Being Home

Home is where the heart is. That's what they say. I finally get it.

My cousins, aunts and uncles in Indonesia all make me feel at home. When I'm with them, I think, "maybe this is tolerable".

As soon as I'm not with them, however, I feel like I'm at a party full of people I don't trust or can get along with and I can't leave.  I distrust everyone. When I'm in public I clutch my backpack close. I always look out for an exit strategy just in case something happens. I look at everyone as a potential threat and figure ways to neutralize them, groups of them even.  I look at everyone in the eyes, challenging, making sure they don't see me as a victim. 

My money is always separated into big bills and small bills and I never show the large bills unnecessarily. I never play with my electronics in public (maybe at the malls) in fear of being targeted.  I don't wear nice clothes in fear of being targeted. I never trust what anyone tells me anymore (OK, maybe I do need to be less trusting, but I should be able to trust SOME people).

Here's the thing that might be difficult to understand for some people.  It's not that these things are not things I don't have to worry about in Oregon.  There are robbers, impolite people, bad drivers, untrustworthy people, you name it, they all exist in Portland and all over Oregon.

But it felt like home there. Like opening the door to your home and finding things familiar and comforting. Even if you don't like how small your TV is or that one spring poking out of the sofa, you know it.  Even if your bed is hard as a rock, you're familiar with it.

That's the difference for me. Besides my family here, I don't feel at home. I don't feel that there is anything comforting. Everything is foreign and uncomfortable.  Not just because it's a different culture. But because it's not home.

I have arrived

I'm here! Not sure where here is, but... ;-)

OK I do know where I am, I'm in Makassar/Ujung Pandang on the island

of Sulawesi. If you remember, I currently reside in Bogor on the

island of Java.

So this is my first time getting on the airport in Indonesia by

myself. It's better than if I was in Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand

or any other countries whose alphabet I wouldn't even recognize. I

wasn't so much worried about getting on the plane, but more about

getting on the RIGHT plane.

There are a few differences, it seems that people here don't know how

to be in a line. Well, they do, just the Indonesian way. I'm just not

used to that. People keep cutting in front of me when I would let a

half of a person's space between myself and the next person ahead of

me. When I tapped their shoulder and told them I was in line, the

response was "Sorry, I didn't think you were" and they would look away

from me to ignore me and my subsequent taps.

While waiting in one line, another counter opened up and she smiled at

me and beckoned me over to her counter. Well, my luck with the line is

changing...woohoo. As I gathered my backpack, rolling luggage and the

box of samples I am carrying, several people were tripping over their

own stuff trying to hurry to the new counter. oh well...I guess

when you live in one of the most densely populated cities in the

world, that's what you have to do to get your way.

My one piece of check in baggage is a 1000 liter/day gravity powered

water filter. It's 5 feet tall and 10"x10". When I was at the counter

the person there asked me what was in it and said that it was a very

odd size. And it's heavy too at 33 lbs. I said no, it's not that

heavy, and I have close to 50 lbs allowance. We kept exchanging

exclamations about the size of my box for at least 10 minutes. The

person behind me must have taken pity upon me that I didn't understand

"the system". She gave the person behind the counter the equivalent

of $1.11 and said "let's go". Oh...I see...

After checking in and finally getting my baggage through, I'm ready to

go into the inner sanctum of the airport. I had lots of time and

contemplated about getting some food. I can choose to eat in this area

or inside of the terminal area. I thought that there would be some

decent restaurants inside. Plus I have about $11 of work's money that

I can blow on food for the day. After paying the airport tax to get

into the terminal, I started to look around for restaurants. Remember

this is an international airport. I counted 4 reflexology massage

centers and 4 restaurants and 2 bookstores. So I spent $5 on some

dubious looking restaurant.

Now the waiting games began.

5:45pm boarding time came and went without so much as a peep. I meant

the gate is still closed, we're all still sitting/standing around and

we're all wondering what the heck is going on. At about 6:15 or so,

there was an announcement on the PA system that due to maintenance and

repairs, my flight is delayed 45 minutes. I'm not sure whether it's 45

minutes from the original time, from the time they announced it, or

from the time Santa arrives all sweaty because his coat is way too

warm for Indonesia. Not much I can do about this, they'll open the

gate when they do, so I just waited.

