Idul Adha

Yep missed it again. I will one year get out of bed and observe the second most important festival in the Islamic calender. By observe I mean go down the road and watch the smiles on the childrens' faces as they watch goats and cows get slaughtered in the name of Ilbrahims sacrifice.

There has been more cows and goats in the local area than I have seen for a very long time and they have been tied and tethered to each for at least a week. But by Tuesday morning they had all gone, even the bones.

Goats in a make shift stable around the  corner from my home

A goat outside and inside a house

Now however barbaric you may find this, the actual reason and use of the animals is very clear. This passage from BBC schools explains it most clearly for me:

"The story of Ibrahim's sacrifice

Eid-ul-Adha celebrates the occasion when Allah appeared to Ibrahim in a dream and asked him to sacrifice his son Isma'il as an act of obedience to God.
The devil tempted Ibrahim by saying he should disobey Allah and spare his son. As Ibrahim was about to kill his son, Allah stopped him and gave him a lamb to sacrifice instead.

Note: This story is also found in the Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament (Genesis 22). Here God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, his son with Sarah. Isma’il was his son with Hagar."

And every year since goats and cattle have been killed instead. The dead animals are then stripped down and the meat is distributed to the poor and needy and so everyone gets a bag of meat. The animals don't come cheap with a cow costing upwards of 14 million rupiah or just under 800 pounds and a goat at 3 million or 170 pounds. How to buy one? Well there are phone numbers and special markets where you choose one, then they deliver it to the mosque of your choice I guess and then it is chopped up and everything given away.

It certainly is big business thats for sure.

The night before there are fireworks and drums and parades and this year the city government shut a main road to help everyone celebrate. The men in the mosques were busy shouting out prayers (I guess) all evening but it did all die down around 11pm.

The best thing really for me, was having a day off! I worked Monday and then Tuesday was a national holiday. The banks were closed and many people had decided not to work. Yovita was sent home at 2pm as the roads were closing and that was good for her as well.
What did I do with the day off? Nothing. Coffee, some shopping, sleeping and reading and that was that really.

Next month its Moslem new year on 5th so thats a double celebration of Bonfire night and happy new year for me.

Despite a lot of short comings living out here, the national holidays are plentiful and are taken on the day they fall and with 3 new years, and some many religious festivals given national status, extra days off are always around the corner. 11 public holidays in the week this year and at least 12 next year.....That can't be bad.

Water Supply in Jakarta

Last year I had a ground well which ran out of water during the dry season and into the rainy season and well to be honest, never really filled back up. So when we moved into our new house with modern fixtures and fittings and direct access to water, we never looked back.

Direct access to water means water that is supplied from the water company. The water is certainly not recommended to drink but as a rule it does not smell, it is clear and it safe to wash in. Only when you don't have water do you realise how much you waste and use needlessly. I am not advocating everyone spend 3 months living in a place with limited access to water but it does teach a valuable lesson.
Our water comes into the house via a large holding tank under the car port floor. The space has to be 4mx4x2m in height so that is a lot of water it can hold and like a cistern the level or amount is controlled by a ballcock arm and float. Very simple. The water is then pumped to a tank on the roof and then gravity feed to the taps and toilets and the pressure is OK but not the best. However, I am not sure if the tank on the roof is ever full or even if there is one. I am assuming as a tank can be seen from the road if you are coming in from the right direction.
Apparently we have been very lucky with our water supply compared with the neighbours, who have had leaking pumps, pipes and other issues resulting in them paying for each others water. Weird but its understandable. The pipework itself seems to be robust and we have had only one issue which was fixed immediately. However there are water stains on the ceiling that cannot be explained. I suspect thats the roof.... but I can't be sure.

So the other week whilst showering the water turned a nice gritty light brown colour for a while and then stopped coming out of the shower. Then the toilet would not refill etc. I pay a visit to the holding tank to discover it is empty. There is no water. The ballcock had rusted at the joint which allowed the water to flow in at some point over the past 6 months and so it just ran its self empty. Forcing the lever up, out came the water. However what came out of the pipe was not really the nicest thing to see. First of all the bottom of the tank is covered in a layer of black or dark green slime which because we never new the tank was empty has been pumped around the house (it has all gone now) and then the pipes filled up with mud and I suspect the holding tank on the roof.

The black stuff could be organic but organic what?

