Dear Family,
I can’t believe we’ve been here a month already. Time is going by so quickly. We are adjusting just fine and enjoying the different things about living in Jakarta. The weather is hot, but not nearly as bad as I had imagined. Mind you, it’s very warm, but I thought it would be unbearable and it really isn’t. Maybe I’m getting used to it.
We have spent the past few weeks trying to keep ourselves entertained and also continuing to get settled by having several pieces of furniture made. The sofa, loveseat and computer desk we had made were all delivered this week. It’s fun to start feeling like this is our home and not some place that feels very temporary. We went and looked at the furniture for our Family Room and our sitting room yesterday. They make the frame and put the padding on and then have you look at it, sit on it and test it to make sure you like it before they put the fabric on it. It’s funny to see furniture without the material. That furniture should be finished in about three weeks. We also went and ordered a carpet (like American carpet) to be cut and bound for our living room.
We are all hoping our sea shipment comes in the next couple of weeks. We have been informed that it is supposed to be at the dock on the 6th of August. We’ve heard it usually takes a couple of weeks after that for it to clear customs and then get to us. The boys are anxious to get their bikes and rollerblades and some of their other toys.
We spent the morning yesterday at a place called Ancol. Sea World Indonesia is there (not affiliated with the Sea World in the states) and there is also a water park, amusement park, and several other attractions. It is on the coast, but there aren’t really any beaches (most of the coastline near Jakarta is for commercial use - shipping, fishing, marinas, etc.). It was fun to see everything and be somewhere besides the city. At Sea World Mallory especially liked seeing all the fish and she loved the shark tank. When one of the sharks would swim by her she would get so excited she could hardly contain herself. Her little legs would start kicking and she would make as much noise as possible. She’s funny. We also took a gondola ride that goes above several of the attractions, then along the beach for a while. We enjoyed looking out over the ocean and seeing some islands just north of Jakarta (part of the Thousand Islands – which number approximately 150 in total, not 1,000). By the way, they put Thousand Island dressing on everything here.
I took the boys into the clinic to have their x-rays for TB. They have to have them for school. It was interesting. The clinic is nice, but they just do things a little backwards -- something I need to get used to. The boys got a lot of attention (they usually do whenever we go out) when they all filed into the x-ray room.
We met Creed at the office on Friday night and then went further downtown to a huge mall. It’s really nice with very upscale stores. We ate at the Hard Rock Café and really enjoyed having nachos (something I had been dreaming about) and hamburgers and Creed had his dream meal, fajitas. While we were there, the people sitting next to us asked to hold Mallory and to take pictures with her. She usually doesn’t mind, she just smiles and charms them. I’m glad she’s so easy going about the whole thing. We still get people asking us if she is a boy. No, the pink shirt doesn’t give it away. Apparently they don’t use the pink for girls and blue for boys thing here.
We asked our maid to cook some Indonesian food for us on Monday night. She said she was going to make BBQ beef (what they call BBQ beef, anyway). It smelled good enough, but I really couldn’t eat much of it and neither could anyone else. It was funny, all of us sitting around the table with our maid around the corner at the kitchen sink doing dishes and we’re trying to cover up the fact that we didn’t like it. We were able to tell her nicely that we didn’t like it. She laughed and apologized. They eat a lot of noodles and veggies here -- I guess I should have told her that’s what we really wanted.
There are a lot of perks living here. Having furniture custom made for cheap is great. We have really enjoyed picking things out. Being chauffeured around town is nice, as well. We also love having a household staff (7 people are at our house, besides our family, all the time). Things just seem to magically happen. Tonight, I noticed the kitchen trash was getting full. A little while later, I went to throw something away and realized it had been emptied. Okay, I didn’t even notice Kandar (our gardener) come in the house, let alone empty the trash! Things like that happen all the time. Sundays are a reminder at how much work they all do because it is our housekeepers’ day off (a husband and wife) so we have to take care of everything just like it was in Michigan, only no dishwasher. Our maid even takes the plastic grocery bags and wraps them up into tiny little shapes to save room.
While there are many perks, there are things that are difficult, as well. Despite our best efforts at keeping the kitchen counters clean, there are constantly a dozen or so ants roaming around (not to mention the ones that are on the floor). We also have been finding dead (or dying) bees in our house. We had a mosquito net installed in Mallory’s room this week to cover her crib because she has so many mosquito bites on her tiny little body. In addition to the bug infestation, the pollution in this city is horrible. The air quality is so bad you can’t see very far when you get into the city. Luckily, it’s not as bad here in Pondok Indah. The rivers are horribly polluted. People just throw trash out their windows and dump it anywhere they want. I kind of chuckle when I think about all the environmentalists in the US. They would freak out if they saw what people were living in here. Creed and I were talking the other night about not understanding why people don’t strive to have better lives for themselves here. They don’t seem to care that they don’t have many green spaces or that their children don’t have any place to play. The poor areas of town (just behind all the buildings on the streets, you don’t have to look very far) make us all sad. The houses are just built out of whatever people can find. It has definitely opened all of our eyes. As much as people in the states complain about how things are, things really are good there. Living here just this short time has made us grateful for what we have been blessed with and also made us aware of the world around us and the need to help.
Okay, enough of the serious talk. The boys are thrilled to start school in a week and a half. They will go this week to have their evaluations and to look at the school. I’m excited to have them start, as well. I can’t believe Luke is going to be in Kindergarten. He is really looking forward to it.
Our branch has grown by leaps and bounds. There have been 4 pretty good sized families (including us) that have moved in this summer. It is nice to see some more children. We were thrilled that one family has children the same ages as our boys. We are going to have them over this week to swim.
We hope you’re all doing well. We miss everyone.
Heidi (and Creed)