While waiting though, some thoughts about this airplane entered my

head. I really had no idea what to expect as to this airplane. Will

it be a jumbo jet? a single propeller bush plane? I don't know. I have

no idea how big the other airport is, can it even accommodate a jet?

It was such a relief when I saw that the plane I was getting on was a

jet (737) and not a rickety old single prop plane. To be honest I

wasn't sure what to expect. Though I swear the seats are just that

much closer together than what I'm used to, I keep bumping my chin

with my knees.

Two hours of flight and one hour of time zone difference later, I

arrived at the airport of Ujung Pandang (UPG). After I arrived, I

went directly to the baggage claim area. The airport was eerily

deserted, almost like in Stephen King's The Langolier's if you've ever

read that book. After I grabbed my stuff, I was stopped by some kind

of security person asking for the baggage ticket. I have no idea where

it is, and I wasn't really sure what he was asking for.

My Indonesian is not that good when it comes to some stranger

speaking. I have to get used to their spoken words first. I've gotten

by pretty well so far by anticipating the subject. It's not that I

know what people are saying word by word, but I got the gist of it. If

I don't know what they're talking about, I just have to answer by

looking at their body language and the tone of their voice.

Anyway, another disaster averted (my not getting out of the baggage

claims area) and now to find a taxi to the hotel. Out of the whole

event, this was the easiest part. I was told which company to go with

and sure enough, they have prepaid fees. No need to be afraid that I

would be cheated or anything.

And now, I'm in a smoking room, on a smoking floor with the AC on.

What's with the chopsticks?

So...chopsticks.

I've never been good at it. I've always been much better at spearing my food with them or using rubber bands and rolled up straw to make a spring loaded one.

These days, I'm used to fork in my right hand, a knife on the left side of my plate should I need to cut something.  A spoon is something I use to eat soups and stews out of a bowl.

Then in my current situation, I observe people use the spoon on the right hand primarily and the fork is a secondary device on the left hand.  Rarely is a knife used.

Being immersed and familiar with all three situations above, I have a theory.

In China, where chopsticks were invented (as early as 3000 years ago), the foods are traditionally cooked after being cut fairly small.  Was the food cut in bite size pieces first or was the chopstick invented first? I believe the food was cut in bite size pieces first. Food cooks faster when cut smaller and with the resources of China at the time, it makes sense to me that they would find ways to preserve cooking fuels.  Thus, the culture of China (and the other countries it permeates) is such that they use chopsticks to eat.

The US learned its use of knife and fork roughly in the 19th century from its European ancestors (who learned it in the 18th century).  With slight differences (the way the utensils are held and whether to switch hands after cutting the food or not), a knife and fork works well for the kinds of food eaten in the US.  Roasts of beasts, dollops of mashed potatoes, apple pies, are all best eaten primarily with a knife and fork.  Except maybe peas.  The spoon is relegated to bowl food duty such as soups and stews.

Indonesia, having been a colony of the Dutch for over 350 years, learned the use of knife and fork. Being in close proximity of China and a center of trade in Asia, it also learned how to use chopsticks. But we will focus on how their knife and fork use is different than another colony of a different European country.  Indonesia uses the spoon on the right hand with a fork on the left to "spoon" small pieces of food on to the spoon.  This is because rice is its staple food, 3 or more times a day.  Eating rice with a fork is rather difficult, as would the chopsticks.  In the past, Indonesia eats with its hands, and it is still acceptable today even in restaurants serving traditional foods.  But the use of a spoon in the right hand is definitely necessitated by the fact that eating rice is much easier with a spoon than a fork or chopsticks.

So this case supports my larger, encompassing theory about cultural behaviors. Often cultural behaviors has its roots in a particular need.  The types of food eaten, which is driven by resources available in the region, necessitates different eating utensil behaviors.  When cultural behavior is taken out of context of its place, time and people, the behavior can become inappropriate in its new environment.  This is when we, the cultural behavior practitioner, must change and adapt.  This is when we, the cultural behavior recipient, must understand the origin and be patient with the practitioners as they learn to adapt.  This is mutual respect for both cultures, the guest and the host cultures.

