Celebrating my Birthday

A few weeks ago, my wife and I attended a "cultural immersion" session. The company that helped us find a home - Colliers International - provides these sessions and recommends attendance six weeks or more after arrival. We were part of a group of eight, the others being from England and the Netherlands. The "instructor" reviewed the history of Indonesia - presumably for cultural perspective - shared some of the food, and then gave some pointers on being an expat in Indonesia and Jakarta. Some of the key things I took away from the session:

1) The office boy may be the lowest rung of the ladder at work, but in his village he may be the only one with a job and is therefore the most important person there.

2) Indonesians view expats as rich, smart, rich, educated, rich, cultured and rich. Recognize that in all situations.

3) The Indonesian culture is the foundation for all present-day organizational behavior. Margaret Meade did all of her studying on the island of Java.

4) The oldest living human fossil - Java Man - was found in Indonesia.

5) The strong nationalism found in Indonesia is rooted in the same beginnings as the US patriotism - fighting oppressive colonialism to obtain independence.

On Friday, we celebrated my birthday at Hacienda with friends. Having a babysitter for $1.50/hr makes nights out economically feasible. This was their first visit to Hacienda and, to some extent, a first taste of Mexican food. We're discovering that as much as our local friends introduce us to Jakarta, so, too, do we introduce Jakarta to them. It's fun to introduce locals to parts of their city/state/country they've never experienced before. Happens to us in Phoenix, too.

On Saturday, we spent the morning talking to family and friends back in the US and then took the brief one hour drive to Taman Mini Indonesia. We read about Taman Mini in a book published by the American Wives Club. In some respects, it is like any other Indonesian park - crowded, a little dirtier than Western standards, and cheap ($1 to park, $0.40 to enter); in other respects it was better than many Western amusement parks I've been to.

I think the premise of Taman Mini is to represent all aspects of Indonesia, in miniature, in one location. Similar to Epcot's attempt to replicate the world. Our purpose of the visit was to visit the children's palace section which had playgrounds and rides for children our daughter's age. There were many other areas of the park that looked just as interesting, so we'll have to go back sometime - probably when it is is less crowded. Below are a few pictures from our day at Taman Mini.