Archive for the ‘Life in Indonesia’ Category

Sponsoring a Child via World Vision

Monday, September 18th, 2006

Yesterday, I and my wife decided to sponsor a child via World Vision program. What is World Vision? It is a non-profit organization that helps children worldwide to reach their potential by tackling causes of poverty. They basically provides things, such as nutritious food, educational opportunities, health care and many more. Here is the quote from their web site:

World Vision helps transform the lives of the world’s poorest children and families in nearly 100 countries, including the United States. Our non-profit work extends assistance to all people, regardless of their religious beliefs, gender, race, or ethnic background.

We have chosen to sponsor a 9 years old girl from Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Why Indonesia? Because Indonesia is our home country. In fact, we are still holding an Indonesian passport. Why Irian Jaya? Because it is the poorest province in Indonesia.

Why don’t we sponsor/donate via Indonesian government directly? The answer is simple. I don’t want our sponsorship to be corrupted by irresponsible person. As you may know that corruption level in Indonesia is so high. Many things are corrupted there. I don’t trust the government.

I just hope that our sponsorship will help (at least) one child there to attend school and have better life….

Posted in Life in Indonesia | 2 Comments »

Tsunami in Indonesia!

Tuesday, July 18th, 2006

After being hit by earth quake about one and a half month ago, my home country, Indonesia, was hit by tsunami yesterday. It has killed more than 300 people. Once again… my deepest condolence to them.

I have no idea what is happening to my home country… we have been struck by big tsunami at the end of year 2004 killing more than 200,000 people.

Posted in Life in Indonesia | 4 Comments »

Amber Light – Stop or Accelerate?

Sunday, July 9th, 2006

When I went back to my home country for my wedding about 2 months ago, I had to drive a car. As some of you may already know, the traffic rules in Indonesia are a little bit different to western countries. For example, amber light (yellow light) in the intersection means accelerate. Most drivers in my home country will accelerate when they see amber light. Why? They don’t want to get “trapped” in the next red light.

When I drove in Indonesia, I always stop on amber light. My cousin said to me, it is dangerous if I stop when the amber light is on. The reason is because we may get hit by the car behind us. The driver behind us may accelerate his car when he sees amber light.

Actually it was a long story why I have a new habit of stopping on amber light. When I relocated to Canada last year, I had to take 5 times driving tests. After taking driving school for a couple of months and taking several times driving tests, now I drive very carefully.

There are so many reasons why I failed several times on driving tests, mostly because I used to drive in a country with no traffic rules… :) We do have stop signs and yield signs, but they are somehow useless. Nobody looks at it. We do have crosswalk too, but don’t try to cross the street without looking left and right. Most drivers do not yield to pedestrian in the crosswalk.

Well… this is just a warning for you who want to drive in developing countries, like Indonesia. You need to improve your hazard perception there…. :) IMHO, it is better to use local drivers who have much experience driving in such situation.

Just to give you an overview how driving experience in Indonesia, I have uploaded a video that I captured during my trip back to Indonesia. The video was captured in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Notice how close the motor-cycle to the bus and how pedestrian walk so closely to the bus.

Posted in Life in Canada, Life in Indonesia | 10 Comments »