1978

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Kriste Rose

As a parent who grew up in the 70’s, I’m vexed by playdates. It’s disappointing that our society has evolved to a point where children have to rely on arranged appointments to play with friends. Even with the best intentions, playdates have effectively taken away the essence of childhood and the joys of discovering entertainment in neighborhood streets. Some of the fondest memories that Chris and I have as kids include spending the afternoon meandering from one friend’s house to another friend’s house, stopping at the corner store to buy slushies and chips, and then making a final stop at the park to play before dark.

In all of our previous communities, Kylee has succumbed to the fate of playdates. Here, of all places, she has attained the perspective of what childhood was like when Chris and I were her age. Kylee arrives home from school every day, abandons her backpack at the front door, and then disappears with her troop of friends until dinner. Later in the evening, when I empty her pockets (filled with rocks, money, Kino candy wrappers and ketchup packets) I’m thrilled to know that she is experiencing childhood the way that it was meant to be experienced.

Kylee and her friends running around the neighborhood, footloose and fancy-free.

Kylee and her friends running around the neighborhood, footloose and fancy-free.

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Singapore Flyer

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Kriste Rose

We just returned from our second trip to Singapore. It was another required visit to renew visas, so it was quick and productive. We were there for three days, but most of our time was spent taking Kylee to medical appointments at Mount Elizabeth Hospital.

To make a long story short, when Kylee was in the Tembagapura Hospital over Christmas, she had an abdominal ultrasound that indicated that she had a sizable gallstone in her gallbladder. She was referred to a pediatric surgeon in Singapore for follow-up tests and, if necessary, surgery. However, after an examination and a second ultrasound, nothing could be found. Doctor Chui determined that what looked like a gallstone was just “a shadow” that occurred during the ultrasound procedure in Tembagapura.

We spent our last afternoon in Singapore near Marina Bay, where the largest ferris wheel in the world stands. The Singapore Flyer is 165 meters high (comparable to a 42-story building) and 150 meters wide. It can hold up to 784 passengers, and promises each and every one of them a spectacular view of Singapore. On a clear day, passengers can see up to 45 miles away, which includes views of Sentosa Island, Changi Airport and even parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. A complete rotation of the wheel takes approximately 32 minutes.

Chris and the girls waiting in the breezeway.

Chris and the girls waiting in the breezeway, watching the enclosed and air-conditioned passenger capsules slowly glide past them.

A view of Singapore behind the massive beams and cables that hold the ferris wheel together.

A view of Singapore behind the massive beams and cables that hold the ferris wheel together.

Another picture of Singapore behind the massive beams and cables.

Another picture of Singapore behind the massive beams and cables.

A view of Singapore from the top.

A view of Singapore and Marina Bay from the top of the ferris wheel.

A view of the harbor and ocean from the top.

A view of the Strait of Singapore from the top of the ferris wheel. On a clear day, you can see Indonesia from this vantage point, but it was too cloudy to see it when we were up there.

I was a little hesitant to get on the Singapore Flyer because I’m afraid of heights, but my little thrill-seeker kept me grounded.

A view of the Singapore Flyer from the street below. I loved including parts of beams and cables in the pictures - they really added to the beauty and

A view of the Singapore Flyer from the street. I loved including parts of the beams and cables in the pictures that I took because I thought they were quite beautiful and intriguing.

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29,400 beng-bengs

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Kriste Rose

My biggest challenge living here is grocery shopping. Back home, there were more than a dozen different grocery stores within a 10-mile radius of our house. Pretentiously over-priced fine food stores. Nationwide run-of-the-mill chain stores. Whole food, organic markets with visions of sustainability and green energy. And, family-owned and operated stores struggling to survive. They were peppered all around me.

The only option for grocery shopping in Tembagapura is the Hero grocery store, which is about the size of a typical Walgreens or CVS. The primary advantage that I have when shopping at the Hero is that I’m a daily shopper. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m too lazy to plan a weekly menu, or if I just like to buy the freshest products available. Probably a little bit of both.

Daily shopping is an advantage because very few things at the Hero are constant; what they have today may not be there tomorrow, or, ever again, for that matter. I’ve even been warned that hoarding is common practice among the women here!

I visited the Hero this afternoon with a fairly short and simple grocery list; tomatoes, peanut butter, maple syrup, canned black beans, and eggs. There were no tomatoes. The empty spaces where peanut butter and maple syrup are sometimes stocked, were just that, empty. I didn’t even see a single can of black beans.

