Monday, October 5, 2009

What the heck is "lite rain?"

When it rains, it pours, so the saying goes, and it's pretty literal here. Yesterday was the official beginning of rainy season, I'd say. We were playing ultimate frisbee when off in the distance these huge dark "sinisterly foreboding" rain clouds gathered. Using wisdom gained from past experience, most of the players took off their running shoes and played barefoot. Good idea, because those clouds moved incredibly fast. We were drenched within minutes. It was actually a great way to play because you could run and sweat and the sweat would just wash off. It definitely confirmed for me that sometimes my inability to play (my desire to get OFF the field) has a lot to do with the humidity and heat. One thing to remember in the next 6 months, or those months with an 'r' in it, is to always carry an umbrella. I often think I should get someone to bring me a pair of those funky multi-coloured rainboots in the shoe shop on Fifth. I already get stared at, and I'm pretty convinced that the locals think I'm a little "special" if you get my drift. Buleh gila (crazy foreigner) would be an appropriate label sometimes.

We just got an email from Abby's teacher congratulating her on the gold medal in English that she just received (on paper so far). She wrote in an English competition that was written across Indonesia (not sure if it's just international schools or not) and got top marks. Tris thinks it's top 1%. I would have written that first but I don't want to seem too proud, so I eased in with discussing the weather. We are very proud of Abby and the work she does.

The last week has been interesting. Apparently there is a fire in one of the electric stations in Jakarta and so every day or two the authorities turns the power off in specific grid areas, to save power. Ours was off for 7 hours today, which is the longest yet. Usually it's just 3 or 4 hours, and it gets pretty hot without the a/c. Thankfully today we had another rainfall and it cooled the air down.

That's all folks.

Thanks for reading.

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