Jakarta Kotor

Warning: This post is lacking in photos.  If you are only interested in pics of Colby, please ignore the text and scroll to the bottom!

C3 is still in Jakarta, and the work has started! I am actually enjoying being back in a lab environment and thinking about a scientific problem.  I am starting to put together some ideas to write grants to help bring in some funding.  It is interesting and exciting to think about a different problem and get to come up with my own ideas.  Although, I will admit it is extremely overwhelming!!

We have met the team at the Eijkman Institute.  We are working for Kevin Baird and the Eijkman-Oxford Clinical Research Unit.  While here, we are learning techniques we will be using in the field like how to make thick and thin blood films for malaria identification.  We are supposed to leave at the end of this week for Sumba.  The rest of the team will be joining us shortly and staying for 2 weeks to do a massive field study.  We are testing a new, rapid diagnostic test for an inherited blood disorder (G6PD deficiency) that has effects on malaria infection and treatment.  The company who makes the test is giving us 1,000 for the study.  The team will go to remote locations in Sumba, set up makeshift labs, and enroll 1,000 (hopefully) registrants in two weeks to test the efficacy of this new test.  Talk about being thrown into the fire! 

Chris is also still dealing with our immigration/visa status.  (He has to speak for all of us, because Indonesia is still primarily a patriarchal society.  I am trying to not let this... um... “cultural difference” bother me.  I am successful about 40% of the time.  I am pleased with this rate.  It is an improvement.)  We have our visas (from the Embassy), and our research permit (from the Minister of Science - RISTEK).  Now, we have to get “stay” permits from immigration and the police.  At every juncture, each agency has collected its own set of fees.  This process has been more complicated, and more expensive, than any of us imagined, but we are at the finish line!

Most of our time here has been in the city-proper.  Jakarta is a big, dirty city full (and I do mean full) of people.  It is not a pretty city, but there is something strangely interesting about it.  For instance, everyone here seems to have a dual personality.  The first personality is the one you meet in an office or shop setting.  They are calm, rational, easy-going, and overly optimistic.  They second personality rears its proverbial head on the streets of Jakarta where it has probably developed out of necessity.  They are wreck-less and almost rage-full.  Defensive driving (or walking, for that matter) is not an option.  Without sheer aggression when facing your daily commute, you will not survive on the streets of Jakarta.  I can think of several cities in the U.S. where driving is also aggressive, but 2 differences stand out.  First, the dichotomy between the non-road personality and the road personality is not as striking.  Cities with aggressive drives are also filled with equally aggressive business people and politicians.  Second, cities in the U.S. have traffic signals and actually use them.  True genius.  

There really isn’t much to see or do here, especially for kids.  The nightlife, we are told, is exceptional, but it starts a little too late (i.e. after 9pm) for tiny Master Nixon.  Though, I am sure he would love a good dance party.  This past weekend, we needed a break from Jakarta so we took the train (an adventure which deserves a posting all of its own- with pictures, promise!) to Bogor.  Bogor is a suburb of Jakarta that boasts a large botanical garden.  This garden was beautiful, but in a very different way than the garden in Singapore.  It gave us just what we wanted: a large green area for Colby to run and be crazy.  As always, he made tons of friends and somehow managed to find bubbles.