Jakarta Baby Revisited

I am presently typing with one hand because my other is helping to cradle our three day old baby. Ada Rose Duell was born at 4pm in Medistra hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia on the 17th of May. She is presently making little sheep like sounds while sleeping.

Emmerson is growing nicely into her big sister role, We were a bit curious to how this would go because of some of the comments made by Emmerson about her prospective little brother or sister. When I told her that we were going to bring home a baby - she looked very concerned shook her head emphatically and said "no baby". Wayan, Emmerson' s nanny, told me that Emmerson said "give the baby to Lelise?" - who is another nanny of friends of ours. More to come later as this one hand typing is getting quite unpleasant.

Here are the vital statistics and my initial thoughts on the birth of Ada.

Sex:Girl

Name: Ada Rose Duell

Weight: 9lbs

Length: metric - Alicia figured out the poundage and told me - I failed the metric unit in the 5th grade and have no idea what the centimeter equivalent is so ignored this bit of data.

Ian here reporting for Alicia. We (and yes, I realize I did basically nothing - my duty this time around was to fan Alicia when she got hot - but am still going to use the inclusive plural) were expecting quite an ordeal due to our experience with Emmerson, but what a difference.

Emmerson took something like 36 hours to have - Ada didn't (I don't know when women officially begin counting the hours - have to wait for Alicia for that data)

The epideral with Emmerson didn't take - the epideral with Ada knocked Alicia's lower half into a very content state of being. At one point she said something like "I think something is going on, can you get a nurse" - the baby was already visible!

Emmerson took an hour of pushing with intense pain - the nurses had to tell Alicia when to push with Ada because she could barely feel the contractions.

Emmerson finally arrived, bleated like a lamb once or twice and then slept for several days all bundled up in her wrap - Ada came out screaming like crazy and had already removed her wrap five minutes after being placed in the incubator.

Emmerson had a fine mist of blond hair - Ada has a huge mop of black hair

After Emmerson, Alicia was a sweaty mess - less than an hour after Ada, she was eating dinner and watching American Idol

I came home and showed the video I took of Ada on our macbook to Emmerson and told her the name of the new baby - she looked intently and said her name, so hopefully she will be a good big sister.

Alicia is doing fine - impressively beautiful even after pushing out 9 lbs of kid. Ada is wrinkly and beat up looking but I am expecting her to pan out fine.

Burrito baby.

Excited big sister and mom

Celebratory sign outside our apartment - typically done in Indo.

Jakarta to Kalimantan

Can not locate these pictures anywhere .... too bad - actually, I think I uploaded many onto a powerpoint ... will post those but am missing many so the write-ups don't relate to some of the images but want to keep the write ups for memory sake.


Mining is big business in Kalimantan as evidenced by this sign that greets arriving visitors in the airport. This is the first sign that you see as you enter the airport from the tarmac.


This picture is taken from the lodge that is built into the slope of one side of a valley. At the base of the valley is a group of mandmade islands where the orangs that are being rehabed live. On the other slope are enormous cages that house the rehabed orangs waiting for reintroduction into their natural habitat.

The ecolodge - very impressive.

The fire tower provides for an excellent survey view of the area and of the work being done by the Samboja group.


Dave H. making a commando style exit from the "Jungle Truck", which was needed to navigate many of the muddy roads in the area. It was a Mercedes Benz truck made for farmers back in Germany. It was widely used in Germany during WWII and is often modified to serve safari adventures.



An orang on one of the rehab islands. You can not get too close to the orangs as they must break their relationship with humans to successfully be reintroduced into the wild. Also orangs are very susceptible to human diseases, another reason for keeping the distance. One of the islands has several orangs that have hepatitis - they will never be reintroduced into a natural habitat as they could easily decimate a population living in the wild by spreading the disease.

We played a friendly match against the Samboja team. They played some nice football and the pitch was huge - actually it had no side boundaries and the ref was quite willing to let play progress well into the underbrush bordering the field - definite home team advantage

Samboja refers to an area in Kalimantan about an hours drive from the capital city, Balipapan. About fifty years ago the area was clear cut by logging companies and left to fend on its own. The results were typical of deforested areas: soil depletion, species loss, and hearty fast growing "weedy" plants covering the previously forested landscape. The Samboja organization, part of BOS (The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation), consists of three different projects; orangutan and sunbear rehabilitation and with the orangutans, eventual release back into their natural habitat, reforestation of the area with hardwood trees, and an ecolodge. We took our students to Samboja for a week so they could experience first hand a very interesting and unique aspect of Indonesia.

Planting teak trees. Difficult work as the scruff that has grown up in the area is quite dense and needs to be removed in order for the teak saplings to successfully take root and grow.

Preparing seedling soil pots in the nursery. One of the highlights of this part of the trip was sampling the various fruits growing in the nursery area. When the head gardener noticed my curiosity in the different fruit trees, he began taking me from tree to tree, giving me fruit to try - very exciting as several types were new to me.

In the honey bear compound.

Jakarta's Latest ManU Fan

The other day Emerson exchanged her clothes for one of my soccer jerseys. She then proceeded to run around the room yelling "Go ManU" for the next twenty minutes.

still hunting for this image ... will have to settle for this one until I find the Man U chanting child!

Emmerson in mid chant.

And Emmerson with a studious look.

Santa's Sleigh: Bonding in Jakarta

I do believe these images are lost forever, which might just be for the best as they were rather disturbing .... read on.

Safari Land. The blurry effect is to replicate what your mind has to be like when you enter into this land. You can see the dragon returning to its stable and the giraffe emerging from Jungle Land taking a brave little girl for a ride she will never forget - even if she wants to.

