Never a dull moment...

I must say. There’s never a dull moment here in Indonesia. (BTW, we are all thankfully recovered from the flu bug-just a 24 hour thing) Today one of the boys, who shall remain unnamed, locked his bedroom door and closed it while he was outside it. This happened with Mikah just after we moved in and the landlord came by with a ring of keys for the house so no problem. Of course, today we discover that there is no key for the boy’s room on the ring. On the plus side, this particular bedroom door has an opening at the bottom for…. we’re not really sure at this point why it’s there, but who cares? It saved us today. With a bit of ingenuity, they don’t want him in Papua for nothing, Hugo, using a broom and a baby sling along with the opening in the door, managed to get the door open. I would imagine there was some grunting and heaving involved, but I wouldn’t know for sure as I was out shopping. Shopping on a Saturday afternoon in Bandung. Christiaan and I hopped on an angkot to go to the big import store Setia Buti. It took us a good 25 minutes and two different angkots just to get there. On a motorbike, this is a 5-10 minute ride. As we sat there sweltering, while our cool as cucumber co-passengers in their coats and sweaters weren’t sweating a drop, I realized that none of the windows were open. A situation quickly remedied and we could enjoy the Bandung breeze as we drove, no I can’t really call it driving. What do you call it when you inch along stopping and starting incessantly? Anyways, we made it to the store without difficulty, always a plus. Thankfully, inside the store it wasn’t too busy. One thing about Indonesia is that they are fabulous at job creation. It is difficult to find work here, but I commend the local stores for doing their best to ease the situation. Inside the store there are people in every aisle just waiting with bated breath for you to ask them where something is. In the meantime they take stock of the items in their aisle. When you go through the check-out there are people to put your groceries on the counter, people to pack your groceries and people to help you carry them out of the store. Then when you are out of the store there are two guys whose job it is to “help” people park (it’s really a very small parking lot) and to hail cabs for those, like us, who need one. This is a really great feature about shopping at Setia Buti or any of the other large stores. While you wait in the shade, they will stand in the sweltering sun, wearing a fleece body warmer over a long-sleeved shirt, and hail you a cab. Then they will load your groceries into the cab as well. They don’t however, come home with you and put away your groceries for you… bummer. And we still had to lug everything down the two gongs (narrow passage ways between houses with very uneven steps) to get home. Oh well, it could be worse, I could have had to go to Superstore in Langley where I not only have to put everything onto the counter myself, I also have to pack it myself and pay for any bags I need. Then I have to load up my own car…. Yup, life here is rough. Did I mention that we are running seriously low on water and are considering going to the pool instead of showering at home? Today I bought Styrofoam plates and plastic forks so that I wouldn’t have to use water to wash the dishes after supper tonight… Did I also mention that we share our home with both lizards and cockroaches?



This completely unrelated photo is of a new condo development going up near the school. All the scalfolding is made of bamboo and old wood. Nothing is measured so it's all a little haphazard looking... All the workers wear flip flops and no one has a hard hat on.... The finished condos look great though!







This completely related photo to the one above, is of some shacks right behind the new condos. The grey wall in the background is the back of the condos.