Feelings of home

Gradually our house and life here have been feeling more and more like home. On Saturday we had the internet installed at our house so it is nice to be a bit more connected to the world again. We have been trying to figure out a transportation solution as of late. Here, the options for transportation are limited, especially for families with small children.

Our options are:

1. Ride on the back of a moped (an ojek). Not extremely safe and not really a way for a family to get around.

2. Ride in an ancolt (a small van/bus with bench-like seats in a u-shape). Same problem as number one.

3. Walk (this has been our option so far).

4. Call a Taxi. Because the taxis were competing with the ancolt drivers for business, they will no longer take you to the mall, which is where we need to go for all of our shopping. Plus when you call they only speak Indonesian so we never really know if they will show up for us. We haven’t really had much luck with them so far.

5. Lease a car. As an expatriate we are not allowed to purchase a car, making leasing the only option for having one. I haven’t even really even seen any cars that are more than a few years old, so we probably couldn’t afford one anyway.

Another issue with all of the options except 4 and 5 is that we can only buy what we can carry (or stuff onto the stroller as has been the case) making things a lot harder. So after much consideration our big news for tonight is that we leased a car. We will eventually get a driver, but Evan has experience with driving on the opposite side of the road so we are fine around the Lippo Cikarang area. We are definitely in a different world in so many ways and yet there is still glimpses of America as well making it hard to know how to adjust.

-Jessica

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1. A Day Out
2. Things are falling into place
3. What Do You Want to Read?
4. Houses of Fabric and Stone