Rainy Day Ramblings: JAKARTA
April 6th, the heavens have opened and chaos prevails. You would think that it was the first rain people here have ever experienced in this tropical rainforest. There is static electricity in the air. Gate B at Pattimura is flooded and closed. We need web feet to walk to our cars and I remove my shoes. I left school at 2:45, let’s see how long this trip takes and what we see on the way.
As I drive home, I begin reading an article in Ed. Leadership, but can hardly ignore the frantic mobile masses trying to inch forward. The torrential down pour has calmed and with that the streets are filled with vendors selling snacks to those who fear they may not reach home for dinner or maybe breakfast?? Buses continue to stop in the middle of the crowded streets to drop off patrons as they try to disperse through the carnage of mobiles held at a standstill in most cases. Motorcycles return from their hiding space under bridges causing one lane traffic in the busiest sections of roadways. As the rain lessens the motorbikes return in masses as if a swarm of mosquitos have hatched suddenly but expected. Umbrellas are colliding into each other on sidewalks that are uneven and difficult to maneuver in the best weather. Heads covered with plastic bags are in fashion along with rolled up pant legs. I have moved maybe 10 meters in the last 30 minutes and my driver is planning the best route in his mind. We have turned off the main road and will begin our circuitous weave home. I fear there is no best route. Students in white uniforms are braving the steady drops but most people have found shelter in even the smallest aperture of their toko or warung. We have settled in for the long arduous trip ahead, glad that I remembered to visit the ladies rooms before leaving the security of school. I go back to the movie, BLADE RUNNER, where the setting was a constant drizzle combined with fluorescent lights and a mix of old and new. I must watch that movie again sometime. I begin to envy those that are at home sipping tea and watching the rain outside their window and long to be there. How patiently my driver dances with the other drivers to create a ballet of slow delicate movements always making sure contact is avoided. Wondering how long my computer battery will last and dimming my screen to save energy. It is 4pm now and I am on Jl. Tirtayasa, not far from school and still far from home. I always tell new arrivals to Jakarta that the traffic will teach them patients and to create a home away from home in your car. Have pillows, blankets, water, books, suduko, crosswords and rarely do you need to look where you are going. Sending joking messages to my husband that I may never get home tonight. Intersections become gridlock and you wonder if you will ever move again. Motorcycle drivers and passengers with no shoes weave by. No ones listens to a man trying to direct the chaos and you wonder why he is even trying. Huge puddles continue to form and you know that there is no place for all this wetness to escape to. I do love the sound of rain and in a car I am reminder of the tin roof in our Vermont farmhouse during rainy evening in our loft. I have cancelled my tai chi lesson and Pak Dyon is grateful that he doesn’t have to be a part of the rain scene. I have helped keep one motorcycle off the road. Unbelievably the sun is trying to shine down on us and it seems to want to clear, but I fear it is to late and there clear skies will not help. Traffic police wave franticly to try and clear a route, but there is no clearings in sight just bumper to bumper. I love that we create our own lane and are lost in no where land. If I was at the wheel, I would feel like covering my eyes, clicking my ruby red slippers and repeating, “I want to go home, I want to go home”. I think we are close to the penis trees a landmark that I am familiar with just before the road to Kemang by the building with the clock tower. We have made progress and it is only 4:23 p.m. How much more you notice as you maneuver slowly and you see the red cross building you never saw before with a sign outside that reads in big red letters, “I can save a life”. Three lanes merging into two is always tricky and slow. Back to my Ed. Leadership, as I settle in for the uneventful trip down artery with what feels like half the population of Jakarta. HOME: 4:52 not bad and the sun is shining and the skies are clearing.
