Vote for me!

Today is the election day for Palembang's next mayor. I don't know much about the politics here to make any comment at all about whats going on politically. All I know is that there are 4 parties and all the posters show the leader and the deputy together. We've also been told that it will be better to stay at home tomorrow just in case of people acting out from disappointment.

So, here is a photo of the polling booths in our area.


The process is to go 'sign in' at one of the tables, and I guess they'll mark your name off, then go sit down and wait. They'll call out your name when its your turn.

The individual voting booths are those silver things in the middle of the photo. Over here, the word they use for 'vote' is 'coblos' (pronounced choblos), which also means to pierce. The voting slip has photos of the 4 parties and you stab at the one you want. Those booths are actually equipped with nails!

After you've nailed the guy you want, you have to go get your little finger dipped in some ink. Thats how they make sure you only vote once.

His own wheels!

I've been looking out for a tricycle for several months but all the ones I came across were two seater and had a lot of useless ornaments about it. As soon as I saw this one, I grabbed it.



He looks pretty happy on it doesn't he? That photo was taken a few days ago. Guess who is more excited about it now? Him, or me? I've been so enthusiastic about teaching him to pedal but he hasn't got the hang of it yet. And he also doesn't seem to know how to just walk himself along while seated.

I guess this is going to be an indoor tricycle for now because I'm definitely not going to fall into the trap of pushing this along the road outside. Its hard enough doing it on a smooth surface in a confined area.

Thursday Thirteen #14

13 Indonesian Words
Here are a few words that I like either for the way they sound or what they mean.

1) Dong - This word doesn't really have a meaning. It is my favorite because it sounds so funny. I hear it tacked on at the back of sentences a lot. For example "Don't do that, dong". If you're a Malaysian, think of it as the "-lah".

2) Choi - I think it means something like "Buddy". You only use it to call friends. For example "Hey Choi". Its actually from the Palembang dialect.

3) Kodok - Frog. I just like saying this one. Try it.

4) Chowok - Male. I think this one and the next word are in the Palembang dialect.

5) Chewek - Female. When Aaron was a baby and still androgynous looking, people used to ask me, "Chowok atau (or) Chewek?" I was always so confused wondering why they were trying to talk about Chewbacca.

6) Koki - Chef. Isn't it a cute word?

7) Balita - Toddler. This word is actually the short form of saying "BAyi di bawah LIma TAhun meaning "baby under 5 years old". Isn't it amazing how they abbreviated a 5 word phrase to just 3 syllables.

8) Kring - Cell. As in the neighborhood Catholics getting together for prayer or other fellowship. I wonder if those terrorist cells are also called 'Krings'. Once again, the word reminds me of 'Klingon'.

9) Pelit - Stingy. I learnt this word a few days ago and I've been using it a lot.

10) Gengsi - Snobbish. The dictionary has this word translated as 'prestigious' but when I asked an Indonesian how this word would be used, it had more negative uses to it than anything prestigious. Its like calling somebody a 'Snob'.

11) Yo - C'mon. This is another everyday word that is used in informal settings. I usually hear it when people are leaving "C'mon, lets go".

12) Santai - Relax. Whats not to like about this word?

13) Cicip - To try. This is used for tasting food. When you're cooking and taste to see if its right, thats called 'cicip'. Or if somebody sees you eating something yummy and they want to have a bite, they might ask to 'cicip' it.

Scenes from Palembang

I haven't posted many photos of Palembang lately. Its not that I've been a hermit, its just that I keep missing the good shots either because I forgot to bring my camera along or I couldn't get it out fast enough. Anyway, here are a few.

Here's the reason why I don't buy meat from the markets. I did enjoy watching the guy hack away at the ribs with his axe though:


A truck laden with all sorts of plastics. You don't need to go out to buy the bulky (or small) items, this truck will drive through the neighborhood and you can shop from the comfort of your front gate.


These two kids have been on my mind a lot lately. I see them almost every time we drive past the intersection. I've been hesitant to give money after hearing some sad stories about these beggars. The first was about adults renting kids from their neighbors to make themselves look more deserving as beggars. The second is of course the common practice of sending the kids out to beg because they get more sympathy. I'm leaning towards buying a big tin of formula and giving it to them but then my driver said that its not unthinkable for the mother to just sell it. I think I'll do it anyway. I can't imagine that a mother would throw away the opportunity to feed her children something good.

I missed a lot of 'good' photos of these two. There have been times that I've seen the older boy pulling silly faces at the baby. And also times when I've seen him rocking the baby to sleep. There was once when I saw him playing around with two other children (yes, in the middle of the road) with the baby in his sling. After all, he's still a kid. Where is the adult??

Edited to add:
I've noticed a group of 2 or 3 women who are always 'camped' under a tree by that roadside during the day time. I think they are the mothers (or maybe renters) of the children. So, thats one place where the adults may be.

