Tasmanian Devil

I am not sure if Tasmanian is ready for another devil – but one will be arriving there on Tuesday July 3rd. After nearly six years of trying to take Oliver to Australia for a visit – I have finally succeeded.
I have been in Jakarta for a week now. On Monday I submitted Oliver’s passport for a visa to enter Australia. I did this with much trepidation considering all the dealings and incidents I believe I have had with the Australian Embassy since living in Indonesia and trying to obtain a passport and legal status for my son, Oliver. On Tuesday I received a phone call from someone at the embassy asking if I had Oliver’s mother’s permission to take him out of the country, In fact I had a paper from a lawyer in Lombok stating with three witnesses that Oliver’s mother agreed it was OK for me to take him out of the country at any time. So I waited all week. The stated time was five working days. I was given a website that I could check the progress of the passport but tried all week using the wrong number with no result. On Thursday night I tried a different number from the receipt and the response came back that the passport was indeed ready to be collected. No indication of whether the visa had been granted or not. Friday rolled around as slowly as is possible and Oliver and I went to the Australian Visa Centre to collect his passport and see if there was a visa for him. Nestled inside the small brown envelope was his passport and after ripping the container open I discovered the magic sticker inside his passport that has been an elusive gaol for all these years.
Again I cried like a baby, much to Oliver’s horror, but I think this time he had some idea of the momentous occasion it really was. He said, “Daddy, I can go to see Nanny in Australia?” You can only hug a small child so much before you crush them and I think I came close after hearing that. We rode back to the hotel in a taxi and I frantically messaged everybody I had in my mobile phone book to tell them of the great news after I had a blubbery phone call to my mum to tell her we would be coming to see her soon. What a fucking, fabulous, great day. Six years and finally I have what I have dreamed of.

Faces Of Indonesia

A few months ago I started a photographic project that is a blog. The aim of the blog is to upload everyday at least one to picture of an Indonesian face I have taken. It is called Faces Of Indonesia and can be found at http://facesofindonesia.blogspot.com
I have sort of been obsessed by it since I started and it has really become a passion. So far I have taken 174 different faces. I am keeping a record of all of them in one place too on my website: www.stephendavidson.org/faces.htm
I am in Jakarta at the moment and fully intended to go beserk and take heaps of faces but it is much more intimidating here doing that than I thought it would be. People are less open and more suspicious. I have had a business card made which sort of explains the project or helps to convince people that I am not some sort of perve with a big black camera. It says in Indonesian: Is your face on the blog yet? Of course the blog address is there too, so hopefully it will entice people to go and check. I have also realised while in Jakarta that most of my pictures so far are of the less well off Indonesians. In the ritzy shopping malls of Jakarta I see many extremely wealthy people but I don’t know what the reaction would be from them if I ask to take their picture. I want to have some images of them too. Some of the women both old and young are stunning. They flaunt their wealth so unashamedly with their massive diamonds, solid gold watches and designer labels so obviously on display. The cost of one Louis Vitton bag would feed a small village for months. But for my blog to be truly representative of Indonesians I need some of those faces too. Let’s hope none of them decide to slap me their handbags – the last thing I want is a bruise that looks like the LV logo!

Singapore

Now Oliver has a passport I decided to try and take him out of the country the first time by going to Singapore for a few days. Indonesian immigration officials, I have found are scary at the best of times. Having lived in this country for eight years and travelled a lot I have many stories to tell about the men who man the counters at airports in Indonesia, who never smile and just look plain scary even before you timidly hand them your passport. So I was expecting major problems being a single white male trying to take an Indonesian child out of the country without his mother. To make sure I had no hassles I arranged with TTC who handle immigration meet and greets for the company I work for. (I have no idea what TTC stands for). They are supposed to take you through immigration and make the whole process smooth.
We were taken through immigration by Adam from TTC, but he didn’t seem to have much idea of what to do really. We were sent back to fill in a white departure card for Oliver after one of the immigration guys asked a question about Oliver’s mother which I didn’t quite catch. I quaked nervously from head to toe and tried to look like I wasn’t going to fall to pieces on the spot. We presented our passports again this time with the departure cards filled in. Ironically I was armed to the teeth with paper work just in case they started asking questions but they didn’t ask to see anything. The heavy thump of the stamp hit Oliver’s passport and I tried not to burst into tears right in front of them. We were through – no questions asked. In the departure lounge I called mum and started blubbering. Poor Oliver was mortified but excited. He really has no idea of what a long journey it has been just to be able to take him out of Indonesia. So we spent three ridiculously expensive nights in Singapore. There was some conference on there and most major hotels were either booked out or charging obscene rates. I ended up paying $500 Singapore dollars a night for the room. Oliver liked Singapore. He has a shopping gene like me! We did a city tour and went on the cable car to Sentosa. Three nights and two whole days wasn’t quite long enough though as we didn’t get to the science place or some other things I would have liked him to see. Next time. On to Jakarta to face the Australians and attempt to procure a visa to get him into Australia. Somehow I don’t think this one will be any picnic!