27 September, 2012
We are nearing the end of the 6th week in Indonesia; wow, time goes by fast! The past 2 weeks have been similar to the previous ones but every day brings its own challenges, blessings and joys to be shared!
Language study is going well, although it is often overwhelming. The words keep coming and, without practice, they are easily lost. But we have had an awesome time with our language teacher(s) exploring Indonesian culture in Salatiga and the surrounding area. They have been fantastic tour guides! On the 12th we visited a factory that produces enting-enting, a sugary peanut snack that is famous here. The workers were quite happy to host us for 20 minutes, as we tried pounding the peanuts and wrapping the finished products. Next we went to a batik store where we watched them produce this famous fabric. Batik is done by stamping hot wax onto fabric in varying patterns and then dying the fabric. The wax is boiled off and a white or lighter design is left. Batik is often just printed now, as the dying process takes quite a while and the price is more expensive. But it was so cool to watch them stamp the fabric here and see how it’s actually done!
On the 20th we went to a village nearby and were treated with the greatest hospitality by a Muslim family. We ate snacks and lunch at 10:00 and enjoyed some Indonesian/Javanese conversation in which the YALTers contributed much nodding and smiling. We left for a short time to visit a waterfall close by. There is a tragic story here involving SALTers several years ago, but fortunately we were quite safe. The area resembled BC quite a bit, excluding the palm trees, bamboo and other such plants and we enjoyed taking photos. We returned to the house to eat our second lunch and take along some snacks for the road. We were ridiculously blessed by this family!
Yesterday we learned to play gamelan, traditional Javanese percussion. There were about 8 different kinds of metal and wood instruments and we learned to read the notation and played 3 different songs. Eventually we accompanied our host to the wayang, traditional Javanese shadow puppets. This is really interesting and I can’t wait to see more! The detailed, flat puppets are held up against a white background so the audience can see both puppet and shadow. One person always performs and there are hundreds of different stories, often involving gods, goddesses and struggles between good and evil. The stories can last up to 12 hours! Luckily ours was only 10 minutes :) That afternoon, we finally got to play badminton. The language teachers arranged for us to play and it was a great time! I love this sport. Indonesia has some of the best players in the world (don’t think about the London 2012 games, bear with me) so unfortunately Team Canada came up a little short this day! But man, it was fun. The court was at the top of a very long hill so I almost passed out coming up – I had reached my exercise quota by this point – but it was worth it! I do need to be careful to not exhaust myself though. Biking around town everyday does take its toll!
So aside from language class, there are many other things that we do here. I still love meeting with the MCC staff members every week. An MCC Global Service Learning (GSL) team was here for one week and it was great to see some staff that we met in Akron. We had the opportunity to take them to lunch one day; this was the first time we got to be “experts” and lead the way. It was a great challenge! Last weekend, another YALTer and I went along to Magelang to meet my host father’s family. They had a ceremony to pray for and remember their mother, who passed away a few months ago. The 6 older sisters of my host father are wonderful women who love to laugh and share what they have. Once again, I had platters of food placed in front of me and was constantly encouraged to makan lagi: eat more!! It was wonderful! I can only imagine what a great woman this was to raise these children that love to serve. We also went around the city a bit, walking around an amusement park (which was closed but awesome nonetheless) and a giant mall. We came back for the prayer and dinner. It was a Muslim ceremony and it was fascinating to sit in and observe what was happening. The fact that there were less than 10 Christians sitting in the two rooms with more than 25 Muslims was completely ok and there were no barriers in fellowship. They were praying aloud (men only) and I was praying in my head for this woman that we are all linked to and want to remember. Both to the one true God who hears all prayer. It’s a connection that goes beyond religious barriers and it intrigues me. I hope to discover more as I stay here longer and as interfaith dialogue increases.
That being said, cultural adaptation is continuing to move forward. It’s still difficult, as I weave my way through the rules and ways of life and the traffic jams in the streets. I am sometimes overwhelmed with how much there is to learn, especially the language, and how little energy I have to do it! I am often tired which makes interactions more difficult, as I have less patience. But, I am here to learn and that is giving me great joy. It helps a lot in my daily activities to be reminded of my purpose here and why I am in Indonesia of all places. This is a small slice of my part of God’s missional plan for the world. I am always striving to live missionally and make my lifestyle one of peace and love in serving and learning. This takes place wherever I am. This year just happens to be taking place in Indonesia :)