Thomas, Percy, James & Aaron

For the past couple of weeks, we've had a new craze in this house: Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. Aaron has had a couple of these books around for the past six months but never took a keen interest in them. Then, all of a sudden, its Thomas, Percy and James all day long (except for when its The Wiggles). Luckily one of the books is a 6 in 1 book and there is plenty to look at. Personally, those little engines just don't grab me. I also don't think its the engine that is grabbing Aaron either.

In any case, I'm now an expert at drawing trains, making train sounds and improvising household props to make trains. While all the effort seems to be focused on trains, its not actually the trains that are interesting to Aaron. He must be going through some development on recognizing emotion because its actually the faces of all the trains that he's looking at. He doesn't want me to read any of the stories or point out anything else on the pages. All we do is identify if each of the engines are sad, angry, worried, surprised or whatever. We do this page after page after page.

And then, over the past few days, he's started to apply that to the people around him. He keeps looking at my face and then saying 'Mama is happy'. Or when he's done something wrong and even without me saying anything, he now can recognize when Mama is angry. And he'll say it in such a cute way that it ends up diffusing the situation a little. My favorite is when he says 'Mama is sad' and gives me a big hug.

So, Thomas and Friends may seem a little dull at first but they've been very useful in teaching Aaron about the various emotions.

By the way, at first glance, there appears to be just different colored engines. But when you study their faces closely, they all look different and are in fact 'individuals'. I did find that aspect of the books interesting.

This and That

I don't really have one particular topic for today. Feeling a bit tired from a night of not feeding Aaron and a day of entertaining him. Yes, I wake up feeling super when I've fed him 4 times overnight but after a night of not feeding, I could hardly drag myself out of bed this morning. And this was after I slept in an additional hour. I'm not ready to fully wean Aaron yet but I decided to give night weaning a try. Hopefully, this will help him sleep through. The first few nights were relatively easy but last night was horrible. It would have been so much easier to just feed him and he would have fallen back to sleep in a couple of minutes but I stuck it out. It took him close to two hours to get back to sleep after waking up at around 1.30am.

***

One of my neighbors came over today to tell me that her sister has a whole bookshelf of English novels that I could borrow. The sister used to be an English teacher but had a stroke several years ago and spends most of her time in bed now. I didn't get to meet this lady but a whole stack of books were brought out of her room for me. I was a little disappointed to see that they were all Mills and Boon romance novels. Not exactly my type of read but I'll give it ago. I picked the three with the less 'dramatic' covers. It will be my first time reading any sort of romance novel, except The Thorn Birds. But I'm not sure if that one is in the same category as these.

***

My bites have almost stopped itching. Now I'm left with two polka dotted legs. I hope these marks fade soon. I can feel people looking at my legs (for obviously the wrong reason) when I walk past, especially in the gym.

Why are they not worried about the Avian Flu?

One of the biggest worries I have about living in Indonesia is about the Avian Flu. It was constantly on my mind last year and because of it, I don't even go near the section of the market that sells chicken.

Obviously, I'm too paranoid to buy any chicken home to cook but I do eat it occasionally when we are out since the danger is when the chicken is still uncooked. However, if I were to let my paranoia go further, I'd worry that the people in the kitchen might somehow have come in contact with an infected chicken when they went shopping for the restaurant. And the worst case would be that they catch the virus and it mutates in them to the strain that can be transmitted from human to human.

Initially, I did have have multiple paranoia induced scenarios in my mind all the time but after awhile, even though I avoided chicken, I 'forgot' that Indonesia has the most cases and deaths (by FAR) from Avian flu. Not a good thing. I'm all fired up again now after a conversation I had yesterday. By the way, as of 28 May, 2008, 108 out of the 241 deaths from Avian Flu was in Indonesia.

Aini asked me why we don't eat chicken. After I told her, she very casually said "Oh yeah, we had that at home. It got a few of our chickens so we moved the others to a different location". She said this with a 'No big deal' kind of tone.

What happened to quarantining and culling the remaining birds in the area??? And guess what else, she's not sure how they disposed of the affected chicken. She thinks they were just buried but they may have been burnt. Not really sure ALL ALL. Wasn't she worried? No, because the affected chicken have been removed.

There was absolutely no worry or a shred of concern from her about the whole issue. She was not aware of the dangers or the potential of a world wide pandemic either. And the ultimate worst part of it all: Even after I told her everything, she doesn't seem to feel the gravity of the situation.

Yes, she is just one person but I am pretty sure that if I were to go ask her neighbors, I'd get similar reactions. There is hardly any mention of the Avian Flu in the newspapers. Nobody talks about it. It is a non-issue here. Even last year when there was more international mention of it, the people here did not have basic facts about it.

Anyhow, my paranoiameter is back up to 'Red Alert'.