Monday, August 17, 2009
Water in the Bathroom
Just as I was thinking I did not have a good cultural story from this past week I used a public toilet. In public restrooms in Indonesia there is usually water and if you are lucky toilet paper. Most of the restrooms I have been to have western style toilets and plenty of toilet paper, but I’ve learned to have tissue in my purse or to grab hand tissue on my way in. Only once have I had to use a Muslim style toilet where squatting skills come in handy. That was a rest stop. So, as I was saying your options for cleaning up after using the toilet are either water or sometimes toilet paper. Well, nicer toilets have a knob on them to shoot water out at you rather than having a bucket of water in the stall, others have handy moving water spouts. On Saturday I went to a church gathering, TGP, for the first time. Right before the service I used the restroom and I could not find the flusher, so I turned the funny-looking knob on the toilet. Ah!! Water came squirting out. The entire front of my pants was soaked. Hahaha. It was a great way to meet a lot of new people. Needless to say, I did not stand up when they asked me to introduce myself. I learned my lesson and had a good laugh. Now I know how to use the water at toilets here. I think I’ll stick with toilet paper.
Ginseng
This picture of is of a root of the plant Ginseng, which is used as an herb in tea, medicine and has all sorts of uses. I saw this root and several others displayed at the mall. They are framed and ready to be put up in your home! Aren't they lovely? You would be surprised to find out the one I took a picture is on sale for $6,000 US Dollars!!
After looking on-line, it looks like ginseng is thought to bring good luck, carrying some in your pocket can add a decade to your life and the most highly prized roots are the ones that look like a human body. I wonder if this one is meant to look like a human body...
Happy Independence Day Indonesia!
Today is Indonesia’s 64th Independence Day. We had most of the day off, with the exception of a flag ceremony students and teachers were required to attend. It reminded me of my elementary school days in Mexico. We stood in lines, all facing the flag, we were instructed to salute, stand at ease, stand at attention, stand at ease, salute again. I didn’t really understand, so I just followed what other teachers were doing around me. We sang national songs, I listened, and we counted the drops of sweat dripping off our foreheads as we stood under the hot sun. Independence day is celebrated in each little neighborhood by playing games with all the kids. This is a picture in my neighborhood of kids having a decorated bike contest. It looked like they were going to race, but I didn’t stay around for all of the festivities.
Monday, August 10, 2009
This bridge is so funny to me. It goes over a little canal that is on our way to school. Sometimes this door is padlocked. I'm not sure who it belongs to, but there are other bridges like it only a few feet away.
To see a few more pictures check out my album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026291&id=98300792&l=5dd687a11e . ( For those of you who don't have facebook. :) )
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Stories from my neighborhood
In Jakarta there are stray cats everywhere. There was a cat outside the apartment this morning when I was leaving for school, I thought it was dying. But as I got closer I realized it was just sad the trash it was scrounging in didn’t have anything nutritious. A common sighting is a mangled sad starving cat in a trash dump on the side of the road. These are not the kind of cats you want to have in your lap when reading a good novel or even the kind of cats you want to get close to. They also don’t usually have tails, and if they do they are curled. It’s very strange. Some of the expats here have joked that cat-tail is a Jakartan delicacy.
Teaching is going well. I think I am getting into more a groove and figuring out a little more of what is expected of me. I am still learning the system and finding the things that frustrate me. But I like the kids. I’m not yet used to being called Barbie in the halls. Students are often confused when I tell them, my mother’s name is Barbi, I’d prefer to go by my real name: Miss Carol. Sometimes I confuse them even further and accidentally say Miss David. I’m still getting used to being called Miss Carol. They usually just call me “Miss”.
This last week I started missing random food items, such as beans, crispy lettuce, Mexican, bread and chai lattes. I did, however, find Oreos at the grocery store. It was an exciting moment for me. Anyone who has lived with me knows how much I love my black tea and Oreos to help me wind down at the end of my day. I also had Pizza Hut last week which tasted so American and so good. I’ve been happy to discover that eating out is really cheap. I’m loving the Asian cuisine. My favorite are the yummy tropical fruit drinks here.
I have now visited a few more malls – which is the thing to do in Jakarta. Eat, shop, eat, shop. Someone told me not to be fooled by the malls here and that Jakarta is really a ghetto. I would agree, this seems to be a city of extremes. But these malls are truly impressive, probably the nicest I have ever been to! One of the malls has a slide that shoots down eight stories. Another mall has these amazing restaurants, one that’s in the middle of a little lake, where you can eat in a boat.
