Final Weekend

Going into this final weekend we had big plans; we were going to summit Mount Merapi, which is one of the most active volcanos in the world. We would begin hiking around 2am and be at the peak in time for sunrise. Unfortunately, Merapi lived up to its reputation this week and had its status was upped to "active". There was even a day where we were advised to wear face masks due to the volcanic ash in the air. To the right is a picture of me and Misato at work in our face masks. Needless to say, we were not going to climb the mountain in those conditions. 

Instead of coming up with another big plan for the weekend, we decided to have a low key couple of days in Jogja. We started off with an art therapy session after our weekly reflection on Friday night. Courtney lead us in the session and we were instructed to draw what we thought of ourselves before the trip and then what we thought of ourselves now. She encouraged us to be as abstract as possible. After finishing our drawings, we each went around and shared our art and gave an explanation. It was such a great activity, but it was definitely emotional. It really hit home for me that we're leaving so soon. Everyone was so forthcoming and open with their answers; I'm really going to miss this amazing group. 

Below are photos of everyones drawings. The top is how we viewed ourselves before and the bottom is how we view ourselves now: 

On Friday night, we also made a bucket list of everything we still wanted to do in Jogja. We spent the rest of the weekend crossing some of the activities off. This started with our visit to the mosque on the UGM campus. We hadn't been to a mosque yet and we all really wanted to visit one here. It was such a gorgeous one with beautiful gardens and fountains! 

We then went to the Mu'allimat school where Stephanie has been volunteering. We all went with her to the dorms to meet some of her students and play games with them. First we taught them the Cotton Eyed Joe, then played duck, duck, goose, and finally we did the human knot activity. We also gave time for the girls to ask us questions about ourselves, but they were very shy. It was great to see them open up and laugh during the games. 

For our visit, we thought we would have to wear hijabs since all the girls wear them as part of their uniform. So Stephanie, Haura, and Bila all taught us how to properly put them on and pin the scarf. However, since we were in the dorms and there were no men around, the teachers told us we could remove them. We still had to wear modest clothing, which covered our wrists and ankles and they preferred us to keep our scarves around our necks. It was a really interesting experience to wear a hijab around and see myself in it for a few minutes. 

After our visit to Mu'allimat we wandered around Jogja doing some last-minute souvenir shopping and eating some delicious street food for dinner. Then we headed to the Southern Square that quite literally lights up at night. All around the square, little pedicabs line the road and they are covered in strings of LED lights. There have everything from double decker pedicabs that you pedal yourself to tandem bicycles. Absolutely everything is lit up. Since it was a Saturday night, there were tons of people there with their families and it was such a blast. The atmosphere was just so lively and fun! We rode around on a double decker chicken for around 30 minutes for just 50 cents each. It even played music, so we belted out the words to some of the songs. 

In the middle of the square are two giant banyan trees. There is a challenge associated with these trees that we've been itching to try since day one. You have to start from 50 meters away from the trees and you are blindfolded. Then you are spun around 3 times to the right and 3 times to the left. Once you are oriented towards the trees, you have to walk in a straight line through the middle of them moving from North to South. While the opening between the trees is very wide, it's extremely difficult to accomplish. I actually failed a spectacular 3 times in a row. Each time I veered in the opposite direction of the trees. While 2 people in our group made it, most people weren't able to. It is said that those who make it through will have success and good fortune in their lives. 

Sunday was incredibly low key. We started out the morning by going to a hair spa. It's basically an hour long treatment of your hair that begins with a wash and ends with a blow dry. You also get everything from the chest up massaged, which was very relaxing. The whole treatment was only $5. Then we went pottery shopping in a nearby village that had tons of little craft stores lining the street. 

All in all it was a great last weekend! I can't believe I'll be back home in less than a week; I'm not ready for it. 

The fountain at the UGM mosque. The statue is Arabic for Allah and it reads the same from every vantage point. 

Palm trees on the grounds of the mosque. 

