Saturday Walk with Jim

The tide was out ... way out. So we walked along the beach to a nearby restaurant, had lunch, and walked home -- all with the tide out. 'picked up some great shells. Flowers and two other shots are from on our compound -- poolside and outside our front door.
And the sky shot? "Jesus clouds!" That's what we called them when the kids were young.

Learning the Language!

So, yesterday, I tried my counting skills out on Lusy, our maid. I counted to 10 in Bahasa Indonesian and she said "baggus!" Then she said "Missus stay in Indonesia long time, Missus be smart!"

I've been trying to spend about 10 minutes a day learning Bahasa Indonesian ("language of Indonesia"). It's got to be the easiest language on the earth! No verb tenses, just a verb followed by "yesterday" or "tomorrow" changes it to past or future. Only one sound per letter -- other than "e" which has two options. Very few adjectives. No superlatives. Everything nice, excellent, lovely, beautiful, good, ('sounds like I'm quoting from the book of Philippians, chapter 4!) ... is "baggus"! That's it ... just baggus!

The only complicated thing is the greetings. Just like in Nigeria, people don't just say "hello!" and "good bye" -- oh, if it were only that simple! It's got to be specific, which requires a watch:
good morning -- selamat pagi
good day -- selamat siang
good afternoon (which is not after noon but after 4 p.m!) -- selamat sore
good evening -- selamat melam

"good bye" changes, depending on whether you're the one leaving or if they're leaving --
selamat tinggal -- is when I leave them
selamat jalan -- is if they leave me
I have no clue what is to be said when we both leave!

But still, when I say "Saya tidak bisa Bahasa Indonesia" (I don't speak Bahasa Indonesian!), because I'm saying it in Bahasa Indonesian, they think I CAN speak it so they rattle on in their language! Or, they stop and think for a minute and then just giggle because I DID speak their language so I must be teasing them!

Anyway, because the average person I meet in the stores and the gardeners, the maids, etc. don't speak English ... this study is proving to be beneficial! And fun!

Orchid Adventure Begins

After reading about orchid care and watching online videos on orchid care and spotting them at various shanties as we've passed by and visiting 3 orchids shops, I've taken a deep breath and purchased two small plants. Even the very poor locals seem to enjoy growing plants but they share cuttings with each other -- I'm not as privileged! My driver thought I was paying an outrageous price but they were the cheapest I could find so ... for $3.50 each, I now own two plants.

I'm starting out with one indoors, near a window and one out of doors in the shade but with afternoon light.

I've talked with Lusy about what we need to do and I'll coach her for the next week because she'll be the one taking care of them (unless they develop problems and anytime that we're gone).

Fortunately, she's proven to be very faithful and careful with the other plants I've purchased so far. She seems to enjoy keeping them looking sharp.

In Nigeria, I tried to have cut flowers in the house as often as possible. But here, well, how special to be able to have blooming orchid plants!

I'm feelin' pretty blessed!

A Smorgasbord of Thoughts on Our New Lives

Precious gardeners who patiently and faithfully worked all day long to get new starts planted all along the edge of our patio.








Lusy:
Meet Lusy, our maid! How strange is it that I've only had two maids (and one steward) in my life and they both have the same name! I showed Lusy some pictures of Lucy. Lusy giggled -- as would Lucy, if she knew about it!

Lusy is a sweetheart. She speaks better English than most maids and helps me communicate with workers, etc. Her references were fabulous. She's been shopping in the local produce market a couple of times already and she really "gets it" -- that is, she understands strange expats and what we think is good food! She has a strange voice tone, similar to The Nanny's voice but softer. And she's got the cutest giggle!

Lusy is married but has no children, yet. I don't know how old she is -- I'm asking her questions only a little at a time so as not to overwhelm her. She thinks I have a lot of clothes -- and my shipment hasn't even arrived so all that she's seen is the little bit I brought in luggage. Does she ever have a shock heading her way! She's Christian. But when I've talked with her about Jesus she just nods and says "yeah, yeah" so I'm not sure if she's actually a follower of Jesus or just not a Muslim. We'll pursue that more as time goes on.

'haven't tried her cooking, yet. But she does a great job of squeezing fresh orange juice!

