That being said, I thought I would let you all know how my drive home was today.
I take a shuttle home from work. Normally, I will just listen to music and play on my iPad, but today I looked out the window. I wish I could have taken pictures of what I saw, but honestly I was just too overwhelmed.
When we left the embassy things were as normal as a Jakarta ride home can be . . .
Then I looked out the window and saw a guy walk up to a tree, that was on the median and started to pee. He didn't care that there were hundreds and hundreds of people around, he just had to pee. That I have seen a lot here in Jakarta but usually they are on the side of the road and peeing on a wall or something with their backs to the majority of people. Sadly, you kind of get used to it, but this was different. He didn't care. He didn't care about where he was or who was around. It broke my heart. It felt like he had no pride for his country, for who he was, and where he was from.
At that point, I didn't really want to look outside anymore. I just wanted to keep my head down and go to my "happy place". That lasted for about 5 minutes until I was jolted forward. When I looked up, I saw a guy on a motorcycle cutting between us (a big bus) and ANOTHER big bus. Our bumper could not have been more than an inch from this guy. He didn't care, he just kept on going cause the point is to be ahead of everyone else.
The traffic here is AWFUL. COMPLETELY AWFUL. There are lines on the roads dividing lanes, but they are not used. The INSANE amount of motorcycles overwhelm you. There have been many times where I just feel completely surrounded by them, and I am!
This is not an exaggeration. Some days it might be better than this at times, but mostly, it's pretty jam packed. Motorcycles will weave in and out of traffic, squeeze (and I mean SQUEEZE) between cars just so they can get a couple of inches further.
About half way home, the bus went to make a right hand turn onto a street. He was blocked by another bus (the city bus) who couldn't wait their turn so they pushed through both oncoming lanes of traffic. Mind you, the bus was PACKED.
This is one of the busses. It is in pretty good shape compared to most of the ones that you see driving around the city.
The topper of the trip was when I saw something that looked a lot like this . .
Right next to the piles and piles of trash, there was this sign . . .
It looked as if there had been a demonstration held that day, and the people that were there got fed. There were white cardboard boxes COVERING the street and the sidewalk. I would have to say at least 2 blocks were like this. Everyone that was there just threw their garbage on the street. Wait, I take that back, they didn't throw their garbage, they just dropped it where they stood. I got so very angry!!!!!
I don't understand how people that claim to have so much pride in themselves and in their country don't see this as wrong. Why is it ok here for people to just pee wherever they want? Why doesn't anyone think it is a good idea to follow ANY traffic rules whatsoever? WHY do they think it is acceptable to leave their rubbish wherever they want?
Let me make VERY clear that I am not speaking of ALL Indonesians. There are many many people here that care about their home, and want nothing more than to take care of it. The sad thing is, they are outnumbered 10-1 by the ones that just don't give a shit.
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