On Monday this week Indonesia's 7th President was sworn in. Apparently he is the first not to have emerged from the country’s political elite or to have been an army general. Pretty much everyone who has mentioned him to me has had nothing but positive things to say. He is known for being honest. His name is Jokowi Widodo and people call him Joko or Jokowi.It doesn't sound like he really wants to be called Mr. President or President Widodo except in very formal situations and only if he has to do it.
His wife also sounds very down to earth. The local newspaper made a point of reporting she has been known to go without makeup and doesn't dress in high fashion as so many wealthier women do here. I don't know anything about high fashion, nor do I care to know anything, but seriously, a $2000.00 US purse? Or even a $10,000.00 US purse? Really?You can buy these things here. Not something I would ever think about owning. And can you image the price of the matching shoes?
I attempted to play Mahjong again this week though I didn't make it to the AWA coffee (again). The coffee is on Monday mornings and I always seem to have something else to do on Monday mornings. Those of you who play or have played Mahjong will understand this:one of the hardest parts for me is figuring out which 3 tiles to first pass. I am so slow. I must be improving, however, because a few seconds or minutes after I make a mistake I actually see that I made a mistake. For the first couple of weeks any mistakes I was making went right over my head.
The apartment building cleaning team will come tomorrow and on Monday our new maid starts. I am worrying about the maid. I'm trying to figure out what to have her begin doing on her first day. Maybe suggest she see if how I've got the kitchens set up will work for her.Then I wonder how long I should wait until I give her a key to the apartment rather than being here. I wonder how long it will take until I just give her money and have her do my grocery shopping so I don't have to do it. I want to go initially so I can learn something with her help, but she might prefer to shop by herself when she's doing the cooking. There has to be some trust built before I just hand over the keys and money, no matter how trustworthy her former employer says she is. Anyway, she will help us in the apartment Monday-Friday 8-5 with cleaning, cooking, laundry, scheduling maintenance items like delivery of bottled water and cleaning of the grease-trap under the sink.
Speaking of the grease-trap under the sink- I had that cleaned again today. It does appear that I will have to have that done weekly so I don't detect an odor. Wish my nose had an on/off switch. Also today I had to have the stove looked at. One of the burners wouldn't stay on. It's a propane stove and it would light, but would go off as soon as you let go of the knob. It didn't take long to fix it. There was some dirt or something somewhere. Hendra ( tenant relations) had come with the 2 men who came to fix it, but he had to leave and the 2 men didn't speak English. I wanted to ask what I should check for before I call them, but that wasn't in the cards.
Bahasa Indonesia lessons have been pushed back. We were supposed to start yesterday but B had to have a conference call with France during the time so we had to cancel. Same thing for tomorrow. He can't do it then either. More calls with France. Next Tuesday I can't do it. B decided we'll try for November 4. I volunteered to work a shift at the admissions table for the AWA October Bazaar. I'll probably share more about this after I work the shift. On a completely different topic, our front foyer looks like any other Indonesian family's front foyer: it is now full of shoes. Many people actually leave them outside the front door. I'm not comfortable doing that so our foyer has become the shoe repository. And we aren't even neat about it. We really both like the rug we found for the foyer as well.
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