The mosque itself! The call to prayer from this mosque wakes me up almost every morning at 4:30am. During Ramadan, it also wakes me up a 3:30am. At least it's beautiful!

Me, Stephanie and Misato wearing our hijabs

The whole group before going to Mu'allimat

Playing duck, duck, goose with the girls

More duck, duck, goose. It was amazing how much they loved the game!

The human knot exercise where you grab random hands and try to untangle the entire group. 

Misato, Stephanie, and Katarina all trying to walk through the banyan trees. Only Stephanie made it of these three. You can also see someone else attempting the walk behind Misato. 

One of the pedi cabs. 

The group with our chicken pedi cab. I rode in the top and pedaled on the bottom. Both rides were so much fun! 

All of us being silly with the girls at Mu'allimat. 

Presenting on American Culture

At this point I've given two presentations for work. The first was at Interfidei for about 20-30 people. Most of them were friends of the organization or members of their programs. It was during my second week here and my topic was gay rights in America. With the DOMA decision being handed down the previous week, it seemed like a fitting choice. I discussed the progress the US has made with regards to gay rights, especially during the Obama administration. I then talked about the link between religion and gay rights, explaining that many people are opposed to gay rights or gay marriage because they feel it's against their religion. Before presenting I was extremely nervous. Strictly speaking, Islam is against homosexuality and I didn't know how the audience would react to such a controversial topic. I was pleasantly surprised as I noticed everyone was incredibly engaged in my talk. Afterwards, many people had questions for me. They just simply wanted to understand more about my personal exposure to homosexuality and about how US society treats gays. Everyone was incredibly open-minded. 

The second presentation was last night. After people had attended our first presentation, we were asked to present again for young activists an hour outside of Jogja. The venue for the presentation was a church, but we were going to be breaking the fast with all of the participants. Breaking fast in a church was in itself a very interesting interfaith experience. They requested that I talk about Islamophobia in America, which made me even more nervous. It's so hard to present on something that I consider to be one of America's most embarrassing problems. I brought up the obvious point that fear has contributed to Islamophobia due to terrorist attacks, such as 9/11 and the Boston Marathon Bombing. This paired with an ignorance and misunderstanding of Islam has generated the prevalent climate of Islamophobia. Many people had questions for me; they wanted to know what they could do as Indonesians to counter this negative image. I told them the most important thing is to show Americans that you are just a normal person living your life. Show them that Muslims can also be open-minded, tolerant and non-violent. A woman approached me while we were breaking fast and told me she appreciated my willingness to present on something I don't personally believe in. She said she realizes it is hard for me to present these viewpoints, but that they all really needed to hear about my topic. It was an incredibly rewarding presentation and it was great to attend another breaking of the fast! In total there were almost 90 people who came to watch my presentation. 

One interesting aspect of presenting in Indonesia is the translation. My Indonesian is not even close to being good enough to use for presenting, although I did introduce myself in Indonesian both times which the audience appreciated. This means I always have a translator. Having to pause every few sentences and let the translator interpret is very different than any other presentation I've ever given. I often think about what gets lost in translation, but all you can do is hope that the main points shine through.  

The most incredible part about these presentations is how much I learned in the process. Through research I learned even more about my topic and through dialogue with the people attending I leaned a lot about the Indonesian perspective. I am really grateful to have had the opportunity to share more about American society and meet so many new people!

The sign outside announcing the multicultural dialogue for youth. 

The church in Klaten where we presented. It is considered one of the most architecturally unique and beautiful churches in Indonesia. It was influenced by Japanese and German architecture. 

Some of the group from Interfidei. Misato and I were accompanied by Reta, our supervisor, and Wening, a volunteer at Interfidei. My buddy Bila also came and so did Enggar! 

Giving my presentation. People are always sitting on the floor for these types of meetings.

Praying before breaking the fast. 

Enjoying hot, sweet tea at the break fast. 

