Normal Things

Here are some of the most normal images of my Bogor life. I’m including the following pictures so that some of my stories make more sense, so they you can have an image to put with the idea of the people I work with, or the vendors, or my walk to work. There are many more that need to be added, and I will, as the realities of my life change. There are more for Bogor, too, and I'lll those to this post soon. But for now, some of the realities of life. I hope they help to give a better feeling (in contrast from idea….) of where I am.

The most normal sight of all. Me, just having gotten up, eating a mango.

The view out my window in Bogor. Below me are the neighbor's house, their laundry, and their vegetable plot. The CIFOR office is a little outside of Bogor, and all of the houses have little plots of land where they plant vegetables and fruit trees.

On my walk to work. This is about 3 minutes walk from my apartment in Bogor. Bogor is surrounded by extinct volcanos, which are clearly visible when the weather is good.

On the way to the Safari park. The traffic can be at a stand still for hours, so street vendors take advantage of it by walking up and down the rows of cars selling tofu, drinks, fruit, and anything else they can think of. This man made my day. He was selling bubbles. Big incredible wonderful bubbles. I bought a small thing of them, and am still impressed by how fantastic the bubble formula was. The wands were metal wire with brightly colored yarn wrapped around. It works wonderfully. Almost made the traffic worth it.

The people that I work with, from left to right: (bottom row)Neldy, Monico, me, Pak Yen, Nety, Yulia. (top row): well, the one in white is Heru, the one in yellow is Pak Samsudin, the others I have not worked with, and so don't know...