Once I managed to wash, I went back to the tank and tried to stop the water coming out only to have the lever snap off in my hand and even more water pouring into the tank. A quick call to the wife and I was off to the land lady. I turned the pump and the water at the mains off before I left. I did not want the pump to go bang and have to pay a lot of money for that. The ballcock lever arm had just simply rusted out as it was made of metal and the cheapest one probably, around.

The landlady looked surprised and concerned when I handed her the lever and she sent her maid round to take a look at things. A man came later that night and replaced the arm and filled the tank. So I am waiting for a very big water bill next month much to my dismay.  However it took 3 more days for all the taps in the house to run clear with water and even now we sometimes get brown water come out. Not idea if you are shaving or cleaning your teeth at that moment.

I have done a little research into the water quality around my area which was actually easier than you would think because our supplier PALJYA water provides documentation and information about the quality of the water each month which is actually very impressive.

Kalibata and Tebet are both next to Mampang.

Both taken from http://en.palyja.co.id/home/

The water from the areas around my house both passed the tests made which could be false hope or could actually be good news. I will go with the good news. Still wont drink it though.

The water we get comes from a reservoir somewhere outside Jakarta and it is raw river water which gets treated and cleaned and then pumped to the house. But due to the way the pipework and connections work leaks and infiltration happens and so the water gets dirtier and more unsafe. We use the water only to wash in the house and nothing else.

I strongly believe that there is a septic tank under the house as well but I cant be sure and no one seems to care. There are several pipes that carry water into drains outside the house to a stream which connects to the a bigger stream, then a river and maybe is then re-pumped into the water supply somewhere. I don't really think about it.

Despite all this there is no real desire to improve make the water safer or cleaner or accessible to all even though that is something everyone agrees is needed.

Gangs of Pancoran

Its been over 7 years in Jakarta for me now and I have to comment that overall the place for me is a secure one. Of course, I may be living in a bubble or I don't or don't want to see anything but the good.

I remember watching pickpockets in Bali target and steal from a tourist but before I could do anything the guy had just disappeared. I remember my first trip out on the Transjakarta Busway mainly due to someone trying to steal my wallet and of course, the month before I got married, having my house broken into, everything that mattered to me taken and leaving behind a bitter taste of Indonesia in my mouth. 

The night watchman said he was powerless to stop the crime in the area and carried a gun and a knife to protect himself. The fact he was nowhere to be seen on the night of the break-in suggests he was not that useful as a deterrent or as a watchman. Still angry about the break in? Yes and forever will be.

So last night around 2am, I am woken by the wife who is telling me there is a fight going on outside. Thinking a fight being a 2 or 3 people shouting at each other or a wife letting go at her husband, I went out onto the balcony to see what was going on. This running street battle had been raging for at least 2 hours I was told after.

This is my Facebook update from what I saw:  

It's 2 am and the locals have busied themselves into a little mini riot. Chains, belts, machetes, clubs. Night security look a little rushed off their feet. No police that can be seen.

Yep. From my view point I could see a couple of lads with belts fighting at the top of the road. There were stones and bricks lying around, clearly having been thrown and coming down the road was a man with a Machete heading into the fight, however, I never saw him return. Cars and bikes were turning around and all the locals were out looking at the noise and commotion near them. 

Best not meet a man with a sword at 2am.
Photo courtesy of demotix.com

A couple more people ran by one carrying a makeshift 2 meter long spear with something sharp at the end and then one of the night watchmen came from nowhere shouting and waving his big stick about. I think he must have done something useful as there was some dispersement. A couple of 'pops' from something made everyone run down the road and the locals dive back into their houses and that was pretty much it for the night. The police eventually arrived not en-masse but in a car but the fight had pretty much ended by then and it was replaced by brushes and brooms sweeping the road clean and tidying things up.

This is the stuff the locals fight with, golf clubs clearly for the more affluent street fighter

It appears that there has been running fights for a while now up and down the street at night with some gangs of bored youths and men probably fighting over nothing like normal but the fact they 'tool' or arm themselves up makes it more concerning. 

Still this being Indonesia, the locals will take matters into their own hands and ultimately once the ringleaders of the fights have been caught, they will face a very severe beating or worse by them. 