It was a futile and frustrating shopping experience that almost turned hostile when I walked down the center isle and saw six shelving units completely stocked, from top to bottom, with beng-beng chocolate bars. It was such an incredibly absurd spectacle that I couldn’t help but stop in my tracks. I set my empty grocery basket down beside me, rifled through my backpack until I found my cell phone, and then figured out, right then and there, just how many chocolate bars I was looking at. Six shelving units, seven shelves on each unit, twenty-eight boxes/shelf, and twenty-five bars/box = 29,400 beng-bengs.

I left the store with one dozen eggs and a beng-beng.

This photo only shows five of the six shelving units. I couldn't back up enough to capture all six units.

This photo only shows five of the six shelving units. I couldn’t back up enough to capture all six of them.

In my opinion, beng-bengs taste similar to Mr. Big chocolate bars (a Canadian variety). Ally and Kylee think they taste similar to Samoas (Girl Scout cookies).

The beng-beng cost 1,390 RP, or approximately 11 cents in US dollars. In my opinion, beng-bengs taste similar to Mr. Big chocolate bars (a Canadian variety). Ally and Kylee think they taste similar to Samoas (Girl Scout cookies).

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Export Ban

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Kriste Rose

The Indonesian government signed an export ban on ore, which took effect at midnight on January 12, 2014. The ban prevents Indonesian mining companies from exporting unrefined ore to smelters outside the country. Unfortunately, there is only one large-scale copper smelter in the country, and it can only handle about half of PTFI’s normal production.

A last minute regulation saved PTFI from the sweeping ban, but it imposed an escalating export tax on the company. According to Reuters, the tax for exporting copper concentrate out of the country is 25%, and will gradually go up to a maximum of 60% by the end of 2016. Analysts are concerned that this ruling will have a devastating effect on PTFI (and many other mining companies).

PTFI released a statement on January 17, 2014, stating that ore production will temporarily cease at their Big Gossan underground mine, normal production will continue at the DOZ underground mine, and ore production will be decreased to 70,000 tons per day at Grasberg’s surface mine (a big drop).

In the meantime, the company continues to diligently and cooperatively work with the Indonesian government to resolve the issue. We’re hoping things are resolved soon, but this might be a very interesting year.

The information written in this post was extracted (and then summarized using my own words) from articles published in the Jakarta Post and on Reuters.com. Also, my personal opinions and views do not reflect the views of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. or any of its subsidiaries, affiliates, business partners or related business entities.

Big Gossen Mine, PTFI, Indonesia

This is a photo that Chris took of Grasberg Mine. Grasberg is the largest gold mine and the third largest copper mine in the world.

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Duck, Duck, Brats

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Kriste Rose

Chris bought a frozen duck from the grocery store earlier this week and put it in the fridge to thaw for last night’s dinner. I have never roasted a duck before, so I spent more than an hour searching for recipes. After an exhaustive search, I found a recipe that promised an irresistibly crisp and tender duck. I even found a recipe for a caramelized onion and fig relish to accompany it. Ironically, the Hero doesn’t carry baking soda, but it carries fig preserve. Go figure!

On top of all that, I read an article, with step-by-step instructions, on how to prepare a raw duck for roasting – unwrap the bird from its packaging, remove the innards, cut off any extra skin, rinse, dry, and scald with boiling water. How simple is that? Just like a Thanksgiving turkey.

As directed, I removed the duck from the packaging, and, in the process of turning it over to locate the cavity, two grotesquely gnarled feet jutted out between my hands, and a long, gangly neck and waxen head flopped down. After losing my composure, which Ally happily videotaped as it ensued, I directed her to rewrap the duck and put it back in the fridge for Chris to tackle after work. However, she was having way too much fun with it.

Needless to say, we ate brats for dinner.

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Squatty Potty

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Kriste Rose

I can’t write a blog about our adventures in Indonesia without including a gratuitous post about squat toilets. If you have never seen or heard about squat toilets, they are probably exactly what you are picturing in your mind’s eye – a hole in the ground that requires the user to squat, rather than sit. Squat toilets are common in Asia and Europe. They can range from crudely dug-out holes in the bare ground to porcelain basins with tanks (and then everything in-between).

