The first mistake was buying a 10 year old car, sight-unseen, from 10,000 miles away. I was assured, though. that it happens all the time in a diplomatic community. “Everyone’s pretty trustworthy […]
Raping Gaia
Marston
Medical Training
I spent some time with a local doctor who gave me some insights into the Indonesian medical world. A person’s medical training begins right out of high school. It is a […]
Surabaya
I spent 3 days last week on my first work trip to Surabaya on Eastern Java. It is a sleepy little port town of 3 million people. On arrival, I was pleased […]
The Help 2.0
Both our driver and our pembantu started work this week. I don’t think I mentioned the driver. More on him in a minute. The folks with State recommend and offer background checks […]
A List of Observations
Here are some things witnessed by my daughter 16 y.o daughter on her travels along the highways and byways of Jakarta along with editorial comments. These are in no particular order. – […]
Car-Free Day
After a few weeks of hearing about it, we finally got up the gumption to check out Car-Free Day in Jakarta. This has been going on here since 2007 and weekly since […]
Jilboob
Read a news article the other day about “Jilboob.” This was not in the New York Times. Jilbab, in Indonesia, is the wearing by women of head scarves and not the full […]
Deciphering Street Codes
Despite the near absolute lack of sidewalks, I’ve been walking. Getting out and exploring the neighborhood. Off the main roads, it’s not too bad walking along the side of the road if […]
Back to Work
I decided, when I started this project, that I would write much about work. This line of work requires confidence, so there is not much to write about freely. There is also […]
Losing My Religion
There are two interesting thing that I have discovered since being here. Well, there are far more than two, but these are the two that I will talk of now. The […]
Secret Asian Man 