Hi everyone,
Although I still feel terribly transitory – and am, in fact, since tomorrow I leave Jakarta for Yogyakarta to start my Indonesian classes – it doesn’t seem possible that I arrived in Jakarta only 5 days ago. My stay here feels sort of timeless in a way that makes me sure I was right to come. I’m writing this from an open terrace, listening to the rain patter on the foliage and to a pushcart vendor pass by on the street with his bell ringing. From the same spot this morning, I heard the dawn call to prayer and yesterday, the dusk call to prayer mixed with the sound of children playing in the courtyard and a different vendor advertising his own wares. Each moment has brought a feeling of contentment that I haven’t felt for a long time during still moments.
Certainly the five days have brought much less tranquil moments as well. Jakarta traffic is infamous for good reason and its street layout mostly lacking logic or order. Walking to dinner one night in Central Jakarta was like a bad dream: after dark, the pouring rain keeping me focused one step ahead, crowds and crowds of motorcycles barely whisking past me, while what might as well have been sewer water rushed over my feet. The taxi ride home was even more worse; at my most alert, I have little sense of direction or distance in this city, and right then my jet lagged body thought it was 6 a.m. after an ill-advised all-nighter. My scattered thoughts concluded multiple times that I would be driving in circles forever, shivering from the overzealous air-com, enveloped in what seemed like infinite and fast moving city lights.
Mostly though, my time has been spent in much more pleasant ways. Food, of course, is one reason: I kicked off my stay in Jakarta at the city’s reportedly tastiest affordable dim sum establishment - and sure enough dreamt during my jet-lag nap later that day about the crispy kale with garlic and chili. The meals at home have also been truly superb; half the time I don’t know what I’m eating other than the white rice and the other half of the time it’s been pan-fried tempeh from heaven or shrimp that I will request for my last meal or rendang beef that melts in my mouth. Even the night of the endless drive, a friend of a friend (whom I am delighted to have met) and I shared a meal of gado gado, vegetables and rice cakes and egg and peanut sauce and solidly one of the meals that puts food in Indonesia’s “plus” column.
Otherwise, I took a long walk around the neighborhood, toured the National Museum, attended an embassy luncheon and a dinner party. (Our dinner conversation touched significantly on predictions regarding WikiLeaks: what various Indonesia documents will say, how officials will react, and who will play Julian Assange in the movie.) I’ve been in an out of a few malls – sadly, Jakarta's version of plazas or parks – standing by while friends bought a phone chip for me and a portable 3G modem, watching expat and well-heeled Indonesian patrons go in and out of an overpriced California Pizza Kitchen, listening to a live band cover an assortment of American top 40 songs vintages 1975 - 1995, and meeting with my new supervisor. I also met with the coordinator and staff at the national offices of the NGO where I’ll be working and visited the offices of the organization funding my work. All work-related meetings were useful and seemed to bode well for my doing really interesting work while I’m in Indonesia, and staying awhile to do it.
Until Yogya,
xo
M
