Panoramic views from our Apartment

So Mommy tried playing with the photomerge panorama option in Photoshop elements today.  It worked out pretty well.  Mommy took a series of pictures from 2 of the 5 balconies at our apartment.  Only 2 of the balconies have views of the city...the other balconies just have views of the other apartment building.

Our apartment is located in Senayan.  There are alot of nice malls and businesses in this area.  We are close to all sorts of shopping areas.  Mommy hates the traffic, but it is also nice to be relatively close to anything we need considering how terrible the traffic can be. Too bad Mommy is not that keen on shopping as Senayan could be considered a shopper's paradise.

Here are the panoramic images that are visible from our balconies. One image shows the Hotel Sultan to the left and Plaza Semanggi (a huge shopping mall) in the center of the image. Our apartment is located in the Hotel Sultan Complex. This is the view from the balcony in the master bedroom.  It's not a balcony we can spend much time on since that is where the air conditioning units are installed so it blows lots of nice hot air. It's also rather noisy.

The other panoramic image is from the balcony in the front living area.  It shows the huge stadium that is just in front of our apartment complex.  There are all sorts of events at the stadium so it is often noisy and of course the traffic is just a million times worse whenever something is going on over there.

Our new (to us) ride

Before we came to Indo, we thought we didn't need a car or driver. We were quite mistaken. After many frustrating taxi rides where the driver didn't speak English or know where we wanted to go, we decided we should rethink our transportation situation and buy a car. From cruising around on the internet, I knew that the Toyota Kijang was the most popular choice for expats with families. A new one was not in the cards since getting a loan here is not so easy for "bules" (foreigners). We also know we'll only be here a couple years, and then we'll have to sell it. We didn't want to take the depreciation hit, we started our search for a Kijang in good condition that we could pay cash for.

In the beginning, the Kijang started as a humble, straight panelled truck and people mover. Over years, it has been redesigned and improved to offer more features and a smoother ride. We didn't want one of the primitive, old ones, but quickly realized that Kijangs hold their value extremely well (much better than in the US). We wanted to get one from the most recent generation, but even a 2004 model was over the budget.

Luckily, some friends from church told us they were moving to India and had a Kijang for sale. It was a 2001 model with about 80,000 miles on it (and untold hours idling in traffic). He purchased the car from an older, Indonesian gentleman, and knew the car had been well maintained and never in a serious accident. And the price was right. Just one problem: Although it has seats for 7 (or more if you are Indo), it only had 4 seat belts. Since there are six of us, including a driver, we almost thought to continue looking elsewhere. Apparently the sellers were motivated as they offered to add more seatbelts before delivering the car. Perfect.

What sealed the deal is that he also had an experience driver, Hartoyo, that we could hire. He is an older Indo man that is a careful driver and also watches out for the kids he he's not driving. After some negotiations about the driver's compensation and transferring funds to the our new friend, we had a car and driver.

So far, so good. The only issue with the car is that the radio doesn't function, but that is not essential and can be fixed down the road.

Little Man is 6!

So Mommy is a little late in posting about Joseph turning 6 years old. Last wednesday Mommy and Daddy threw Joseph a little pizza party. Joseph wanted to invite some of his friends over to the apartment. Mommy was pleasantly surprised that everyone Joseph invited said they would come despite the horrific traffic in Jakarta.

Joseph said he was so happy! Mommy and Daddy were very glad. One of the things that Joseph was upset about when we left the U.S. was that he wouldn't be able to have a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's with all his friends. Unfortunately, there is no Chuck E. Cheese in Indonesia, but Joseph was happy with having a pizza party.

The kids all had a good time. It took poor Daddy several hours to arrive home with the pizza because of traffic. Some of his friends had an hour's drive to and from the party because of traffic so it was very sweet of them to come to the party and on a school night too!

Time sure flies. Mommy and Daddy have a hard time believing that our little guy is 6 years old! He is quite a complex little fellow, but Mommy and Daddy love their little man.

Here are some pics of Joseph through the years...

Conversation with Audrey

Mommy had this short but cute conversation with Audrey at lunch today.

Mommy: Audrey, why are you growing up so fast?

Audrey: Because I ate food :)

Mommy loves the kids being little. They definitely grow up fast though!



