faraway

Last week I visited Makassar City in South Sulawesi to meet some Non-government Organizations for our new Budget Monitoring Project. I went with Eni Widyastuti and Ihsan Haerudin from my office.

It has been nearly seven years since I last visited. Back then I was working for USC Canada and came to monitor several projects we were funding through our Jakarta-based partner, YAPPIKA. I was happy to meet some old NGO aquaintences and meet new people doing interesting things there.

Makassar, being a sea port, is famed for fresh seafood.

The high point of our trip was an amazing seafood meal at an unasuming restaurant called, Lae-Lae not far from our hotel. It has no decor nor scenic view yet it seems to be always full of appreciative diners. We ordered a huge meal of grilled fish, boiled mussels and grilled prawn. Unfortunately, I could not order the crab (my favorite) because my wife is pregnant. Believe me I really wanted to. This crab-fast is due to a Javanese belief that when a husband breaks the shell of the crab, it hurts the unborn baby. (I invite Javanese blogger to please explain the rationale behind that). Sadly for me, my wife strictly enforces this prohibition. I took a picture of our meal to prove my faithful compliance to Javanese wisdom.

Jerome, at home
A National Holiday for Indonesia Independence Day