Antiques:
So, who would have thought that I could find antique furniture (almost as precious to me as tea!) in Indonesia!? It seems that the colonists brought in furniture and then decided to have their styles made in the local wood. The best stuff is made from teak. And the old teak trees grew to be huge before being harvested so the furniture has very few seams! (Modern teak furniture is famous world-wide because it's still quite well made. I'd only seen it in very modern styles but here you can get it in diverse styles and stains. They do some lovely stuff that's natural and, therefore, looks more like a light pine! The antique stuff is all done in more of a walnut stain -- as would have been the tastes of the "antique" colonists.) Anyway, the coolest part of this whole antique deal is that there's no market for the stuff here 'cuz every expat wants the new teak and the locals don't want stuff that reminds them of colonial days! Sooooooo ... prices are great! Here are 2 of the "finds" I've acquired! The majority of the stuff is probably on other islands, Java and Sumatra I bet. But at least I know it's out there!

Cultural Adaptations and Stereotypes:
There are strange paradoxes here that keep us bewildered. Indonesians are gracious people ... until they're in a queue of some sort and then watch out. They're quiet people ... but they BLAST their music. They are so polite ... but they roll their eyes and have other not-so-subtle ways to express their disgust. They smile all of the time ... sometimes they're happy and sometimes they just want something!

Fortunately, our time in Thailand has prepared us for some of this. But the change from Nigerian culture is about as extreme as you can get. You never have to wonder what a Nigerian is thinking ... he'll holler it at you and shove it in your face!

Now, I realize that all of the above are totally stereotypes -- it's like saying all Americans are loud and crass ... well, ... maybe???? But every culture has it's dominant standards of behavior. And in this culture it's better to keep your complaints to yourself and just smile -- but then you'd never get anything fixed ... quite the dilemma! But I have had great success in communicating concerns to Denny, our compound manager. Of course, it's his job to make us happy, I suppose. But he really is trying to do some of the little things I've requested -- new silicon in needed places in the shower, an electric outlet in the kitchen -- the only outlets are all clustered over by the breakfast counter/bar with nothing in the work area, new plants along the gutter area outside the patio, ... As long as I express total delight with all of the work that is done, I think we'll get along fine!

Customer Service:
Mmmmmm, very much like in Nigeria -- not there at all. A local restaurant manager explained it to us this way --- "It's the people from Kalimantan. They are lazy and they don't think. I can't trust them to do anything on their own. I have to be here all of the time. ..." You get the point. The manager is from the island of Java. Most educated/trained workers here are not from this island. The only universities here are very weak. It's strange but the people who are from here don't want to return here after they leave. (I have a friend from our time in Nigeria who is an example of this. She's from Balikpapan but she doesn't claim it. She married a Frenchman and has a home in Jakarta -- though she lives where ever her husband works, of course, and they've been transferred to another location in Africa.) Anyway, we just have to change our expectations and expect everything to take time and to have the end result not always be what we had ordered!

More rambles later!

Beachwalking Blessings

Here's a great little find that Jim and I picked up along the beach -- it's some kind of coral or a branch that's covered in minerals or something -- any marine biologists out there?!

I'm cooling down after my beach walk so I thought it was a good time to talk about it. This is only my third time beachwalking. I want to make a habit of it but there are three factors that can hinder it: rain (which was just starting when I wrapped up walking, today), my back (another story), and the tides.

The tide charts are becoming my friends. The shore is very shallow in this area which means that the tide moves in on the beach very quickly. And at high tide there is no beach. Under our compound fence there is a deep and thick cement barrier that keeps the ocean where it belongs. When the tide is in, the waves beat on that barrier, hiding all of the beach.

The last time I walked, I got my tennies soaked 'cuz it was very near high tide and I had no where to go! But this time I was out almost 2 hours before high tide so "not a problem"!

I've discovered the secret to enjoying this beachwalk -- look at the sun glistening on the water, don't look toward shore. It's not as bad as it was in Nigeria but the waves definitely bring in trash! So it's much better to walk a couple of hours before high tide because the trash is mainly gathered at the point of the last high tide and you can walk with only limited trash around each stepping area.

