Jakarta, Indonesia – Day 3 and 4.5
Headlines: motorcycle hit and run, guy with a gun, Selim got slapped in the face, bribery, bear in the mall, vomit, and largest mall ever!
Ok, this is going to be very condensed due to time constraints, here it goes. Yesterday Selim and I met with clients at the Bellagio Mall, we talked quite bit about the corruption, they were talking about how their business cannot survive without paying the local police, mafia, security, directors, etc. And they have a monthly budget of about $600 just to pay people off. Which in Indonesia is quite a bit of money considering the average employee is paid about $100 per month. A very common problem here is that if you do not pay, any number of individuals or groups will steal or destroy whatever it is that your company does. For example this company is in the top three internet service providers in Jakarta, they said that if they do not pay their, wires get cut, power to equipment gets cut, they are not offered access to their equipment, they will not be approved to install new services, etc. Corruption is the norm here, if you do not participate in it, you simply cannot do business. It’s easy for me to say to them, just stop paying and God will protect their business, but they then have to convince their employees, owners, etc of the same thing. This is quite a dilemma. About half way through the meeting one of the clients turned and slapped Selim in the face, actually quite hard, he had a mosquito on him. It was really funny and it made a loud slap sound – it makes me laugh just thinking about it. Selim was quite grateful since he is getting eaten alive here by the mosquitos.
After meeting with the clients, who were very solid Christian men, we headed back to our hotel to change. We then headed out to, what must be, the biggest mall in the world! This mall was nine floors and it spanned like three blocks, it was amazing, kind of like Disneyland, with every part of the mall themed, from railroad, to jungle, India, New York, etc. – very impressive. We ate, and walked quite a bit. One interesting thing, the bathrooms just plain stink, this is the most upscale mall in Indonesia and the bathrooms stink like poo poo, but they hed a really cool theme, this one was like a bamboo hut and you turn this little handle and water came out of a piece of bamboo to wash your hands – that totally makes up for the poop smell. Later we received a call that more consultants who had arrived from the US. On the way back to the hotel was the most incredible traffic, huge numbers of motorbikes, cars and buses packed in and moving in a very slow motion forward. The traffic here is awesome! I know that sounds weird but it is so entertaining to watch, there are so many close calls and motorcycles clipping each other, buses almost smashing these little motorbikes, whole families on a cycle – like five people, yesterday we saw a guy with a rifle strapped to his chest riding a motorcycle. I love watching the traffic.
We headed back to the hotel to met Paul and his wife Adrian and Catherine. At this point poor Selim was not feeling well and went to bed. Catherine and I walked around the city that evening, which feels like night since it gets dark around here at about 6pm, I was able to teach her how to cross the street. I still find this to be so much fun, I am still hoping that someone doesn’t stop and I get to jump up on the hood, like you see in the movies – ok, just kidding, don’t worry Shirlene (I really do want to do this). ;) After this Catherine and I met up with all of the local rep Indonesia people at a very nice restaurant. After that, it was late, we all returned to our rooms. I checked on Selim, he was sleeping like a baby.
This morning I woke up and checked on Selim, who was not feeling well at all, kind of locked up in the fetal postion on his bed moaning. We loaded him up with vitamins, herbs and a bunch of prayer. He is doing better now, which is totally a praise for God. Ate breakfast at the hotel, had a great talk with Catherine about international micro-finance and her experiences in Jordan and China. This just sparks my interest even more internationally (meaning non-US). I have such a desire to start and work with businesses internationally setting their foundations on the Bible, listening to God, discipling people and totally integrating businesses with their communities. Indonesia makes me excited to see how much opportunity there is out there to bring Kingdom principles to international business.
Selim and I changed rooms today to make room for new consultants, then headed to lunch where I ordered my usual drink, “insert fruit name here” juice, at this restaurant it was strawberry juice, it is so good. They take real fruit and blend it with ice, real fruit! Not from concentrate, powder, or test tubes. (Yes, I know I’m not supposed to drink the water or drink anything with ice, but it’s so good! I’ll let you know if it causes any, well, you know.) Ok, enough about that. Then headed to the Walmart of Indonesia, it is crazy, and there was a bear in the store! There is a video if you want to see it.
After that headed back to the hotel to check on Selim, who was doing much better after vomiting. At first when I saw the metal bowl on his nightstand and thought he had made some soup, but the closer I looked, it didn’t look or taste like any soup I had ever seen. Then I asked him, is this soup or vomit, and sure enough it was vomit. Oh and by the way, I didn’t taste it, that was a close one. I took a quick video of the hotel room and the vomit if you’d like to see.
Here are most of the videos taken so far, very random and un-editted:
http://www.youtube.com/VertoTheWorld
Love you all!
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Bobby,
I am so pleased that you are having the Jakarta experience. I can not tell you how much it changed my life, and I truly hope it changed yours. Please send love to Felly and Errol – give Errol a big WET kiss on the cheek for me – he is so special. They all are.
Again, I really hope this experience is as profound and deepening as it was for me. I am sure that you are touching many people’s lives, strengthening their hope in Christ, and giving the hope of our Saviour to those who least expect it.
If you do see Umar and Maya, PLEASE have them take you to their neighborhood of garbage people. Please say a prayer of claim on them to Christ. Please. That experience alone is worth more than anything I have ever lived for, and I know you are the man to do it.
I love you!
Verity
Say hi to Felly. I love Carefour. Looks you guys had fun.