Jobsite has equipped most of its homes and public restrooms with Western-style toilets, but that doesn’t stop some people from squatting. It’s not uncommon to see muddy shoe/boot prints on the toilet seats. In all fairness to them, medical studies have provided a long list of health benefits associated with the use of squat toilets (including the prevention of digestive disorders, gynecological issues, and heart attacks). King George II should have thought twice about installing a squatty potty in his bathroom.

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Our house is equipped with one squat toilet, and, thankfully, it’s not in the master bathroom. The squat toilet is one of the first things that the girls looked at when we arrived at the house, but it took them about three weeks before they got the courage to try it.

This is the squatty potty in the maid's quarters. In most cases, the hose is used in replacement of toilet paper. All of the toilets here (including the other 3 toilets in our house) are equipped with attached hoses.

This is the squat toilet in the maid’s quarters. In most cases, the hose is used as a replacement for toilet paper. All toilets at jobsite (including the other three toilets in our house) are equipped with hoses. Squat toilets and hoses are not for everyone – including me! By the way, the porcelain is slightly stained (there is nothing in the toilet, but water).

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Juice Boxes and Machetes

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Kriste Rose

There is an old, weathered bus stop across the street from our house that serves no purpose other than boarding the occasional spider and its web. In an unusual turn of events, there was a flurry of activity there this weekend. On Friday, three young kids spent the entire afternoon playing under the tin shelter. After a quick tea party on the bench (consisting of juice boxes and cookies), they ventured out to find and collect treasures in the gutters and along the fringes of the rainforest. By late afternoon, the bench was lined, from end to end, with rocks, flowers, leaves, and a few bottle caps.

Less than twenty-four hours later, Kylee ran into the kitchen and said, “Uh, Mom, there’s a bunch of Papuans at the bus stop with knives!” Sure enough, a large group of Papuan men had assembled at the bus stop with their 2-foot machetes. After a few minutes of inspecting and sharpening the machetes, they, too, ventured out into the rainforest, but never returned.

I would have loved to have taken a picture of the Papuans with their machetes, but a covert picture was out of the question, and I wasn’t sure how the armed men would have responded to my request for a photo op.

The (unoccupied) bus stop. The dark, curved line in the grass behind the bus stop is the path that the Papuans use to leave and enter the rainforest.

The unoccupied bus stop.
The dark, curved line in the grass behind the bus stop is the path that the Papuans use to leave and enter the rainforest.

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Stories

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Kriste Rose

If there is one flaw in time, it is that it goes by too quickly. I am especially reminded of this when a year has ended and a new year begins. When I woke up this morning, and took a few minutes to reflect on the past year, I felt a pang of loss, and started resenting time for turning some of life’s greatest moments into distant memories.

While those distant memories were taking shape in my mind, the sound of squealing air breaks broke my concentration. I looked out the window and watched the town bus as it came to a screeching, but steady halt. As it stopped to drop someone off, I wondered to myself how often the town buses will be included in the stories that we will tell from our life in Indonesia (there are so many already).

Then, it immediately dawned on me – the beautiful thing about time is that it leaves us with stories! Unique stories created in the mind of its story-teller. Stories with significance and meaning. Stories that will be told and retold over time.

I hope this coming year blesses us all with magnificent stories!

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Dear Santa, A Lump of Coal Would Have Been Better. Love, Kylee

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Kriste Rose

This Christmas will be more memorable for Kylee than she had ever imagined. She knew that Santa wasn’t going to guide his team of reindeer into our yard, stealthily sneak into the house, and leave behind an armful of gifts and woolen stockings full of nuts and candy. But, she didn’t expect what she received either – an all inclusive 4-day/3-night stay at Rumahsakit Hospital, located in the heart of Tembagapura.

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Her package included one night accommodations in the maternity ward and two night’s accommodations in the general ward. All meals included. She even received personalized amenities and services; an IV stand, IV catheters, several bags of saline with antibiotics, an abdominal ultrasound, numerous blood draws, and countless numbers of pills, pokes, and prods.

Christmas Day!

Christmas Day!

Kylee developed strep throat and tonsillitis toward the end of November, which she hadn’t completely recovered from. As a result, the infection migrated to her stomach and continued to fester. After becoming very ill, Chris took her to emergency last Saturday night and, again, Sunday morning. On both instances, she was treated and released. Unfortunately, by Tuesday morning (Christmas Eve) she was septic; her body wasn’t responding to the antibiotics and the infection was spreading. After a trip to the doctor’s office, she was immediately admitted into the hospital. Thankfully, a 4-day intensive antibiotic treatment was just what she needed.