I have finally arrived at the point in parenting where I can manage going to those “funland” places where they have ball crawls, see saws, bouncing things and various other dangerous devices. There was a time in my life when I would never even consider stepping foot in one of these places let alone actively participate in and support its existence. But things have changed and now I join thethrongs of nannies in making sure that the little ones are not crushed by the big hyper kid doing a WWF style, off the ropes dive into the ball crawl.

The “funland” at our mall is called Safari Land and the play area has a sort of jungle theme and is called Jungle Jumpland or something of the sort. There is a procedure to getting your kid into Jungle Jumpland and of course it is filled with all sorts of complicated steps and maneuvers. The workers already treat me with a bit of wary skepticism – because I am not Indonesian and not a nanny. Add to the fact that I forget the requisite socks and look like a slack jawed yokel because I enter into that glassy eyed, just short of shock stage that dads go into when they undertake things like themed restaurants, toddler/mother care type stores, and “funlands”.

But I am changing and now enter Safari Land like a seasoned veteran, bring my own socks and help manage the tumbling toddlers determined to somehow hurt themselves even though everything has rounded edges and is relatively soft. Due to my new found confidence, I felt it was finally time to conquer one of the more bizarre offerings of Safari Land; the forward moving, machine operated, rideable creatures.

The Chinese Dragons make quite an impression as they lurch out of Safari Land into the mall proper.

Four years ago, upon first seeing these things in action, they were so startlingly strange and unusually fascinating that I would actually follow them around the mall. Unfortunately, a description does not do these things justice but I will give it a shot. They include a variety of animals, a few Chinese dragons and a Santa’s sleigh attached to two reindeer. Most are in various states of disrepair, the lion is missing an eye, the fur on dog is ratty and patchy so it looks like it has contracted mange, the elephant has one tusk and it is sagging. They make quite a frightening site as they shuffle jerkily around the mall like something out of a Hollywood, B Zombie movie.


Giraffe.

Four years of living in Jakarta and two years of being a dad do a lot to a person, and today I actually thought this forlorn looking group of critters looked neat and that Emmerson would enjoy a ride on one. I bought her a ticket and then allowed her to peruse the lineup so she could choose one to ride. She chose Santa’s Sleigh. I didn’t like Santa’s Sleigh and tried to urge her to select the deranged dragon or the mangy dog, but she was set on the sleigh. She had to wait her turn as another kid had dibs and I watched with a tiny bit of concern as the reindeer began shuffling and the sleigh began jerking rather violently up and down, and back and forth. My concern grew as the sleigh came into site around a corner on its return journey. The carriage was still bucking erratically and the kid had a strange look on his face – one that said “I know this is supposed to be fun and I should be smiling but in fact it is scary and I am confused by this whole experience”. Unfortunately, Emmerson's skills of observations and intuition are not quite as keen as mine and she did not understand the look on the child as he came down the final stretch of a very disturbing experience. When I urged her to select another of the less violent looking creatures she again, insisted on Santa’s Sleigh.



The infamous Santa's Sleigh waiting for its next victim/rider.


I believe the chicken was out of commission or it had been acting particularly ornery and its handler had put it in the corner for a "time out" session.

When the guide (a handler trained in the unique idiosyncratic behavior of each of the creatures) spurred the reindeer on and the sleigh began to buck violently, I realized that even though Emmerson was smiling, she was actually in danger of getting whiplash from this ride. After about 20 feet of shuffling and bucking I actually placed my hand behind Emmerson’s head to keep it from whipping backward as the sleigh lunged this way and that. Every time I would take my hand away she got that same confused look on her face worn by the previous rider. To add to the overall bizarre and increasingly disturbing quality of the experience, half way through the trip, we heard emanating from deep within the bowels of one of Santa's reindeer not Jingle Bell's or some other appropriate Christmas themed music, but Celine Dion's voice belting out a particularly emotional rendering of the Titanic theme song. Finally, the handler guided the reindeer home and the sleigh was put to rest. I looked at Emmerson and she at me in a special, knowing way; for we had just experienced one of those unique moments in life where a special bond is forged that will remain with us for the rest of our lives. So in the future when she is angry at me for not letting her stay out late, upset because she failed her driving test again, or mad at her mom for embarrassing her again in front of her friends, I will simply have to say “Santa’s Sleigh” and everything will be seen in its proper perspective, and be OK.

Another "fun" land. Emmerson and I on the elephant ride.

Jakarta Traffic

The other evening I went out for a run. My route primarily consists of two residential neighborhoods which are quite nice to run in. But to get from one neighborhood to the other, a few busy streets need navigating. It was late afternoon on a Friday and the streets were full up with rush hour traffic. I was half way into my run when I came to the first crossing. I stood on the curb for only a brief moment before I turned towards traffic, lifted my arm as one would do when parting waters, evoking a higher power, or acknowledging a crowd of devoted followers and stepped directly into the line of cars barreling down on me. I strutted across the street, arm held high, staring each car down, exuding absolute confidence as I stepped defiantly into each of the three lanes of oncoming traffic. When I made it to the other side and began running again, I thought to myself, what in the hell did I just do? It was then I realized that I had unconsciously used for the first time, one of the superpowers that all residence of Jakarta eventually get which enable them to survive life in this city - the ability to stop moving vehicles by simply holding one's arm aloft and stepping boldly into the line of traffic. Perhaps it was simply a matter of time before the two required pieces came together - as both the arm motion and bravado are essential - attempting a crossing using one without the other is courting disaster. And I think when you leave Jakarta the superpowers stay behind - so don't raise your arm and step boldly into the path of an oncoming New York cabby.