There are never any expats out, only local fishermen. I think the expats wait until they're in Bali to experience any beach walks! A couple of the beach-side restaurants hire workers to hand rake the beach in front of the restaurant every time the tide is out. Now there's some serious job security!!!

I suppose I could work out in the gym (there is one with limited equipment) but who wants to walk on a treadmill when they could beach walk and breathe in the amazingly fresh air?

So, I'm feeling blessed and completely grateful for our little patch of ocean! And speaking of rains, the rain has already arrived, poured heaps of buckets, and left in the short time I've been writing this!

Water Woes

You can't drink the water in Indonesia. In fact, sometimes it even discolors clothing, according to my maid. So, our company provides hot/cold water dispensers just as they do in Nigeria. But here, we have to buy the water ourselves (along with a whole lot of other stuff that they provided in Nigeria but don't provide here). But, that's not a problem about the water -- the price is very low.

So, because the company doesn't tell us much, it took awhile to find out how we should best buy bottled water. As it turns out, we can buy it from the compound maintenance office (along with purchases of gas for the 3 gas tanks we have for the 3 hot water tanks). Denny, the compound manager, is a great guy who is very helpful and even speaks some English. He's been able to answer almost all of my questions as they arise. So I bought one bottle from him to see how we did in consumption. Over the weekend we ran out of water. But we had a few small bottles of water so I wasn't too worried.

Monday came around and I sent our maid, Lusy, to buy a replacement bottle of water and she came back empty handed -- "No bottles, Missus." I thought, "Welllllllll, it's Monday. I'm sure they'll get a delivery later today."

To make a longgggggg story short -- 3 days later we still didn't have water. Now I was getting concerned -- and thirsty! I tried to communicate to the maintenance office that if they weren't going to get their water supplier -- Aqua, appropriately named! -- to deliver more water then I needed to know where to get some. Denny said that the other companies' water bottles don't fit our dispenser.

On the verge of tears, I came back to the house and asked Lusy what we should do. She suggested that we send a driver (which we don't have, yet) out to find Aqua.

Just then, the really, really inept gal from the company who is in charge of our housing (and is a part of the team that is the major source of stress for everyone on the compound) arrived (unannounced) at my door to do inventory (on the pathetic furniture she took a week to slowly provide as we continued to ask for each piece over and over again!!! She switched out the better furniture that had been in the house and gave us junk. Some of the stuff is so low to the ground that it's hillarious to watch Jim try to sit in it! The better stuff wasn't that much [better!] ... so I'm not whining too much. We'll be bringing some things in our shipments and buying some of the famous Indonesian teak furniture!)

Anyway, while she was standing there, I said, "By the way, we've been out of drinking water since Sunday and PMC office doesn't have any. Where can we get Aqua?" Her answer --- "Oh, there's no Aqua in all of Balikpapan." My response -- "Is there a reason that you couldn't tell all of us that information since you work for Personnel and your personnel need water?" No answer ... just a smile (the southeast Asian way!) ... "So what do you suggest we do?" No answer ... more smiles.

Just then my hero, Jim, arrived! With half a case of small bottles of water!

So, after this woman (who can make people's blood pressure rise, instantly) left our house ... I made myself of cup of tea by boiling the water Jim had brought home.

Sitting down in my newly purchased antique teak rocking chair, I sighed, smiled, and sipped my tea. And then ran to the sink to spit it out.

Careful examination of the Bahasa Indonesian on the water bottles indicated that, indeed, it was what it tasted like -- salty water and, therefore, salty tea. We now have half a case of some sort of highly ionized water -- good for you but not so good for tea, I think!

It was all so pathetic that we just had to laugh. And laugh we did!!!

Thankfully, I can report that we now have two bottles of Aqua -- one in the dispenser and one on standby! And I'm going to be researching the benefits of ionized water ...

Memories of our "Joey Visit!"

The real bummer about "hellos" is that, in our life style at least, it always means that there will be "goodbyes" to follow. We had to send Joey back to Australia on Wednesday. Obviously, a child who is all grown up shouldn't be living with his parents ... but sometimes I wish that was the acceptable norm for all families!

Joey, we miss you! But we packed in a bunch of memories that make us smile so thank you so much for the timely visit!

