Would You Like Gado-gado?

Gado-gado is my favourite Indonesian dish, it consists of mixed vegetable salad served with a peanut sauce dressing. We can add "rice" by adding "lontong". Even in Singapore I would still seek for gado-gado after having Singapore's delicious chicken rice.

Yet, here I am asking "would you like gado-gado?" without thinking about this delicious dish. I am thinking about this blog. Blending the posts with posts in Bahasa Indonesia and posts in English made it just like gado-gado...mixed postings, and it was easier for me. During my blogging time, it shows that people sometimes get confused over my mixed posts. Those English speakers would say that my postings are in Bahasa Indonesia, and they don't understand it. Meanwhile, the Indonesian friends said that my English language is too complicated or too serious for them. It should be presented in a clearer distinction between posts in English, and posts in Bahasa Indonesia. It is just difficult to have a bridge blog...

I am still supporting Bahasa Indonesia as our daily language. During my ten years being a volunteer guide for the Indonesian Heritage Society in the Museum Nasional, I've never tired to bring up the subject of free tour hour in Bahasa Indonesia. It is not succeeded yet. I think we do need to raise up the way Indonesians approach the museum as our cultural heritage. So, it would be very important to have youngsters interested in museum the way their foreign friends did.

But, there is also the need to communicate in an international language to build a bridge, to fill in the gap between nations. There is google translator, but for the time being I think it would not give the quality of good translation. Translating our own writing made us work twice, and it means more time to spend in blogging.

As I'm using Live Traffic Feed, I can see which post is gaining visits. It is also interesting to see that post titles in Bahasa Indonesia gain visits too, hopefully they go search the link too.

I'm using unlimited internet connection from IM2 right now. Speedy is quicker but it was not reliable, sometimes I couldn't connect, and there were times when I had to pay very expensive billings. Perhaps using Speedy's unlimited offer would be better, but it means spending more money on the internet connection.

Having this slow connection made me reluctant to upload pictures several times. I can use imageshack so I don't need to upload the same picture again and again, but it would take some time for my blog to appear on my computer screen. I don't know how about on readers' screen.

After the article on my journey to Onrust Island, I uploaded three more articles for wikimu.com. The first one is "Pulau Untung Jawa Bukan Pulau Jawa, Jurnalisme Warga Itu Apa Ya?", (Untung Jawa Island is not Jawa Island, then what is citizen journalism?). It is a story about the three volunteer youngsters who came with the Jakarta Green Monster in our journey to the islands of Onrust, Untung Jawa, and Rambut. It's not really about the internship, which I believe is the programme from AIESEC (but I do need to verify it)...it is just about my experience on that day, about sharing out the intention of citizen journalism, and a little bit about Indonesian language.

For some people, "bule" has pejorative meaning. I don't think so. The KBBI IV confirmed my stand, but Indonesian people like to blend language (that is why we also absorbing so many foreign languages into our language), imagine...now we have another expression, "bule China" and "bule Jepang". Their skins are white, but it should not be translated that way...I mentioned it in the article hoping to gain comments.

The existence of the internet is actually enriching, but at the same time quite time consuming. I do not really monitored mailing lists as they've abundant of letters and it is really time consuming for me. Yet, on the other hand, mailing lists sometimes presented news that we would like to know without the need to browse around. I had a forwarded letter (from mailing list) in my inbox asking people to have a green life style in celebrating Eid ul-Fitr, and I think it is important to share it with friends...even with those who aren't celebrating the holiday and would just enjoying it as a long vacation. So I wrote "Pesan Hijau Untuk Semua" (Green message for all). My journey to those islands has made me think harder about our trashes.

One of my cell phone was not functioning well, while the other one has lost the contain of its memory (as the phone was stolen and I am having a new SIM card). It is a bit difficult for me to phone friends one by one, or sending SMS. Slow internet connection also made me struggle to have my message appeared in my Face Book. Another message I found in my FB inbox. It is about how we write Eid ul-Fitr in Bahasa Indonesia. I used to write it as Idul Fitri, and I've seen printed and electronic media are using the same writing, yet a friend reminded me that it should be written as Idulfitri. I've checked KBBI IV and found that it should be written as Idulfitri...Sharing my part of this Lebaran with my cyber friends, I wrote "Selamat Idulfitri 1 Syawal 1430 H" and mentioned the writing style there...

I am still unsure about pasting all my writing in Bahasa Indonesia in my own blog, as energy to do it is limited. My commitment as a mother and a housewife is already shared with some volunteer basis activities. I'd like to hear suggestions from readers on how should I presented my blog. Would you like to give your two cents? Thanks in advance...