Friday, 8Sep06
Highlights: quick trip to the embassy, unsuccessful attempt to fly standby to Yogya
Poor Lydia has been having a rough time slugging her way through Indonesian bureaucracy to get herself registered as a researcher here. We split a cab ride up to the precinct office, where she’s on day 4 of the un-ending & unhelpful DMV experience,,, and then I continued on to the embassy.
Today the final nail was punched through the coffin of my plan to teach English to Indonesian Marines in Surabaya. I’m not privy to all the moving parts, but from the highlights I get from my boss, it sounded frustrating & unclear why we can’t make this happen.
The way I see it, I (a U.S. Marine) was going to Surabaya to help my counterparts (Indonesian Marines) develop their English speaking abilities for 3-4 weeks. All I needed was authorization to go & a place to stay. The first hurdle proved too tall to leap. Sounded like a power struggle thing in Jakarta, but I was never told what was really going on in the decision-making calculus. The short answer is, “No, I can’t go.”
Ok then! I thought for about 2 seconds & came up with another plan… let’s visit Yogya! I can see my host family, swing through UGM again, the suits that I had made are done! Hopefully I can get back down to Bantul for a day or two of volunteering, visit pak Parjiman (who celebrated the 100th day of his mom’s passing last weekend), and of course- Nina.
First of all, getting to the airport on a Friday afternoon involved a 2 ½ hour ride in a cab. Traffic. I think we got up to 30 mph once. $19 & three toll booths later, I was at Soekarno-Hatta airport.
A long day of standing around, hoping to fly standby to Yogya proved fruitless.
What made it particularly frustrating was waiting around the Adam Air office for the 5 o’clock roll call of stand-by flyers (about 12 got on), and then hearing that there was another Adam Air flight one hour later- but my name wasn’t on THAT list, because I was signed up for the 5 o’clock waiting list only. So, after having sat there patiently for nearly 3 hours for a flight to Yogya, the folks who showed up 2 hours after me were first in line for the 6pm flight because they knew to sign up for both lists. =(
Thanks for the heads up!
That brings to mind another phenomenon I’ve experienced here in Jakarta: lines. There seems to be a lack of familiarity with standing in line here. Personally, I refuse to push people out of the way or bully my way to the counter, or through the door… but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for many Indonesians (including little old ladies at the airport). =/ hmmm.
Once at the ATM, and twice at the ticket booth, as I was patiently waiting my turn,, older men jumped in front of me as if I wasn’t there. I’ve experienced this a lot at airports here. I almost pulled the 3rd guy by the back of his collar & asked what the f*(k? in as polite a manner as I could conjure up at that moment. It was late,, I was hungry,, frustrated,, thwarted & tired of being there. I don’t like Jakarta airport. I took a bus to Blok M ($1.50), and an Ojek home ($2).
Highlights: quick trip to the embassy, unsuccessful attempt to fly standby to Yogya
Poor Lydia has been having a rough time slugging her way through Indonesian bureaucracy to get herself registered as a researcher here. We split a cab ride up to the precinct office, where she’s on day 4 of the un-ending & unhelpful DMV experience,,, and then I continued on to the embassy.
Today the final nail was punched through the coffin of my plan to teach English to Indonesian Marines in Surabaya. I’m not privy to all the moving parts, but from the highlights I get from my boss, it sounded frustrating & unclear why we can’t make this happen.
The way I see it, I (a U.S. Marine) was going to Surabaya to help my counterparts (Indonesian Marines) develop their English speaking abilities for 3-4 weeks. All I needed was authorization to go & a place to stay. The first hurdle proved too tall to leap. Sounded like a power struggle thing in Jakarta, but I was never told what was really going on in the decision-making calculus. The short answer is, “No, I can’t go.”
Ok then! I thought for about 2 seconds & came up with another plan… let’s visit Yogya! I can see my host family, swing through UGM again, the suits that I had made are done! Hopefully I can get back down to Bantul for a day or two of volunteering, visit pak Parjiman (who celebrated the 100th day of his mom’s passing last weekend), and of course- Nina.
First of all, getting to the airport on a Friday afternoon involved a 2 ½ hour ride in a cab. Traffic. I think we got up to 30 mph once. $19 & three toll booths later, I was at Soekarno-Hatta airport.
A long day of standing around, hoping to fly standby to Yogya proved fruitless.
What made it particularly frustrating was waiting around the Adam Air office for the 5 o’clock roll call of stand-by flyers (about 12 got on), and then hearing that there was another Adam Air flight one hour later- but my name wasn’t on THAT list, because I was signed up for the 5 o’clock waiting list only. So, after having sat there patiently for nearly 3 hours for a flight to Yogya, the folks who showed up 2 hours after me were first in line for the 6pm flight because they knew to sign up for both lists. =(
Thanks for the heads up!
That brings to mind another phenomenon I’ve experienced here in Jakarta: lines. There seems to be a lack of familiarity with standing in line here. Personally, I refuse to push people out of the way or bully my way to the counter, or through the door… but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for many Indonesians (including little old ladies at the airport). =/ hmmm.
Once at the ATM, and twice at the ticket booth, as I was patiently waiting my turn,, older men jumped in front of me as if I wasn’t there. I’ve experienced this a lot at airports here. I almost pulled the 3rd guy by the back of his collar & asked what the f*(k? in as polite a manner as I could conjure up at that moment. It was late,, I was hungry,, frustrated,, thwarted & tired of being there. I don’t like Jakarta airport. I took a bus to Blok M ($1.50), and an Ojek home ($2).
posted by jonathan adventures at 12:36 AM
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