100 Days of Happiness – Day 74

I had been dreaming of having a Saturday morning sleep in but didn’t make it past 6.30am this morning (which I guess IS considered a sleep-in these days!), so out came the baby sling, camera and Samudra and I headed off on another morning adventure. I decided to take a completely different route in the opposite direction to usual in the complex today and ended up finding another lively kampung close by.  This area is amazing. Between all the main narrow winding roads, there are complex mazes of cramped housing filling in every inch of spare land.  Today we came across a fun kampung with the usual amounts of kids running around laughing and playing in the dirt, and women standing around feeding babies in slings while having a morning gossip.

Everyone was in shock and started giggling to see this bule and her baby enter their area and we ended up stopping and chatting for a long time as they asked the usual questions and the excitement on the women’s faces to know Samudra was half Australian and half orang Java was priceless! It seems most of the ladies this morning are originally from Jogja so they were ecstatic to meet Samudra and kept laughing asking why I have an Indonesian husband instead of an Australian man.  As we went to leave, one incredibly friendly and funny old lady with a limp decided she would walk around with us, announcing in a very loud voice about the ‘bayi Australia, Java‘ to everyone she saw, and knocking on doors as we made our way through the alleyways, dodging chickens, kids on bikes, overhead washing on string and other people going about their morning business.  Some of the walkways were so narrow that I had to pull Samudra around to my front and squeeze my shoulders in to make it through. I got to wondering how on earth these houses ever got built in such close proximity and you certainly couldn’t be too large in size unless you wanted to become trapped between two houses!  You cannot see a horizon from inside these kampungs, and you could not have any privacy at all as every house is joined together to make long and confusing mazes, but everyone looks happy and that’s all that matters really.  It is a completely different way of living to what I am used to, with everyone living independently and with so much space it can make it difficult to meet new people, even your next door neighbour.  I guess with a population of over 200 million in this country, having personal space really isn’t an option, and sometimes I honestly struggle with this concept here.

We finally made it out onto a main road and the old lady was afraid that I was now lost and wanted to help me find my way home again, and insisted on following us, but I tried to explain in my terrible Indonesian that we wanted to be lost and wanted to continue exploring. By the time we had wound our way through another kampung, stopping to talk to more people, and finally making it back home again, it was already just before 9.00am! eeeeek we had been walking around for hours without realising it and no wonder I was soaked from sweat, but it had been a fun morning and now I was exhausted but Samudra still wanted to play and Putra was still fast asleep in bed!

I finally had some rest and the sun disappeared in the early morning and it started to rain which was a refreshing break from the heat, and we decided to head over to Poins Square to see if I had any hope of repairing my smashed up iPhone.  I am lost without a phone and have been feeling completely disconnected from the world since it broke in Jogja.  So I am keeping my fingers crossed that they may be able to repair it, and in the meantime I have my old broken phone which is pretty much only good for letting me know the time, but it’s better than nothing.

I hope you had a fun day wherever in the world you are too.

Day 74: This little boy was sooo sweet. Happiness.

Day 74: This little girl loved Samudra, but was afraid of me! Happiness.

Day 74: Boys in the kampung. Happiness.

Day 74: A common sight.. hanging your laundry in the alleyway in the kampung. Happiness.

Day 74: A shoe repair man doing home visits. Happiness.

 

Day 74: This elderly couple in their shop were so lovely! Happiness.

Day 74: Putra getting his cholesterol, blood suger levels, etc checked at Poins Square. Happiness.

Day 74: High cholesterol but otherwise healthy. Happiness.