Trying On a Rubber Watch

This blog post was also picked up by the US Center for Citizen Diplomacy: http://uscenterforcitizendiplomacy.org/share-stories/entry/della-bradts-story/ 

My Indonesian friends have taught me a very important expression in Bahasa Indonesia: “jam karet.” It literally translates to “rubber watch.” To me, this phrase is essential to understanding the slow and flexible pace of life here in Yogyakarta.

For example, if someone is late to something, you just chalk it up to their “rubber watch.” I’ve found there is essentially a 30-minute to 60-minute grace period on any meeting time. If you’re supposed to meet someone at noon and you show up at 12:30pm, it’s not a problem, “jam karet,”

Believe it or not, this has proved extremely difficult to adjust to. I often find myself stressing out when people are late to meetings we set up at work. I can’t help, but feel anxiety creep up on me when I am sitting around and chatting with my co-workers instead of getting back to work. I feel the usual knot in my stomach after realizing I’m going to be 30 minutes late to work and once I finally arrive, I’m unable to shake the feeling even though no one is mad. 

It’s also interesting to note that I’m not alone in these feelings. At the end of our first week, all the AUA volunteers gathered together to discuss the highlights and challenges of living in Indonesia. As we went around in a circle, there was one overwhelmingly common thread in our challenges; we were all confused about how to adjust to the pace of life in Yogyakarta. Volunteers were shocked when their work supervisors had very little expectations of them or didn’t specify a time to show up to work. Everyone was awestruck by the relaxed nature of the workplace in particular. 

In the United States, we are programmed to constantly be doing something, especially at work. If we take a break for even a few minutes, it’s easy to be characterized as lazy. Hard work is prized above many things, even sleep or personal happiness. There are almost always specific expectations asked of you.

My experience as an unpaid intern at the State Department last summer followed this mentality. While I was working there I constantly felt the pressure to succeed. I knew exactly what my bosses wanted from me and when they wanted it. My work this summer has been drastically different.

I dove into this internship the same way as the last one, driven and excited to work really hard for a great organization. Willing to do whatever my supervisors expected of me, my enthusiasm was initially dampened when I realized they had very few expectations. Adjusting to this more relaxed mentality has taken time, but I think it’s an important experience for me. Interfidei wants me to do whatever I can to help them as a volunteer. They appreciate however much I can give them and just want me to do my best while having fun at work. 

I think all Americans can learn a lot from this different pace of life and relaxed mentality. We do not always have to create set expectations for the people around us. Hard work isn’t a bad thing, but taking a break isn’t either. Sometimes it should be enough that we just do the best we can. And when people are late, maybe we can learn just smile and say, “Oh, it must be that rubber watch again! Jam karet.”

On our way to work one morning we noticed you could see Mount Merapi very clearly and decided to drive somewhere to get a better view and take photos. This made us almost 20 minutes late to work and no one said anything about it. It's amazing what you see when you stop and take the time. 

Beautiful Bali

This past weekend Courtney, Misato, and I made the trip over to Bali! We didn't want to miss any work so we made plans to leave very early Saturday morning and return even earlier Monday morning. The flight from Jogja to Bali is a little over an hour. Landing in Bali at around 8:30am and were immediately confronted with reverse culture shock. As the doors opened into the main terminal we saw attractive, 20-something, American-looking guys. I'm not sure why exactly, but we just couldn't stop laughing and giggling. We're definitely not used to seeing such familiar faces back in Jogja, but we were acting as if we'd never seen them before in our lives. One of my friends was laughing so hard she cried!

After a quick taxi to our hotel, we walked around the Kuta beach area and did some shopping. We also walked down the famous Legian street that is know for shopping, bars, restaurants, and clubs. Then we settled in for an afternoon at the beach. Kuta is such a gorgeous beach despite being very crowded. The entire time you're there vendors are coming up to you and trying to sell you everything from fresh cut fruit and bracelets to a back massage. At times in can be quite annoying, but we did take advantage of some of the things they were selling. 