Taking an ojek

Huh? What the heck is an ojek? In Indonesia, it is simply a motorcycle with a rider giving rides to strangers for a fee. Sounds like a taxi? Yep, it's unregulated motorcycle taxi.  They are usually for short trips up to 3 miles or so, though it's possible to go farther, not that you want to risk your life (or knees) for any longer than necessary.  You come up to a street corner where most of them congregate and negotiate a price. There are no meters on this motorcycle taxi.

You then get on the motorcycle as a passenger.  Most of them will give you a helmet to wear since it's the law in Indonesia to wear helmets. Indonesians are known to strictly follow traffic laws. If you don't mind the cooties, sweat and other unsavories from countless other people who have worn the helmet, by all means wear it.  Though the way these guys drive, it's a good insurance.

The motorcycles here are mostly what's called an underbone motorcycles. It doesn't have a backbone and a tank that you straddle like most in the US. It looks a little bit like scooters, but without the flat floor for your feet.  Also, the maximum legal displacement for the engine is 250cc.  Most people get a 125-150cc, rarely do you see anything larger. With them not being allowed on the toll roads (the only kind of freeway they have here), there aren't many places that you can go fast on a motorcycle.

Because the bikes are so small, when I got on, my knees are spread out away from the bike. In a V formation. Quite a bit wider than the motorcycle and the rider.

As we zoomed in between cars and other motorcycles, getting up on the curb and onto the sidewalk, avoiding people, I feel quite safe. Despite not wearing the helmet provided. The reason I feel quite safe is because I'm worried, quite worried about my knees. Either I'm lucky or my rider is one heck of a rider.  My knee would scrape other cars and motorcycles ever so slightly. If he had missed by 1/4", my patella would have been crushed when it hit the back of the car or the motorcycle, or another knee.

More photos in this album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/andreosae/Pftt#

My daily trek home

This morning was the beginning of my second week working at Contained Energy. I live in Bogor, and the office is in Jakarta, about 40 miles or so.  My cousin Alfa is kind enough to take me with him in the morning even though it's a slightly longer route for him to take. I get up between 4-5 am and leave with him by 6-6:15am.

I would arrive at the spot where he would drop me off by 7:30-7:45.  If we leave any later, traffic would be so bad that I wouldn't be able to make it to work by 9am.  

From this point on I have an option of taking a mini bus, a medium size bus or hoof it on my own.  So far, I've only taken the medium size bus once and the rest of the time I walk in. 

Even this early in the morning, I am already feeling the heat and would be sweating even if I was just standing there. By the time I get to work, it takes me over an hour in front of the AC at full blast to stop sweating.

In fear of standing out from the rest of the crowd on my walk, I usually wear a tshirt and shorts.  The road I have to walk on passes by the courthouse where they're currently having a high profile trial. This trial already caused one riot resulting in several deaths and dismemberment. Funnily enough, that riot happened during my interview for this job.

The walk is not far, just about 3km (a touch under 2 miles).  But it is more like a trek. Sidewalks are practically non existent and I have to be on the road with the motorcycles and cars. When there are sidewalks, I have to watch where I'm stepping lest I fall into the hole that leads to the open sewer system underneath the sidewalks.  If the sidewalks are still intact, it's not really for pedestrians, but mainly for the motorcycles. But most of the intact sidewalks are neither for pedestrians or motorcyclists. Rather they are for entrepreneurs who set up shop willy nilly where there's space for them.

The road is narrow, barely wide enough for 3 cars abreast, but the lines indicate that it's for one lane each way.  No one follows this convention.  When the traffic is bad, there not even enough room for me, a single pedestrian to walk through it. Despite my willingness to risk getting burnt by the motorcycles' exhaust pipes.

Coming home is slightly different. I still need to walk the slightly under 2 mile walk to the same area where my cousin drops me off.  There, I pick up the bus that go straight to Bogor on the toll road.  If I'm lucky it will take between 40-50 minutes, up to 75 minutes if I'm not lucky.  One the bus is in Bogor, Dina might be able to pick me up or I have to take another bus home and about a 1km trek.  

Check out the road conditions and sidewalks on my picasa page, starting from this picture to the end:

http://picasaweb.google.com/andreosae/Pftt#5529322000144611410

New post on my cooking blog

I have another blog where I put my cooking ideas and recipes. Here's one on how to cook with your rice cooker:
http://andrerecipes.blogspot.com/2010/10/and-im-not-just-talking-about-rice.html

What are we worth?