Audrey cutting up tofu...she loves to help cook and she loves food!

Samboja

Mommy has decided that her posts about Balikpapan will be in no particular order. On our last day in Balikpapan, Mommy and Daddy decided that we would take the kids to Samboja Lestari, an area of restored tropical rainforest that has an ecolodge, an orangutan rehabilitation area, and also sun bears.

Getting in touch with the people from Samboja so that we could visit was a bit of an ordeal. FYI, the phone number on their website and in the travel guides are incorrect or no longer work, and you need an appointment in order to go to Samboja. Mommy and Daddy both emailed the lodge separately before saturday but got no response. Well, as it turns out, Mommy didn't check her email saturday morning. Apparently someone did respond to say that we could come for a visit that morning. We ended up having the hotel contact Samboja and they also arranged for a car and driver. After the visit, Mommy got a very nice email from Samboja thanking us for coming and inviting us to come again sometime.

Anyways, it took about an hour to get to Samboja from Balikpapan. It rained that morning so the roads were very muddy by the time we arrived. We waited at the security check point for someone from the lodge to come get us. Since it was saturday, the place was pretty much deserted. Apparently sunday is the day that most people go out on excursions here in Indonesia. The receptionist only charged us half price so we lucked out since visiting Samboja wasn't exactly cheap. The usual fee is a "voluntary" contribution of US $50.00 per person.

At the lodge, we were able to climb to the top where there was large balcony overlooking the orangutan islands. The islands are areas that are surrounded by a little moat. Orangutans can't swim so they don't even try to get off the island. We were told that once a few orangutans escaped by getting into a boat that was used to take food over to them...clever little guys. We got in a van and drove out to one of the islands where we walked around and tried to get a look at some orangutans. There are several islands, but visitors are only allowed to see the orangutans that are sick and that will never be released back into the wild. The orangutans we saw either had HIV or Hep B. We were able to find 5 of the 6 orangutans that were on the island.

Next we went to the sun bear exclosure. That was an interesting place. There was a rickety 10 ft. ladder that lead to a narrow bridge that spanned the exclosure. One side was completely open and the other side had a thin railing. We all climbed the ladder, but the kids were not allowed to go onto the bridge for fear of them falling of course. Mommy stayed with the kids and Daddy and the guide went out on the bridge to look around. The sun bears are very cute but have super long claws. We heard that during feeding time, the bear exclosure is a feeding frenzy. The guide said that they do have problems with the bears fighting and hurting each other because in the wild, they are solitary animals. Although bears are omnivores, these sun bears are only fed fruits and vegetables. Apparently meat makes them even more aggressive than they already are.

It was a very hot and humid day...probably the normal weather for the jungle. The kids were exhausted after just a few hours. We went back to the lodge and waited for lunch. For lunch we had onion rings, squid, some kind of vegetable and hot dog/sausage stir fry, and fruit. The kids weren't very impressed with lunch. Mommy tried the squid but didn't think it was very good. Daddy liked the squid. Mommy thought the rest of the food was not too bad.

After lunch, we headed to the airport so that Mommy and the kids could catch our flight back to Jakarta. The kids fell asleep in the car almost immediately. They were wiped out. Mommy and Daddy were very glad that we decided to take the kids to Samboja. It was a neat experience. Mommy hopes that one of these days before we leave Indonesia, we might be able to take a trip to Sumatra or Malaysia to see orangutans in the wild.

Waiting at the security checkpoint for our ride into Samboja.

The van we rode around in...almost got stuck in the mud a few times.

At the orangutan islands

Bridge across the sun bear exclosure...higher off the ground than it looks.

Lunch

Too much fun...

Articles of Faith

While we were in Balikpapan, Mommy and the kids spent a lot of time with the Evans family, the only LDS family in the city. They are an amazing family, but more about that later. Joseph told Mommy that the Evans' kids were working on memorizing the Articles of Faith. For family home evening yesterday, Mommy thought the kids might like to set some goals and start working on memorizing the Articles of Faith. Audrey and Joseph learned the first one. Joseph said he wanted to go ahead and start learning the second one. He set a goal to learn all of them by the end of the year. Last night when Mommy went to check on the kids, Mommy found Joseph asleep with the printout of the Articles of Faith on his chest. This morning, when Mommy asked what Joseph was doing last night after he was supposed to be in bed, Joseph said he was working on learning the Articles of Faith. Mommy hopes that his enthusiasm will continue and that he will be able to meet his goal.

