is sustainable within the constraints of the climate.  3.  Those living in poverty in a hot climate have an even greater challenge since they must cope without the conveniences that we take for granted such as air conditioning, washing machines and dryers, microwaves, even modern showers.  4.  Last, but not least, I am ready for a good snowstorm but NOT before I am safely back home in the States.