Are we worth so little to ourselves that we rely on others to define us? We listen to “experts”, “academics”, “learned ones” without question. Where is our critical thinking skill? Were we not given brains? Where is our compassion? Were we not given hearts? Where is our intuition? Were we not given guts?

This is blasphemous to the gifts that has been given to us. All of us, as humans, have been given three incredible tools to help us make decisions. And they are our brains, our hearts and our guts.

Working together as a team, they help us make our decisions, big and small. Each as important as the other, we shouldn't ignore any of them. Often we're too lazy and too busy to listen to the quiet whispers of our guts. The gentle voice of our hearts. The soothing reasoning of our brains.

Our guts are given to us as a gift of intuition. Somehow, deep within ourselves, we know what we should and shouldn't do. Our guts, our intuition, sees what our eyes cannot see, hear what our ears cannot hear, touch what our touch cannot feel, taste what our tongue cannot taste and smell what our nose cannot smell. Then it whispers to us its suggestion, like Jiminy Cricket to Pinocchio.

Our hearts are given to us as a gift of feelings and compassion. It is there to keep us in check, to keep us human. It lets us know whether we're being humane in our decision making. How do we feel about the decision at hand and its impact to the people around us?

Our brains are given to us as a gift of logic and intellect. We are able to reason cause and effect, have deductive reasoning, and have critical thinking skills. It is there to deduce the logical decision that must be made given a series of facts.

Separately, they can help us make decisions. But seldom there are problems in the real world that are purely intuitive, emotional or logical. Most if not all life's problems have aspects of logic, intuition and emotion. If we simply take our logic and attack a problem purely academically, we will surely fail to take into account the irrational human behavior (this is where our intuition helps us) and we will surely fail to take into account the emotional issues that are always present (this is where our emotion helps us).

Now that we know the three tools we have to make decisions, why don't we use it more often? This fact is used every 2 years for political elections. It is used every second in advertisements. They will tug on our heart strings and make us decide solely on our emotions. Ignoring our brain and our gut instinct.

Then there are the academics who will appeal to our logic and our logic alone. They make themselves look and sound intellectually superior to us. Then our brain says if they're smarter than us, then whatever they say must be right. We blindly follow these men of science.

We need to use these gifts and overlook the glitter and flash. We need to use these three gifts and do our own critical thinking. Are these people right, logically? Are they compassionate and are they emotionally intelligent enough to do the right thing? Does my gut say these people are to be trusted?

Let's rise above what other people tell us. Rise above what other people expect of us. We are strong, intelligent, and beautiful men and women of this world. We are one, yet we are many. Each of our individual is worth more than what we give ourselves credit for. Start valuing ourselves, think on our own, be aware of who we are, not what other people expect of us and not what they say we are.

A boat ride across the Strait of Sunda

First, an explanation of the pictures. First one, see the cigarette in his right hand?  And then see the black rubber tubing near it? That's the fuel line. Under his feet? the fuel tank. Scratch that I meant a10 gallon water jug that is full of fuel with a hole punched out for the fuel line and the lid not quite tight (I can smell the fumes).

Second one, focus on the young man with a small water container. yep, he's bailing water out of the boat. And at this time, the water was calm so no, the water in the boat was not from the waves.

Third one, it just shows the state and size of the boat.

That night was a bit of an adventure. We chartered a small boat to go to this island across the strait.  Well I guess we stayed too long and when we came back, the evening winds were picking up.  Basically we were in the white caps condition on this rickety boat with a small, old outboard motor.  One guy was bailing water out of the bottom of the boat. It's open so we were all getting wet. But we made it safe and sound.

When I saw the guy with the cigarette, my brain calculated many scenarios as to what might happen and what I would do if such event occurs.  I would dive to catch the cigarette as it falls INTO the fueltank...I would grab the wet blanket they used to cover some dubious pile of stuff on the side...I would grab the water container and threw water at it...I wasn't that worried about having to swim, I can see both the island we're going to and the island we just left. So I can swim toward the closest one if the boat was gone.  The boat ride was over an hour long so at worst I'd have to swim for an hour or two.

Once we arrived at the island, snorkeling, seashell hunting and exploring ensued.  I was told that the Japanese (who used to occupyIndonesia for 4-5 years) used this island as a lookout station.

