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!