Yesterday's Cup of Tea

Back in Jakarta, while in a hotel, I got re-acquainted with fair and balanced news. Yes, the Marriott had FOX News. In the first 15 minutes of viewing I realized that I'd been duped! We thought that we were discerning folks because we could listen to CNN International (more liberal than CNN USA, even!) and discover some truth by reading between the lines. Well, well, well! Little did we know that entire lines were missing ... it's pretty tough to read between lines that aren't even there!!!

Thus began my quest for finding a provider that carries FOX News in Balikpapan. Many hours, conversations, websearching, etc. later I accepted the reality that FOX is in the Jakarta area of Java but not on the island of Bornea. FOX's own website listed 4 companies that carry them in Indonesia but this area of the country is just way behind.

So, we chose the package from Indovision that we would take when the time came to get satellite TV, being content with less than the best because it at least provides some international contacts!

The Camp Boss, here, is great -- his name is Denny. He's very eager to help and appreciates me, it seems, because I appreciate him so much! (The timeliness and quality of service here is so much better than where we've been that I get a bit excited over the simplest of things!)

Soooooooooo, yesterday afternoon Denny and the Indovision satellite TV guy arrived to re-install our set-up. (What a deal, they get paid to disconnect the guy who just left and then to install us -- they must love the companies that move people around a lot!)

I showed them my printout from the internet of the options and the one we'd decided upon and they said that everything had changed. This usually translates into "the prices have increased" so I braced myself. But, in actuality, the packages had entirely changed -- combinations, names, etc. were all different. And there, in the middle of the list of the channels carried by the Galaxy package were three letters that popped out at me -- F O X!!!! There is so much room in the living area, that it was easy for me to run and kick up my heals. Which I did -- much to Joey's embarrassment! Denny and the technician weren't fully understanding why I could get excited about any kind of news channel but they at least were entertained! The new packages began on ... get this ... drum role, please ... 4 July!

Hence, the photo with the cup of Earl Grey tea and lemon cookies. (The other shot was taken later in the evening just for a perspective on the near-empty room!) While the guy was doing the installation, I got myself ready to celebrate -- setting up a little "couch" out of some pillows and blankets. Bottom line after installation was complete: the temporary card we have until Wed or Thur doesn't have FOX News. But, I enjoyed my tea, anyway, with the sheer anticipation that very soon I will be able to enjoy this amazing gift!!! I'm still shaking my head in wonder! God is good!

Exploring the areas around Balikpapan with Joey!

What fun we've had, sharing our new adventure with Joey. He's been with us during the last part of our hotel stay, during all of our temporary housing stay, and now for our first days in our real house. The place is echoing quite a bit as it's missing most of the furniture. Due to a communication mix-up or, more likely, due to the lack of competence with the housing preparers, we moved into the house before the curtains and furniture were returned from being cleaned. But, we have beds, some bedding (that we bought), internet, TV, 6 dining chairs, 4 dinner knives, and a broken vacuum -- now that's livin'!! We were able to get out yesterday and buy a bunch of basics so we're seeing progress! And really, just having internet access has been such a blessing in the last 24 hours that we're feeling like we're living "high on the hog!" (Does anyone know the etymology of that phrase?)

We have a new maid who's name is Lusy! (The Indonesian spelling of Lucy, which was the name of our Port Harcourt maid -- a dear gal!) This Lusy speaks enough English that we're getting by alright. She's done an amazing amount of cleaning, today. And she took a taxi to some shops to buy another mop, bucket, cleaning goop for the tiles, and an adapter -- the total, including the cost of the taxi, was $9!!!

'hope these photos help you get a feel for life in this region. I'll wait to post house photos until our shipment arrives from Nigeria -- which could be awhile! But I'll probably post some beach scenes from the pool area of the compound. Last night we sat out by the beach to watch the sunset -- lovely!

Joey returns to Sydney on Wednesday but the fun's not over yet -- he just booked us into a Spa for tomorrow evening. 2+ hours of massage for something like $14! We've already tried it once -- there's no Indonesian word equivalent to fabulous or wonderful (superlatives are rare in this language) so all we could say was "bagus!" ="good"