In the late afternoon, we arranged a driver to take us to Uluwatu temple. On the way there, our driver told us about Hinduism in Bali. While Indonesia is 90% Muslim, Bali is unique in that it's 90% Hindu. This is why tourists are free to dress as they please and modesty is not expected. It was really nice to be able to wear shorts and a tank top. The driver also explained that Bali is often called the "Land of a Thousand Temples", but he calls it the "Land of a Million Temples". This is because almost every house has its own little temple in addition to the larger, more famous temples. 

As we pulled into Uluwatu, our driver gave us a stern warning about the monkeys that roam the temple grounds. We were all instructed to take off all our jewelry and look out for our flip flops. This warning proved to be very real when a monkey tried to take off my flip flop as I was walking up the entrance stairs. I felt a tug at the back of my sandle and I had to use a lot of force to pull it away from the monkey. They're very sneaky little guys and they're way too smart. We also saw a little girl get her flip flops stolen and it was a traumatic event. A lot of crying and screaming. They often steal from tourists and won't give the item back until they are given food in return. The monkeys were literally everywhere at the temple. We were even looking over the edge at the cliffs and they would jump out of the bushes onto the wall next to us. 

The temple itself was amazing! It's situated on very high cliffs overlooking the ocean. It's supposed to be a great place for the sunset, but unfortunately it was cloudy when we were there. Despite the clouds, we stayed for the famous Balinese Kecak dance. We piled into a very crowded arena overlooking the cliffs to watch the dance. It's called Kecak (pronounced kech-ack) because around 50 men make music without instruments and basically repeat the word "chak" over and over again. The men all sat around a fire and dancers would come and go telling stories from the Ramayana. The dancers had beautiful costumes and were so methodical in their movements even down to the placement of their fingers. The dance lasted about an hour and we drove back to Kuta in the dark. 

The next morning we woke up early and headed to the beach. It was much sunnier than the day before and it was incredibly hot. We cooled down by swimming, which was a blast. The waves at Kuta are good for surfing, but if you swim closer in it's calm enough to swim. There were so many surfers of all different abilities, which made for great spectating. Even though we all came home with sunburns, the beach was so relaxing and just what we needed. 

We then met up with our driver again and he took us to two temples. The first was an inland temple called Purah Taman Ayun and we spent about 30 minutes walking around. The carvings and architecture were so ornate and beautiful! The second was the famous Tanah Lot temple where we went to watch the sunset. This time the weather cooperated, which made for an amazing view! It was the perfect way to end our short trip. 

Despite having to wake up at 4am this morning to travel and then go to work at 9am, I'm so happy we did this trip! I think we got a good flavor of Bali by seeing and doing a lot. However, 48 hours is definitely not enough time to see Bali and I really hope to return in the future. 

The entrance to our hotel called Fat Yogi Cottages. A great little hotel with a beautiful pool area. It was also conveniently located just a 5 minute walk away from the beach and an 8 minute walk from Legian street. 

Some of the offerings that line the streets of Bali. They're made up of flowers, food, and incense. 

A woman preparing the offerings

More offerings at Uluwatu temple. 

The type of gift stores that line the Kuta beach area. You have to barter a lot at these places because they try to rip tourists off like crazy. 

Me holding a snake! We came across this guy at a bar with his pet snake and he charged us $1 to hold him for a few minutes. Best $1 I've ever spent. 

The volcanic sand at Kuta beach at low tide 

Courtney getting a foot massage. These women are incredibly persistant and basically forced us into having a massage. They rub your feet until you agree to negotiate with them on a price. They scrubbed out feet with oils and a rock, which removed all the dead skin. A $3 pedicure right at our towel.  

The stunning view from Uluwatu temple

One of the sneaky monkeys at Uluwatu. This guy was definitely one of the head monkeys and he was very fat. 

A monkey looking over the cliffs. 

The beginning of the Kecak dance

More Kecak dance. It was very hard to take pictures because of all of the movement and light. 

