Puasa

It is Ramadan time here in Indonesia and definitely not as restrictive as Howie and I had anticipated. Most restaurants are open, although many now hang curtains in the windows so that you cannot see in from the street. The thing is, there are a lot of people NOT fasting. If you are pregnant or menstruating, you cannot fast and then of course there is a pretty large Christian and Chinese population that is also eating regularly. The first week was the most serious, everyone in my office seemed to be fasting and even having water at your desk was a no-no. By this week, the usual afternoon snacks have re-appeared, water and coffee at the desk are fine, and there is just generally a lot more eating going on.

At about 6 PM when we hear that call to prayer in the office, there is suddenly chaos and scrambling for the pantry area. Everyone running to have tea and snacks that the office lady picks up about an hour before "buka puasa" - what we call break fast, they call open fast. In anycase, this is not your bagel, creamcheese and lox crowd. Above find the beverage (for lack of a better term) of choice described to me as "porridge with a jelly surprise" I was offered a taste, but I could not even take a spoonful from such a hungry woman's mouth. And, well quite honestly, not really my thing I think.

Just a day in the life...

6:30 PM “Masukan nomar telefon…” It is the voice of trying to make an international call from my office where you dial a code, get this message and then have to enter the telephone number you are dialing, then the pound sign and then, inevitably, still do not get connected to the person you are dialing. After hearing this message too many times I gave up, sent the woman I was supposed to interview an “I am sorry” email and headed to the gym. Already off my schedule since I was hoping to leave at 6…"jam karet" – rubber time – I am living like an Indonesian.

There were no taxis. I mean NONE. And I could see the busway from where I was standing and it was packed. Buses were only coming about once every 10 minutes and they were stuffed to the gills, only letting about 4 people on the bus at a time. No taxi, no bus….argh. So I decide to walk. It is about 30 minutes, meaning my schedule for the evening was going to be running late. It is now 7:15 PM. I reach in my bag to call Howie…hmmm…where is my phone?? Actually, this pocket feels light. There is usually a couple thousand Rp in here for the bus…Crap. Pick-pocketed. 10 months here and you think I would know better than to put anything in the front zipper pocket of my bag. Maybe 10 months has made me careless. Whatever the case, the phone was gone.

7:30 PM Back to the office for one last check for the phone. Maybe I left it on my desk? Nope. Not there. OK, I freak out for a minute and then realize I need a new phone and I have to keep my phone number and if I do not do this now, it is never going to happen. Off to the Ambassador where I bought the phone the first time. But now I am back to the same problem I had when I left the office. No taxi, tons of traffic in the direction of the Ambassador and the little mini buses I take, there are none to be seen. There is a huge crowd waiting to the minibus and when one comes – they seat 10 people uncomfortably – there is a mad scramble. I cannot fight my way on the first couple, but as I get more and more annoyed, elbow fly and there I am on the minibus.

7:45 PM I find the office for the phone company (Indosat) and by some miracle and after only about 16 pages of paperwork and no fee I have a new SIM card, with my same number and all I need is a phone. Luckily, there are about 100 cell phone dealers at the Ambassador. Right near the Indosat office, go figure. By 8:30 I have a new phone and the SIM card is working. All that is missing are the phone numbers of the few people I know, which in the grand scheme is not a big deal since they can still call me. Yay.

I run to the supermarket, pick up some fish since I had promised to cook dinner and after waiting in the “basket only” line for 30 minutes since, although they say basket only, they do not specify how many baskets you can have, I am ready to go. I am back on the minibus and almost home.

9:15 PM Home. Finally. I whip up some dinner – a damn nice meal of rice and fish, beet salad and zucchini – and we are eating by 10 PM and I have crazy conflicting emotions. On one hand, man this day sucked. Getting around is so irritating, nothing worked right, I was pick-pocketed!! But on the other, I did it. I did not let Jakarta get the best of me. Happy. Accomplished. Sleepy. Just another day I suppose...

Earthquake, Take II

Neither of us felt this one at all. I was on a bus coming home from work and Haviva was in a taxi. The city was a complete mess because it is the first night of Ramadan, so it was hard to tell if there was extra chaos from the earthquake or not. Apparently people did feel it here, but we had no idea until Haviva got a text message asking if she was ok.

The quake was centered off the coast of Bengkulu, which is where we went last month for Indendance Day. Sounds like they were hit pretty hard.

Just wanted to let you know that all was well here.

Frisbee in Singapore

Had a great time in Singapore over the weekend at the annual Singapore Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. More than 25 teams and almost 500 people showed up from all over Asia. The weather made for a lot of fun - the tournament started in the pouring rain and we played in giant mud puddles the whole time. The two teams we sent from Jakarta finished respectably in the middle of the pack of their respective divisions.

Photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/SingaporeUltimateTournament

Also, here's a video I took of a fantastic catch by one of our players if you are interested... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2649207118015851806&hl=en

Another great weekend here in Indonesia. We hiked one of the highest volcanoes in Java with the local hiking club, Java Lava. 16 of us set out by bus at midnight on Friday night. We got a little bit of sleep on the bus and arrived at the foot of the volcano around 8AM on Saturday. After a breakfast PB&J sandwiches we started hiking.

We've come to learn that Indonesians don't really believe in switchbacks, so the trail was straight up. It's not the longest hike, but it was a good challenge. We got to the top by around two and set up our tent, which I proceeded to use for a fine mid-afternoon nap while Haviva socialized with the rest of the group.

We had a great night up on the crater rim. We needed porters because there is no water on the volcano, so we ate quite well - pasta and sauce for dinner and scrambled eggs with cheese and veggies for breakfast. You probably didn't think you'd be seeing pictures of us in hats and mittens in Indonesia, but it was plenty cold up there.
This weekend... I'm off to Singapore for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament and Haviva's staying in town to work. More photos from last weekend... http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/GunungCiremai