Since we stayed a tad too long, our ride back was risking the darkness (no lights on the boat, either indicator lights or to see with). Though there is a lighthouse, which I was hoping was still functioning if it came to that. *It was*

But the worst bit of news is the fact that we'll be sure to face the evening winds that will whip up the ocean, plus the currents.  This is not the open ocean, but a strait (look up Sunda Strait). So there area lot of conflicting natural forces at play here.  Hence the whitecap conditions that is sure to happen every day past 5:00pm.  

While it doesn't take much for the waves to be bigger than this boat...it was still unnerving for some people on the boat. Even my thoughts of just swimming to shore is now a scary proposition.  So again my brain came up with several solutions to different scenarios to ensure our survival. But I didn't count on the freight ships crossing our path! And the wakes they leave that are even bigger than the size of the waves (it got bigger after the ship's wakes).

I picked the windward side rather than the lee side of the boat.   So as the boat crashes into the waves, the wind would blow the spray onto my side of the boat.  This way I figured I would catch most of the water spray and save the children from it.

When we arrived back on shore, we were about 4 miles from our hotel(we could have taken the boat directly there but everyone was scared so we crossed the strait in a straight line).  We then took a public transportation that is a minivan with bench seats around the edge rather than in rows.  It fit 11 of us in the back, the driver, and the boat driver safely inside. The other 2 deck hands on the boat were hanging on the door throughout the whole ride.

I wasn't worried or anything for me. I was sure I could survive anything this little adventure threw at us. But it was both funny and disconcerting to watch how worried other people were (luckily the boat crew wasn't worried, if they were, I would be too).

Yep, that was our boat

Anyway, I thought this was a fun adventure.

Note the cigarette in his right hand

Bailing water out of the boat

Barbers and chiropractic services

I don't know if the two should be mixed together, let alone being performed by the same person. But that's what I experienced today. My first haircut in Indonesia that was not by my mom's hands. Not being able to articulate the necessary commands to convey that I wanted a haircut mimicking David Tennant as Dr. Who, I went with my cousin's recommendation; “pendek”. Short.

So what I got was a buzz cut with a trimmer, with 3 different lengths. He paid pretty close attention to the strays that are quite common with a buzz. The buzz procedure took less than 10 minutes, then commences the finishing move. And yes, with a straight razor. The edges were trimmed and shaved with a disconcertingly sharp but not quite hair splitting sharp razor.

No big deal so far.

Then came the all too familiar wafting smell of baby oil. No worries, I told myself. It's probably normal here instead of a hair gel or hair wax. There was a refreshing complete lack of expensive, of dubious use hair products here. I was correct, my head was rubbed with baby oil. And his hands came down to massage my neck, and my shoulders.

OK, that was quite pleasant.

When he put his hands on opposite sides of my head and cracked it sharply, I was quite surprised. There is quite a fine line between a trained killer performing a neck snap, a trained and experienced chiropractor adjusting one's cervical vertebrae, and someone untrained, but experienced adjusting one's cervical vertebrae.

One would hope that at the very least the untrained would have enough experience and learned from his failed experiments that by the time he's adjusting yours, he knows how to do it. At best, he was trained by his predecessor and he has enough experience WITHOUT any failed experiments.

In the end, I survived a quite pleasant, expedient and inexpensive haircut in Indonesia. Without being turned into a quadriplegic. Would I go again? For the equivalent of $1.25, you bet. But I probably won't go as often as my cousin. Currently, I look like an Asian Telly Savalas.

David Tennant
i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc23/DoorQPictures/
doctor_who___david_tennant_by_jenni.jpg

Telly Savalas
Telly Savalas
www.alternativeconsumer.com/wp-content/uploads/Ross/2009/
Fall_Winter09/1telly_savalas.jpg

Asian Telly Savalas

   

Energy Solutions For Portland From Afar

No matter how much new energy sources are found, how many new kinds renewable energy, if we consume more than we produce, it will run out. The key to the energy crisis and economic crisis is understanding the finite nature of our resources. Someone, somewhere has to pay the cost. It may not be you, or your neighbors or your city or your state or your country. At the very least, someone, somewhere in the world will pay for your actions. So the best thing we can do with our resources is to be efficient with it. Not just finding new energy sources, but to do more with as little as possible.

