For some reason this blog makes me out to be some sorta Sally Sunshine. Every day in Indonesia is a blessing, every person I meet is a saint, etc. Of course anyone who knows me must have his or her doubts about this supposedly "New Tori" who's happy-go-lucky, sleeps a lot, doesn't have anything substantial to complain about. But I'm living in a developing country, man, of COURSE I've got complaints.
1. My laundry place is never open. Now a good Sally Sunshine would thank Allah every day that she has huge load of laundry laundered, dried and IRONED for a cool $1.20 or $1.30 a pop. But, for crying out loud, who runs a business that's open from 6-8 a.m. and 4 or 5-8 pm, and closed on Friday? The real problems arise when every work garment I own is at the stinking laundry place and no one's there to help me out. And then I wear something with sequins to school and curse myself silently.
2. The post office is only open until 2 p.m. Well when I work 8-1:45, how am I ever supposed to pick up a package? Wah.
3. I have cockroaches in my house. They are big and slow and stupid. I can kill them with my broom. But boy can those suckers hide from me.
4. This country does not have safe drinking water.
5. This country rarely, if ever, has toilets that flush.
6. Whenever I enter a bathroom, I have to pull my pants up a good foot from the ground and have to wade through a flood-zone just to pee. If you've used squat toilets you may understand the phenomenon of needless bathroom floods.
7. Bathrooms don't have toilet paper. If you forgot tissues, you're screwed.
8. People in this country don't drink alcohol.
9. The floors in every room of my house are infested with ants and there are no ant poisons in Indonesia. Just that stupid chalk.
10. Everything I own is covered, on a daily basis, with another coating of volcanic dust.
11. I can't date here. I'm not Muslim, I'm not Christian. I just don't really fly. If I like someone, they are already married.
12. My windows are all frosted and I can never see outside my house.
13. I'm never safe. That is, according to all the Indonesian people in my life. Either I'm at risk to be blown up by an anti-Western terrorist or I'm taking public transport or my motorbike out after 6 p.m. and am therefore susceptible to all kinds of dangers. You know, robbers and stuff.
14. I wake up every day with the threat looming over my head that I will be fired, lose my grant, and be sent home in a matter of days. That's the way our lovely organization keeps us in line.
15. People want to be my friend because of the color of my skin and my country of origin.
16. I will spend the next five months in "rainy season." What this means: either I am stuck in my house with no food and nothing to do, or I am forced to ride a half hour on my motorbike through the downpour with nothing on but a short-sleeved dress. Happened twice last week. Although now I own a rain coat and pants, which barely fit under the seat of my bike. Wish me luck!
Okay, I think I'm done (phew!). I just think a picture of my life here is incomplete without the daily annoyances that build up from time to time and make me wonder if I'm crazy for living here.
And then I'm over it, and I buy some more 20 cent mangoes, and my life goes on.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment