It’s a warm Christmas Eve in Makassar. I’ve got a fan blowing straight on me and the humidity from the rains is kind of nice after months of beating dryness. I don’t know how long such a welcome for the rains will be. Last week, I was driven home by my counterpart during a good downpour and all the streets were flooded enough to reach the floorboards. My street was flooded as well despite the deep pools at on the side of the road masquerading as drainage. They just never seem to drain the black sludge of domestic water refuse. And because of the recent flooding, my house caretaker and his cousin were drafted into some sort of neighborhood work group in creating canals for the water to drain in the future. The rains are also affecting the internet connection. No breaks as of yet.
I rang up my Mom and Dad already. They tell me there’s no snow in northern Michigan for Christmas Eve. Hmm. I don’t ever remember being stonewalled by mother nature on Christamas, yet I’ve not been there for Christmas in four years. Everyone sounded well and one of my lovely nieces told me about her new basketball. She wasn’t saying more than a few words when I left in August.
Work is speeding up and slowing down. Most universities here will have exams in January. My university will start back up again on the 26th and I’ll be giving a final on the 27th. My old classroom is full of boxes for the teacher learning and resource center that is being set up. It’s a mess and it’s exciting. After being tranferred to Makassar in February of this year, things are moving at light speed. I’ll put some pictures up at the end of the month. I had a vision of what this would all look like and what I wanted when I sent a list to procurement but that vision somehow got skewed as I wasn’t explicit enough. I’ll take the blame on this one. Nevertheless, it will work out. The big thing now will be the grand opening and working to build a trainer base in stepping toward sustainability of the center as a place for teacher training and possible certification in the future. Oh, the aims we have. I may even go in tomorrow…
Tomorrow’s plan is unknown. I did some shopping because I asked Safir to teach me how to cook another traditional food. It’s going to be black rice pudding. Black rice, coconut, and spices. I’ve actually had it before when I was on Bali. The black rice kind of throws me off as much as the yellow watermelon. While I’m on the subject of food, I’ll tell you a little bit about durian season. Durian, if you are wondering, is a spiked fruit that you split open to eat the ‘meat’ surrounding the seeds. Durian is foul smelling. Most people are turned off by the smell; most Westerners anyway. As far as nicknames go, New York City is The Big Apple; Jakarta is known as The Big Durian. Most hotels threaten fines upwards of hundreds of dollars for bringing durian into the hotel. It’s smells that bad. But the smell really doesn’t offend most people here. The food court at the mall I must tread to buy my groceries has a new stall set up that serves durian. This creates a smell that wafts throughout the mall and makes any time spent at the coffee shop close to unbearable without a coffee under one’s nose. It’s something to be lived with here. Did I mention that I actually like the taste of durian?
Changes are being made in the presentation of these pages. I’m slowly putting my personal touches, skinning, the Sandbox theme that my friend Scott created with some other guy I never met. This means that I’ll have to learn some CSS basics. I don’t think it could hurt to learn something different than faking my way in Indonesia.
Oh, yes, I’ve also found out that there is a triathlon scheduled in Bali for June. It may be the first in a long line, but I’m a little mystified in the USD125 price tag for foreigners. It’s only USD75 for Indonesian citizens and the 5k event is only around USD22. It’s the norm to provide tiered pricing here. The triathlon I participated in in Interlochen, MI was USD45, I think. This is nearly three times that with most foreigners having to travel (with bike) to Bali. I may end up doing it just to say I’ve ran a triathlon on Bali. When will I have the chance again. I’ll just have to find an acceptable bike for the race (anything will do).
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to y’all in Christian dominated lands. I’ll enjoy my day off here with food and drink minus the trees, snow, and presents. And like it all.