Sunday, 17Sep06

Highlights: 0630 flight to Jakarta & no taxi, trip to Bogor (ice-breaker social + karaoke)

I was up till 2:30 a.m. stuffing my suitcases with the rest of my stuff I left here at the Rochmadi house from my summer. (= you never know how much stuff you accumulate until you try to pick it all up & move it.

Yeah- I set myself up for 2 hours of sleep. Good work jonathan.

I called a cab at 4 a.m. thinking that would give me enough time to get to the airport an hour before my flight. I was the first one up,, and didn’t want to bother everyone at that hour…

Here’s a lesson about cabs in Yogya… there are so many different companies & independent cabbies out there- few, if any, feel any sense of urgency to come when called- because many assume you’ll just walk out the door & grab the first one to go by.

After an hour of standing around,, the whole family woke up, and pak Rochmadi (hero of the day) gave me a lift to the corner of Ring Road, where a bunch of cabs hang out. I walked into the airport 30 minutes before take-off time,, with 4 suitcases… and made my flight! (=

Whew! Success story!

After getting home, I started pulling my things out of suitcases, layed down for a bit,, then got ready to run back out the door to Bogor,, a town about 1 hour due south of Jakarta (no traffic).

This week I’m attending / helping with an MTT (mobile training team) effort between the U.S. military and Indonesian military (TNI).

Apparently, because of U.S. Congressional sanctions levied over violence done in East Timor through the 1990s, formal U.S.-TNI cooperative efforts were shut down for 15 years. This marks the first event to start the relationship again.

This training event is structured as a week-long class on anti-terrorism techniques, sponsored by U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM). Tonight, at our hotel, we had an “ice-breaker” social event to get to know each other a little bit before sweating through 8 hours of class per day for the next week together.

For my part, I was meeting both the American instructors & the Indonesian officers for the first time. We are all mid-grade officers (Captains & Majors).

Since this is a training event amongst intel analysts, folks who normally keep their information relatively close to the chest, there was some hesitancy on the U.S. side to let me participate. As a FAO, I was the only one among them who speaks bahasa Indonesia; and it was a good opportunity for me to meet some of the Indonesian Army guys, so it was a mutually beneficial opportunity for us, and I was invited.

There was no worry about our TNI friends being the shy or bashful types after tonight’s social. (= I’ve never seen so many 30-40 year old men so eager to push the hired singer off stage & take over the microphone! Ha ha.

I have to admit, I went up twice myself… but only to show that the American side could hold it’s own in the field of embarrassing entertainment for public benefit. I sang my first Indonesian song tonight: “Karena wanita ingin dimengerti” (Ada Band). Ha ha

Don’t worry,,, I’m not quitting my day job!