Ah, Jakarta. Less than a week to go and still you continue to play your amusing tricks. A USB drive that sighs and gives up functioning, a microphone that has a strange rattle, miscommunication about stuff we need to film, a traffic jam so horrific it doubles the cost of the taxi... you mischievous urban sprawl, you!
The love/hate relationship with this cheeky city continues. This week, while doing the washing up after breakfast, listening to some indie guitar-y, violin-y music, both the front door and the back door of the house open and a cool breeze blowing through, I couldn’t quite remember why I wanted to leave. But I know this can’t last. I’ve learnt not to trust tricksy ol’ Jakarta. Today or tomorrow there’s bound to be a technical failure, or a behemoth of a traffic jam, or a small bout of food poisoning. So I shall enjoy this nugget of peace and happiness while I can.
Experience wise, I cannot fault what we’re actually doing one bit. On Tuesday we went to the Indonesian House of Representatives to meet an MP in her offices. The MP, Eva Sundani, works in women’s rights and migrant workers’ rights and has just got an award from the UN for ethical conduct. She’s the kind of woman I want to be when I grow up. My favourite part of the interview was when we had to pause because of noise her assistants were making in the outer office and she got up and said ‘I’ll just go and tell the boys to be quiet’! The boys! Ha ha ha! They shut up pretty sharpish too!
This week we’ve also interviewed a mother whose son disappeared twelve years ago. We got to the very basic house where she lives to discover it was his birthday. As you can imagine, that made for a pretty emotional interview. All the parents still have hope that their sons are alive, even though it was so long ago that they went missing. But they’re are getting old and frail and no one’s giving them any answers. The current president has the power to find out, and served on the Council of Military Ethics that heard the details of the case back in the late 90s. He could make the details public, but a lot of his support comes from the powerful members of the military who are implicated in the case so everything is stuck. The government is finally working out financial compensation for the victims but they don’t want financial compensation, they want to know if they’re sons are alive, held by the military somewhere or buried in some mass unmarked grave.
We have a security guy here, he’s an old guy and he does the night shift, from about 7pm till 7am. We were told he’s a little bonkers and yeah, he is a few anchovies short of a pizza. He’s very helpful though, and always wants to chat even though we only speak English and he only speaks Bahasa. Sometimes he’ll be a little creepy too; apparently he comes in and stares at me when Dani and I are working, although weirdly he never does it when I’m in the room on my own. Sometimes he’ll come in and do odd little dances and gestures; Dani and I used to get a bit annoyed as we were trying to work but he’s harmless enough I suppose.
Dani was editing a few nights ago, some footage of an activist called Mugi who was kidnapped with the other victims 12 years ago but was returned. His interview was in English and mentioned a man who was held with him named Gwun Li. Old security guy was in the room with us at the time and started going mental, rushing over to the computer repeating “Gwun Li! Gwun Li! Mugi” and started frantically pointing at the screen then himself. Turns out that crazy old guy IS Gwun Li. He was held in prison for 6 months, during which time he smuggled messages between Mugi and the other prisoners. He wants his picture in the documentary, captioned with “Gwun Li is another victim of the Suharto regime”. How could we refuse? Mugi was beaten, tortured with electric shocks and repeatedly told he would be killed while he was held. Is it any wonder the old guy’s a little crazy if he’s been through similar? Oh, and he’s never been married, apparently due to his craziness. Instead he comes and does a 12 hour shift here every night except for the weekends, when he does… who knows? Makes you sad to think.
Enough of the serious stuff, I will fill you in more on the fun stuff another time. For now, Dani and I are about to head out with a Hong Kong friend, David for dinner. Indonesian food… Oh God, I’m such a bulé; all I want is pizza!
Today I like; Red Bull, lots and lots of Red Bull, my new scarf from Borneo courtesy of our friend Reza, that I managed to spell phlegm correctly without Word flagging it up as misspelt, that I will soon be back in Hong Kong!
Today I don’t like: The fact I seem to have permanent low-level illness, currently wisdom tooth issues and nasty phlegm, that being back in HK soon means I will be back in London soon without any idea of what I’m doing with my life- GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!
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