This weekend, Medan; next weekend Lake Toba

I had been hoping to go to Lake Toba, the Lake everyone in Medan says I must see, this weekend but we were unable to secure a driver, so next weekend. This weekend will be spent trying to see as much Medan's cultural life as possible. I promise pictures. The picture seen here, hopefully, is of a red cross vehicle which in places such as Indonesia, and other Muslim countries of course, includes the crescent.

Last week I tired of waiting for the school drivers to return from delivering the kids home and took a Becak. It is some distance for this form of travel and cost me roughly 20,000 Rupiah (a little more than 2 US dollars). I had my camera with me and the camera is able to record movies but felt that I should not, as that would make me stand out even more than a tall white guy wearing a big hat and dark rimmed glasses already stands out. I later found out from a friend more attuned to life here that she does that all the time. So it may not have seemed as weird to others as I feared.

It is not only whites who get stared at. Singaporeans who are not of Chinese descent stand out and draw attention. They get asked where they are from. One woman asked me to stop so that she could have her picture taken with me. I reluctantly agreed. Many people, especially the Chinese but others, warn about getting too friendly with the locals. The general line is that they are so desperately poor that they will look to any outsider as an opportunity for income. There are stories of people being set up by locals in drug stings--things like someone handing a pack of cigarettes over to some women at a pub, leaving for the night, being stopped by police for selling drugs, protesting that he doesn't have any drugs, and seeing that in his cigarette pack the women had placed some form of narcotic. They do this for money. The cops don't care if it's true. That's the corruption.

All is going well. Now that I have email, I guess I may expect fewer comments, but comments are still encouraged. Questions give me something to write about. I start to wonder if I have anything new to say as I grow accustomed to this place. The weekend should offer some ideas.