I just could not describe how I felt so relieved when I finally landed at the LCCT after a long vacation back home. As usual, I didn't feel home at all. While I was there, I just could not wait to go back to Ipoh. I wanted so desperately to go back to Ipoh I nearly asked my husband to change the ticket for me so that I could fly to Ipoh early. But I didn't do it. I didn't want to see the disappointment in my parents' face if I had to go back to Malaysia early. They had a great time while I was there. They played a lot with my son who was adapting very well with the situation and with the neighborhood. He has met so many friends who thought he was very cool to be able to speak English very well at such a young age. Every time he spoke, his friends and all my neighbors would stare at him with awe; and for my son, he was very happy because he has become the centre of attention in my neighborhood.
Overall my trip back home was not as great as I thought it would be. Even when I just landed at the airport, I already had a commotion with some local government officers who insisted to separate my maid from me and my son. I stormed through them and screamed high and low for they were just behaving like a bunch of robots which were badly programmed to do the job. These robots were not programmed to catch some exceptions when the switch button was on. How the hell they even dared to ask me to help them by taking my 2 maids to join the 1500 other maids who had to go through some questionings when they decided to go back home. Who needed help here? Me, the pregnant lady who can't carry heavy bags and traveling with a very active 3 year old toddler, OR these robots?? My 2 maids didn't even intend to go back home when I took them to Indonesia. They landed in Indonesia because I wanted them to accompany me to go back home so that 1 maid could help me to carry the luggages and another maid would help me to monitor my hyperactive son. So, in another word, my 2 maids came back to Indonesia with their boss (me), not like those 1500 other maids who came back for good to Indonesia. It's a completely different case and these robots could not even see it. How mad I was!! I was never so mad before until my heart beat was racing and I could not even breathe properly.
Ok, that incident has been an indicator that I would not feel good coming back home. For the whole 3 weeks I was in Jakarta, the weather was terrible. It rained everyday and flooded here and there. I could not sleep as I had to watch out for the water level in my front yard so that we could evacuate in time before the heavy flood came back.
Then, since my neighborhood has just experienced big flood for the 1st time in 27 years, I could still see big piles of rubbish every where and water mark on the wall that the flood left behind.
I tried my best to be very careful in choosing what I ate until I actually lost weight. As careful as I could be, still I had a food poisoning (again) when I was in Jakarta. I didn't know exactly which food or drink had caused the poisoning. Perhaps it was the milk I drank because when I was there, there was a big news about E.Zakazaki bacteria that has contaminated the milk powder but I was not sure if the milk for pregnant women was affected or not. What I knew I got a terrible stomachache that worried me so much and forced me to have another scan just to check if my baby was alright. Thank God baby was fine, but my son was not. He caught a terrible cough and flu up to present.
To make situation more uncomfortable for me and my son, the Indonesian electricity company was lacking of coal to generate more energy to supply electricity to all customers in Java and Bali Island. So, we had to experience no electricity for hours. Luckily the weather was not too hot because of the rain otherwise I would have melted... :)
On this trip I focused in spending my time with my parents. I didn't even called any of my friends in Jakarta because I wouldn't be able to see them anyway. The heavy traffic jam right in front of my house all the way to where ever my destination would be, has really deterred me from going out of the house. I know I will never get used to this situation anymore. I really respect the people in Jakarta who have to deal with heavy traffic jam everyday. They have wasted their life time on the road too long so if they have a chance to rest, they will just go to sleep. They are all very exhausted and don't have time to do anything else. Thank God I don't have to deal with this anymore.
The only good thing I could bring back to Ipoh as some souvenirs from my Jakarta trip was the fact that Indonesian songs are always the best to me and I just love them so much. My heart and my ears are just so relax to hear these songs.
I'm glad I could find them on YouTube as always. Just in case you want to hear the great Indonesian songs, just watch them here:
3 comments:
nidji rule! :)
sounds like quite an action packed trip.
why r maids treated differently anyways?? surely they're indonesian citizens like everyone else, no?
i didn't notice maids being treated differently when coming in from the middle east. weird.
great that ur son made so many friends in ur old neighbourhood :):)
great blog post.
Next time you want to come to Indonesia, make sure you come with me to see how differently the maids & the labors (TKI) are treated. They have their own passport line when entering Indonesia and they have a different gate to go out of the airport. That's why I was so mad because I am Indonesian with 2 Indonesian maids who just want to come back home to our beloved country but unfortunately, things are not so easy for us just to enter our own country.
You like Nidji too?? That Jangan Lupakan by Nidji is great, isn't it?
but do they have passports which clearly say they are maids, or something? weird... Jangan Lupakan? I am not sure of the names :):) if it's nidji it probably is great tho ;)
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