Getting an Indonesian Drivers Liscence

I think it's pretty easy for a foreigner to get a drivers liscence here now, but it wasn't always. A woman we know and her husband have been here in Bali twelve years. When they applied to get drivers liscences they were required to take a multiple choice test in Indonesian with a time limit of fifteen minutes. They studied and tried but it was too hard and they both failed. They were told they could come back and take it as many times as they needed but they gave up. They have a business here and someone who worked for them had a relative that worked with the police office that issues drivers licenses. One day he got hold of them early and said that the computer was down in that office for the day so they should go there now. They did and since the computer was down were not required to take a test and got their licences. Katrinka and I don't drive here so we'll miss out on this area of experience.

No News

Periodically, recalling the wisdom of "No news is good news," I take a break from following the news. There are different ways to do this. First and most important is to stop following US news primarily which is what you get from US news outlets. Then BBC and Guardian are good but still too much US news so I just look at Al Jazirra which has some but not too too much US. It's good with excellent in depth reporting that I don't want to take the time for. The best is to just look at science news which includes weather. Stuff happening there that will steamroll over daily news. But now, I'm on the fourth day of no news at all. Ahhhhhh. 

Flight Safety in Indonesia

NYT Magazine - What really brought down Boing 737 Max. A highly experienced pilot takes one step by step through this analysis that claims the plane was not the problem but everyone wants to blame the plane - Lion Air, Ethiopean Air, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Trump pressuring the FAA,  Two of them crashed and they're all grounded. The author says he's no fan of Boing but in these cases it's poorly trained pilots that didn't act properly when an emergency happened - and corruption and greed. We live in Indonesia and flew Lion Air once to Java. Next time boat and train.

Otonan

This morning Katrinka and I donned our sarongs and sashes and were off to Segara beach for Detia's Otonan ceremony. The first one is at 210 days but he's about three years old. His grandfather, Ketut, is our landlord, our wonderful landlord He spends a lot of time taking care of Detia while his parents are working. We arrived at Segara beach at 8am but didn't see any ceremony preperations. So I called him. He wsa there right away and led us back to a temple. There were many many banten offerings made with coconut and banana leaves and decorated with bits of food and  flowers. We sat around and talked and took photos with our smart phones. Women did some offerings at a shrine there. A small group of us - parents, uncles and Ketut went down to the beach with a priest. We sat in the sand and there was incense ond offerings. Then we walked a little ways into the water and a little offering boat was placed in the water. We walked back leaving the offerings in the sand and water. It's all organic. Back at the temple enclosure Detia, his mother and father, sat with a priest while he chanted some stuff. Meanwhile relatives and friends were talking, taking photos, eating snacks, drinking bottled water, little boxes of milk tea and coffee. All most easygoing. At no point was everyone paying attention, solemn, or quiet. There are ceremonies with quiet periods though. Next they were going to a larger temple. We said goodbye and walked down the beach path to home an hour away. 

Climate Change Accelerating

Every day it's a getting closer, going faster than a roller coaster - from BBC

Good News

Amazon buys 100,000 electric trucks - thanks Gregory

We can win - Al Gore

Poor Little Ant

Frequently find a little black ant crawling on my computer or arm. Blow or brush it away. The black ones don't bite and don't see red ones much, but don't want them crawling on me or laptop. As they fly off  from where they were blown or brushed, I wonder if they will find their way back home. And what if it's far from home. I checked on that and found that sometimes they can be accepted in another ant community. Ah - there's one now on my knee. Good luck little fellow!