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).