Today was another full day, and so interesting, as always! I am loving Jakarta, its chaos and all the activities ACICIS is organising for us - they give us a lot of license but it's really nice to have a programme of interesting speakers and places to go.
Now, I'm all for religious tolerance, but unfortunately Islam requires morning prayers at around 4am and double unfortunately my new bedroom happens to be right next to a mosque. Cue being woken up at 4am by loud speaker-announced prayers that continued for half an hour. On the plus side, my blackened soul must be slightly less tarnished now, but I'm pretty sure I'd trade some spiritual purity for a really good night's sleep.
After a quick shower and orange juice and a nectarine for breakfast (first fresh fruit or veges in agesssss) we headed to Uni for a shared breakfast. I returned to the kos 15 minutes later, having in true Alex style forgotten my passport. Lucky I locked the door, huh? Five minutes later, I was sweating buckets (charming but true) - running in Jakarta is not on the agenda! Finally, managed to grab the necessaries, and walked towards Atma Jaya, my University. The roads are PACKED here, and the footpaths too - ojek drivers park their motorcycles by the score beside the side of the road (there is no footpath along the road I live on) and call out to you as you pass: "Hey lady, lady, lady". The smells are TERRIBLE - garbage, sweat, faeces - yummy! The people keep to themselves, really, except for the guys who sit on the side of the road and chat to each other. There are lots of roadside stalls selling food (shady), cigarettes, water. You have to be careful with the water, and check that it's sealed - we saw some guys filtering water into bottles down by the river, to resell. The street I live on is crazy - a mix of proper shops and concrete fronts, and heaps of warung, roadside stalls, lounging ojek drivers, tiny blue mini-cabs that are rickety as, rusted and just begging for me to ride in them. There are stray cats around, with strange lumpy tales. One warung has a live band, right out on the street - just a guy playing some drums and and singing into a mic with his mates on guitars behind him. Awesome.
On the way to Uni you have to cross an over-bridge, which is crowded, smelly, lined with people sitting against the barriers, with goods laid out on blankets, like watches, umbrellas, match boxes. There are also beggars on the bridge - I've been very lucky and only seen a few so far. There is one lady who has a few months old baby and she has sat on the bridge for the past two days. The baby is obviously sick- it lies in her arms listlessly whenever I see it, and its eyes are always half closed. It has really bothered me, and I feel useless - I saw a girl give her a coin today and I followed suit, but...that kid and the mother didn't choose that life, but that baby hasn't had even a chance at life, and it's living on a BRIDGE. And it's so sick. Any suggestions? I have been trying to look up aid programmes - or maybe I can talk to some of the development studies people. I will try and talk to the ACICIS programme head tomorrow, to see if someone can help her and the baby out. But it is yet another example of a) my and other people's walk on by attitudes b) the scale of the problems in Indonesian (40% of the population live on less than $2 US a day) and c) the helplessness I feel in these situations. Life in New Zealand is no kind of preparation for South East Asia - maybe New Zealand could be doing more? Having said that, I have no idea what aid New Zealand provides Indonesia with. I need to do research. In the meantime, I will continue to give her money, and ask the programme head. Not good.
Also on the way, yesterday, were monkeys! It was also very sad, but they were very cute. Which made it sadder. They were on long chains and had these weird, creepy doll masks that they were told to wear whenever they tried to take them off. They were little spider monkeys, and oh dear. So sad. Even sadder, they were being controlled by eight year olds - shouldn't you be in school? Shouldn't you be clean? Shouldn't you be able to eat every day? Sadness!
So this morning we had an opening ceremony to say hello to the Australian ambassador (the New Zealand embassy is on leave until the end of Jan I think - slack ol' Kiwis. Still, we get a BBQ, so we're fully up on the Ozzies). It was interesting, and the VC of Atma Jaya gave a very nice speech, calling the ambassador handsome. We then headed to the Australian Embassy, which had the MOST security I've ever seen - barred gates, sliding heavy doors, metal detectors. That place is plush on the inside though - pools, tennis courts, bar. We were given a speech by one of the diplomats (names are NOT my strong point) which was intensely interesting BUT due to the mosque incident I kept almost falling asleep! Terrible. We were given our first Tim Tams in some time (bliss) and then headed back for lunch and then language class. Class was as much fun as yesterday and afterwards, Sarah, Helena and I headed to the old hotels to visit Tash, who has a parasite and has been very ill, as have many other people on the course.
We then went for a wander and found a little restaurant, which listed HEAPS of different Indonesian dishes. Using our new language skills, we tried to translate the dishes and order, with a fair amount of success! I had pressed chicken with rice and it was pretty good! Also, discovered a new dish at lunchtime, which was veges covered in spicy satay sauce called Garu-garu - SO GOOD! We headed home in a taxi who had NO idea which street we were on. Cue more pigeon Bahasa, and being told to buy a dictionary (in a good way. We think).
And so we come to the kos, where my net is working! (Barely.) I am so tired and have managed to develop an ulcer, but tomorrow promises to be amazing - I'm meeting with my host organization and have to organise a laundromat.
Bye for now, esteemed peep gang!
LESSONS LEARNT 4:
- Compassion is nothing without action
- South east Asia is a must-visit place, for the soul
- Animal rights start with human rights
- Ask the locals for advice, and for recommended dishes
- Everyone gets sick when on holiday - push on through!
- Don't annoy the Australians - they have muchos security!
Morning prayers = le suck. Industrial strength ear plugs an option?
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the ulcer, that's no good. :( But I hope it, and your Bahasa, keeps getting better. :)
Charlotte