1. Know what we're consuming and where it goes. There are now many devices that you plug in to the outlet you're using and tell you how much each device you're plugging in is using. This is useful in finding out which device you need to unplug when not in use. Audio/video systems, TV sets/computer monitors and chargers use a surprising amount of electricity when "off". One solution is to use a power strip for the things that you can turn off. Your computer systems, your TV, your chargers, for example.
Here's a device that can tell you how much a particular appliance is using:

http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html
Here's that same device built into a surge protector power strip: http://www.p3international.com/products/consumer/p4320.html

2. We all need to do our part in being efficient and save energy. This simple idea is so simple, I don't know why Portland hasn't done it yet. Prepaid electricity! Yes you heard me right, prepaid. This will require a new meter, one that allows you to put in a long PIN that you've purchased for a certain amount of money. Let's say you put in $30 into the meter. You're then responsible to make sure it lasts as long as you want it to be, when you run out you will need to put in more money. This doesn't prevent you from consuming more, but it definitely make you more aware of your consumption. You're already billed according to consumption. The less you use than average, you get a discount. If you use more than average, you get to pay more per kW/h.

3. Localize power production. Much of the electricity used come from far away power generation plants. Even Bonneville Power Administration buys from other far away sources including gas-fired power plants. So here is the idea, each smaller communities (studies need to be done on the size of the community most economically viable to do this) buy a small power generation station to cover a certain amount of their electricity if not all of it. Again, this determination will require some economic study for long term success. Any surplus will be sent back to the grid, and the grid will supply the extra energy not covered by the station. This way the local power station can be tailored to what is best for the area. If it's in a sunny area, it could be solar power. If it's windy, wind power. On the ocean, waves. Because the need is relatively small, the footprint of the power station can also be small. This does not require any change in the existing infrastructure. Only that the power generating station be allowed to be connected to the grid as well as the homes so it can sell the surplus power. What's the advantage? Several:
- less large power stations are required. The hydro power can come from micro-hydro dams in small streams. A lot less impact to the environment
- higher efficiency because each power stations are tailored for the local conditions for local consumptions
- personal stake of the users so they're more apt to be aware and to be efficient with their energy usage. Thus reducing power consumption by consumer behavior
- a lot less transmission losses, more of the power generated are used within a short geographical distance
- ability to use smaller, more efficient power generating technologies that are currently not feasible for large operation

The disadvantage? Initial cost to the local neighborhood involved. But the net cost to the large infrastructure should be much reduced. Especially if this can mean the reduction of large power plants.

4. Publish the top 1% with the lowest consumption and the top 1% most improved homes for each month. We do need to be careful with privacy concerns when publishing this information. However the point is to identify the best performers and maybe ask them how they're able to achieve it. A compilation of best practices, as it were. From the human emotion side, we might be more receptive to receive suggestion from someone who we think are "one of us" rather than a pamphlet from "the big evil power company".

This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the issues and solutions plaguing the world in regards to energy. This is focused mostly on electricity consumption. There's still the issue with oil consumption, water, forest products and many others. The concept to me is still the same. Efficiency. Using less resource but getting more out of it. Overall efficiency, not just one aspect where it might actually hurt other areas. We should use recycle as the last thing to do. Focus on reducing and reusing.

As always, I'll add more when I have more ideas.

Be prepared to be deported

While most of the advice here was gleaned from the American deportation system, it applies to other countries also. If you're an illegal immigrant in any country, these tips should make your eventual deportation more pleasant and bearable.

You have to be prepared mentally, emotionally and logistically. We will deal with mental and emotional preparation in depth at a latter date. You must think that you will get deported some day. Every day may be your last day as a free person in this country. That fear is what will get you motivated to be prepared. When the time comes, the process will be less painful than if you hadn't.

Lets think about logistics. What happens when you're captured and detained, during your detention and if you're unlucky, deportation; what can you do to be ready?

Here's the short story of immigration detainment and deportation. They can and will detain you wherever they find you. At your workplace, at home, at your friend's, at a restaurant, at a gas station, basically wherever you happen to be when they decide to take you after they stake out the places where you are likely to be. The worst case scenario is if they come to your home.

