Della in Jogja: 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.