Mayestik

This is Mayestik.  A place Jakartans go to buy fabric.  I like it there, but I also like to leave.  It's a complicated relationship I have with that place...

There are fruit stands surrounding all the shops.  These green oranges are delicious.  Even without bees.

The sign at the top says, "We are on sale!"

The area is full of little stores like this that sell all kinds of fabric.  The quality is great and the prices are great too.  And I think you can even bargain, but I haven't gotten that brave yet.

Those are my friends in the back of the store.

This is how they measure your fabric.  In meters.  It's tough for me to get used to.

He just hold a meter stick up, folds it, and cuts.  Pretty simple.  Very fast.

The banana stand.

Then there's the store with all the notions.  Oh my gosh.  It's a bit overwhelming.

You could look for hours.

Every button you could imagine.  Everything in this area is very cheap.  Someday I'm going to make something with lots of buttons just so I have an excuse to buy all the buttons I want.

Sharp Surprise

In Jakarta, people are selling stuff everywhere.  All down the streets people have their carts.  Some are mobile, and some stay put.  Sometimes I even see a guy walking along, holding a long pole with a bunch of merchandise hanging from it.

When we went to the zoo it was the same.  Only here, in addition to the carts, we had men following us with their cold water, and snacks.  It didn't bother me.  In fact, I was happy to have the cold water anytime I needed it.  I bought several bottles that day.  Even the guy who hung out by the monkey's cages selling peanuts didn't bother me.  He wasn't very aggressive.  In other words, he was easy to ignore.

But then we got to the outside of the zoo and had to stand there while we waited for our car.  Here's where the guys with the toys hung out.  It is difficult to ignore a salesman who hands your 3 year old a toy and then expects you to pay for it.  I tried.  I did well for a while.  At one point I had a handful of dudes trying to sell one or more of the kids, and me, something.  I wasn't prepared.  I made the kids give back the toys (some of them were made from trash!) and we tried to keep moving.  The car came and the men followed us to the car.  I practically slammed their faces in our car door.  But that is beside the point of this post.

I bought something.  Right before I got into the car, a man with parachute guys came up.  My boys were eager to try one out, and I was weakened.  So I bought 2.  You might be happy to know that I didn't buy them for the asking price.  I bargained.  So after he came down in price, I bought them.

They were junk, of course.  But they gave the boys (or at least G) $1 worth of fun before they got all tangled up.  

But that is all background.  The real reason for me writing about this is the surprise we found inside.   

 Yes, that is what it looks like.  A 3 inch nail!  I guess in making the toy, they thought that it needed to be heavier.  And what a perfect choice!  It fits nicely into the leg of the plastic man, and it's just the right weight.  What were they thinking?!  When is it ever a good idea to put a nail in a toy?

I was surprised to find a nail in a child's toy.  But not really.  We were just happy it wasn't rusty!  We laughed at the absurdity, and how this kind of thing would never happen in the States.

Always an experience.

And So The Rainy Season Begins

I live in Jakarta.  It rains here.  A lot.

I live in an area of Jakarta that has a reputation for flooding.  Now I know why.

 This was after only about 30 minutes of rain.

This is on the main street before taking a smaller road to get to my house.  I couldn't believe the amount of water that was falling from the sky.

I was nervous.  I didn't know how deep the car could go without getting stuck.  I wasn't driving.  I have a driver.  Yes, it's strange, but that is another post.  I was hoping he was using his best judgement.  It's hard to say if he thinks his job is just to get me from one place to another regardless of consequences.  We made it through.

We kept driving home, and we came to the street right outside my complex.  We stopped.  We had to.  All the shopkeepers put their carts out to block the road.

 We were stuck.
Not stuck in the water, thankfully, but stuck without a way to get home.

What do these kids' moms say when they come home with soaking wet backpacks, and their homework is dripping?

Turns out, there is another entrance into our housing complex.  We sat there for about 20 minutes while I called everyone I could think of to help us out.  I wasn't upset about the delay.  I watched, fascinated at what was happening in and around the flood.

This was not a huge rain.  In fact, my son had soccer practice a couple hours after this, and when we left, the water was gone.  It was truly amazing to me.  I've never seen anything like it.