Jakarta - Day 3

Today was election day. The Jakartan population voted for a governor. Much like the US, they had only two candidates to choose from. Much like Chicago, some of the guys we work with voted more than once.

The island of Java treated election day like a national holiday so that the entire population could vote. Voting here is much different than in the US. Anyone can go to any voting location to cast their vote. After they vote, the workers at the voting station dot their hand with an oil-based marker, much like a permanent marker, to indicate that they have voted. This is supposed to prevent someone from voting multiple times. Obviously, many can clean their hand and vote again. Also, they do not expect to know the results of the voting until Monday. If demonstrations will occur, it will be on Monday after the results are public.

With most of the city voting, the streets were empty on the drive to the office. Jakarta is a unique city. Once you look past the sepia hued daylight, you see great beauty among stark poverty. For a large, metropolitan city, there are vast areas of undeveloped land. The Jakartan equivalent of Manhattan, for example, has entire city blocks of undeveloped land. Where there are no buildings, there are mini-jungles with lush vegetation and rich, red dirt.

Street vendors are few and far between along the major roads, but the back roads are cluttered with small shops, shells of burned out and abandoned buildings, and crowded restaurants. Motorcycles are everywhere, and you'll often see three people riding on a single bike - usually a husband and wife with a small child either clutching to the mother (like I saw one infant doing) or riding on the handlebars (like I've seen several preschoolers do).

Driving home tonight after a long day of listening to our developers discuss our architecture in much greater detail than I could or cared to understand, the streets were still empty. Without the din of engines, we were able to hear the wailing prayers of muslims over the loudspeakers of the mosques in the city. I had come here expecting to have the prayers awaken me at 4:30 AM as some of my colleagues had experienced. I, however, appear to be on the side of the hotel opposite the nearby mosque because I hear nothing, while some of my colleagues are indeed awoken at 5 AM.

One other item of note before I go grab dinner. The work life in Jakarta is much different. It's much more communal than in the US. The workers arrive at 8 and work until 6, 6 days a week, but they take breaks in groups and often have gatherings in the cafeteria after work. The break room here in Jakarta has ping-pong tables, several large screen TV's and even a piano with a microphone for singing. Our first night, the company choir practiced after work. Apparently, they do this once a month for fun. After lunch today, two employees were playing a vigorous game of lousy ping-pong. There are signs everywhere for some kind of office olympics. Four motorcycles sit in the break room as prizes for the winners of the Olympic games. Today, I saw a poster for a "Dominoes War". Not sure what is involved in a domino war, but I'm sure curious.

It does not sound like we will be working this Saturday, and next weekend will be a three day weekend due to Indonesian Independence Day celebrations, so we are hoping to spend some time actually seeing the country - at least the island of Java. We learned today that there is a Sea World here in Jakarta, so we may go there. We are planning a golf outing for Sunday.