Internet Salvation

Well it has been a while since I have been here and of all the places in Indonesia that have gotten me to sit down and blog, it is here in Medan where I make time and find the mindset to do it. It seems ironic that through the beautiful bumpy paradise roads that snake through Sumatra (the northernmost province of Indonesia), after seeing orangutangs in the jungle and roaming coffee plantations thriving in volcanic soil and stepped and terraced rice paddies in river valleys, surrounded by all natural beauty that the mind can hold it is here in dusty, crowded noisy, polluted Medan that I write from. I'm stuck here for a week renewing my tourist visa and I can hardly imagine being stuck here for life. I shudder at the thought and I wonder how many of the two million residents here can't wait to get out. I can't wait to not have to wipe the black, sweat and soot grime off my face every time I step into the street, or not feel the polluted heat loom and invade everywhere.

The couchsurfing.com (an internet site that connects travellers with hosts who are looking for cultural exchange) community is extremely welcoming though and I find a great Indonesian host, Eva, to take me in at her family's home for a few days. I meet her couchsurfing friends and we have a few meals and conversations and there is a general resignation that Medan is uninspiring as far as cities go. Still, they have traveled around Asia or at least Sumatra and I feel like everyone hopes to eventually get out of Medan. Saturday morning we play some Indonesian inspired version of baseball for about 20 minutes until it gets too hot, then Eva and I spend a lethargic afternoon at the uninspired, cardboard poster filled Museum of North Sumatra. After cooking some dinner, it truly feels like I have exhausted my options. Not a library or nice coffee shop in sight to read at, no nice parks with big trees for some shade from the hot sun, no basketball courts or soccer pitches anywhere, just dusty street side restaurants and shops.

Yet where there are people there is life. Night street food vendors are starting to open up shop on the big streets and small alleys. Across the street there's a male and female teenage beauty pageant going on at the main town square that emits wafts of plastic and heavy bass techno beats, a frightful scene but someone else's idea of a good time I suppose. And the internet cafe is always open and often full and so I find myself in here, choosing like many others to engage cyberspace rather than  the dusty motorbike filled street out there. In here it's mostly kids from eight to twenty-ish year olds on Facebook, playing games or doing google searches of dresses and Hello Kitty and handbags. A couple of them are doing what looks like computer homework assignments. It might seem misguided but I find a bit of hope and enthusiasm for kids and teenagers in front of computer screens because there's a whole other world on the screen. Like the couchsurfers who via the internet have found international cultural exchange despite being stuck in Medan, I do sincerely hope that these kids growing up on the internet will eventually find what they will be looking for too. Bless them and good luck.