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Season’s Greetings

Posted on December 25, 2013 by Kriste Rose

This will be a Christmas that we will always remember. Not only because it’s our first Christmas in Indonesia, it’s also our first Christmas without convention and tradition. We don’t have an 8-foot fragrant fir elaborately decorated with colorful lights, fragile glass balls, spiraling tendrils of red ribbon, and a treasury of collected ornaments hanging tightly from each branch. We don’t have lavishly decked halls. We don’t have running strings of outdoor lights casting a soft glow on the wet street. We don’t have a 9-pound stuffed turkey roasting in a hot oven. We don’t even have perfectly adorned gifts waiting to be opened.

I’m not going to lie to you, I miss the extravagance! I really do. However, sometimes some of the best memories are created during challenging times. A few years from now, when our knees are back under our dining room table in Arizona, we’ll be saying, “Remember our first Christmas in Indonesia…”

As always, we are grateful to have experienced a joyful and blessed year, and we are looking forward to the upcoming year with the opportunities and possibilities that it holds.

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a blessed year!

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Annual Rose Family Trivia

Most Monumental Decision
Moving 7,693 miles from home. Nothing could have prepared us for this adventure, and nothing can prepare us for what is yet to come.

Biggest Achievement
Ally and I competed in the Phoenix 5K Color Run. Even though it rained all day, we still ran across the finish-line looking like we fell into a “Willy Wonka…tie-dyed vat…of colored goodness.”

Most Surprising Announcement
Kylee (our little homebody) came home from school a few weeks ago and announced to the family that she joined the school’s swim team! With a lot of hard work and determination, she may have opportunities to travel to Jakarta to compete in regional meets.

Most Lengthy Rental
Chris and I, collectively and continuously, drove 7 different rental cars in 54 days.

Favorite Family Activities
Kayaking, playing Risk, and adding to our port-o-potty ambush photography collection.

Biggest Loss
After investing six-years in one of TV’s most compelling series, Chris and I are still reeling from the end of Breaking Bad. What’s not to love about being emotionally traumatized and scarred, year after year, by the reckless actions of a high school chemistry teacher!?

Craziest Decision
We went on a week-long vacation to Maui exactly fourteen-days before moving to Indonesia. It’s, by far, one of the most foolish and irresponsible decisions that we’ve ever made, but it was worth all of the extra stress and anxiety that followed.

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Math Bee Champ

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Kriste Rose

Kylee came home from school last week with a trophy for earning 1st place in her class’s Math Bee competition and a trophy for winning 3rd place in her class’s Spelling Bee competition. She’s well on her way to becoming the world’s next part-time dentist/part-time surfer!

Unfortunately, she’s been pretty sick since school got out, so I haven’t had an opportunity to take a picture of her with her trophies. As soon as she’s better, I will take a picture.

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The King of Fruit

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Kriste Rose

A few weeks ago, I bought a bag of candy to satisfy a sugar craving. As soon as I tore the bright yellow package open, an inconceivably foul and acrid odor escaped the torn plastic, permeating every square inch of fresh air that a human needs to survive. It literally suffocated me.

The candy was made out of durian, fittingly dubbed “the stinkiest fruit in the world.” If you ask five different people what durian tastes like, you will get five different answers. It’s been described as “road kill wrapped in dirty socks,” “completely rotten, mushy onions,” and “monkey crap laced with rancid butter.” It’s even been describes as “heaven on earth,” and “like a sweet, nutty custard with tones of vanilla.” In his description of durian, Anthony Bourdain once said, “Your breath will smell as if you’d been French-kissing your dead grandmother.”

 

durian

Durians are about the size of footballs. The yellow, soft, buttery fruit center is protected by a thorn covered rind. The fruit’s odor is so strong and offensive that it is banned from hotels and public transportation in many parts of Southeast Asia. “No Duran” signs forbidding the consumption of durian in public places is just as common as “No Smoking” signs in the U.S.

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Chris is a little more adventurous with food. Much to his dismay, he hasn’t had an opportunity to try fresh durian yet. Another time, another place. However, while we were in Singapore, he had a slice of durian cake and a scoop of durian ice cream. If you ask Chris what durian tastes like, he will say, “It tastes like mango and anesthesia; the happiest, most disgusting flavor that I’ve ever had.”

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