One day, this may be you writing “dear future intern” from back home or some place you’ve never been to before, with mountains or ocean just outside your door. As for me, I’m home in Manila for Christmas, to visit friends and family and spend time with my siblings. I’m glad I didn’t have to leave Asia so soon. Manila in December is quite pleasant, noticeably cooler and often less rainy then the previous months. Jakarta was getting seriously rainy when I left. The rains there are most intense in December-Feb, but the rainy season actually begins in October.
I learned somewhere that the rains in Indonesia come first to the western parts before the eastern parts, which I also observed on a trip to Labuan Bajo, the port town to Komodo National Park (an amazing trip btw). It was mostly hot and dry there in late November, while in Jakarta it had been raining every day.
So yeah, I’m home in Manila for a bit, before going home to Vancouver. We have a wild garden in our house in the Philippines, where my brother, my dad and I have planted a host of native trees over the years. I’ve lived mostly in Canada since 2021, but have visited Manila every year since then. I love seeing my trees again, and there’s a sense of fulfillment derived from seeing the birds rest on their branches and eat their fruits, and they make for a good view.
The project I’m working on for the CAPI Capstone centers on my fascination with trees, and how Jakarta, through the familiar trees, first started to become home.
Something I’ve come away with incredible appreciation for are the people I met, friends, acquaintances and food vendors- which is nothing unusual for CAPI interns, or other travelers for that matter. Still, people are a very meaningful part of living anywhere. The owners of street stands that fueled us with nasi goreng, sate and bubur ayam would wonder where we had been all week, if we didn’t show up for a bit. It was also really special that our co-workers did things with us, being our first connections in the big city.
Ana and I spent a lot of time with our co-workers outside of work hours. Some of my “featured” memories from this experience were doing normal Jakarta things with them: eating lunch at the warungs around the office, watching movies after work, jogging at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, working late in a cafe (I really felt like part of the team when I had to do those overtime sessions).
I made friends outside of work too. By now you know about Iva and Pascal who I think are becoming the friends-of-CAPI-interns, being passed from one intern to the next: from Jake, to Ana and I, to probably whoever comes next. The day before we left, we all had bebek goreng and went to the kost for one last evening of chatting in the cool night air. Dade, Pascal’s subservient intern (that’s an inside joke), joined us too that evening. I do plan to hop over from Manila sometime again, on that near-empty Cebu Pacific flight.
I haven’t yet talked much about the Catholic community at St Theresia church, where I’d go for Sunday mass. The people I met there were a welcoming, fun group whose company I found very grounding. The connection I feel towards other Catholics and- to a lesser degree- people of faith in general, is quite strong, and I love that anywhere I go I can find other Catholics. Between Filipinos and Catholics, I’m all set for the world.
Coincidentally, of the people I met in Jakarta the Catholics had the most ties to Canada. Two of them, who are married with a one-year old daughter, went to UBC some years ago. Widya, who works for St. Theresia church and has become a good friend, did an internship with a Christian ministry group in Vancouver. She has tasked me with delivering a present to her friend there.
Besides friendships, something invaluable, and kind of intangible, that I gained from my CAPI Internship was to “accumulate” various situations. With different situations behind me, I feel more prepared and cool-headed as a person. I like to think of the unpleasant experiences I had as learning-the-hard-way. I realize that they are never as bad as I worried they would be.
For instance, I missed a flight for the first time ever on my trip from Labuan Bajo to Jakarta, after having joined a fantastic 3D2N Komodo National Park tour with Ana and a fun bunch of travelers. Because we proved it was not our fault (the flight was rescheduled and we didn’t get the email), the ticketing agents offered to rebook us on a flight to Bali, then Jakarta on the same day. We had to press them a bit though, showing dismay at being left in Jurassic Park (the Komodo Islands feel like that!), but that was literally the best outcome we could have had. Luckily, this didn’t happen with the flight to Bajo, and luckily our second option to get to Jakarta would be just waiting till the next day. Had that been the case, Ana would still have been able to catch her flight to Vancouver, which was our main concern then. I’m learning to see things this way more, to fight anxiety and whining with reasonable self-talk.
Now some thoughts for you, dear future CIPSie (up to you, but I recommend):
Learn Bahasa Indonesia
A basic understanding will go a long way to making your life easier, faster. The first words I became proficient with were the numbers one to ten, puluh (tens), ratus (hundreds), ribu (thousands) and juta (millions). This proved to be super helpful for understanding how much my food cost when I couldn’t yet understand anything else (for the record, I didn’t eat anything worth a million rupiah, which is roughly a hundred dollars. ). English numbers are not commonly spoken even in Jakarta.
