The Secret's in the Flow

Oftentimes, living in Jakarta can be infuriating. I mean, full-out open the flood gates, shaking of fists and nashing of teeth frustrating. The infrastructure is so horrendous that just the thought of leaving your house more than twice a day is exhausting. Every venture outside must be carefully planned out - the day, time of day, probability of a demonstration occurring somewhere, the weather, availability of taxis, one's level of patience for bargaining with an ojek (motorbike taxi), the alignment of the moon and stars - all of these factors must be considered. And then, even after careful consideration of all of these things, there is a 90% chance that you'll end up in a situation like this: 

On this particular day, my friends and I had already been rear-ended once by a McDonalds delivery motorbike (he drove off without stopping), and our side mirror had been clipped by a truck (drove off also) all in the span of one car ride. Normally, despite the apparent chaos of traffic patterns (ha! patterns!) in Jakarta, there is a "flow." But there are certain days, like yesterday, that something seems to have disrupted the flow and there is a ripple effect that causes these little bumps and snarls to reverberate throughout the rest of the day.

It makes sense, then, that I frequently get the question, "Why do you like living there?"  Fair question. The best answer I can give so far is - The small things, the little vignettes that pass by my taxi window of people connecting with other people. Old men sitting around smoking and laughing, guards giving each other back massages, people on bikes riding slowly from shop to shop to offer hot drinks, snacks, or even seamstress services. I remembered jogging through my hometown this past summer and realizing how quiet it was. No one was on the streets or on their porches. In Indonesia, everyone stays outside to chit chat and become part of that flow of energy. Anther Fellow, Deirdre, described it like this in her blog:

One interesting thing I’ve noticed, here and in other parts of Indonesia, is that so many people are sitting and waiting.  Old men just sitting outside shops, or women sitting beside food stalls; people sitting outside their houses; becak drivers sprawled out, sleeping in their becaks.  It doesn’t strike me as lazy at all, just a calm, patient, endearing practice.  They aren’t in a hurry to get everywhere.  There aren’t so many jobs here, so people do what they can to make a living, and in the meantime, they wait.  They talk to each other, and they smoke.  Lots of smoke. Anyway, driving through these smaller neighborhoods, it was really cool to see so many people just out and about.  Sitting, or working in shops.

I realize that I spend much of my blog space talking about particular one-off adventures that I have here in Indonesia. Those adventures are surely a big part of why I like living here, but perhaps more so it is being plugged into that daily energy and flow that helps balance happiness with the need to punch someone in the face. Recently, my teman Jess and I (known affectionately as J-squared at work) were invited to join our staff and students to walk about the city as part of morning exercise. This was a perfect opportunity to snap some photos of what I'm talking about. I apologize that I didn't get many pictures of people sitting about; I still feel a bit uncomfortable intruding on people with my camera. 



First, an introduction:

Here's what we saw on our walk and things that are common everywhere in Jakarta and Indonesia:

Sharing the road with bajai...and everything else on wheels - sidewalks are pretty uncommon.

Man selling balloons and pinwheels on sticks.

Everyone is an entrepreneur here. This house sells electricity (listrik) vouchers.

This one sells gasoline (bensin).

Bicycles can deliver anything: Vegetables...

...gas for your stove,

...and entertainment for your children.

One of the best places to connect to the flow - have dinner at a street stall. This one sells sop kaki gambing (goat-leg soup...mmmmm)

Happy goat-leg soup customer

I hope that at least starts to answer your question. Of course, the longer I'm here, the more amendments I find to my answer. There are ways for this small-town girl to make it in this big, chaotic, let's be honest - sometimes smelly, city. The secret's in the flow.