A woman cutting up fresh pineapple for us at the beach. We got this for just $1. 

Delicious grilled corn with butter and spicy chili salt!

The sunset at Tanah Lot temple

Such a great end to the trip!

My Experiences with Ramadan

We are now 9 days into Ramadan here in Indonesia and it is truly all around me. Most of my friends  from the University of Gadja Mada (UGM) are Muslim and many of my co-workers are as well. This is not surprising because Indonesia has the largest population of Muslims of any country in the world. 88% of Indonesians identify as Muslim. Even through the smallest of daily interactions with people here, I am learning so much about this holy month.

Before this summer the only thing I really knew about Ramadan was that it was a month where Muslims fast. I didn't have a clear understanding of its purpose and I certainly couldn't fathom how people went without eating all day for an entire month. So as Ramadan was approaching, I had a lot questions for my new friends. I kept trying to gauge people's feelings towards the impending month of fasting. For me personally, I know I would be dreading such a difficult task.

However, for my Muslim friends and co-workers, Ramadan has always been their reality of life. Fasting all day is just part of the program. Many of them began partially fasting at the very young age of 6. They begin by training themselves to fast for half the day, usually until noon. Then anywhere from age 8-10 or 12 they begin fasting for the entire day and the entire month.

The "rules of the game" of Ramadan are that you cannot eat, drink, or smoke from sun-up to sun-down. In order to make it through the day, Muslims take a pre-fasting meal called Sahur, which usually begins around 3:30am. In addition to the usual call to prayer from the mosques 5 times each day, during Ramadan there is also a call to Sahur. This call is meant to wake the people out of bed for their pre-fasting meal. Then when the usual call to prayer is issued at sunrise, the people must stop eating and many people usually go back to sleep. Because we live so close to a mosque both these calls usually wake me up, but I am quickly able to fall back asleep.

During the first few days of Ramadan, I was also interested in whether or not people were hungry. The overwhelming feeling I got was that people were more thirsty than they were hungry. It is far more difficult to go without water in the hot and humid Indonesian climate than it is to go without food. When most of my friends break their fast, they first reach for water or tea and then move onto food.

The willpower of those around me has been amazing. At work, some of the people fasting sit with us at lunch as usual. They watch as I fill my plate with delicious and fragrant food and down glass after glass of water. Their urges are completely under control and they are able to carry on conversation as normal. It honestly makes me feel guilty about feeling hungry.

Yesterday, my office hosted a breaking of the fast for employees, neighbors, and friends of the organization. As always, all the AUA volunteers and our UGM friends were invited to join. Interfidei is incredibly welcoming to everyone. Before the breaking of the fast we had a man come in to give a lecture. He was an employee of one of the Islamic boarding schools nearby. There was no real translation given, but my UGM friend sat next to me and whispered translations in my ear as much as he could.

From my understanding, the presentation was about Ramadan and the media. The man said that the media has commercialized Ramadan, which makes people's understanding of Islam shallow. By having a Ramadan TV episode or a Ramadan special, it limits people's grasp on the traditions and practices of Ramadan to what they see on TV and in the media. This shallow perception of Islam, he argued, is just as bad as ignorance to the religion altogether  It can even be dangerous because it generates misunderstandings that might lead to violence.

I couldn't help but notice that this commercialization of holidays is a problem that is completely cross-cultural. For many in the United States, Christmas has become more about gifts, trees, and Santa than it is about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Media infiltration of holidays is not unique to the United States or Christianity, but is an important discussion in the Muslim world as well.

One last thing I will note is that it's not only Muslims fasting here. My friend Didi from UGM who is a Hindu is fasting. As is the director of Interfidei, Elga, who is a Christian. Elga explained to me that she fasts because she was always so in awe that Muslims could fast in the name of their God. She wondered if she could do the same in the name of her God. For many years she tried and mostly failed until she finally built up the ability to fast. Now she fasts for the entire month. This shows the universal holiness of this month for Indonesian people.