Indeed, I think Indonesia is the least English-speaking places amongst CAPI’s options in Southeast Asia. If that worries you, consider this: Bahasa Indonesia is not only pretty easy to learn (according to many people including me), it’s also practically the same as Bahasa Malay, the language of Malaysia. While Malaysia does speak more English than Indonesia, when I visited Marcus and Lauren in Kota Kinabalu, it was cool to be able to read signs and generally feel like I was ‘ahead of the game’ as a tourist there. It’s one of those buy-one-get-one languages. (Also, this fish noodle soup was the best thing I ate in KK, at Aliang Fish Noodle, Lauren’s and Marcus’ favorite place).
Besides the practical, it’s so unifying to understand people in their mother tongue. Even with my broken proficiency I felt a budding connection to the culture and people. I think a large part of this “connection feeling” comes from a mutual appreciation between the foreigner and the local: the foreigner trying to fit in out of both necessity and respect, and the local being patient and visibly pleased, recognizing the foreigner’s efforts to fit in and be in the local peoples’ good graces. That’s my take anyways.
Looking back, having to learn this new language was one of my favorite things about Jakarta.
Engage with the ideas of CIPS
The economic freedom/pro-free markets perspective doesn’t get much airtime at UVic and most western universities, considering how practical and effective it can be. If you are interested in policy, this is an opportunity to learn about an approach you won’t learn in school (unless perhaps you’re an econ student). Working at CIPS has been the most enriching experience I’ve had in my time at university s far, in large part because I got to appreciate a perspective that tends to be either ignored or vilified in mainstream academia; also because- on the topic of academics- I learned a lot about economics and policy in a developing country context. Developing countries’ issues are things I’ve always been passionate about.
If you are so inclined, there’s a book on the CIPS bookshelf that Nidhal, a co-worker, recommended to me. It’s called Libertarianism: The Perspective of Liberty on Power and Prosperity. It was written by a group of Indonesian academics and policymakers for Indonesian readers, and is really concise and easy to understand. The English version has some translation errors but it’s still very readable. Libertarianism is basically a response to the tendency of many people to see capitalism as harmful by nature, and shows how giving people more freedom- by upholding their individual property rights and limiting government regulation, to name some classic approaches – creates an environment of initiative and opportunity, so that people are more able to create wealth for themselves.
I also want to re-suggest Jake’s suggestion to us: read some of CIPS publications. This way you will gain some understanding of their topics and perspectives and how they write. This will be helpful when you assist on research projects and when you need to “sell” them in grant applications (stuff we did). Remember, it’s okay to ask for help and clarification from others.
Outfit ideas
What to wear at the office was a question I did not find an easy answer to. Smart casual is a spectrum, and in short: at CIPS you can wear anything on that spectrum, from jeans, sneakers and a collared shirt over a tee (for men you need something with a collar) to a long sleeved batik shirt (for men, though the batik style is worn by both men and women). You don’t need formal shoes- for men and women- except for events. That being said, some people, including me, wore formal shoes often. I felt more comfortable being on the formal side: it’s nice to be a bit dressed up for the office and it put me in a workday mood. All this to say, I suggest leaning formal in the smart casual spectrum, for men and women.
Now, I don’t think you’ll lack as much foresight as me here, but it’s worth pointing out anyways: upon starting work I realized it hadn’t been the best move to buy basically all my work clothes in Canada (shirts and shoes). There are cheaper and lots more options in Jakarta, at department stores like Matahari and Metro, and Blok M Square, a clothing-focused pasar (market). If you like thrifting, there are lots of thrifting options in Blok M Square, on the second floor if I recall correctly. It’s just a tad dusty.
With CAPI Internships the work comes first, but it’s also much more than the work, as Robyn says. For me this internship was an amazing 6 months of intellectual and experiential enrichment, getting better at independence, getting to know Indonesia and Southeast Asia, making new friends, finding new favorite foods, playing badminton, and seeing a 3-foot long barracuda that may or may not have been just a houndfish. I’d like it to have been a barracuda, the ultimate reef predator, but if not it’s still the biggest houndfish I’d ever seen.
Anyways, please, please, reach out to me if you have questions about CAPI, CIPS and/or Indonesia. I’d be happy to help you prepare for this internship, or to discern if it’s a good fit!
Also, I have food recommendations.
Here’s my email: alejandrogagustines@gmail.com.
Cheers and selamat jalan!
– Ale
