Live from Jakarta

Flowers that fall front the trees at our pool.  

It took ten days for us to get internet at our new apartment in Jakarta.   I actually wrote this blog post on the second and third day after we arrived in Jakarta.  Technically, we've only been in this country for two weeks but it's amazing what a difference a week can make!  We're entirely settled in at this point but I still want to share my first thoughts on our new home.    

Once again home with embassy furniture.  It's oddly comforting!

My thoughts on day 2:

It's hard to think of a proper introduction on my blog for our new life in Indonesia. So much has happened since we left Ethiopia and yet it's still so close to our every thought. One thing that is an interesting feeling is just how comfortable and normal it feels to once again, be in a third world country. It's also wonderfully familiar to be in SE Asia. Many of experiences we're having are very reminiscent of our time in Manila, Philippines. Ethiopia is so different from Indonesia but all one does upon arrival in a new country is compare it to the country you were coming from. We have enormous grins on our faces every day in Jakarta. When comparing Jakarta to Addis Ababa it's easy for Jakarta to come out on top. I'm sure this city has it's own set of challenges but for our family, coming from Addis Ababa, we can't see anything but the positive. We've only been here since Sunday, August 3, so we haven't seen much, but so far everything is so nice. It's wonderfully easy settling into a country where the roads are clean and well made, the city is crowded with a growing economy, grocery stores are full of everything we could ever need and the Indonesian people are wonderfully friendly.

My favorite part of our new apartment.  Our closet.

Some very small things that have made us very excited about our life in Indonesia:

Immediately getting beef pho for lunch after just a few hours of sleep in our new apartment

Walking into the Hypermarket at Lippo Mall (which I can see from my apartment window), and seeing rows and rows of fresh produce, entire refrigerated sections of chicken, beef, milk, yogurt and imported cheese, as well as staples like peanut butter, olive oil, and cereal. And this was the low-end grocery store.

Seeing the eager friendly faces of Indonesians when they see our sweet girls.

Lippo Mall has a Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, and Mod. It's so nice to see familiar brands.

Nannies with white nurse-like uniforms, carrying the toddler, and pushing the stroller, while Mom walks empty handed. To clarify, it made me smile because it's something we're used to seeing in the Philippines, it's just as ridiculous in Jakarta as it was in Manila.

My least favorite part of our new apartment.  The Asian mini fridge.

Siting on our embassy issued couches watching our welcome kit TV felt wonderfully familiar.

The ache in my feet and ankles after a day of walking on our all-marble floored apartment.

Amazing New Zealand apples at the grocery store. I know I'm from Washington State-home of awesome apples, but I love New Zealand apples. They are so crunchy!

When my new Indonesian pembatu (nanny/cook/maid), Aunty, arrived and immediately displayed super human patience with my 3 year old and a book of stickers. SE Asian women are the most patient human beings on earth.

When the girls and I returned from the playground and the floors were sparkling and the laundry was folded. Day 1 of housekeeper-win!

Batik shopping on weekend 1

Fireworks every single night. Gotta love all the fireworks in Asia.

Pools, gym, playground, sauna, cafe, mini mart, produce stand are all within our apartment building.

Meeting ladies who lunch, Jakarta style.

KFC delivery men on motorbikes!

Dumping a quarter of our first bottle of water on the floor, since it's been so long since we've used a commercial water dispenser. I sort of miss the endless supply of water the distiller in Addis provided.

No travelers tummy! Maybe our guts are just used to the changes. We've also had conflicting advice about properly washing our vegetables and fruits. Our sponsor washes only with bottled water. Other people insist on vegetable detergent and bleach. We followed our sponsors advice and ate our first few fruit and vegetable heavy meals without washing and rinsing with bleach or detergent and have had absolutely no issues. Yay for stainless steel stomachs and not having to bleach soak our food!

Eggs come pre-washed in plastic egg cartons. Oh be joyful!

Food Network on our cable package! No way!

It's fun to see and experience so many of these things similar to Manila. It's great to be back in SE Asia. We have tons to explore in this new country. We aren't entirely naive honeymooners though. We know this lovely dreamy phase will pass. For now there are only a few things I can see, I might have trouble with.

We have noticed that the language barrier is fairly significant. After a few days, I still cannot decipher what “hello” and “thank you” in Bahasa is. With the chaos of the first few days, I haven't even had a chance to look it up!

The traffic is pretty epic and from what I've deduced, this keeps people from exploring and getting out. It tends to overtake people's lives here. If you live in the North, close to the embassy, you stay there. If you live in the South, close to the schools, you socialize there. Which means there is a good portion of the embassy community you likely won't get to know very well.

I've also found it to be true that a larger post may provide more efficient services but looses much of the small community feel. I'm already missing the idea of knowing every single family at post and automatically rounding up all the moms with little girls to be our immediate friends. That's not to say we haven't met wonderfully lovely families. We are going to have lots of good friends here, I can already tell. 

More to come!

Next overseas post: Jakarta, Indonesia

Note: the photos in this blog post have absolutely nothing to do with the topic.  I just find them funny.  Addie informed me that "mustaches are popular at school right now among the 4th and 5th graders".  So we made some!

I'm not sure why I haven't written this blog post until now.  We've known about our next destination for almost a year now.  I guess as we get closer and closer to our new post, it seems vital I make an "announcement".

When we moved to Manila in 2008 we thought living in the Philippines for three years would be a good change of pace for us. We were not enjoying the rat race of two working parents and a baby in daycare full time. Life was not as enjoyable. We told our family we'd be home after Manila, and at the time we really thought we would be.  Then the opportunity to move to Ethiopia came up and we decided to go for it.   We'd definitely be home after two and a half years in Addis Ababa!  But when the time came to look for the next position we were eager to see where else in the world this adventure could take us.  To be honest, all the options available to Justin looked good and I was willing to move to any of them.  When we got word that he got the job in Jakarta we jumped for joy!

