But on a happier note....

... I am developing a good relationship with Aisah, the lady who cleans for us. She is a very nice Muslim lady who needed work badly. Her husband and son, both drivers, have apparently been out of work for some time. I was worried about the amount we were going to pay her (we were advised to pay her a certain amount which is the “going rate” here – her salary comes out to about $1.38 hour). Today I learned that some pembantus work for about half of this! Marcia (Bible study leader) is the one who found her for us, and her sister is Marcia’s long time helper. So her salary needed to be in line with what her sister and other pembantus are making. 

We were told to give her money for angkot and ojek each week for getting to our place and back but  to only pay her once a month. Apparently, if you pay them more often they spend it along the way and there is no money left for bills at the end of the month. Fortunately, she started in the middle of the month so we were able to give her first earnings to her after just 2 weeks. I had worried that she would be disappointed when she saw what her salary was (she took the job without asking). But to the contrary, she started crying when we handed it to her! She speaks only the smallest amount of English, but she was quick to say “happy” because she wanted us to know they were tears of joy! I was humbled and all I could do was give her a hug. 

So Aisah is happy and I am happy and hopefully I can find other ways of doing things for her along the way and certainly before we leave. Even though there is a huge communication gap between us, I practice my ABC’s in Bahasa Indonesian with her and she tries to teach me words. We greet each other in Bahasa each time she comes by saying the same thing each time. (Selamat Pagi, apa kabar? Baik, apa kabar anda?) She cheers me on when I learn new words. I also use Google translate a lot and that has been a huge help. I am thankful for her. Maybe one day she will let me take her photo and I will share it.

It’s really pitiful how “the help” is treated here in Indonesia. The first day she came to work, she was about to eat her lunch (a small baggie of cooked rice and something dark green??) I reached into the cabinet to get a dish down for her. But our landlady who happened to be in the apartment stopped me. I really didn’t get what she was trying to say, so I instead handed her a paper plate (we use these a lot to cut down on dish washing). I could sense that the landlady was not happy with me and before I knew it, she had sent one of the helper boys to get Aisah her own dish and fork that (we were told) were to be kept separately from the dishes we use. When she told me (and Aisah) this, it was all I could do to hold back the tears. It’s like a throwback to the 50’s in the states or before, although in this case it is not race but social class. Helpers are often referred to as “servants”. Sigh…. Every day (especially as I am around Marcia) I am learning more about this culture and how people think so differently than we do in the states.

Another good thing that has happened is that we finally have a car and driver. Supposedly he speaks English, but again his English is maybe a hair better than my Bahasa, so there you go. They have sent two and neither of them speak enough to understand what I am saying. So while I am immensely thankful to have a way to get around now, I will need to be sure I always have my destination written down. I went to the store that is about 5 minutes from our apartment this morning with the new driver. After driving for about 15 minutes, I realized he had no idea where we were going! Apparently the street and the supermarket have the same name, so he was just driving down that street. I finally got Marcia on the phone and she was able to direct him back to the store. She also told me that from now on I need to say “toko Setia Budhi” which indicates that it is the store and not the street I am wanting to go to.

Ronnie's ITB Informatics class skyping with A&M class - gig' em??

On another positive note, Ronnie’s work here could not be going any better! I think it has been even more successful than he had anticipated. So while it is still in the early stages, he is very encouraged by it and therefore, so am I. So all in all, I would say that while there are parts of this experience that I don’t yet see how I'm going to appreciate, I also think/hope that we will some day look back on this experience and see it as one of personal growth (ouch!) and be able to say that we’re glad we did it. I’m not there yet….but I’m working on it. But between now and then….I’ll be dreaming of a white (or cold or hot or even wet - who cares??) Christmas in the good ole’ USA!!!