Kampung Kids

I have to admit I had a mini melt down at the beginning of the week. After two weeks of looking after Samudra on my own while Putra was away, in and out of taxis for hours every single day to go on play dates and have adventures together, I was wondering if we had made a bad decision to move to where we have as it feels quite isolating sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I love our house, I love that we can go for walks in the streets and the complex is so big and peaceful and there are lots of little parks scattered around.. but the downside is that there seems to be no life in here! Our complex is filled with retired ex military people so all we see are groups of retirees on their super early morning walks, talking about ammunition and goodness knows what else.

It really doesn’t feel like being in Jakarta, they removed all the kaki lima’s selling street food and the Holland Bakery van that was parked near our house not long after we moved in, and with it went all the people that used to sit around on the streets and say hello as we walked past. Suddenly the streets were deserted. What I have always loved about Jakarta the most is watching life happening on the streets, the hustle and bustle, the friendly faces and watching people go about their daily chores. In our complex I would walk for over an hour and be lucky to see 2 people walking around. This means that I have a constant guilty feeling that I have moved Samudra to somewhere where he has no one to play with while we work, and I don’t want him locked inside all day long if we need a few hours to get things done. So we spend every spare moment we have jumping into taxis and visiting friends and running around, which is fun, but I would also like to be able to sit still for a minute too and be content in our surroundings.

So I finished my work and decided to take Samudra on a late afternoon stroll to visit the dogs in the complex as he loves feeding them biscuits and barking at them! Someone up above must have been listening to my ridiculous woes because next thing you know, loads of little kids appeared from nowhere and ran up to Samudra and started squeezing his cheeks and asking if they could play with him. Samudra was sooooo happy! They ran off to see the dogs together and then walked Samudra home wanting to hold his hands and asked if they could visit him the next day.

They have come to visit after school every afternoon since, and you cannot wipe the smile from Samudra’s face when they appear at the gate calling his name. All these kids live in the kampungs outside of our complex and are so incredibly sweet and loving towards Samudra, helping to put on his shoes, holding his hands, taking him across the road to the park and to see the monkey in the cage down the road. At last my heart can have some peace, knowing he is bursting with happiness to have some company here and that he will be looked after while I do what I need to do.

Thanks little ones for bring sunshine into Samudra’s days this week – you have been gorgeous little rays of sunshine bringing life to the complex!

Samudra meets new little friends

Instant happiness

Running around like he’s King of the Kids

Back for a visit again

Helping Samudra put on his shoes so they can go exploring

Hanging out on the streets

Making loud noises of happiness with his new friends

Our blackboard in the garage after the kids went home. So cute..

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