I am hoping this ends soon, I am sure it will as these things often do. The streets are still far safer than many in England and I am not stupid enough to outside my house at times like those

Private health Insurance

With a new born and a step son I have had to think more carefully about the whats and ifs for the whole of the family. As with the cost of most things rising health care is one thing I am always worried about. After the birth of Jeremy, the scare in month 4 and some other hospital visits, the one thing more alarming than the service and standard of health care is the cost of the care provided and the fact that deposits and guarantees have to be put down first before care is provided.
10 million for a case of dengue, 20+  for the birth and care of Jeremy and Yovita and the money has to come from somewhere and well, the savings are not bottomless. So lessons learnt and fingers burnt, I set out to find a way to help sort out any concerns in the future.

We paid a visit to the man from the Pru

At the end of the day, this is not England where healthcare is free and given and the worry is removed until you need to buy the prescription or medicine. Here everything costs. My major concern has been the fact that what will happen if someone is sick and I don't have enough up front to pay straight away so I have been looking for a company and a policy which allows me to show a card or a piece of paper and everything gets taken care of. And finally through a good friend and a recommendation I now have just that.

I will mention Prudential once or twice as I have opened an account with them for all and this means that each month I pay them money and should the kids get sick then I am assured and insured enough to know that they will cover the bill.
The scheme is a long term saving/health cover scheme or in simple terms life insurance and this allows me to save for the boys futures as well over the years.
The payouts are after 15 or more years and the sums will help them with their futures which is another useful thing.

The monthly amount paid is split into savings and health cover with the majority in the health cover. The health cover then allows for a more 'generous' if thats the right word, amount of cover and care. Shared room, doctors visits, operations, medication etc are now all covered and for as long as it is needed. However this being insurance there is a ceiling on cost. So, for example if we choose to mover Jeremy to a private room, then I have to pay the difference between the shared and the new one. This is OK for me. There is also a daily hospital allowance which can reimbursed which again is plus.

VIP room in an Indonesian hospital; bed, shower, TV, Fridge, hot and cold nurses and machine that goes ping

What is not covered is the trips to the doctor for minor ailments and medicine, which I am sure I could have had if I had spent even more money, but we are OK with that. Jeremy is currently costing a million a month for his inoculations and they will soon slow down and finally stop....

So it all sounds shiny and rosy. I actually hope I never ever have to find out if this actually happens. Peace of mind is the most important thing.

Back to the process. Through the agent we discussed the costs and implications, looked at the projected figures and health coverage. So we signed up and waited for the coverage to start. For my step son, Belvan he has to wait 90 days to be 100% covered due to the restrictions in the policy and pay the full amount. We received his health card 3 weeks after we paid for it, which was a little annoying but what can we do. The agent was not the quickest with this but it meant we have just over 2 more months to wait for him to be fully covered.
For Jeremy, because he is a new born, Prudential won't insure him for anything until he is six months old ( November ) and so for now they will through reimbursement cover the cost of the hospital bed only. With just over 5 weeks to go to him being 6 months old that is nothing to worry about. At 6 months he gets his health card.

Jeremy's hospital, YPK Mandiri Theresa in Menteng is great but not cheap

To make matters more complicated, and hey aren't they always, I am the named parent for Jeremy only and Yovita is for Belvan. I could not be for both due to the rules and regulations. This means 2 separate policies and clause and costs. Yovita had to provide supporting documents which could only be emailed to the insurer and then they spelt her name wrong, despite it being written in triplicate because they took her name from her ID card which was a scanned copy. That policy document is being rewritten.

Mine, well. Being western makes life more hard. I have had to provide, passport details, visa details, photos, Police book details, employer guarantee letters, all in various forms of copy (mainly photo or pdf). But eventually everything was approved.

Quite a long saga. But it is over. I have peace of mind (hopefully) with the main point of this being that I really hope I never have to use the insurance and the boys continue to grow up healthy and happy.

Health insurance in Indonesia is a developing and new choice but I think overall I chosen correctly and I have been looking for a long time. There is not a lot of helpful information out there to help choose, especially if you are expatriate or clueless like me.

If you are looking for insurance for belongings then that is an even more of a challenge to find and sort out. Luckily for me, Yovita works in insurance and so she sorted that out quickly and very easily. The health insurance is not something that her company deals with.

So the next things to insure? probably, me and the bike.

5 years later

Its a minor celebration for me this week as my blog; Jakarta News celebrates its fifth year of existence and it is still going strong. How many personal bloggers can say that?

