1. Tea and coffee include a huge amount of sugar. As I like my hot drinks plain, it is hard for me to choke them down. When we served a cup of hot chocolate to our wonderful friend Krystin she remarked that next time she wanted it with more sugar.
2. Everywhere we go people just stop and stare. After a day and a half in Siantar we have not seen any other white people, and definitely no Americans. Dean Tagur mentioned that an American who is married to an Indonesian may be visiting next week. No sign of him yet!
3. The girl students and the women just love Jacob. It is on the order of what we experienced in Vietnam. They are interested in talking to me and Nancy but we don’t seem to be as fascinating as Jacob.
4. Phil Baker, the missionary coordinator, had told us that living in this house would be like camping out and we think we now understand what he meant. The upper windows are just screened openings, so the sounds of the neighborhood are always present. That includes the grasshopper, dog, rooster and geese noises. The motorbike driven by the guy next door, the stereo from the next house over, etc. And of course we hear the mosque at 5 in the morning, though on Sunday morning it seemed a bit quieter than the day before.
5. In crossing streets you use the “Ho Chi Minh City” strategy, which is to form your group in a line parallel to the street and slowly walk across. The traffic forms around you but magically doesn’t hit you. 6. In the center city area there are parking guys with whistles who assist in alerting traffic. These guys each seem to have their territories along a short stretch of road. They direct cars into open parking spaces, make sure they are parked to only take up one space, and then whistle and gesture to traffic when you want to leave. The system is you pull out into traffic, pause momentarily, and hand the guy the money…which is a tip or fee of 2000 R, less than a quarter. If it wasn’t for these guys I don’t think there would be any parking available at all.
7. Fruit and veggies are weighed right in the produce department, as is done in Europe.
8. Rice is only sold in 10 and 20 kilo bags at most super markets. We explained that this was more rice than we would eat in a year and they had a hard time believing us. We ended up getting a 5 kilo bag which may not last out the month, given our consumption rate.
9. Outside of our big lunch on the road from Medan yesterday, we haven’t eaten a substantial meal since we arrive 1 ½ days ago. My stomach is still getting settled and I imagine the heat is affecting the appetites of Jacob and Nancy. We’ve had eggs and simple bread items, in addition to the fruit, nuts and crackers mentioned in the journal. Perhaps this afternoon or tonight we will have the energy to go out for a big meal.
10. The classrooms we saw on Saturday each had about 40 seats/desks, with a white board or chalk board up front and most had an LCD projector with a laptop available. This is encouraging, as I was expecting them to be at least a generation further back in technology. Most computer are XP or Vista, though the Dean told us the software was upgraded many times from an original 95 version.
11. The campus includes an internet hot spot, which Jacob was able to access yesterday as we toured the campus. However, when we went back in the late afternoon we were unable to connect, and a teacher explained that once the masters program classes have ended for the day that the power is turned off. So a hot spot is not viewed as something important enough to be left on all the time. On Tuesday we went back, sat of the front porch of the building, and connected to the internet.
12. We bought our cell phone on Saturday. Kristin and her friend Sun took us into a little shop in the city center. Nobody could believe that we Americans wanted the most basic cell phone possible, that we didn’t want to spend more money than necessary. The phone cost around $25 and then the card was $8. It is unclear to us how the minutes are charged. The envelope for the card has a promotion message about “5000 free” but we don’t know if this is minutes or calls or just Rupiah of charges. We probably won’t make enough phone calls to find out what it meant. Kristin and Sun didn’t understand what we meant when we asked.
13. Many many people here smoke cigarettes. I haven’t paid really close attention but it seems to be predominantly men. And they seem to have no idea that second hand smoke and burning cigarettes may not be desirable for those who are not smoking. I’ve already had several people come up to me with a lit cigarette in their hand, blowing smoke in my face (not on purpose), and stand just inches away from me.
14. The litter you see scattered about everywhere is surprising. I would think in a laid back place that they would have a greater sense of respect for the beauty of the outdoors. Everywhere we go, including right outside the porch of our house, and around the campus, we find a great deal of litter.
15. The spreadable margarine here is not really spreadable. Perhaps they make it that was so it doesn’t immediately melt when you put it out on the table. It’s so hard that it bends the spoon as you try and scoop it. So far the strategy seems to be to carve off little shavings. At this rate the little tub of margarine may last us the whole month.
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