This normally means they'll do some snooping while they're inside to "let you" bring a few things such as your wallet. They might not let you bring your bug out bag either. So try not to be home very much, they might know your address so that's the first place they will stake out. Spend as much time outside of your home as possible.

You will be taken to the closest processing center, often this is the immigration center building. You will be processed here and then within the same day you will be taken to the detention center. Most likely you will not know how long you will be in detention for. At best you will know the day before you are deported that you're leaving in 24 hours. At worst, you will be woken at 5am and by 10am you are at the airport awaiting your flight.

When you're detained, your personal belongings will be kept for you. Your friends and family cannot give you anything other than clothes and money to be added to your personal belongings. When you're deported, you'll be allowed to have what you came in with plus the clothes and money your friends and family might have brought you while in detention. In short, you'll be deported with whatever belongings you had on you when you were detained and little else.

I don't recommend a huge, humongous bug out bag. But that is up to you. There is a pretty good chance you won't be able to bring this with you to detention center. But you should have it anyway. At least, this lets your friends and family know what you think are important for you to have. You should have this bag on you at all times.

The only thing that might suck is if they come to your home to detain you. They might let you bring it with you, but probably not. So other than when you're at home, have this bag on your person at all times. This way when you're detained, this bag could be with you, then when you're deported you get to keep the bag and its contents.

I am going to split what you need into two lists. What you carry on your person and what you need to carry with you at all times in a BOB (Bug out bag; a bag you grab to be with you when you're detained).

What to have and what not to have on you:
- some cash. At least a couple of $100 bills and at least $50 in small bills
- no fake IDs on you, it's best that you never had them. But I know some of you do
- a list of phone numbers, email addresses and contact info for your friends and family
- a debit card and/or credit card that works internationally. Preferably from an international bank (HSBC, Chase, etc)
- do not bring more keys than what you need. Leave keys to your extra vehicles, storage, safe, etc at home

In your BOB (Bug Out Bag):
- your important documents such as birth certificates, diplomas, etc
- your important digital data such as pictures, documents, your resume, etc. If they're on a computer, back them up to an external hard drive and carry it. If they're on a laptop carry it
- extra clothes (rain jacket, coat, light blanket)
- your bag shouldn't be obnoxiously large so that they might let you take it as carry on in the the plane

Be prepared at home for your friends and family to have to sell/store your stuff:
- put your keys together, easily labeled and easily found
- organize paperwork for your vehicle(s) and belonging
- things you want to keep clearly labeled or organized well, so you can tell your friends and family exactly what to keep and what not to keep
- it is best to have a "will" as it were, instructions for the people who will have to take care of your stuff. A list of what to do and where to find the things you need them to take care of

Remember, this list is just the minimum. The most important thing is that you are already thinking ahead about "what if I'm detained then deported". You will have to add your own personal touches. Maybe you want to bring some of your pen collections, or a favorite book. Just be smart, and be afraid. That fear will help you prepare, don't let it paralyze you. You've chosen to stay in a country other than your own illegally, be ready for the consequences.

Transportation Solutions From Afar For Portland

We can learn from both successes and failures. By that I mean just because something failed under a certain circumstance it would not work under another. We can study failures, and understand why it failed. Then we know how to fix it and how to implement it in a situation where it can succeed.

In countries such as India, China, Singapore and Indonesia, traffic is a big problem. Many of the cities are overcrowded and the combination of private and public transportation solutions has not worked to rectify the situation.

But this doesn't mean that those solutions have merit. Many of them make sense in a city such as Portland precisely because of the successes it already enjoys. Portland has the resources to properly implement these solutions that have not worked in places such as Indonesia. Lets review some of them. Just remember this essay is meant to touch the surface of this issue. If you have any further questions, please feel free to let me know.

Intra-city Transport
In Jakarta and its surrounding areas as well as the larger cities, there is a public transportation system called Angkot (short for Angkutan Kota; City Transport). These are small mini buses with specific routes around town. They are buses for all intents and purposes. But they're very small, each can seat maybe 10 people maximum. The ones I have seen are all Suzuki Carry vans.

While I think the Suzuki Carry is a perfect vehicle for this task even in Portland, any SUV or minivans will work. The Suzuki Carry comes with either a 1.0 or 1.3 liter engine with about 60 and 75 horsepower respectively. The point is, a vehicle with space enough to carry 10 or so people powered by a small efficient engine is a perfect vehicle for this task.

