House hunting and field trip march 2010
Coming to a foreign city where people speak a different language takes a little time to become oriented. Being driven by taxi seems to be the worst way to get to know the city. Firstly the taxi driver does not speak English so you can’t have that usual chit chat with him about the weather, politics and the latest scandal. All you can do is to show the driver a piece of paper with the address of where you want to go and then sit back in air conditioned comfort while the driver takes you his way not necessarily the shortest way to you destination.
A motor bike is a way of escaping the confinement of the home stay and experiencing freedom and the cool air on your face. In Yogyakarta a city of 500,000 in the shadow of the volcano Merapi oozes into the surrounding countryside with a population of 3 million. The rice fields are shrinking as more houses are built.
We explored the city like children practicing running away from home. At first we rode along the closest main road for about five kilometers noting the main buildings and advertising signs and then returned home and after a few days we went further and further getting lost a few times until we had a reasonable grasp of the city.
The roads are like arteries clogged with all kinds of traffic. There are literally millions of motorbikes that can weave in and out of the traffic as well as travel up a one way street the wrong way.
Then there are becaks, three wheeled tricycles with a passenger seat at the front and a wiry Javanese pedaling at the back. Horse drawn carriages with sun awnings trot along in the traffic as well as cars, diesel mini buses, maxi buses and huge trucks all spitting out clouds of black smoke as they accelerate.
The traffic lights tell you the number seconds before they change colour. Waiting for 75 seconds in a cluster of 20 motor bikes all pushing out toxic smoke from their exhausts is a non breathtaking experience. Most motor bike riders have scarves over their mouths like a posse of outlaws in an attempt to avoid the fumes.
As the days are very hot you can get quite thirsty and we were for ever looking for a beer. We searched every supermarket we passed as we know that in Bali that’s where beer and soft drinks can be bought but alas no beer. Java is a Muslim island and alcohol along with pork is not easily found. Beer along with pork is usually partially hidden in the back corner of the supermarket.
We soon discovered that a convenience store franchise call ed Circle K stocked cold beer
and in our travels, seeing the Circle K sign we always stopped for a couple of cold cans to take home.
House hunting
Looking for a house to rent proved more difficult than I imagined. Word of mouth seems to be the way, driving the streets looking for a sign pasted on a window and looking in the news paper are other ways but you need to understand the code 3jt means three bedrooms.
I found a house by accident. I had to meet my boss at her house. I found the right street
But I entered the house across the road from her. I was met by an Indian who had been in Indonesia for 60 years. His opening words were “How can I help you sir, take a seat …can I get you something to drink” I told him that I had come to see my boss who was going to show me some houses to rent. He said the house next door was for rent. In a few moments we were inside the locked gate led by the Jugga (the man looking after the house). We walked down the drive past a gigantic two story white house and saw this cute single story house with ferns spilling over the front wall onto a well kept green lawn.
This looked really positive after the 30 other houses we had seen. The Indian gentleman informed us that were the servant’s quarters and it was the big house that was for rent.
I asked the price and he told us is A$ 900 for 12 months. I could not believe it.
That evening my boss rang me and said that there was a misunderstanding. The price was A$900 per month. I was so disappointed but on reflection it was still cheap at that price.
.After looking at other houses together with the heat and the need to find a place to live we negotiated the rent to A$161 per week.
The problem though, the house was far too big for us and living in it send a message that we are incredibly wealthy. With 7 bedrooms all air conditioned, two lounge rooms an office and an enormous upstairs tiled central space of more than 50square meters we will just have to cope.
Field trip
In the middle of the Indonesian language course and house hunting I was asked to go on a field trip my employer.
All I was told was that we were visiting a farming village to make a deal.
The day began at 8.00am and after stopping for breakfast and buying several packets of women’s sanitary pads we arrived at the village several kilometers from Magalan in central Java. This village comprises 500 families. There is a Mosque and a primary school in the village.
Rice is grown in paddy fields which are ploughed using water buffalo.
Organic rice is grown and sells for Rp 8.000 per kilo
Estimate for 2010 is 20 tons .The rice is distributed to Semarang, Jogyakarta and Jakarta.
There is an electric ice de-husker and one computer connected to the internet that serves the whole village.
We were greeted by a couple of farmers and spent an hour or so touring the village. It was a magical tour back in time. Having tea in a dirt floor house after shooing the chickens of the table and swatting hundreds of ants that had taken a liking to my pink shirt we chatted about the weather and the fluctuating price of goats.
There is what appears to me to be a complex water system.
Freshwater streams for drinking and irrigation, ponds for washing, ponds for shitting that eventually feed fish in a lower pond.
There were chickens and ducks running around under the clothes lines and women holding babies while they worked, old men were cutting firewood and young children were washing dishes in a plastic bowl under a water tap.
There were thickets of bamboo fifty feet high and rambutan trees, mango trees and the odd paw- paw tree. Walking along a shady track we were met by a villager bringing six water buffalo back from the field to their cool shady enclosures.
We went into a house past the kitchen which consisted of a couple black stones on the dirt floor supporting a kettle and a wok, to a cage of guinea pigs.
Outside was a pond full of fish that were in a feeding frenzy Gobbling up the food pellets that were being thrown to them.
We ended up in the village chiefs house, a green carpet was laid out with food and glasses of tea. We sat around chatting and eating and then the meeting began. A the meeting was in Indonesian and Javanese language I could not quite get the gist of what was going on until the boss grabbed my pad and said you will play the role of an investor and when I give the signal you explain what an investor expects from them .
Startled by the situation I whispered Who is Investing / What is he investing in.
The reply was a short whispered reply. “We have an investor from Makassa who wants to invest in goats.”
Meanwhile one of the staff was outlining on white paper stuck on the wall the price of one goat A$70 and pay back in two years, with another chart showing the months of the year and the breeding cycle of goats.
Then my turn came with a statement from my boss. Mr. Ken is an investor from Australia who will tell you what an investor expects from you.
The farmers turned there attention to me. I introduced my self in Bahasa Indonesia and then said An investor expects a return on his investment. An investor looks at the risks.
What is the worse thing that can happen…pause… the goat might die. I mimed dying and they all laughed. Then I said if I was investing in a goat I would like you to send me a picture of the goat. They all said photo. Well that was a good idea. Then I talked about the cost of food for the goat. They all waved their heads indicating that was not a problem the food was free. Then I went on to say if they got more goats they would have to build a bigger enclosure so the goats would not be stressed and would grow fat.
Things seemed to be progressing well and I went outside to stretch my legs as four hours sitting on the floor was a bit much for me.
A Few minutes later a deal was done the village agreed to borrow $A 300 for two years to buy 4 more goats and would pay back A$600 in two years time.
A docket was written and signed and the cash was produced from an envelope, counted out and handed over.
Now I understood the purpose of the field trip.
