Let Down Stage Part 3, Living In Jakarta

Stage Of Jakarta Life: The Let-Down Stage

The Let-Down Stage Part3

The Causes of the Problems Part 2:

The difficulties and challenges you will experience during this Let-Down Stage are due to:

Monotony of the Social and Cultural Jakarta Milieu

You may well experience the Gaol Sentence Syndrome : Everything is all new and exciting for the first few weeks but with  a jolt you realise today is exactly the same as yesterday. Suddenly you feel extremely bored and alone, you wonder about the future. You may then quietly take out your calendar and count up the exact number of days until you leave Jakarta. Again be reassured this feeling will pass.
Lack of employment opportunities for partners justifiably becomes a common complaint at his stage. Sitting under a coconut tree all day or playing golf everyday slowly loses its attraction, becomes monotonous and the brain demands to be used. This simply emphasises the need for mental stimulation.

Absence of Accustomed Sources of Emotional Gratification
Normally we are surrounded by an atmosphere of known things in which we live and work. Beyond that stretches the unknown and its consequent primitive fears and superstitions. Suddenly the comfort and reassurance of your family and friends, your own home, your tennis club or the lots of Club is not there.

Jakarta is largely but certainly not totally a classless society. Any privileges or recognition normally received in normal urban life in your home country should not be expected in Jakarta. That affects everybody's ego. The Jones you may have had to keep up with have been left far behind. The new people you meet will probably be completely unaware of your past achievements and if they are they may in all innocence not rank them as highly as in your home country.
People in Jakarta are judged more by their job proficiency and social contribution than by past successes or status.

Isolation:
The sense of isolation is increased by a number of deprivations such as lack of female or male company for singles, lack of some comforts and luxuries, lack of food variety and lack of daily contact with a wide range of different people and especially the lack of family and friends when you feel down. The lack of home country news, lack of news relevant to your particular sporting interest or local interest exacerbates isolation effects. Week old newspapers are not quite the same.

Isolation is most troublesome when you are sick or when there has been some problem back home which seemingly would best be resolved if you were actually there.
Night time is the worst time for worrying but as the sun rises in the morning you will realise the situation is not so bad after all: That brain tumour you suspected you had last night has suddenly got better! You will cope with isolation but be patient.

Group Acceptance Problems
Work similarities and the importance of peer group comparisons for performance evaluation bring people together. Do not be surprised if you are not totally accepted socially into an employment group different from your own. If you are not accepted remember a dogmatic, hostile and argumentative person rapidly becomes the focus of disagreement within and between groups. Nobody wants that person in their group.

Alternately you may voluntarily withdraw from a group if you decide your values and aspirations are not compatible with the group: The members of a group might be heavy drinkers but you are not so you wisely withdraw. Consequently you may suddenly feel very lonely and wonder what is wrong with you. Differences in value systems always occur and Jakarta is no exception. This is a good time to recall that self esteem and social esteem in Jakarta largely depends on doing a good job.

Despite your feelings you are not going mad. Psychiatric breakdown usually occurs in the first few weeks in isolated communities! The Let-Down Stage is the worst time in Jakarta. Be strongly reassured it does run its course. Try to use it is a period of useful learning experiences for future postings. It does lead to better times. You will leave this phase behind to enjoy the rapidly diminishing time you have left in Jakarta.

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Let Down Stage Part 2, Living In Jakarta

Stage Of Jakarta Life: The Let-Down Stage

The Let-Down Stage Part 2

The Causes of the Problems: The difficulties and challenges you will experience during this Let-Down Stage are due to:

The Need for You to Adjust to the place Jakarta Expat Community

This makes serious demands on your adaptive resources. You face the task of developing new attachments in the community as well as mourning the loss of the old. You find there are so many new people to identify and to locate in their place in this new world of Jakarta. You will meet many people from different European, American and Asian backgrounds all with different professional and private hopes and aspirations as well as strong political, cultural and ethical differences from your own. You will be untried in Jakarta and so under scrutiny. Will you match up?. 

Jakarta way of doing things will also be different from what you are used to.
You may well be told this is just the way it is in Jakarta. Most reasonable people experience strain from such a response.

Remember that psychological adjustment is related to and to personal characteristics. At the environment level problems occur due to separation from accustomed surroundings, the demands of small community living, dependence on groups and subordination to authority. This creates tensions and conflicts more difficult to avoid than in normal urban life.

Personal characteristics and behaviours are determined by heredity, character structure, previous experience, current pre-occupations and in a general way behavioural propensities based upon custom and habit.
Overall, being satisfied or dissatisfied in a new environment is more a product of state of mind than of the immediate external environment.

Adjusting to the Indonesian society
Initially you may have an intense desire to comprehend the differences in this new host culture. Slowly you will often begin to experience frustration at the way Indonesian people act or approach some task: They drive in a different style to many of us, they have few traffic rules, they are not as regimented as many western societies, they are rarely in  a hurry, they do not easily get upset by problems, they practise a very different religion and so on. It is of nil surprise that things are not done the same way as in your home country. That is a very large part of the positive experience of living in another country. You may even become more tolerant.

A very old civilisation such as Indonesia has slowly evolved socially to develop those norms of behaviour which best suit their people and which best avoid unnecessary social conflict. The easiest way to cope with these cultural frustrations is to remember the Indonesian way is not wrong, it is simply different. More likely the Indonesian way of doing things may very well be the best way.

Be patient. It may take a year or more to integrate and develop your own relevant coping mechanisms for the ambiguity, value conflicts and hidden clashes you find in this new society and culture. Those who find ways to communicate across cultural barriers rather than retreat into an enclave of like minded expats will make the most successful adaptation to life in Jakarta.

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The Let-Down Stage Part 1, Living In Jakarta:

The Difficulties:

After a few months in Jakarta most people will experience an increase in anxiety as the Excitement Stage merges into this new Let-Down Stage. Although your newness has largely worn off this is still a time of very rapid change and adaptation to new work and social pressures. Anyone entering a new phase in life will always be under some stress.

This is the most difficult stage in Jakarta characterised by homesickness, boredom, loneliness, confusion and transient mental or behavioural disturbances of minor significance.
The non stop and overt in your face security everywhere as well as Travel Advisories and other security warnings and advice may now be having their effect. Family and friends at home may be adding to that tension: Why do you bother being in Indonesia especially with your family they ask when it is so dangerous? You may ponder the same question.

The usual driver, domestic staff issues and minor household crises may really be bugging you by now and especially troubling your partner who faces that problem alone all day at home.

Health:
You may notice a deterioration in many things: In your job performance, relations with other work members and family, response to authority and emotional adjustment.
You will particularly notice an increase in health problems both real and imagined. Don't be surprised if you notice sleeping problems, headaches, vague abdominal pain, and an increased consumption of food and alcohol. 

You will begin to have doubts about your health.

You will worry about your health and start asking yourself the questions:
- What happens if I have an accident?
- What happens if the children are sick?
Be reassured any health problems experienced by you or family or friends visiting Jakarta will be taken care of easily and completely.

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