Bahasa Indonesia Lessons
Heidi and I started taking Bahasa Indonesia lessons this week. We take lessons from the same teacher, whose name is Ibu Rin, but at different times – one and a half hours per lesson, two times per week. I have my lessons at 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning at the office, and Heidi has her lessons at home during the morning, usually right after Ibu Rin is finished teaching me. Heidi and I both think this is a great time to start taking lessons – we have been in the country for nearly 3 months, we are nearly adjusted to the newness of it all and have gotten into somewhat of a normal living routine. We have also heard the locals speaking the language and are familiar with a few vocabulary words and with general pronunciation rules. Heidi and I both have headaches, though, after our lessons, but it is good to start learning and using what we are learning. I generally try to practice with the driver to and from work, and Heidi practices with the household staff.
Speaking of household staff, our maid Warsi has been talking to Mallory in Bahasa Indonesian, trying to teach her how to say “satu, dua, tiga,” which is “1, 2, 3.” Now all Mallory can seem to say is “dua” (I hear her saying it right now as I am typing). Whenever anyone says “satu,” Mallory answers back with “dua.” It is pretty cute to hear her speaking Indonesian.
Blackouts
One thing we were warned about before moving to Jakarta is frequent electrical blackouts. They were right. One night Heidi and I were minding our own business, watching a DVD quietly at home, when the power went out. After an hour or two the power went back on, but later that night the power went on and off again several times. We never did find out the reason. And about a month ago the power went out at work at 6:00 on a Friday night. Heidi and the kids were on their way to pick me up from work that night so we could go and do something, so I had to walk down 12 flights of stairs in the dark (remember that it is pitch dark by 6:00 here). And no, the stairwells do not have emergency lights. The only light I had was from my mobile phone. After those couple of blackout experiences, we invested in several new flashlights and batteries so that we could put one in each of the bedrooms.
Puncak
We had a great time this weekend with our friends, Dave & Jenny Willis and their family. They arranged for us to stay at a vacation home up in the mountains just on the other side of the Puncak Pass (approximately a 90 minute drive south of Jakarta). It was great to get out of the city and to get up in the mountains, where it was cooler and where the air is cleaner. The place where we stayed is owned by the US Embassy (Dave works for the US embassy) and is available for embassy employees to rent when the US ambassador isn’t using it. It has two homes, a pool, some nice gardens, and several huge, open grassy areas.
We felt like we were in heaven. We had packed some games for the kids to play inside and outside, and both Heidi and Jenny had brought food for us to eat, so we didn’t have to go anywhere the whole time we were there. It was great to get away from the traffic and pollution of Jakarta. The weather was perfect (probably in the 70s, though I never checked a thermometer), and for several meals we ate out on the patio. The kids had a great time playing together, exploring the grounds, playing Frisbee, badminton, ping pong, playing board games, etc. Even though the water in the pool was frigid (or shockingly refreshing to some), the kids swam 2 or 3 times, but for no more than 15 minutes each time. On Saturday afternoon, Dave and I took the kids on a walk on a trail to find a volcanology research station we had heard about. We ended up leaving the road and walking on a narrow trail for about 30 minutes until the trail ended. It didn’t matter, though, because the kids had fun walking through the jungle.
We were all fascinated by the many different plants and animals we saw up there. I guess instead of animals, I should say reptiles and insects. There were surprisingly few mosquitoes, which made it pleasant. We did, however, see two or three different varieties of beetles, several lizards (the largest was only 7 or 8 inches), and a baby cat eating a dead snake. Oh, and we also saw some bats at night.
Mallory and her Shiner
Mallory, unfortunately, took a horrible fall on the hard marble floor this week. She was in so much pain that she just moaned for about an hour. We were pretty worried about her during the night so we watched her closely. She seems to be fine now, but has a large bruise on her forehead and a black eye, the poor thing. She still smiles at everyone though.
Everything Else
On the way home from church today we saw someone selling monkeys by the side of the road. Cartim informed us that it is illegal, so we didn’t stop to buy one.
You’ll be happy to hear that so far we have managed to avoid the avian flu. You may have read that they closed the Jakarta zoo because a few people have died recently, supposedly resulting from the avian flu. Nash’s school field trip (in fact, all school field trips) to an area outside of Jakarta was cancelled due to the outbreak. People are quite scared about it.
I came home one day this week and thought I was in a Pier 1 imports store. Heidi has, with the help of some friends, found several shops to buy very reasonably priced pottery, baskets, wood carvings, and other decorative things for our house. I guess that makes sense, though, because I’m sure that Pier 1 imports gets a lot of their merchandise from Indonesia and countries like Indonesia.
