Danse classique

'Tis the season of end-of-year school performances, and we were so excited about this one!  Jaffa and Eben decided to go back to doing ballet this year, and I'm so happy :D

 

the Smith ballet dancers are back!

 

Did I mention that Eben was the only boy in all of the ballet classes?

yay!! we all did so great!!!

...and ballet hugs with our friend Amira

 

A little Japan in Jakarta

One of our favorite funky shops/coffee shops had an exhibit from Gifu, Japan.. and what a great reason to shop, eat carrot cake, and drink cappuccinos with friends on a Saturday morning. 

 

 

We found paper cutting that were fantastic...

 

And then snowflakes!!  We haven't seen those in AGES (though the kids keep asking).

 

Mugs that I really need to have.. and thank dog I don't live in Japan because my pottery addition is bad enough!

Lots of carved wood too.. the way that only the Japanese can do.. and building blocks too.  Eben and Malvy created :)

 

And we bumped into our friend BB (Berengere but BB is easier) who is a fabulous artist.. and she had just put together these teak reindeer desks with crocheted horns.  They are just the perfect kind of reindeer for Indonesia!

TWG

http://www.twgtea.com/aboutus.html

I'm not a big tea person, but I'm learning.  TWG was born in Singapore, and it's now come to Jakarta.  Very fancy.  I felt like I needed to be wearing heels.  Alas, I was in Birkenstocks. 

 

 

We had tea and cakes and ice cream, and it was fabulous.

 

And we met our friend Amira (and her parents Afia and Arnaud) there too. 

Sugar makes you goofy.

Just what we needed before heading to see too much Angelina Jolie..

The National Gallery of Art, Jakarta

As you might know, it is very easy to keep to sterile and/or expatriate circles here in Jakarta, especially given the number of malls in this city.  So, as we were planning the weekend, I realized that we weren't doing much that had to do with Indonesia again.. and I found out that Saturday was the last day of the under-35 (years old) artist exhibit at the National Gallery of Art.  I had to remind the kids how much we liked the National Gallery in DC.  So, they were on board.  Admittedly, it wasn't exactly the same (the museums in DC are tough to compete with!), but it was pretty cool and we found some interesting stuff.  

 

We were welcomed by a big flying thing with sticks sticking out of it. Fascinating really. 

Eben said it was his favorite.. and it still was on our way out. 

 

 

Then we found giant cement Legos..

 

.... and we were there for the kids' art competition!  Elementary aged kids from 25+ provinces competed with drawings about being an Indonesian.  It was very cool!

 

They were hard at work in the final minutes of the competition!

 

Ta da!!

This was Eben's other favorite.  It took some investigating to realized that there was nothing but two sets of legs and feet to this one. 

This might have been Jaffa's favorite.. it was just in front of the door of the main hall, and the different blocks made different noises when you stepped on it.  We spent some time getting in everyone's way, making lots of noise.. but we weren't the only ones!

Hello, Mr. Robot

A painted skating slope is too tempting not to climb all over..

After about 45 minutes, we were off to the mall for tea and cakes at TWG (post forthcoming), then a showing of Maleficent in the theatre with beds.. oh, the expat life!

 

Girl Rising!

It's taken a couple of months to pull it together, but finally, yesterday afternoon we had a showing of the film Girl Rising (trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJsvklXhYaE&feature=kp) and a panel discussion to address the issue of girls' education in Indonesia.

My idea was to show the film, and then have a number of people talk about the different kinds of programs that exist to address the issues.  So, I (as the co-chair of the AmCham Education and Workforce Development Committee) got together with the US Embassy and USAID to put together the event.  Our panelists were purposefully from a range of kinds of organizations: the National Commission on the Prevention of Violence Against Women (and Girls), the Ministry of Education, UNICEF, Intel (a sponsor of the film), and ExxonMobil.  We held it at @america (that great space that I've mentioned before.. where Zeric and I have both spoken at events). 

The video of the panel discussion can be found here (I am not in it.. but cheering from the audience!). 
http://www.atamerica.or.id/video/detail/1008/Girl-Rising-Film-Screening-and-Discussion

Here are my candid and private thoughts about the content of the event:
Interestingly, the two private sector presenters were beautiful young women who were incredibly polished and presented their programs very, very well.  The message from them was intended to be that the private sector makes some important investments in the social sectors, and is a real partner on some of the important issues that girls face today.  UNICEF brought data for Indonesia and was spot-on in terms of the message of how complicated it is to address all of the challenges that face girls.  The Ministry of Education guy made some surprising conclusions about what his data said, and I'm hoping I missed part of the story and part of the programs planned to promote gender equity.  In brief, he showed data that girls did universally better than boys in standardized testing up through middle school, then the results swapped and boys did better.  The conclusion was that they needed to train more male teachers for primary and middle school, and more female teachers for high school.  [palm to forehead]  As I said, I hope there's more to the story that we didn't hear.  The Commission women came with a load of unsubstantiated assertions about how things are in Indonesia, alongside the message that they do evidence-based advocacy (so, presumably she has evidence of something, somewhere that we didn't see).  <sigh>  And we could have had a better facilitator.. but that one was out of my control.

It was a start!  I'm glad we did it!! 

JAAN Paw Day

JAAN, the Jakarta Animal Aid Network, is the organization from which we got Blu.. and yesterday was their annual family fun fundraiser day.  We went we with Blu so he could see some of his old buddies.. and tons of other dogs!!  It was fun.  He did see some of the people that took care of him in his months at JAAN, and we met bulldogs and great danes and goldens and pugs and other mutts.. it was a fun day!

a good one of handsome Blu in an almost sit!!

bulldog-Eben-great dane
(all very different breeds!)

lots of photo opps!

There were a lot of Indonesian folks there, which was great.  There were a few that were visibly afraid of dogs (the norm here), so it must have been a very hard day for them!  Not sure why you would go to a dog event if you weren't ready to have lots of noses (that had been in other dogs' butts) all over you. 

Blu met a girlfriend that we hope to have a playdate with... same size as him, same energy and springy-ness.. black with Ridgeback in her (so says the fur on her back), rescue from Vietnam.  It was love <3

and some swings too!! yay!!

LIF mammas rock the house!

A couple of my girlfriends have spent the last school year learning to sing.  There was a class through school with the lead singer of a French rock band here, and a bunch of them took it.  Zeric almost did!

Last Saturday night was their one-and-only-end-of-year performance at a local French café/bar.. and they did GREAT!!  They performed with the high school singing group as well, so it was a really nice evening.  They did some group songs and some solos.. Marie (far right) did "Fever".. here they are singing "Stayin' Alive".  There was some Adele, some from the musical Chicago.  [Snarky side note: not really a good idea to have teenagers singing songs that are best sung if you have had some solid life experience with heartbreak and/or sex.. there were a couple that were a little to Disney in their renditions.]  Lots of rockin' French songs that I didn't know.  It was a lot of fun, and they were very, very brave! 

LIF mammas rock the house!