Today was a "rest" day, which I imagined I would use going to the bank to recharge my depleted cash reserves, and maybe walking through downtown to visit some public building or other, and browsing through the market stalls. It was a "get everything done" day, plus much more. But let me start at the beginning:
One of the minor annoyances I have been suffering is that banks here will only give me US$ 80 every time I use the ATM machine, instead of the US$ 300 I like to carry when I travel. That means that I have to go to the ATM almost everyday to build up my reserve, one million rupiah at a time. I also have been relying on Irvan to make some of the mobile banking payments, and by now I had a standing debt with him of four million rupiah. I wanted to get that debt settled because he is a student with limited funds in his bank. So we went to his bank (BRI) to see if I could get a cash advance on my Visa credit card. No cigar! Even at the central office of BRI they couldn't do it, and referred me back to the stupid ATM machine. I hate being without cash, but I had the four million in my pocket, so then I asked if I could deposit the money in Irvan's account and again they referred me to the &#%$ ATM. Forget banking in Indonesia :(
Breath, breath. OK I was now ready to start "shopping", which turned into a highly organized activity. "What do you need to buy?" ... aah ... "I might need new shoes" ... whoosh ... there we were at the doors of a sports store. Feeling a bit under duress I felt compelled to buy some good shoes, generally out of my normal price range. "Now I want to buy you a present", said Irvan, and ... whoosh ... we were at a store that sold traditional Indonesian clothing, where Irvan insisted on buying me a proper male sarong, and a smart Indonesian hat of the type used by older men here, and Sauidi insisted on buying me a white shirt also traditional among well dressed men. I will gladly dress formally for the two public lectures I have to give over the next week. :)
Sauidi took me on a guided tour of the beautiful central Mosque of Padang, which is a large park with all sorts of ancillary buildings around the most beautiful mosque I have ever seen. Most mosques I have seen are very Arabic in their looks, but not this one. The building you can see looks like an enormous traditional Indonesian house built with colorful woods (or colorful aluminum plates that look like wood), accompanied by a most ornate and beautiful tower. The inside was, functionally, like all mosques, but the decoration was very tasteful and conducive to prayer.
With the "rest" part of the day done, we turned to the PR aspects of the day. First we went to the local BMKG office (the meteorology center by the airport), where we met some more of the super friendly BMKG leadership team, went to another lavish and memorable lunch, and then headed to the coastal village of Tapakis, where Sauidi has proposed construction of a high-frequency radar facility for the monitoring of tsunami waves (a very interesting concept that I will have to explore with my students this fall). This was the official meeting with the Chief of the Village and his staff, to walk the area where the project would be built, explain the purpose, and get the preliminary go-ahead from them. My role was to be the face of wisdom and old age, so I donned my brand new Indonesian hat and tried to look old and respectable. The Chief had also brought an elder of his own, but I beat him by four years, and was thus the official Old Man of the party.
To Indonesians I am unfathomably old, and they wonder at the fact that I can walk at all. As we strolled along the beach, shaded by some beautiful pines the Chief had planted 10 years ago, we met this pretty woman, who I was told is a local Tik-Tok artist and model. I of course had to be introduced to me, and she jumped at the opportunity to have her photo taken with the last of the dinosaurs. As an artist she was very extroverted and charming, and I was very glad to become her Tik-Tok father figure.
We then sat under the shade to share a refreshment of coconuts and Sprite, and I found the Chief and his associates to be a very charming group, with considerable achievements on village improvement to their credit. The coastal forest has become a favorite relaxing outing for the people of Padang, of which the Chief is rightfully very proud.
On the way back Febrit took us through a very convoluted neighborhood to a cul-de-sac where, to my utter amazement, we found a small coffee roastery, run by a charming middle-age man who brewed delicious cups of storm coffee for us, and gave us an impromptu lecture on the characteristics of the Robusta versus Arabica coffees, and how he could craft unique blends by varying the amounts of each bean (plus a three more types I don't remember) to create unique coffee-drinking experiences. Great fun, and I came out carrying a small bag of roasted beans to take with me back to "Amerika".
We had pizza for dinner! Sauidi and I then had a nice conversation about projects in which we could cooperate at a later time, including faculty and student exchange, as well as cooperative work in tsunami monitoring. I think I am going to jump with both feet into updating myself on tsunamis in my Physical Oceanography and Geophysics classes, and maybe will be back in Indonesia in a couple of years to teach a short course and make more friends. I also hope Sauidi and some of my other friends will come visit me in California. They are such good people!
No comments:
Post a Comment