Living in Jakarta: Page from my diary
by Elina Mark

Dear Diary,

Living in Indonesia was not among my plans in life, and if someone told me that I would spend four years in it, I would have said it was a fantasy. What I am saying is not a derogation, but I did not hear about Indonesia except in the subject of geography (which I did not like) and in the news when they talked about the typhoon in 2012.

Since I landed at Jakarta International Airport, the difference between the countries I visited on one hand and Indonesia on the other was too big to not be noticed.

It started from the Indonesian National Language, which uses Latin letters to express it with a different sound of the letters. One of the things that caught my attention is that if someone decides to open up a conversation with you and you explain to them that you don't understand their language, they will keep talking to you. I had no choice but to answer that old man in my own language.

Although we knew that neither of us understood the other's language, that conversation lasted for ten minutes. How I wish I knew what that man was saying with a smile on his face. I know it does not make sense, but it's the Indonesian people's way of showing welcome to foreigners on their land. Don't forget to smile while talking to them, a smile opens the most closed doors for you.

The suffocating congestion in any way of transportation at peak time, was one of the things that reminded me of my mother country, Sudan. You can easily find yourself clinging to people especially in the crowded train. This congestion warns you not to try to pick up anything that falls in a crowded Jakart's train.

Otherwise, you will find yourself trampled underfoot. I couldn't get used to the crowds before and I find it hard to get used to it now. What do I do if I can't change myself? They say, "you can't teach an old dog new tricks."

The summer heat and humidity in Jakarta were not bad for me if I compared it to all the countries I lived in. The heat of the weather in Khartoum makes you feel that you are about to melt from its intensity, as is the case for most of the countries that I have travelled between, with the exception of Cairo. I was born in Cairo and lived there for four years and I hope to return to it one day.

I will never forget the day I learned about the monsoon period in Indonesia. In my memory, rain (if it does) does not fall for more than half an hour, but here it rains for at least four continuous hours per day in that period of the year. Let me tell you a story that happened to me on the occasion of the monsoon. Because the best way, I think, to learn about the history of the country is to visit the National Museum. So, visiting the National Museum was one of my ways to discover Indonesia. Getting there was not that easy as a result of my decision to walk the last 200 meters to the museum. Then Indonesia shocked me for the first time with its rain. I hid inside a store with some people, waiting for the rain to stop. But after two hours of waiting and the National Museum closing time approaching, I decided to run in the rain to get there.

On the bright side, I was able to access and enter. As for my wet clothes, you can imagine how I looked. Since then, I have not gone out of my house without my umbrella. Watching the arts and other collections made me end my day with a smile on my face and the flu for three consecutive days.

One of the things I noticed in common between Sudan and Indonesia is street food. Regardless of the different types of food, in Sudan, bread on the table is considered one of the basic things, while in Indonesia, rice is the hero of the table.

This does not mean that we do not eat rice, but for us bread always comes first. I spent my first year in Indonesia without eating Arabic bread. Here, it is necessary to differentiate between Arabic bread and any other bread, and if you have not tried Arabic bread yet, excuse me if I said that you did not eat real bread in your life.

Personally, I am not a fan of eating rice unless I have to and I can't find bread.  This rarely happened to me when I was living in Sudan or any other Arabic countries. But here, it happened to me every single day for the first year. Until finally I found a place where they sell Afghani bread, it is not like Arabic bread but it tastes good and I do not have any other choice.

As for the taste of food and the flavours added to it, this is another world. In Sudan, we love to add different flavours to food. From salt and black pepper to cumin, cinnamon, bay leaf, chickpeas, sesame oil, olive oil and the list goes on.

Chili is also part of the flavour but it is not the main one. And if your stomach is sensitive like mine and you decide not to add chili to your food, you will find that your food still carries the fragrance of Arabic food and its strong smell. But in Indonesia, people are enamoured by hot and spicy food. In my opinion, the Indonesian people can enter the Guinness Book of Records from the widest of its doors as the people who consume the most chili during their lifetime.

Let me tell you this short story, explaining my idea regarding this point.

One day during my first year in Indonesia, I decided to try street food after I asked where the best places to go are. The crowding around that place was ok. So, I decided to sit down a bit before ordering food, and fortunately for me, an Indonesian family who spoke English was sitting next to me. For me, this was a great opportunity to chat and get to know Indonesian culture. The family was small, consisting of a mother, father and their nine-year-old son.

After exchanging some information about Sudan and Indonesia, it was time to order food. And here the family decided to help me choose some foods that they thought I would like. And because I had heard about the Indonesian people's love for chilli, I explained to them that I prefer to eat without adding it because of my sensitive stomach. But the mother made it clear that she would ask them to put the same amount of chilli that they would add to her son's food to add to mine.  And here I addressed my words to her son and asked him if the amount of hot pepper that he eats affects him negatively.

He told me with huge confidence that he does not feel any spicy in his food, and that he always asks his mother to add more of it to his food, but she refuses. That kid's answer gave me confidence to try Indonesian food with a little bit of chilli.

In my mind there was one question, if a little bit of spicy did not affect a young child, how would it affect me? I didn't need to wait long to know the answer to this question, as with the first spoonful of food I had tears in my eyes and a stiff cough.

After much effort I swallowed it, and while I was crying from the spicy food, that nine-year-old boy was crying from the comedy of the situation I put myself in. I finished my meal with tears and a lot of laughter.

Indonesia and its people have been a great mystery to me, which I have always tried to discover during my stay in it. But after four years in it and moving to five different residences and visiting many of its cities, I confess that I could only discover less than one percent of that mystery. From diverse languages, ethnicities, historical background, customs and tradition, I believe I need a lifetime to discover Indonesia. But I surely fell in love with it from the first moment. 

See you in a different page of my diary.

Elina Mark is a dentist with nine years of experience. She currently works with two non-profit organisations who take care of refugee education. She is an Academic Manager at 4 All Learning Center and Educational Coordinator at Beyond the Fabric. She is also a member of The Archipelago online magazine.