Jakarta: Our Big Stinky City
"Home is where you feel at home and are treated well" - Dalai Lama Jakarta is our home now and we love it. It may be polluted, it may smell, things may break, things may take a bizarrely long time to fix, BUT and this is a big but (not like my butt, it's small), Jakarta and Indonesia in general, is home to some of the kindest, most hard working, and welcoming people in the world. What stands out the most is the kindness. There is very little hate here. Indonesians are taught in schools from a very young age to manage their stress, to resolve conflicts without raising their voices. Any type of yelling or anger is out of place here, it is most unwelcome and unseemly. In my 6 months here, I have only seen one gentleman even raise his voice and he was not Indonesian. Everyone here calls each other mother, brother, sister and father out of respect. It is a truly beautiful culture. Albeit, it is a different world here with different customs and different ways of think