I'm so happy to be experiencing this month firsthand. I've gotten more of an understanding out of these first 9 days than I ever have learning in the classroom. Having already been to a breaking of the fast, I'm looking forward to partaking in other special Ramadan traditions. I'm especially looking forward to attending a Sahur with my UGM friends during one of my last days here.

Ramadan Mubarak!

A beginning of Ramadan parade we came across. 

They didn't even close the street for  the parade so they were marching alongside the traffic. 

Borobudur and Batik

Yesterday was our second of two AUA planned excursions. This time it ended up being an all girls trip because our Indonesian guy friends had other plans or slept through their alarms. Our single-sex group leant itself well to karaoke in the car. We belted out the words to tons of American songs and laughed at our collective horrible voices on the one-hour ride to Borobudur temple. 

Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Like the Hindu temple, Prambanan, it is also a UNESCO world heritage site. Dating from the 8th and 9th centuries, it is a truly impressive structure with three tiers. The name comes from two Sanskrit words and literally means "monastery on a hill". 

With a guide to lead us, we worked our way through the temple, climbing steep stairs and stopping to look at intricate carvings. All the way up, the views were absolutely breathtaking. The temple is set in a valley with mountains on all sides. These are called "Buddha mountains" and are also considered to be sacred. While there were a ton of tourists that definitely detracted from the view, it was still such an amazing place. Once we reached the top tier we caught sight of the iconic stupas that Borobudur is known for. They are bell-shaped because of the leaf of a particular tree brought over from India (unfortunately I don't remember the name of the tree). As you can see in the photo below, if you fold the bottom of the leaf up, you are left with the shape of the stupas.  

Inside each of these stupas is a Buddha statue. In total, Borobudur has 505 statues of Buddha, according to our guide. Once we had reached the top, it began to rain and so we headed back down the steep steps. On our way out we were harassed by vendors waiving their merchandise in our faces and yelling expressions in English. Luckily we've mastered how to say no thank you (Tidak, terima kasih). 

Next we hopped back in the van to head to lunch and batik-making. Lunch was at a restaurant that almost exclusively served mushrooms. They even had a wall where they grew mushrooms inside! Everyone really enjoyed it and it was a cool restaurant concept. 

The batik-making was definitely not my forte. I'm not very artistic and it can be a very frustrating process in general. The way it's made is you use a wooden tool with a small metal cup on the top of it. This metal cup empties into a thin opening that releases the liquid wax. It is very hot, so you have to hold newspaper underneath the cloth in order to not burn yourself. The most difficult part is getting an even flow of wax and not dripping all over the place. It is also hard because you have to have steady hands. 

Once you have made your pattern in wax on the cloth, they will dye it for you. I picked red, but it will take a few days to get back to us. Once going through this whole process, the batik is extremely durable. You can even wash it and the pattern and colors will stay in tact. I definitely have a new appreciation for batik. It's a very interesting and beautiful art form, but I will not be mastering it anytime soon. 

The view from the second tier of Borobudor. So many tourists! 

A stupah without a top on it. This is what the buddhas look like inside. Notice the beautiful Buddha mountains in the background! 

The iconic stupahs at Borobudur. 

A look at the inside of one of the stupahs. 

I stuck my entire camera inside the stupah to get this shot. 

A beautiful tree on the grounds of the temple

The whole group in front of the temple. As we did at Prambanan, we are wearing sarongs to show respect. 

About to start making my batik! Don't be fooled by this photo, I was actually quite frustrated. 

A closer look at the wax and tools used to make batik. We used electricity, however, the traditional method of heating the wax uses coal. First you dip the tool into the hot wax, but only fill it halfway. Then you wait and let the excess wax drip off and then begin tracing your pattern. 

No this wasn't done by a ten-year-old, it's my batik. You can see I'm not exactly an artist, but we'll see how it turns out.  It will be red cloth and all the designs in wax will be white.