Children in Palembang

I often meet kids in Palembang and try to talk to them. They usually become shy or ignore me because I speak to them in broken Indonesian while they are more comfortable with the Palembang dialect.

Well, I found the key today. My camera.

I didn't say anything to them initially, I just took their photo and then showed it to them.

See how they are all lined up nicely here. This was one of the first photos I took.



Now look at these few shots from a few minutes later. They became extremely playful. And chatty too although I really couldn't understand everything they were saying.







This was the opposite of what the paparazzi do to celebrities. Here, a mob of "celebs" was chasing the lone photographer for more and more photos!

Two Cars And A Rope

Very often, we see one motorcycle pulling another one along with a rope. Recently, we saw two cars doing the same thing. I don't know enough about cars but wouldn't it ruin the gearbox or whatever thingi in the car if you just drag it along on all four wheels?

The traffic moves so slowly here that having these two cars on the road didn't slow things down noticeably. There is always lot of traffic, a lot of motorcycles in between and a lot of huge potholes so, everyday speed here is about 40km/h. When we hit 60km/h, I start to feel like we're speeding!

I circled the rope in white but its still hard to see. If you click the photo and see it in its original size, you can see the rope quite clearly.




Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Nations Of The World

I'm pretty hopeless at geography. Apart from the "common" countries that we frequently hear of, I'm terrible at pin pointing other ones on the map.

My cousin passed this to me a few months ago and I was hooked on the tune then. I started memorizing the countries and locations but eventually got distracted by other things. Aaron didn't seem all that into it at the time either.

But now, there's been a revival...



It was originally aired in 1993 so its pretty old and some of the countries, like Czechoslovakia, no longer exist. However, most of the other countries are still valid and this has been a really fun way of teaching Aaron about countries. Aaron seems to find it a lot more fun now and tries his best to sing along. I'm about a quarter of the way through learning it. Sounds like a waste of time but its good to exercise my brain once in awhile.

I get this mini sense of accomplishment when I manage to find some little country like Burundi on the map. (Try doing it without looking at where Yakko points.) Oh yeah, we have a huge wall map so it makes things a lot easier.



In case you're wondering, that KFC bucket is really a Captain's hat. OK?

Crazy Kids

I went to Kecamatan Gandus today. This is one of the poorest areas in Palembang and it is the location that we had selected to distribute the donations we received from our "Toy Drive". Actually, it turned out to be more of a Toy, Books and Clothes Drive.

I went there to meet with the head man of the area to discuss the logistics of how we would get this stuff out to his people.

While we were looking for the place, we were stopped for awhile in front of these kids. At first, there were only four of them. When they saw my camera, they started smiling for it.



And after awhile, I think they called their other friends to come look at the crazy lady in the car with the camera!



They were cute. When we finally moved, they followed us. Some scrambled over the gate and a couple managed to squeeze under it. Giggling and laughing all the way.

I'll have more photos of the area on Sunday. I didn't take any photos once we got into the area today.

Tuesday Thirteen - Stop Thief!

I'm usually full of respect for this country. There is plenty here that annoys the heck out of me but I ignore it all. 99% of the time, I like it here and I accept their way of life. I accept their religion, their straightforwardness (bordering on rudeness sometimes) and even their chauvinism. I try to keep an open mind and not judge. But something happened today that just ticked me off tremendously.

Someone stole my papaya! Again! I have very little space within the gates so I have a tree that I plant outside. Its actually no more than 4 meters from the house itself as we have a very short front garden. Four months ago, I watched and waited anxiously for the first fruit to ripen. It of course did and I decided to wait until afternoon to pick it. By then, somebody else already took it.

So when a second fruit looked like it would ripen soon, I covered it up with an old shirt. I was told that this is what you do so that people won't know when it is ripe. After I did that, the fruit seemed to stop maturing. It stayed green for 3 months. It started to look a little yellower last week. This morning, I woke up and it was GONE!

What gives other people the right to go check on my fruit and take it? I don't buy that they were poor and hungry. If it was the kids that play in the neighborhood, then their parents haven't taught them anything about respect. And if this was done by an adult, well, you can imagine the type of children they will bring up.

You may think I'm over reacting. Afterall, its just a simple papaya. Maybe the thieves just caught me on a bad day. That papaya was something that I was waiting to eat. I waited three long months for it!

