Dependency

When we first moved to Jakarta, DH and I had decided that we were just going to "taxi" it everywhere.  DH was supposed to be working at a client location that was not too far from where we live.  He thought he could easily walk or it would be just a short taxi ride in the morning.  The kids would take the bus to and from school.  If we wanted to go anywhere other than to school or work, then we would hail a cab.  It seemed like taxis were everywhere and readily available.

Well, as it turns out, our plan to take taxis everywhere didn't last very long.  We quickly found out that when it's raining or if it's a friday afternoon, then it is very difficult to hail a cab.  If it's raining and a friday, just forget it.  We found ourselves walking home one evening from Plaza Semanggi in the rain with all 3 of our kids because there was a super long line of people waiting for non-existent taxis.

DH found himself on the back of an ojek (motorcycle taxi) a couple of times because he couldn't get a taxi late on a friday afternoon.  A couple of times, I got calls from the school for some emergency or another and it took me awhile to grab my youngest child, walk to the street, hail a cab, and then try and get the cab driver to get me to the school.  I found out that most of them don't speak English and they don't automatically know where the school is.  The cab drivers also will not tell you that they do not know where something is located.  I was proud of myself for learning the phrase for asking do you know where something is (Anda tahu dimana...).  I finally stopped using that phrase because every last taxi driver would say "tahu" or I know even when they didn't know.  That was rather frustrating.

In short, it didn't take us very long to realize that we really needed a car and driver.  We met some friends that were leaving Jakarta and they sold us their Toyota Kijang.  We also hired their driver.  I would have to say that getting our own personal vehicle and driver was the best decision we could have made for our family.

Well, I hate to feel like I am overly dependent on anyone or anything, but I am seriously dependernt on my driver.  On days when he is sick or unavailable, I am seriously in a slump.  Our driver gets us everywhere we need to go, and usually in a very reasonable amount of time.  That is a miracle considering how bad traffic can be in Jakarta. 

Tomorrow my driver has to take care of some personal business so he is unavailable for work.  I am dreading tomorrow.  I have to take my youngest in a taxi to a friend's house for a birthday party.  Then I have to take a taxi home, hopefully in time to meet my daughter when she gets off the bus. Then when my son gets home from school, I will have to take a cab to take him to his bi-weekly Mandarin class.  After I get home from that, I will have to get in another cab to go to a Church function. 

A day like tomorrow is actually pretty normal.  And usually, my driver will take me all those different places.  I just sit back and read or text DH until I arrive at my desination.  No big deal on those days.  On those driverless days, I realize just how dependent I am on my driver.  I am really gonna miss him tomorrow.