Monday, 25Sep06
Highlights: day #2 of fasting, pit-stop at Embassy, Jakarta familiarization with Lydia
Ughh! The least pleasant part of fasting is waking up at 3a.m. to shower & eat something,, then crawl back to bed. I’ve never been accused of being a morning person.
Those loooong moments of feeling really hungry during the day,, yeah- that runs a close second. But that’s the point of the fasting month, as I understand it: developing empathy for those without food in the world by experiencing hunger ourselves for a month.
I ran to the embassy to check-in with my boss & use the gov’t computer. I can’t check my LES (my paycheck) from home,,, and judging from the skimpiness of my bank account, I haven’t been paid my Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA) yet! (4 months of no housing pay!! My savings is scraping bottom =/ so I did a little research.
Apparently I AM being paid OHA, but they input the wrong currency. Instead of $1,900 U.S. per month, they are paying me 1,900 Rupiah per month! Yeaaaaaaaaaah! You might think that’s a minor slip-up, but 1900 Rp = approximately .20 cents! (= That’s not helping. The OHA folks in DC have been hard to get a hold of, but I think I’ve got someone working on it now.
Another pay irony,, U.S. Marines rate Foreign Language Proficiency Pay (FLPP) when we test to a certain ability level on the proficiency test. I can be paid for multiple languages. I spent 7 months of the last year in language school for Bahasa Indonesia. After passing that test, I took the French test.
Now, I’m being paid for my French language ability, but not my Indonesian! Which seems ironic. (That’s a $400/month difference).
After taking care of that, I met Lydia at a Starbucks & we went on a brief area familiarization of Jakarta,,, of particular interest to her, the discount shopping districts. Ha ha.
I got a free shopping guide from the embassy CLO (community liaison office). It’s 4 years old, but the new one cost $40. 4-years old works just fine for me thanks!
2 of 3 stores we looked for aren’t there anymore,, and at least 7 new malls have gone up in the last 4 years! Amazing how much changes so quickly.
We took a Bajai from Blok M down Jl. Fatmawati, in search of another shopping district (and looking around in general), but it was 4pm by then, and the streets of Jakarta clogged like the arteries of a lifelong doughnut addict. Bajai = little orange tricycle scooter like thing… 2-person taxi, common only in Jakarta apparently.
It took an hour to travel maybe 10 km. It wouldn’t have been that painful except for 3 things: 1 air pollution; 2 heat; 3 I’m starving.
1: Jakarta air makes downtown LA smog look fresh by comparison. Bajai, themselves, belch out black exhaust constantly; as do 90% of the trucks, scooters, and anything else that burns gas. It’s expensive to fix mufflers or enforce emissions standards, and this is a poor country. By the looks of it, there are no emissions standards. Many people wear scarves or face masks to block some of the air pollution. It makes them look like bandits,,, but it’s so common & frankly makes sense.
2: Jakarta is hot. It’s not a Phoenix, Arizona hot (dry, like a hair-blower), or a Pensacola, Florida hot (humid, like a hot shower),,, it’s somewhere in-between. You’ll sweat inside of 10 minutes, just standing there.
3: 2 hours to go before I can eat! (= it’s been 12 hours since my slice of left-over pizza, sweet tea & yogurt.
Eli, our pembantu (maid), makes little Indonesian dishes for us on Mon-Wed-Fri, when she works… ahhh! She’s a good cook! (=
Highlights: day #2 of fasting, pit-stop at Embassy, Jakarta familiarization with Lydia
Ughh! The least pleasant part of fasting is waking up at 3a.m. to shower & eat something,, then crawl back to bed. I’ve never been accused of being a morning person.
Those loooong moments of feeling really hungry during the day,, yeah- that runs a close second. But that’s the point of the fasting month, as I understand it: developing empathy for those without food in the world by experiencing hunger ourselves for a month.
I ran to the embassy to check-in with my boss & use the gov’t computer. I can’t check my LES (my paycheck) from home,,, and judging from the skimpiness of my bank account, I haven’t been paid my Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA) yet! (4 months of no housing pay!! My savings is scraping bottom =/ so I did a little research.
Apparently I AM being paid OHA, but they input the wrong currency. Instead of $1,900 U.S. per month, they are paying me 1,900 Rupiah per month! Yeaaaaaaaaaah! You might think that’s a minor slip-up, but 1900 Rp = approximately .20 cents! (= That’s not helping. The OHA folks in DC have been hard to get a hold of, but I think I’ve got someone working on it now.
Another pay irony,, U.S. Marines rate Foreign Language Proficiency Pay (FLPP) when we test to a certain ability level on the proficiency test. I can be paid for multiple languages. I spent 7 months of the last year in language school for Bahasa Indonesia. After passing that test, I took the French test.
Now, I’m being paid for my French language ability, but not my Indonesian! Which seems ironic. (That’s a $400/month difference).
After taking care of that, I met Lydia at a Starbucks & we went on a brief area familiarization of Jakarta,,, of particular interest to her, the discount shopping districts. Ha ha.
I got a free shopping guide from the embassy CLO (community liaison office). It’s 4 years old, but the new one cost $40. 4-years old works just fine for me thanks!
2 of 3 stores we looked for aren’t there anymore,, and at least 7 new malls have gone up in the last 4 years! Amazing how much changes so quickly.
We took a Bajai from Blok M down Jl. Fatmawati, in search of another shopping district (and looking around in general), but it was 4pm by then, and the streets of Jakarta clogged like the arteries of a lifelong doughnut addict. Bajai = little orange tricycle scooter like thing… 2-person taxi, common only in Jakarta apparently.
It took an hour to travel maybe 10 km. It wouldn’t have been that painful except for 3 things: 1 air pollution; 2 heat; 3 I’m starving.
1: Jakarta air makes downtown LA smog look fresh by comparison. Bajai, themselves, belch out black exhaust constantly; as do 90% of the trucks, scooters, and anything else that burns gas. It’s expensive to fix mufflers or enforce emissions standards, and this is a poor country. By the looks of it, there are no emissions standards. Many people wear scarves or face masks to block some of the air pollution. It makes them look like bandits,,, but it’s so common & frankly makes sense.
2: Jakarta is hot. It’s not a Phoenix, Arizona hot (dry, like a hair-blower), or a Pensacola, Florida hot (humid, like a hot shower),,, it’s somewhere in-between. You’ll sweat inside of 10 minutes, just standing there.
3: 2 hours to go before I can eat! (= it’s been 12 hours since my slice of left-over pizza, sweet tea & yogurt.
Eli, our pembantu (maid), makes little Indonesian dishes for us on Mon-Wed-Fri, when she works… ahhh! She’s a good cook! (=
posted by jonathan adventures at 10:48 AM
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