Today I spend the whole day mixing colors with the guys in the factory.  Lebih hitan! Sudah, sudah.  More black! Genoeg.  

It is like being back in kindergarden learning my colors.  I am helping to develop colors for iron furniture, wooden letters, christmas ornaments and more.  hilarious off course because what do I know about colors.  But Jostein, the Great Dane, who owns this little company thinks I do.  He started this little company about 5 years ago producing and exporting all kinds of metal stuff for the house like hammered boxes and baskets, letters. The latest is iron furniture inspired by old wedding chairs.  Actually really need.  Together with the painter and “designer” I am supposed to come up with colors. It is so much fun sitting in this little factory trying to communicate with these indonesians and telling them what colors to mix.  it is amazing how much laughing you do even when you don’t understand a word of each others language. There are about 30-50 workers on the factory floor hammering, cutting, welding, painting.  In the office, you have Budi, the general manager, who loves to collect masks and Loroblonyo (wedding dolls) and sell them on ebay.  Than there is Eki,  she is in charge of personel, and she brings all of us lunch everyday.  Eki is a strict moslim and wears a head scarf.  David is the manager and has to drive, by motor cycle, an hour each way to get to work.  Erni, my roomate, is in charge of finance and anything else Jostein needs done.  And than there is Imran, he is the errand boy.  Last but not least, Jostein,  he is danish and lives in Denmark.  He flies to Indonesia to take stock on his investments every so many months.  

The atmosphere here is wonderful.  Everybody is very friendly and giggles a lot (indonesians, I have noticed, love to giggle.  They are sort of childlike in that way). Most of them smoke (Madmen is tame compared with the amount of smoking that happens here) and so they take a break together outside every 30 minutes or so.

On my daily walk through the Kampong (Neighborhood) today I was chased by a couple of geese.  First they didn’t want me to pass and than, when I followed a motorcycle, they chased me.  Such ferocious watch dogs they are!  They are much more scary than my dog, Klaartje, when the mail man comes to the door.

This is actually a good intro to describe my daily routine during the week and when I am in Semarang.  We, Erni, Iin and I, get up around 7.  Now that I am not so intimidated by my surroundings anymore I have started walking in the Kampong.  Since I am the only one who does this, I am stared at by the neighbors.  It probably doesn’t help that I stick out like a sore thumb since I am so much taller and contrary with what I have been told growing up, don’t look Indonesian at all according to locals.

After the walk I go and mandi (shower with a bucket of cold water) and than enjoy the scrumptious breakfasts made by Iin.  Today for example she made vegetables fritters.  Breakfast, by the way, is not eggs and whatever or cereal but often left overs from the night before made in something totally different.  For example, yesterday Iin made rice porridge from left over rice which she spices up ( literally) with pepper, cumin and yes sugar too.  When everybody is ready we join the swarm of motor cycle wasps going to Semarang.  It takes about 40 minutes. Often we drop of laundry on our way up and pick it up again the next day.

When I arrive at work I immediately fire up my computer to get all the social media communications I can only get when I am in a wifi zone.  Which I only have when I am at work.  That is not the fault of Indonesia but off Apple.  My iPhone 3 is not compatible with any of the apps except gmail.  And my apple computer does not recognize the long distance connection of the company.  Stupid Steve Job with his control issues.

At the end of the work day, around 6 pm, we go home or more likely do some errand or meet with friends/family of Iin’s.  They politely will talk in English for a bit but than they soon switch over to Bahasa of which I don’t understand very, very little.  Incidentally, at first I thought they were talking about me because I heard the word Tanja a lot.  However Tanya in Bahasa means question, questioning, question mark.  I guess that seems to be very appropriate?!

After satisfying my addiction, I start doing my job.  I am in charge of developing colors and painting techniques for their different products.  Lunch is usually served by Eki.  I think she picks it up at one of the many street vendors.  It is usually rice with some meat and a saucy vegetable and of course kroepoek (shrimp chips).  For drinks you get some water and  hot tea.  At the end of the day we do some errands 

Semarang, Januari 16, 2013 

We drove Monday, January 12, from Semarang to yokyakarta. This is about 100 miles but takes about four hours. The reason it takes so long is because the main road is a two lane street full of motorcycles.

I am now sitting in a beautiful resort in yokyakarta, only for one night. So had my first shower in a week. I actually am used to doing the mandi now as they call throwing a bucket of water over your head. The water is not cold here but like tea water.

Had the most wonderful experience yesterday. A lot of the suppliers of the export company are in Yokyakarta because that is the center of crafts like batik, woodcrafts , pottery etc. we had to do quality control of the baskets that were made by this pagan (kind of weave) artisan. They all live in a village outside of yokyakarta. Village in Indonesian is Kampong. It is cluster of small houses with narrow streets between. Scrawny chicken running around and women and men in their sarongs. Around 4 the call to prayer sound and men (only the men, go to the mosque for prayer. Anyway, we were in this house doing the quality control. Actually in the section that was heavily damaged by the earthquake in 2004. The family told us how the government promised ex amount of rupee for restoration but because of corruption they have only gotten half of that money. The amazing this is how cheerful everybody is. So friendly and helpful. And the live still very primitive. At least in the villages. While Erni, my colleague, and I were sitting on the mat doing our work the grandmother is preparing the dinner on a wood fire on the floor in the kitchen.