Before I left America, many people (oddly enough, especially my dental hygienist) were gleefully hooting about the fact that in Indonesia I could have a full house staff and I thought to myself "I don't know. That sounds pretty terrible."
Well, here I am a month later in Rumbai Camp: My name is Elizabeth Humbert and I have a cook. And a housekeeper. And a gardener. And I'm looking for a driver. And Pak Tony is building our patio, fixing my car, and bringing me vodka. And Pak Mukhlis brings both the beef tenderloin and the red wine. And Ibu Khartini comes by daily to deliver fresh fruits and sometimes seafood from the Pasar Bawah open air market. Four men came by from Facilities maintenance yesterday just to pick up the phones and ascertain that they are working. It's both welcome assistance and random people in my space. I need a closet to go shut myself into.
Things are actually going really well with the Ibus who work in my house with me. They are helpful and really kind to the children. They also know when to stand back and let me scrub the bathroom myself. Or make a bizarre "Egg pie.' My number one, the cook and general head of house, is Ibu Lena. She's a fabulous cook. She's been going through a bottle of olive oil a week, and makes kick ass tortillas. My pants are tight. I taught her about quinoa yesterday and just borrowed a juicer from a friend. Ibu Imun is our number two. She irons our sheets and Pete's underwear. She also bleached my beautiful colored kitchen towels I splurged on at Target. She's just one of the nicest people and so easy to work with. Ibu Lena speaks enough English that we work well together and though Ibu Imun's is minimal, we are getting things done.
For the first few weeks, I let Ibu Lena loose in the kitchen. I was adapting and learning basic stuff about life and eating in Indonesia, so I was fine with that. I went to a kitchen store in town this week and got items that I consider necessary... so I'm raring to cook now. Ibu Lena is not irritated that I'm constantly under her feet and following her every move as she cooks. I want to learn. We've had incredible sate with peanut sauce, beautifully prepared stir fries with tofu or chicken. Today was tempeh. The tempeh is amazing. Handmade, wrapped in banana leaves, and ready to go. We've had coconut curries and chicken nuggets. Even Clara ate those nuggets. Hand made, hand fried. Oooh yeah. Did I mention my pants are tight? We've had gorgeous shrimp and a lovely fried white fish. I've seen huge red snapper at the market. Doing that next week.
Ive been baking a lot - and Ibu looks at my love of whole wheat as bizarre. White is better. White rice too, when I encourage brown for my family.... The ability to choose to eat healthily is so easy here. So many fresh vegetables and a platter of fruit at EVERY single meal. Yellow and red watermelon, honeydew type cantaloupes, mangoes, guava, my beloved mangosteens, and the most glorious pineapples you've ever eaten. (We're still shy of papaya. I just don't love it. There's this weird meaty thing going on there.) Our fruit bill must be $20 a week! Outrageous! And so wonderful!
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