In short, I am proposing two things using the smaller vehicles as public transports:
- passenger load management, during light passenger load hours, use smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles
- service fringe areas normally not served, often would be public transportation users cannot use buses because of the distance they would have to walk or ride their bicycle

How would these things work in Portland?
- These small vehicles can reach the fringe neighborhoods, especially with the narrow streets
- During the hours where the buses only have a few passengers, these small vehicles will save fuel
- The smaller vehicles will replace the full size buses during slow hours. When there's a sudden spike in ridership, either more of these things can be deployed quickly or the regular buses can be put back in service
- These things can serve additional routes inexpensively, especially the fringe neighborhoods. These small vehicles can make a circle around mall neighborhoods as its route, picking up passengers at the end of the regular bus lines.

These things are not meant to:
- be on the freeways or highways
- replace the large buses during heavy bus use (morning and early evening)

Advantages:
- efficient mileage per person transported during the hours when regular buses are empty
- able to service more fringe areas so more people will be able to take the bus
- many models of widely available vehicles can be easily used for this duty

Disadvantages:
- it is another vehicle that the public transportation company will have to service and manage
- passengers might feel crowded because the vehicles would often be already full
- passengers might have to wait for additional vehicle deployment when there's an unexpected heavy ridership

Here are some pictures from the web:
http://jakartadailyfotolagi.blogspot.com/2006/03/angkot.html
http://jakartadailyphoto.com/index.php/2006/03/28/angkot/

And here are some pictures I took:




The first picture shows the angkot only lane (on the left of the concrete barrier)
The second picture shows the side door where you would come in
The third picture shows how angkots serve small neighborhoods where buses can't go into

Inter City Transport
Craigslist already does this function, if a little hectic. There are companies in Indonesia who you would call to travel between cities. The mode of transport are regular vans/SUVs.

With Craigslist, you would search for people already traveling to the city you want to travel to on the date acceptable to you. On the opposite side, you would post the time and date and destination of your departure. If you're lucky enough, you will find each other.

In Indonesia, these companies supply the vehicles to travel between cities and they will get the people together who are going in the same direction at the same time. The companies will dictate the time of the day they are leaving and they will pick you up at your residence.

There is no reason an enterprising web programmer cannot parse the existing information from Craigslist and put them all in a single website. People will then be alerted when what they're looking for is available. This business can then expand slowly to include a few vehicles of their own, serving common routes.

This is something that is lacking in the Northwest. Many people are already living a life without a car, but many others kept a car strictly for long distance trips. If this mode of transport is more prevalent, these people will have even less of a reason to own a car. In addition, people who own gas guzzlers for their own needs can use this service if they don't really need to drive their gas guzzler once they've arrived at their destination. They can rent a more fuel efficient car at the destination city.

Carpool restrictions
Another thing I saw was carpool restrictions during heavy traffic times. Many major roads are restricted to 3 or more people during these hours. This will work very well in many neighborhoods in Portland. There are more than enough side streets to be used by single riders, leaving more room for the carpoolers on the major roads. I am thinking of Lombard, Powell, Barbur, Broadway and many other major thoroughfares.

Actually, to be fair, this idea is really about separating different users and focusing on the most efficient ones. I would like to propose separating the bicycles from the major thoroughfares WHEN CONVENIENT. I don't think the bicycles should be punished and relegated to crappy side roads. But when the side roads are just as good as the main roads, why not let them use that road almost exclusively?

For example, Milwaukie Ave in Sellwood. There are plenty of safer side roads paralleling it, yet the bicycles, motorcycles and cars are stuffed together during rush hour. When I was riding my bicycle, and my scooter at other times, I chose 17th ave instead. There are hardly anyone on that road, and if it's busy I take 16th, or 15th or 13th. Why endanger myself on the bicycle or scooter AND slow myself down at the same time?

So for bicycles, I propose when there are alternative roads, make that road mostly for bicycles (wide, 2-bike width bicycle lanes on either side, make it a little uncomfortable for cars to be driving on this street. This way the bicyclists are safer, the carpoolers have a nice road with less people on it, and those who still choose to drive alone will be the one inconvenienced, but still free to do so.

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I will add more as I have time. But these are the ones I can think of for now.