5 years on, 270 posts, visited by people in over 170 countries with over 64,000 page loads, it is work in progress. With the arrival of Jeremy, my time and priorities have changed and so I am currently writing less which does irk as I find writing my ramblings most enjoyable but Jeremy is the only thing that truly matters;

Still I wont be giving up just yet. 

The small party I had to celebrate taken with an Edwardian Filter. Amazing results

The rest of this year will bring more posts and I am sure that there will be plenty to talk about. I am as ever happy to share my thoughts and feelings and photos about most things and if there are any willing guest bloggers do let me know as I am always happy to have some new content and perspectives on here.

So thank you dear readers for stopping to have a look at my blog, I would be honoured as ever if you could or would comment on what you see. 

Recently in Jakarta

As usual I have not been up to much recently concentrating mainly on Jeremy at the weekends and working morning to night through the week so I have been, am and will continue to be rather tired.

Jeremy turned 4 months and he is now able to turnover, crawl a little, grab and hold on for dear life, produce the most exotic smells with green poo, recognise and smile at those he sees daily. He can scream at ear splitting volume not because he is hungry or grumpy, this is when he is happy. He enjoys babbling and burbling along and playing with his toys and dribbling over everything and is fun to be with.
The latest check up at the doctor was good and he is doing well if not a little over weight, but no one is concerned about that yet.

He likes being on his front now so he can crawl more

He does not like crowds but then who does but he never cries much in taxis or out and about in malls or anywhere else. He is out growing things he has and has moved to M in nappies with perhaps into L next month. Being allergic to some things which we are not entirely sure of what, he is on Hypo Allergenic milk which of course is not the cheapest and they only do small tins so tha'ts that. Hopefully after 6 months that will change.

Getting to work has been a lot easier at the moment, as I am having to be there by 6am so I can then get to the teachers house by 6.30am, change and leave for school where I teach. This means my journey in the morning is cut by 10 minutes due to the traffic at 5.30am being lighter.
After 4 years the bikes battery finally died and so for a tenner it was replaced and everything is good with the old dream machine again. A service is due soon but I should wash it first but I think the service is more likely.

The rain has been holding off apart the odd small shower and so the days are dry and dusty and humid. Nice when there is a breeze. Often there is no breeze. The city's plants are starting too look a little dead and the roads whilst dry have even more cracks and holes in them. There does not seem to be anyone fixing them. The holes are getting bigger and the drains are getting blocked by the dust. As soon as it rains for an hour here the city is going to grind to a spectacular halt, like it does every time. The river near EF is now very low which means the mud is above the water line and drying out, so the smell is something to truly behold. Some engineers cleared out a load of debris and built up soil to make the river run clearer but the debris is back and flowing ever slowly to the ocean.

The price of food and fuel does seem to be getting more expensive. Fruit and Veg in the supermarkets as most is imported into the country is over priced and the local stuff outside is cheap but not too good. Mango season is not yet here but it will be happy days when it is. The local store across the house sells almost everything I need for my weekly shop in one form or another. The old man down the road kills chickens and butchers some animal in the morning should I get brave enough to buy from him (I won't) and eggs are 19,000 a kilo or just over a pound. A kilo of eggs this week is 16 eggs. Great. Oil, rice and sugar are cheap as well so I do wonder why we need to go to a supermarket. I guess it just feels better.

The local store is down there behind the red cover honest.

And then I was given a gift. A camera. Not just some normal camera but a top of the range, need to sit and read the manual for this one, 20 megapixel state of the art, best pictures ever camera which is all singing and dancing. We are very happy. My old Sony camera has had a relapse and needs to be repaired. It lasted 7 long years and endured, glaciers, the sea, sand dunes, freezing weather, boiling weather, boat rides, motorbike rides and constant use. I hope this Sony lasts as long. Now I just need to get out and about and use it, that will be soon.

This camera is awesome.

So, just recently busy not busy. I leave you with my last tale of a busway journey. I took the bus home on Friday night much to my colleagues and the wifes surprise as I was in a building at Slipi and at 7.45 did not want the driver to take me home as it would take too long. I was going to take a taxi but I saw a TransJakarta bus go by empty so I hot footed it to the nearest  busway shelter and then took the bus to Pancoran. That cost me 3,500 rupiah and 30 minutes. In this empty bus an old man sat next to me and started to sleep and snore. When the bus stopped he woke and picked his nose and then went back to sleep until I got up to get off the bus. 30 minutes of memories never to be forgotten....

Friday night traffic heading east out of the city