Our first day in Indonesia and MAF doesn’t waste any time. We were picked up at 9:00 am and wisked off to the police station where the MAF guy apologized profusely because Hugo only had a t-shirt on and not a shirt with a collar. This is very important here when going to government offices. Then we navigated the congested streets of Jakarta to the immigration office. As we bounced and rattled and squeaked along in the MAF van, which thankfully has working airco, we had a quite a view of Jakarta. The downtown east side of Vancouver is nothing compared to this. We were a bit late at the immigration office and it was rather busy so we waited. At 12:00 they close down for an hour so we had lunch at a little restaurant around the corner. Rice and various accompaniments was on the menu along with pineapple and papaya. After that we went back to the immigration office and waited again. Thankfully not that long. The MAF guy that does that paperwork is pretty persistent. At both the police station and the immigration office we were fingerprinted and they had to write down our height and weight, eye and hair colour etc… All very important information…. After that Hugo and Mikah, Aidan, Marc and Brynne took a taxi back to the guest house. Bob, the MAF guy, took Christiaan and I to visit the german audiologist that I had been emailing with. It was a crazy 1 hour drive. Not because it was so far, but because the traffic here is insane right now. Today is the Indonesian day of independence and therefore a big holiday that people like to get prepared for. It’s hard to describe exactly what it was like. There are cars and motorbikes and these little three wheeled taxis that belch black smoke constantly. There are quite a few people wearing masks over their mouths because of the bad air. We saw people living under bridges, washing clothes in a parking lot with water they pulled up out of a well in the parking lot. People are selling stuff everywhere. Even at busy stoplights. Anyways, the audiology clinic was quite nice and has everything that we need. They even have a clinic in Bandung. By the time we got home I was rather tuckered out. So we ordered pizza from the local Pizza Hut. The pizza is a lot smaller and has quite a thick crust. The meat lovers pizza that Hugo and I had had sliced hot dogs on it… and no ground beef. It was quite tasty actually.
This morning it is currently 6:30 and we are being picked up at 7:00 to drive to our new home in bandung. We are leaving early to try to avoid some of the holiday traffic. I don’t know when I can post again, hopefully tomorrow… You never know here in Indonesia…
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Aunt Fief says:sounds like quite the city.All this stuff youse had to get done at police station--was that so youse could put in a claim for the lost luggage??????Or does Hugo have to go on a major shopping spree now.Am anxious to hear what the house is like and what kind of neighbourhood it is in.How are the children faring thru all this confusion???????Yes ,I saw some of those things like living under bridges and doing laundry and selling everywhere on the CD that Regina showed me when she came back from visiting JohannaWielenga.All that primitive stuff and poor stuff against a modern backdrop.I would just LOVE to see this all.She also went to Papua with Johanna to Boma and Sentani and areas---beautiful pictures she had--would also love to visit there.Here all is well.Uncle Fred ,Aunt Jane and Betty are visiting Aunt Mary,Uncle Morris and family.You see it Heres and Frieda's 25th anniversary so that is why they went but staying at Thalen's.Weatherwise we are in a HOT streak again for two weeks.For the rest nothing much new here so catch youse on the flip side.I just LOVE your updates on all your experiences.
All my LOVE to you ALL and GOD BLESS
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