Today I visited a part of my neighborhood I have been anxious to see. Laura and I walked through our neighborhood today to take pictures. Of course I forgot to charge my camera, so it died half way through, but I got a few good pictures. We wandered down a small alley way to see if we could find a shortcut and we ended up in a kampung, ghetto. It was tucked away from the larger houses close to my apartments, almost completely invisible to any passerby. The alley way in between the cement houses was probably the width of my arms. There were children playing, women sitting, talking, wandering what we were doing, trash burning and chickens running around. It was small and we weaved in and around until we reached a dead end, but we ended up in a dead end and had to embarrassingly walk back past all the children and women who were puzzled by our little expedition. I know that there are worse slums in Jakarta, but this was just a taste of the other extreme in this city. I enjoyed seeing the large malls with their glass elevators, but somehow seeing the tiny bit of ghetto reminded me of how much I have in this developing country.
Monday will be my one month anniversary in Jakarta! Hard to believe. I don’t feel like it’s been a month. I had a moment of panic when I realized that it had been that long. I thought, “have I done all that I should have in a month!” I’m not sure what my goals were for my first month or what they should have been, but I can definitely say I've learned alot!
I keep thinking about what my wise Dad told me when I got here - that my time here would bring alot of joy if I was willing to accept the changes that come with it. I've also thought about that song by Ginny Owens new life and the line: "show me how to sing along to this new song". My prayer is that God would show me how to accept changes and be changed by the challenges, and through it all remember the love and joy of God. I have to remember that God is faithful and his love is always present. "By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me". (from Psalm 42).
Teaching is going well. I think I am getting into more a groove and figuring out a little more of what is expected of me. I am still learning the system and finding the things that frustrate me. But I like the kids. I’m not yet used to being called Barbie in the halls. Students are often confused when I tell them, my mother’s name is Barbi, I’d prefer to go by my real name: Miss Carol. Sometimes I confuse them even further and accidentally say Miss David. I’m still getting used to being called Miss Carol. They usually just call me “Miss”.
This last week I started missing random food items, such as beans, crispy lettuce, Mexican, bread and chai lattes. I did, however, find Oreos at the grocery store. It was an exciting moment for me. Anyone who has lived with me knows how much I love my black tea and Oreos to help me wind down at the end of my day. I also had Pizza Hut last week which tasted so American and so good. I’ve been happy to discover that eating out is really cheap. I’m loving the Asian cuisine. My favorite are the yummy tropical fruit drinks here.
I have now visited a few more malls – which is the thing to do in Jakarta. Eat, shop, eat, shop. Someone told me not to be fooled by the malls here and that Jakarta is really a ghetto. I would agree, this seems to be a city of extremes. But these malls are truly impressive, probably the nicest I have ever been to! One of the malls has a slide that shoots down eight stories. Another mall has these amazing restaurants, one that’s in the middle of a little lake, where you can eat in a boat.
Today I visited a part of my neighborhood I have been anxious to see. Laura and I walked through our neighborhood today to take pictures. Of course I forgot to charge my camera, so it died half way through, but I got a few good pictures. We wandered down a small alley way to see if we could find a shortcut and we ended up in a kampung, ghetto. It was tucked away from the larger houses close to my apartments, almost completely invisible to any passerby. The alley way in between the cement houses was probably the width of my arms. There were children playing, women sitting, talking, wandering what we were doing, trash burning and chickens running around. It was small and we weaved in and around until we reached a dead end, but we ended up in a dead end and had to embarrassingly walk back past all the children and women who were puzzled by our little expedition. I know that there are worse slums in Jakarta, but this was just a taste of the other extreme in this city. I enjoyed seeing the large malls with their glass elevators, but somehow seeing the tiny bit of ghetto reminded me of how much I have in this developing country.
Monday will be my one month anniversary in Jakarta! Hard to believe. I don’t feel like it’s been a month. I had a moment of panic when I realized that it had been that long. I thought, “have I done all that I should have in a month!” I’m not sure what my goals were for my first month or what they should have been, but I can definitely say I've learned alot!
I keep thinking about what my wise Dad told me when I got here - that my time here would bring alot of joy if I was willing to accept the changes that come with it. I've also thought about that song by Ginny Owens new life and the line: "show me how to sing along to this new song". My prayer is that God would show me how to accept changes and be changed by the challenges, and through it all remember the love and joy of God. I have to remember that God is faithful and his love is always present. "By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me". (from Psalm 42).
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