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We have purchased a puppy (Dec. 20/99), not a St. Bernard, but a Golden Retriever, an expat like us. His mother is from Japan, father from Australia (or vice versa), and he was born in Jakarta. We wanted to call him Max but our Indonesian staff can't pronounce the 'x' sound, so it seems we'll call him Kuta, which is a Balinese beach. We had thought first of Duta, which means Ambassador in Indonesian, but some people thought it was a dumb name. Needless to say, he's cute. And so far, well-behaved and seemingly of at least moderate (on the canine scale) intelligence.
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A favorite outing is the hill station in the mountains south of the city at Puncak. The embassy has a house there that is shared among the Canadian staff. It is cool enough that Laurenne takes a sweater. The swimming pool is a big attraction, as is the view in the evenings. The dog loves it.
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Chantal, Laurenne's niece, was our first Canadian visitor. The two of them visited Bandung and went to Jakarta's Mini Indonesia theme park. Here, they pose with our housekeeper, Sunaya (next to Laurenne), our driver Yono, and Sunaya's daugther, Noor (at right).
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In our first year, we were lucky enough to be able to spend two wonderful weeks holidaying in Bali at the beginning of December. Parts of the island are hugely over-developed, the Ft Lauderdale of the Indian Ocean. But off the beaten path, it remains a tropical paradise.
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Destruction in East Timor after the referendum was near-total. This house in Suai, on the south coast, had its walls intact but was gutted with much of the roof gone. I called the verandah home while reporting on Canadian troops stationed in the area. It wasn't much, just a mosquito net among the ruins, but it beat what the soldiers had: tents pitched in the dirt, with no shade.
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Despite the destruction, the people of East Timor seemed incongrously happy. The reason, people say, is that at last, the Indonesian soldiers who were the cause of so much misery for a quarter-century, have gone. The happiness of Timorese children is infectious.
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