So our three year adventure has morphed into almost 9 years overseas.  I promise, after Jakarta, we're coming home!  At this point I've turned into the boy who cried wolf.  So maybe you won't believe it until it actually happens.  Fair enough! But this time really, I mean it.  We're moving back to Virginia after Indonesia.

There are lots of things we're excited about Jakarta.  We loved SE Asia while we lived in Manila.  The travel is wonderful, the food is great, people are friendly and love children, the lifestyle is not as difficult as living in Africa.  Culturally, Indonesia will be very interesting to experience. We've never lived in a mostly Muslim country so this will be new and exciting.  Indonesia will also be the most developed country we will have lived in (outside of the United States).

We've been assigned housing in South Jakarta (where we requested, which is closer to the schools, not the embassy) in a four bedroom high rise apartment that is close to the Jakarta American Club.  It has the benefit of a gym and pool on-site which is a great perk.  Ashlynn's preschool will be within walking distance from our apartment. This is huge!  One of my babies won't be commuting too far.  The apartment appears to be fairly new (although we all know that construction in the developing world can deteriorate quickly), newness isn't really an important factor for me.  The aesthetic of the apartment really isn't of interest to me either.  But the space seems big enough and livable for our family.  Most importantly the kitchen looks great.  It's very reminiscent of our housing in Manila.  Cold hard marble floors, lots of bathrooms, large windows, balconies to terrify me.  Overall, the place is absolutely livable and it will be fun to get creative with making the space our own. That's one of my favorite things about the blank slate of a new home.

If you're keeping up with International School news, you will have heard the tragic news about recent incidents at Jakarta International School (JIS).  It's a well known and highly touted school.  Both Addie and Bella (hopefully) will attend.  Right now, we have a Montessori school KG program as an alternative for Bella if it comes to that.  We're hoping it won't.  I've had it in my mind for a year now that my two older girls will be at the same school and ride the bus together.  The school situation has been the most stressful so far.

Another stressful issue with a move to Jakarta is taking into account the epic traffic and commute times we have awaiting us.  We're in for a rude awakening and I'm sure we will be humbled about what we considered "traffic" in Manila and Addis.  Both of which have pretty nasty traffic, if I'm being truthful.  But Jakarta traffic is in a whole new category of awful.  Addie, unfortunately has been placed at the JIS campus which is slightly farther away from our apartment due to space issues.  On google maps the distance is about 5km but the commute time on the bus we are told is anywhere from 40-60 minutes!  Our one desire for this post was to give our children a short commute to school.  As it is now, they both commute long times to and from school here in Addis (Addie 60-80 min one way, Bella and Ashlynn 30 min one way).  It was the same in Manila.  Kids at this age should be able to walk to school or take a bus ride that is about 15 minutes for elementary school.  Sadly, our girls have commute times that are more in line with grown-up nine to five office jobs.  It sounds like it will be the same in Jakarta, as much as we tried, we failed at getting them placed at the school campus that is only a 15-20 minute commute from our apartment.  I still find it unbelievable that it's so difficult to live close to school overseas.  Americans are used to having an elementary school within a 4 mile radius of their home, no matter where you live (in most suburban areas).  Throngs of kids walk to school or take yellow school buses short distances.  But not overseas.  I've decided that it just simply isn't the norm for international schools. At least it has not been our overseas experience. Or maybe at one time there was enough housing close to the school, but growth has changed that.   To be quite honest, I am heartbroken that my kindergartner and second grader will once again be sitting on a bus for more than two hours a day.  It just seems wrong on so many levels.

But the bright side to this situation is that the long commute to school isn't new to my girls.  They are accustomed to it.  They are troopers and will manage well.  I am sure of it.

Commuting from our apartment in South Jakarta to the US Embassy which is downtown will take anywhere from 40-60 minutes in the morning and anywhere from 60-90 minutes on the way home on a good day (non rainy season, non flood season, non protest season) the distance is 12.6 km.  Traffic is likely to be the single most difficult thing about adjusting to our life in Indonesia.  It's good we've had some practice traffic in Manila and Addis.  We're not newcomers to the challenges of driving in a developing country that happens to be developing faster than the infrastructure can handle.  I'm planning to use the commute time to work remotely.

Yes, work!  You heard me correctly.  I have been chosen as a candidate for a job at the embassy.  Which basically means I've been selected for the job but have some rigorous security clearance processes to go through before I can be officially offered the job.  But anyway, there is much more to say on the topic of me going "back to work" -as one says.  I am thrilled, terrified, and nervous all in one!  Probably to be expected.  It doesn't help that my daughters groan and protest at the mention of me going to work "like Daddy".  More on this topic later.

Also, the silver lining in commuting horrendous amounts of time to work for two years in Jakarta, will make ANY commute in the Northern Virginia/Washington DC area, either on the beltway or on 267 seem like a walk in the park.  We will laugh in the faces of whiny DC commuters after Jakarta!  Here I go with the bright side again!

Every one of our overseas moves has been a new adventure.  Both Manila and Addis Ababa have deeply shaped me as a person.  Both our posts have allowed me to grow in different ways.  I am certain that Jakarta, Indonesia will do the same.  I am thoroughly excited for this new adventure with my family.  We are eager for those first few days upon arrival in a new country where everything is new and a little scary and unknown.  But we get to look around and discover our new life and make it our home.