We arrived in Jakarta on Singapore Airlines at 7:30 in the morning. Heri Nusworo of Pekerti met us at the airport with a nice blue bus that easily swallowed all of us and our big pile of luggage. In really thick morning traffic it took us over an hour to drive the 18 km to the Wisma PGI guesthouse in the Menteng district of Jakarta.
Morning traffic in Jakarta while we were on our way from the airport to our guesthouse.
Our blue bus at the Wisma PGI guesthouse in Menteng, Jakarta. Christina and Wendy are going to check out the tropical garden at our guesthouse.
We had a couple of hours to unpack, clean up and rest before lunch at our guesthouse. We enjoyed a nice buffet in the guesthouse restaurant before climbing back into our bus for the short ride over to the Pekerti office. At Pekerti we were met by Pak Iwan, Director, Nur, Community Development, Yolita, Sales Department and other designers, accountants and marketing people. Pekerti has 18 employees and works in 8 provinces of Indonesia including 50 artisan groups with a total of more than 1,000 members. Products range from batik textiles to woodcarvings, furniture, baskets, angklungs and a host of other handmade Indonesian crafts.
After introductions and a history of Pekerti (including a power point presentation) we enjoyed visiting with each other and eating some snacks - sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf, sweet cake and a hot green chile thrown in for extra spice.
Pak Imam Pituduh, retired former Pekerti Director, joined us and will be traveling with us as we visit artisans on Java and Bali. Pak Imam worked for Pekerti for 25 years and helped to develop Pekerti into one of the largest fair trade organizations in Indonesia.
Our group at the Pekerti office with Pekerti staff members. Pak Imam is in the middle of the back row. Pak Iwan is left front, Yolita (green top), Nur (yellow head-covering) and Heri on the far right.
Yolita, Nur and Heri then took us on a tour of Jakarta. We stopped at the Istiqlal Masjid (Freedom Mosque), the biggest in Indonesia. On significant Muslim prayer days it can hold over 100,000 worshippers.
Interior dome of the Istiqlal Masjid.
Minaret, Istiqlal Masjid.
After sight-seeing, we went to the Batavia Restaurant in central Jakarta. The Batavia Restaurant building was the residence of the Dutch Governor during colonial times. David and Christine Nugroho joined us for dinner. David was an International Visitor Exchange Program person at our VillaWe ges store in Ephrata, PA back in 1988 and also worked as our representative in Indonesia in the early 1990's. We enjoyed great food and stories during our meal with the Nugrohos and Nur, Yolita and Heri of Pekerti.
After dinner we took a short walk around the neighborhood and stopped for a refreshing drink of fresh green coconut juice.
Alicia, Emily, Betty and Dave sharing a fresh green coconut. The juice (coconut water) inside is delicious.
No comments:
Post a Comment