I haven’t been able to post news to this blog in the past few days, so here goes…
Last Friday was the final day of the conference at the University of Indonesia, Depok. Things went really well. I learned a lot and met many nice people. The dorm room turned out to be less expensive than what had been originally told to conference participants, so that was a bonus. I was picked up by one of the Freedom Institute office staff by motorbike in the afternoon. On the way back, it started to sprinkle. In less than five minutes, it became a torrential downpour. We first tried having him wear the rain poncho and I put my head underneath the back flap. This was really scary since we were weaving in and out of traffic and I had to keep the poncho over my head, thus preventing any visuals of the street or traffic. At one point, we went through a really flooded area, where my legs got completely soaked. We then stopped off on the side of the road thinking we could wait it out a bit. We waited and then when the rain had let up a little, we made a go for it. As soon as we were back on the road, the rain came down even heavier than before! The rain actually hurt as it came down while we tried to get through the traffic. Each time things got worse, all I could was laugh. I kept telling the driver that we were on an adventure! At least he was laughing, too. At this point, it was useless to have a rain poncho on. We were both soaked, as well as my backpacks. The water was just not draining at all. And this is supposed to be the dry season! We finally made it back to the Freedom Institute. I rinsed off in the bathroom and changed into less-wet clothes. The flood water was really dirty unfortunately. Traffic was awful since cars and motorbikes kept stalling. I heard that another office person had gone on an errand and his entire car - floors and seats - got wet. In some places, the water was past one’s knees. The main reason that the water did/does not drain is because the drains are full of garbage. They are too blocked up and garbage does not absorb water like a sponge. Jakarta came to a standstill a few years ago when there were really heavy rains and flooding, so the government is aware of the problem, but many say there is not enough money or infrastructure in place to fix it.
Saturday was much more low key. I stayed in and worked (i.e., read) all day.
Sunday was my second focus group. This time we had a group of older Muslim men from various backgrounds discuss my research questions. They got off to a slow start, but the discussion eventually became quite animated. The only difficulty for me was sitting in a room full of thick cigarette smoke since they liked to smoke during the discussion, unlike the first group which had women. I usually sit on the side and take notes while the moderator runs the show, but this group, more than the first, would look over at me every so often to see what my reactions were to their comments. There was a critical comment of the U.S. government part-way through the discussion and they all turned to me, smiled, and said “Sorry, sorry, Mrs.” I said everything was okay and not to worry. I appreciated their honesty. Later during lunch, several of the men said that the American people (i.e., students like myself) were different from the American government and its policies. The latter being the one responsible for social and political problems in different contexts.
After the focus group, I decided to treat myself to a creambath and trim. I was actually surprised to see men at the beauty salon because there are usually only women at the salons in Yogyakarta. I made a comment about this and one the men said “It’s already 2005 and it’s Jakarta.” Go figure. One guy washed my hair and then another trimmed off the split ends. A few people watched while he tried to comb my hair out (I usually use a big brush; he didn’t). My hair is long and curly so it took quite some time. The hairwasher then opened four little bags of goopy avocado cream and massaged it into my scalp and hair. The avocado stuff is best for thick, curly hair, which can get really dry (despite the humidity!). My hair was then steamed and later rinsed. I had to keep insisting that I did not want my hair blowdried, though. I just put it in a simple braid afterwards. I explained that my hair would totally puff out if they used the blowdryer, but I think it was part of the “package” and so they felt it was mandatory. They seemed to be okay after I explained a bit more.
Yesterday, Monday, was crazy for me because I thought my laptop had died. Nothing like being dependent on technology and then it failing you. It turned out that one of the cables was not working and the battery had been drained. I’m now using a new cord and recharged the battery, so things are cool. I’ve been trying to back up my data in various ways, so hopefully all works out in the end.
Time is going so quickly. I leave Jakarta in five days! Wow! There are some things I wanted to do, but will have to wait until later in the fall semester or January when I return again. For instance, one of my professors and I are going to work on a project which involves some survey questions, but there isn’t enough time to get the questions onto this July’s survey, so we’ll have to wait a little bit.
I am trying to schedule a third focus group for this coming Saturday. Wish me luck!
