Apartments, rain and kids.

Here is something I didn't know (and you don't either). My family actually ones a rather nice apartment in Jakarta. I went with my family's driver, Mr. Udien to pick up my host dad at the airport in Jakarta today. He had been off on some business trip on some island (I forget the name) east of Java. Afterward we stopped by the apartment. It's actually two, which I was a little confused about since there were enough rooms in the first one to house the entire family, plus my host sister who lives and goes to school in central Java. It was pretty nice. very artistic, modern furniture and room design but with a warm flare like the Manchester United bed sheets in my host brother's room (they are obsessed with M.U down here). To top all of this off, it is on the ground floor of the ridiculously tall complex and a moments walk away from a pool complete with fountains and everything. Being a doctor and doing government work most pay off (my host parents jobs).

I love it when it rains here. The Indonesians probably think I'm a little odd. Everyone goes inside to sit it out but I always wanna go out in it. I think one of the maids was giving me kinda funny looks when I was standing out in thick of it. It's so heavy here. One time me and Dimas were at his elementary school reunion and the atmosphere dumped everything it had down on Bogor. The restaurant where the reunion was at was up on a hill at the road up to the place was like a river. We could see down to the actual river and it had become a mud bath. Not that it was flooding just that the once solid dusty riverbanks that had supported the odd rickety house and the like weren't looking too solid anymore. Nothing happened though. Everything was fine, no collapsed huts or anything. The roads become filthy sometimes when it rains though seeing as how dusty they are as well as a lot of wet dirt and mud along with garbage. Haha, I must be giving you a great image of Bogor. Don't believe what you might think, Bogor is great. The combination of reddish/brown tile roofs and dazzling green trees are fantastic. It's also not flat either. There are these odd intriguing ravine-like places where neighborhoods are clustered.

That's a little something about rain. It rains alot for being the summer season right now.

There are these kids that jump into the Angkot sometimes. These ones were pretty young. Maybe 7-8. I was with Riska and we were on the way to meet my host brother at a mall. One of the boys (two of them) played a small grungy guitar while the other passed out little slips of paper to put money in. He gave us all pleading looks. I've seen dozens of pairs of kids like these. Riska says they don't get the money that we give them. It's like something from Slum-dog Millionaire except its right there. She says they have to give the money to someone who lets them sleep somewhere and gives them whatever food he sees fit. She said she never gives them money. Instead she reached into her bag and pulled out a bag of chips that we had bought for the movie earlier. She handed the kid that instead. At the next stop after collecting nothing except for chips they jumped out and wandered elsewhere.