These are a few of my favorite things

Honey pie and I are slowly creeping up on the three year mark of living in a foreign land. In four months we will have spent the majority of our lives in a place that can be fascinating, frustrating, frantic, full of color, friendly, and yes at times frightening.

With that in mind, I will mention some of the things that I still find amusing, endearing, and bring a smile to my lips after all this time.

This afternoon as I went by taxi to meet a friend for lunch, I saw a big ole smokin' Kopaja bus sitting on a hill at a stop light. Now the smokin' part is not what amuses me. It is the fact that the guy who is the collector of fares for people getting on the bus has another important job.  His other job is apparently to act as the chock man when the bus has to stop at a light on an incline. When the bus comes to a stop on the hill, he steps off with a piece of wood, a brick, or a good size chunk of stone and stuffs it behind the rear wheel. This saves the driver from having to sit with his foot on the break, most likely helps them last longer.  It also helps assure the other vehicles behind him that he won't roll back on top of them. When the light changes, he steps out once again and as the bus rolls forward, he retrieves the chock and they motor on. I smile each time I see this. I don't really know why, but I do.

My jagas, the guards at our house for those of you who haven't been keeping up with my blog based language lessons, always make me smile. I love when I come out first thing in the morning and I say pagi and call them by name. They always say "Pagi bu." It is such a sweet thing to me. And as I pull away I always wave and they wave back. It seems silly, but I really do love that little exchange. I think of them like my "adopted sons" or at least my "adopted kid brothers." They help me park my scoopy when I return from a little drive. I have yet to figure out how to get the bigger kick-stand down on the back of the bike so I just leave it to them to do. When I leave to go on a ride, they always open the gate, check for traffic and send me off with a hati-hati (careful). I know they mean it and I find it touching.

The amusement the locals find in sweetie and I at some of the things we do. It isn't a malicious kind of amusement. It is usually a fascination that we are trying to somehow fit in someway. I enjoy that, most of the time, that they notice or even appreciate what we are trying to do. I am not sure they think of it in the same terms as I do, but it still makes me smile.

The kaki limas, the food carts on the side of the streets, are endlessly fascinating to me. From the way they push the carts along through the neighborhood and knock on a piece of bamboo, tap on a glass, or call out like the peanut guy at a baseball game.  It is all done to make their presence known. I love it.  Sometimes late at night if I can't sleep I hear them moving through the neighborhood.  It is comforting knowing that I am not alone at that late hour.  Someone else is up and engaged in some activity.  I would probably never eat from one of the carts as I have seen how they wash their dishes. But I still love them. I am amazed that they can whip up a bowl of soup with all the trimmings, fry little cakes, cook yummy smelling food in a wok, have drinks that they dip out of large plastic containers which have tapioca balls floating around in them, fry up battered bananas for a delicious smelling snack or are carefully arranging cut up fresh fruit so artfully in their little portable restaurants they make you want to run over to the cart and buy what ever it is they are selling.

And then there is the lowly but adorable bajaj.   Cutest thing on three wheels for sure.

It is part of my life and part of my memory.  It is something that I will never forget.