Picture Mommy snapped of Joseph last night...so sweet!

SOS Clinic

This morning Mommy got a phone call from the school saying that Joseph had been injured on the playground. Mommy thought it was just a bloody lip but the nurse insisted that Mommy come and get Joseph and take him to the doctor to have him examined.

Mommy got the girls and we walked to the main street outside the entrance leading to our apartment. We hailed a taxi and of course, the driver didn't speak any english. Luckily, he knew where Pattimura Elementary school was located. When we got to the school, Mommy asked if he would wait. He did not understand. Finally Mommy said 5 minutes and he understood since the Indonesian word for minute is 'menit'...very convenient.

So apparently Joseph was playing at recess when another child literally ran into him (kid was running) and he said he hit his head/face on a wooden ladder. The nurse said when Joseph was brought to the office he said he was dizzy. So, that is why the nurse insisted Mommy take Joseph to a doctor to have him examined. His lip was purple and puffy and bleeding too.

Mommy was clever enough to have the school nurse tell the taxi driver how to get to the SOS clinic. We got to the clinic and checked in. We waited no more than 5 or 10 minutes before we saw the Indonesian doctor. He was super nice and all the kids really liked him. He checked Joseph out and said he thought he was fine. He just wanted Mommy to observe him for 24 hours to make sure he didn't start feeling nauseous or start vomiting.

The doctor also wrote a prescription for Joseph's lips. He said it would help it heal faster. Then the doctor blew up three gloves and drew faces on them for the kids to play with. They played with the balloons while Mommy was trying to check out and caused quite a ruckus at the otherwise quiet clinic. Mommy thought the glove balloons were cute, but maybe not such a great idea.

Since Joseph did not have an appointment, Mommy had to pay for the visit first. Daddy can apply to have the cost reimbursed. Mommy wasn't sure how much it would cost, but the doctor's visit was $30.00 (U.S. dollars) and the prescription was $20.00. So, the whole visit only cost $50.00 which was the cost of our copay in the states. Mommy was quite satisfied with the doctor and with the facilities. The onsite pharmacy filled our prescription right away...very convenient. Then the cashier got one of the security guards to hail a taxi for us so that we didn't have to walk out to the busy road.

As luck would have it, this taxi driver didn't speak english either. Mommy kept telling him Hotel Sultan (most drivers seem to know the major hotels in the area) and he seemed confused. Finally Mommy said Senayan which is the area we live in and he seemed to understand. Mommy was hoping that when we got to the Senayan area, she could point out the general direction we needed to go. Anyway, as luck would have it, the driver got on the road that went in the direction of the apartments. Mommy waved at the apartments (since it is rude to point with your finger) and he seemed to understand. He drove us all the way to the front lobby with no futher problems. Mommy was quite relieved.

Joseph really seems fine. Mommy accidentally bumped Joseph's lip while helping him brush his teeth and it started bleeding again. Mommy felt very bad about that. Other than his lip, Joseph says he feels fine. He acted like his usual self all day.

Mommy is feeling a bit like she has been thrown into the fire here in Indonesia. Mommy guesses there is no better way to learn than to just be forced to deal with things. If left up to her, Mommy would have slowly worked up enough courage to get out on her own in taxis and to the store and such.

Although things are difficult at times, Mommy does recognize that we have been very blessed. Mommy has been able to recognize the Lord's hand in many of the events that have occurred since we have been here. Even today, the traffic was miraculously not bad. We got to Joseph's school and then to the clinic and even back home in record time. Normally it would take at least an hour to get from the school to the clinic. We got to the clinic in maybe 15 minutes. It was maybe 20 minutes to get back to the apartment when normally it would have taken over an hour. The school even had Mommy check Joseph out for the rest of the day because they knew we had to go to the SOS clinic and back.

Mommy must admit that even in the short time that we have been in Indonesia, we are already having some memorable adventures. Life in Indonesia has certainly been anything but dull!