I spy, with my little eye

Over the last several days I have seen some animals you would not expect to see in a cityscape. Yesterday, I saw a man with this wonderful rattan, bell-shaped cage that was about 3 feet tall. There was no bottom to the cage and inside was a very colorful rooster (sorry Janet, I didn't get to take a picture before we passed him by). The assumed owner of the rooster was moving him from one area to another by lifting the cage just enough so the rooster could walk, but could not escape. He would nudge the rooster the direction he wanted him to go and then sit the cage down flat on the ground. Worked well and was a very practical thing.

Today as I was riding to the building where my husband works, we passed through a small, neat neighborhood that is just on the fringe of several very tall offices. In a large metal cage there were three monkeys looking out at us. Then on the way back to the hotel, there was a man with a sheep on a rope and a lamb following along behind. This was not in a neighborhood. They were just walking down the sidewalk of a busy street off to who knows where and who knows what destiny (the sheep and lamb, and I guess if you want to be really philosophical the man too).

After living in both New Orleans and Houston, you see some unexpected things, but these things were not among them.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we went to the mall over the weekend. We went in to a store that sold fish. I haven't really seen fish like these before. Many had disproportionate size heads or bodies or odd projections coming usually coming from the head. Not exactly what you want to walk in to the den and see first thing in the morning before breakfast. At the top of the post you will see the ping-pong ball fish that were in one tank. Yes, I made up the name, but don't you think I am correct? They were not very efficient swimmers. I think out in the wild their life span would be under 5 minutes.

There was an area outside the fish store selling all kinds of snakes and things slithery. Which reminds me. On our orientation tour, our guide asked us if we were up for extreme dining. Uhh Ohh! (My friend Karen told me before we left Texas that if they offer you the local delicacy you might want to decline.) I asked the guide what she meant by extreme dining. Apparently, in some location(s) in the city (don't know where or if I want to know) you can go and some very fast handed Indonesian will catch a cobra and kill it, skin it and slice it up and stick it on a skewer and cook it for you. Cobra Sate! Of course I asked what it tasted like and of course you know the reply......let's say it all together........it tastes like chicken. Chickens can be mean and aggressive, but I don't think that unless they are really lucky they can kill you. All of this took place before the cow brain in coconut milk encounter that I mentioned before and that seems extreme enough for me.

I am looking forward to getting more confident to get out and tour with my camera. I have seen wonderful faces, interesting activities, people going about life in a very public way that is so unlike my little suburban Houston neighborhood. It would be best, I think to do this with a companion of some sort. Not that I am overly worried about being accosted, even though I am sure an expensive camera could feed a large family here for a really long time. But, the space for footing can be narrow and not always a lot of room to negotiate without stepping into the street. Would need someone to keep me from getting run over or falling into an open ditch which would be a really nasty thing to have happen either way.

So, I do grab shots which are a bit unsatisfying when you know what can be. However, it is all I have at the moment and there are other things that I am supposed to be focusing on, like finding a house,learning a new language(which by the way Bahasa Indonesia is NOT one of the romance languages) and doing the metric thing (that is another blog entirely).

I have appreciated the comments folks are making in relation to my blog. I will do updates to my little life's journey so you know how some of the things I have experienced work out. Here is one for you now.

Several of you wanted to know if there was starch in the undies. Thank goodness the answer is no. Greatly pressed, but no starch. Two additional discoveries were made as well. Laundrette does not use safety pins or clips to attach slacks or capri pants to a hanger. They are basted on each side to the hanger. Can you imagine your dry cleaner or laundry taking the time to do that? They also seem to do some very odd things to tee shirts or jersey knit shirts. Our shirts are getting wider and wider with each pressing. They aren't getting shorter, just wider. Don't know how they are doing this. I speculate that they are trying to prepare our clothing for the bodies we will have after living in an area where rice is served at every single meal.

Today I read something in the news magazine that my son's college publishes several times a year. The newly appointed president of the college said "One of the pleasures of travel is the chance to "re-understand" the meaning of home." I thought about that a lot when I returned to the hotel and began typing up this post.

Living abroad is very different than being on vacation. On vacation you go, you see the tourist attractions, you send post cards to your friends and family wishing they were here (where ever here is), you sample the local cuisine, you buy art, jewelry, get a great tan and go home. To your home and all of its comforts and warts. Where you know pretty much how banking is handled, what to expect to see in a grocery store, how to ask someone a question and most likely not eat cobra on a stick.

However, as a tourist you don't get to experience how other people really live. How other cities function (or dysfunction many times). What may seem like poverty to us is a cultural way of life somewhere else. How commerce is really working on many, many levels. I am trying to be a faithful observer and figure out the rhythm of this place and try to synchronize with it. Till I get that rhythm, I watch, I look up words, I order food and get surprised and I am learning about life on this side of the world.