With my adventuresome spirit tugging at my sleeves, this weekend I decided to venture out into the city by myself and do some shopping in a place I hadn’t been yet. All was going well - for example I picked up a new pair of jeans for about $2.15 - until I hopped on the wrong Angkot (picture above). Angkots are the main form of public transportation. There is an intricate network of Angkots that travel a certain and continuous loop from one part of town to another. While confident that I had chosen the right angkot, I didn’t realize that it was going in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. Upon finally making this discovery, I figured that it wouldn’t be long before the angkot got to the end of its loop and turned around. Even when I saw angkots going in the opposite direction, I was confident that if I stayed on long enough it would eventually get to me to my planned destination. Thirty minutes later we reached the end of the loop. By that time all of the other passenger had gotten off and the Angkot driver turned around with a curious smile and asked, “Ke mana?” (To where?). In broken Indonesian I explained to him my error, he laughed, and after another 30 minutes on the same Angkot, I finally arrived at home. How similar in the journey of life do many get on what they think is the right path, but in fact they’re going the wrong way. And even though they know it’s the wrong way, out of pride they refuse to get off (or ask for directions), thinking that eventually things will turn around if they just wait long enough. For many, sadly, they never do make it home.
