Crazy people- Fri 10/10/08

Dear Folks,

Here's my new theory: If you want to describe Southeast Asia to someone who has never spent time here, all you have to do is tell them to imagine a place run by mostly insane people who are trying to accomplish things as efficiently as possible.

That is the only explanation for barefoot construction workers, rickety 2x4s used for scaffolding supports, and the drivers...oh my God, the drivers. U-turns right into oncoming traffic, turns without looking are commonplace, and then there was that lady carrying a pane of glass in front of her while driving her motor scooter. I could list 200 more observations (like the cockfighting thing, and the priest taking a call during a prayer) but I might be here for a while.

Basically, living here kind of justifies all the dumb things I've done. When seen in the light of 3rd world comparison, the craziest thing ever is simply an efficient idea for maximizing the trip from point A to B. Nobody would think twice about it. Try it out. Make a mad lib out of it. Write back one of the crazy or ridiculous things you have done and I'll compile them with an eye towards 3rd world rationalization.

Part two of the theory is figuring out how it could be that most things here end up working pretty well? Here's my superficial analysis. I think we have to throw out the western assumption that everything must always be rational. It is far more likely, as we see daily in a variety of ways (The smoker taking a multivitamin, peace through mutually assured destruction), that the rational and the irrational can exist quite comfortably together and it is only because we assume this shouldn't be that we work so hard to try to make sense out of everything. Not that there's anything wrong with trying to make sense out of things, the problem lies in our attachment to the solutions we come up with. So, as most eastern religions draw nearer to enlightenment by reducing their attachment to rational ideas, perhaps that same principle works just as well for the people of Bali.

I'll start us off with a mild example of the ridiculous. My host asked me if I would be so kind as to roast a duck for a series of Thai dishes she was creating for the new restaurant. She handed me three ducks, a pile of herbs and Chinese 5-spice to stuff it with and a Jamie Oliver book to help the process along. So, on my own in a kitchen in Indonesia, asked to roast a duck with Chinese flavors by an American for a Thai restaurant, using Jamie Oliver as a guide. Let's just say that even though I was doing the backstroke in a pool of contradictions, it hardly felt out of the ordinary. I might also say that the ducks came out crisp, golden, and absolutely delicious.

Today, I officially start work in the restaurant with a regular schedule and all that. It seems I will be doing a week on cold kitchen items (ex. Salads, sandwitches, etc.), a week on hot kitchen items, and then a week doing bread and pastry, before repeating the whole cycle again. Can't wait to get started.

Yours Truly,
Alex