Hello everyone, great to see you again! You know, I don't really post updates about my personal life, let alone about what happens in where I live, but here you go, this one is worth a blog post. I've been living in Palembang, the capital city of Sumatera Selatan province since 2009. Time flies so fast. I moved here to follow my husband, I was seven months pregnant with my first daughter at that time, and now I have two girls.
I wrote this post because I am very saddened about this smoke occurrence. Fresh and clean air is a scarce thing here in Palembang. The news said it's because the forest is burning and the smoke travels to towns and cities even neighboring province. It's now the seventh week and still there's no sign of the smoke to disappear. I am a morning person and I miss the warm fresh air. The irony is, the smoke is the thickest in the morning.
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| This is the view from my work place. Notice how "cloudy" the sky seems, nope it's not rain cloud. |
How I wish I had an instant escape door because I am so tired of this smoke. You may see in the picture that the weather looks nice and cool. It's not. It's smoking hot, with a lot of smoke! People around me wear a mask, but I can't stand wearing one. It makes breathing difficult but without it, I'll be sucking the smokey air, it's just a lose-lose situation. The sad news is my children constantly hit by cough, especially early in the morning (around 5 a.m.) I keep the window shut, of course, but the smoke still finds a way to penetrate our window.
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| This one is the road we take everyday. Take a look at the "misty" view around the trees. |
I apologize if these pictures were not professionally taken. I used my phone, I wish I could catch the smoke better, but oh well. I never miss rain so much like this in my life! I wish the fire in the forest would distinguish soon, so we could once again breathe fresh air.
Having said that, I still like Palembang. Though my main reason is family matter, Palembang is still a nice city to live in. Oh, not to mention this delicacy called Pempek. For those of you who are not familiar with Indonesian food, pempek is some kind of fishcake that is served with vinegar and palm sugar sauce. It's absolutely delicious!
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| Photo by Chandra Marsono via Flickr |
The yummy one above is called pempek kapal selam or in English "submarine pempek". It has egg filling inside, and this is my favorite kind of pempek. If you ever stop by Palembang by any chance, remind me to treat you with it!
Please pray for us, dearest readers so this smoke will subside soon and Palembang will once again gain back its title for being The City of Pempek.
