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Jakarta
Jakarta, the capital city of
Indonesia, was Sean's 2nd post as a Foreign Service Officer. Jakarta is
where we met. Unfortunately, Sean came to Jakarta on Cheech's last 30 days
working at the Embassy. We only met one or two times
before Cheech left to work for Citibank. We then meet again at church
activities. Eventually we started dating. Jakarta is a nice city to
live in; it has everything: shopping arcades and day or night entertainment.
The economic crises and riots of 1997 changed the view of the tourists about it,
but we still love it.
When the Embassy evacuated
non-essential personnel and only left few people behind, Sean was one of the few
who stayed. His first job was to help get all American citizens out of the
country. He then helped the mission analyze what was happening in the
country in the aftermath of the evacuation.
The Latest trip
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We arrived in Jakarta on March 31 in
the evening to attend Cheech's older sister's Sumi's wedding on April 4.
Although she wanted a tiny 6-person reception for her wedding, she ended up with
couple of hundred guests (mostly Dad's friends). Sumi was the happiest
bride. She wore traditional outfit (at Dad's insistence) and was embarrassed the whole time.
Funny. Alec was the luckiest (or we dare say the most exhausted) baby.
Everyone wanted to play with him or carry him and asked him to do many
tricks.
Like giving high fives, making him wink, blow air kisses or making him
repeat bahasa words. Poor guy, but he did it anyway to
entertain his admirers. He and they laughed a
lot. Cheech though, was jealous watching
all of her sisters with their long hair when the hair dresser doing their
make up. One of them noticed and offered to do extensions
("it only takes hours, "bu", he said).. You all can guess what happened. Cheech now has
the longest hair of all of her sisters combined together! Alec didn't
seem to notice the change but Sean had a tough time recognizing his
wife in the malls! |
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Alec was amazingly cheerful throughout
the flights to and from Jakarta. The flight attendants kept passing him
around like he was stuffed animal. Alec also got a chance to play in the cockpit with the pilots. Alec was so excited to see many buttons
and was disappointed when the captains did not allow him to play with them. .
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You're too big for high chair |
Enjoyed being the center |
Exhausted Alec |
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now, Alec! |
of attention and pic taken |
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This month Cheech went to Jakarta on business (again) for a week. But this time, Alec and our nanny tagged along.
Cheech was born in a big family and grew up in Jakarta where most of her
families and relatives still live. So on this trip Alec found himself
surrounded by people all fighting
to pamper him. Cheech realized that she is no longer the
favorite in her family. That honor now goes to Alec. (That
didn't keep her from feeling bad, though) It was
amazing what it was like in Jakarta. No matter how hard we tried to
keep any event or dinner it small, it turned out to be BIG because all of
the relatives wanted to join in. At these events one amusing thing to
watch was the |
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ridiculously high nanny-to-kid ratio. Every one
of Cheech's brothers and sisters have several children and it seemed like
everyone of the children has at least one nanny dressed like a nurse chasing
behind the child where ever it went. There is a silly belief in Jakarta that if a nanny wears a uniform
it means that she is trained and registered. Astuti (our nanny) was so
embarrassed when she went to the first family gathering because she was
wearing simple street clothes! Who knew? The next thing we knew,
however, Astuti went back and unpacked a bunch of these uniforms out of her
bag! We thought this was very funny. We never asked her to wear one
because we thought she might get embarrassed.
The best part of the trip was that Alec got to meet lots of cousins
and to kiss many babies. Alec also get to play with his cousin's
pet, Doel (pronounced "Dull") the bunny. Alec loved it. Sean thought the
name fit perfectly. |
 Learn how to swimAlec learns
how to keep kicking in the pool |
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Short CutInstead of
climbing the stair from the back like everybody else, Alec preferred taking
a short cut. Such a big boy! |
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Affectionate AlecNo matter where or
whom. Alec loves to kiss babies! |
Watch Out!Coming through.... |
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Fortunately, Cheech's class ended
almost every day at four o'clock. That left plenty of time for Cheech
to hang out with Alec and her family. The training was pretty good
too. Cheech learned a lot of things which will make Dili's financial
management systems more efficient! |
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Cheech in the Classroom |
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