So even though its Tuesday, I'm doing a Thirteen list. Things I don't like about Palembang!

1) Elevators. People crowd the doors from both sides. The people trying to get in can't wait to be the first in. So much so that the people can't get out to let them in. And the people getting out, well, they all want to be the first out.

2) People talking about other people, in front of them.

3) People pushing past when I open a door to guide Aaron through.

4) People pushing through from the opposite direction when I still have that door open, hoping to get Aaron and me through.

5) Spitting. Through the mouth and also through the nose. Out their car windows. From their motorbikes. As they walk. While they sit. In the middle of their workouts.

6) Smoking anywhere and everywhere. And sometimes blowing the smoke right in your face.

7) Using the car horn when they anticipate the red light turning green.

8) Throwing rubbish everywhere. Once again, out their car windows. From their motorbikes. As they walk. While they sit. Used tissues, plastic wrappers, papers, whatever!

9) Picking their noses in public. Sometimes with one particular finger where they have grown the nail extra long. Its gross!

10) Thinking that its the woman's fault if men have affairs. Wives who are not at the beck and call of their husbands, who do not maintain their beauty or who do not immediately get pregnant are inviting them to seek out other women.

11) People who pick off my four angle beans when they walk past. Its growing on my fence. Can't they see its MINE!

12) People who think I won't mind them taking my guava because I have a number of ripe ones. Just ask!

13) Finally, people who probably feel the ultimate satisfaction when they steal my papaya from under its covering! Maybe that person is now thinking "WOW! The papaya's rightful owner went through some lengths to protect it but I got it anyway!"

I'm Only Going To Say Things Once

I have a terrible sore throat. Had it since Friday and I think, it was somehow triggered by car fumes. We were stuck in a 20 min traffic jam getting out of the church car park and even though I had all the vents on 'close', I kept smelling that awful smell. And shortly after we got out of the church grounds, my throat started to feel strange. Anyway, it could be that, or it could just be a co-incidence.

The bottom line is that it hurts to swallow and it hurts to talk. I've been overdosing myself with garlic and ginger drinks and it has helped but not gotten rid of it yet.

Now this all sounds terrible but there is an upside to it all.

I've been home alone with Aaron the whole day. You all know he's two and a half. He's a chatterbox. And he usually doesn't act until you've repeated yourself about 50 times.

For most of today, I've stuck to saying things once. Although, I had to tell him a couple of times that I was only going to say things once. And guess what? I learnt something new. If I waited, and watched, he eventually did whatever it was I asked of him without needed to repeat myself. I do remember reading somewhere that young children aren't able to react immediately because of how their brains were wired - although they will eventually come around to processing that command. I can't remember where I read it so I can't even go back and check but maybe its true.

The hard part was not being able to have any conversations with Aaron. He really has so much to say and definitely needs some sort of response but I just kept nodding, frowning, smiling or pointing. Oh and another thing, my index finger alone was enough to direct the tidying of all his toys today. Powerful isn't it?!

He's a cheeky boy but he's a good boy too. And today, he has really proved that. He was understanding and tried his best to make my day easier.

Aaron's First Easter Egg

I've actually never been on an Easter Egg hunt. Up until I was 11, I didn't even know about Easter eggs. So, I'm not really into the chocolate-y side of Easter. But then again, apart from the symbolism of re-birth, I saw today that its something fun for children.

After the 2.5hr Easter Mass this morning, they announced that there was an Easter egg hunt for 3-10 year olds. Great! Some fun for Aaron.

I thought it was a good effort by the parish to organize this. They also had other activities for older children. And for the adults, free food and a band! It was meant to be a sort of Easter party.

Back to the egg hunt. Firstly, they didn't look for the eggs. They were to look for little red flags instead. I was a little disappointed in the way they hid these flags in clusters. For example, flower pots had about 5 flags stuck in them so whoever saw it first got ALL the flags. Also, some flags were hidden in the trees where no little kid is going to look and can't reach anyway.

We let Aaron try to hunt for the flags himself at first but as other parents went in to help, Richard did too. The area for these little ones was all muddy from the rain.

Aaron is in the white shirt behind the tree stump.


Here's Richard trying to guide him. He eventually picked up a flag that somebody else dropped.


And here's the red hard boiled egg that he claimed with his red flag.