Jakarta Identity Crisis

Who’s your daddy?

Daddy!?
One of Emmerson’s favourite words is “daddy”. She points to me and says daddy. Sometimes she even does a bit of a chant or draws out the word real long while pointing at me. It makes me feel good. But recently I have noticed that the word daddy isn’t just reserved for me. She also says daddy while pointing to various objects. What a smart girl! Already making associations! Or so I thought until today. All sorts of summer construction projects are taking place on campus. Alicia told me that yesterday she met up with Wayan walking Emmerson around the campus. Emmerson was pointing to all the workers saying “daddy”. Today at the supermarket she called a guy stocking the shelf “daddy”.


Daddy!?

Daddy!?

We went to Rangunan Zoo this morning and spent all of our time in the primate section. I recommend a trip if you are looking for something to do in Jakarta. The orang-utans definitely stole the show. I can’t speak for the rest of the zoo but the primate area was quite entertaining and interesting. Emmerson can now make animal noises. She’s got dog, cat, sheep, cow, horse, frog, and elephant down pat. Apparently she wasn’t quite prepared for what she would find at the zoo. But she gave it a shot. The big ones got the dog sound and the smaller the cat.




Nice puppies.

Another of Emmerson’s favourite words is ball. I wrote previously about the impact balls have on her life. It has not abated. In celebration of the World Cup, the Sport Mall has erected a 20 foot pyramid of soccer balls standing in the lobby. Emmerson almost had a conniption when she saw it for the first time. She proceeded to walk around the structure patting random soccer balls while keeping up a steady chant of “ball, ball”. Recently she began saying “ball” and pointing into space while in the street, while driving, in a clothing store – places where balls simply don’t exist. Apparently she has a rather broad definition of the word “ball” to include pretty much any somewhat spherical object: apple – “baaallll”; balloon – “baaaallll”; ornamental vase – “baaaallll”; black and white striped curb (soccer ball??) – “baaalll”.


"Baalllll"

So if you ever see a little blonde girl tugging on a random Indonesian guys pants saying daddy while pointing into space yelling ball - thats my girl!