P.I.T.A and Islam

P.I.T.A. is a concept that was introduced to me by my wife about a year ago, shortly before my last trip to Banda. We were in Seattle, and attempting to track down an antique clock for a friend in Boise. As the day broke down it became apparent that retrieving the clock was going to be a real pain in the ass, P.I.T.A. We decided at that point that a measure of the quality of ones life could be through P.I.T.A. and that retrieving the clock was a factor on the larger P.I.T.A. index, about a nine for anyone who's counting.

After a recent failed attempt at Banda, we find ourselves measuring the P.I.T.A. factor of our experience. It should be said that this measurement is based upon ones expectations, and that if one expects too much, than one is likely to have many spikes on their P.I.T.A. index. Such as it is, we managed to to keep the spike low, by expecting little. Submitting to the ways of Indonesia, if you will. What you may wonder does this have to do with Islam? Well, the word itself means submit, and Indonesia being the largest Islamic culture in the world, finds adventurous ways to enforce its own submission. Some may call it going with the flow. Whatever it is, we're embracing it, and figuring out how to make the most out of the disparity between what we want (Banda) and what we get (Bali). For whatever it's worth, the P.I.T.A. yesterday spiked around a five, we only lost the value of a couple of plane tickets. That's nothing compared to Peter's spike in Ambon while trying to attain archaeology permits. 18 for those who are counting. But now that he's on Banda, despite the fact that the full team is not there, he assures us that the P.I.T.A. is hovering around a cool 1 or 2 at most. And as for the expedition, yesterday ceremonies were held in a field where digging will soon begin.