As I type, Daniel is
sitting in our living room chair (which is weird because we always sit on the
floor) pondering how many houses we have entered in the past year, how many
different places we’ve eaten, and how many people we have met during our time
in Indonesia. All of these questions are impossible to answer but fun to think
about.
Small town Indonesia is different
than commercialized America in that everything is the same and yet different.
For example, Nasi Pecel (our area’s most famous food dish: rice, veggies, and
peanut sauce) is part of our life. Everyone talked about this dish and most eat
it more than once a day. We honestly eat nasi pecel at least 5 times a week and
yet each place we buy it from is a little different. One place is known for their
bitter papaya leaves, one for the spicy pecel sauce, one for the sprouts,
another lemon leaves. When we arrived, we couldn’t understand how anyone can
eat the same thing every day and still enjoy it, but now we do. If we haven’t
eaten pecel in a few days, we start craving it. Is it a cultural thing?
We recently enjoyed 2 weeks in
Bangkok, Thailand, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I (Paige)
absolutely loved Kuala Lumpur. The skyscrapers, 6 lane freeways, American
fast-food chains, and malls as big as the Cowboys Stadium; that place had it
all. I was even excited to see the toll road booths (and I hate Toll Roads). I
would never take myself as a “City Girl”; we have always tried to live our
lives prudently with the basic electronics, basic cars, small apartments, and
now no salary as we work for Peace Corps. Anytime we go on vacation, we like to
slum it and see the real life of the citizens, but I apparently have been
missing the glimmer of a huge city against the black sky.
Daniel preferred Vietnam, as it was
a closer mix of Indonesia and America. The city was jammed packed with
motorcycles and family run stores, but it was definitely more alive than what
we have seen in Surabaya, Indonesia. The streets were full of food stalls that
had everything from sandwiches, ice coffee, fresh spring rolls, and pork. Oh
man, the pork… We even had a chance to grab a drink at the Chill Bar about 40
floors up. Those kinds of luxuries are amazingly satisfying when we get to
indulge after not having the opportunity.
After all that, we still love living
in small town Indonesia and amazed from time to time how weird this experience
is. We are annoyed at times with the never ending “Misterrrrrrr” and laughing
that’s constantly concerning us, but then we try to remember that each one of
those encounters is a unique if not memorable moment for most people. I really
try to hide my annoyance on my bad days because I know, even though I probably
won’t remember them, they will remember me and my actions. Even though from the
surface level everything is the same here, I’ve learned that everything has its
tiny subtleties that make it wonderful.
After the time out of Indonesia we
came home to the end of Ramadan and the beginning of the most active Holiday
time in the Muslim culture, Idul Fitri. This was our second time to witness the
festivities, and we truly were able to join and be a part of it this year. No
we are not Muslim but outside of the Masjid/Mosque gathering time and prayer,
we walked around the neighborhood to tell everyone thanks for their help and
sorry for any inconveniences “Mohon Maaf”. It was really great having our
neighbors feel comfortable enough to enter our house and enjoy some homemade
cookies I had made. Two of our neighborhoods in particular made sure that we
were part of their family dinners. We would join together with as many as 50
family members in one house to eat a home cooked meal. Mbak Sarmi, a lady in
her late 80’s introduced us to her many kids, grandchildren, and probably great
grandchildren as if we were one of her own. Pak Bangbang would run over to our
house no matter what time of day to let us know another family member had
arrived and it was time to eat again.
Idul Fitri, first day after the fasting month, is declared by the
government since the Muslim calendar is different from the standard one. As the
announcement was made on a Saturday night we were serving Pak Teo and his
family hamburgers to welcome the family who were home for the holiday. It was a
great moment watching them eat an American style meal for the first time.
Although slightly confused they all finished the meal and asked when the next
time would be.
Before the holiday time was over and
time for the school semester to begin we used the last few day to hike Lawu
Mountain with 5 other volunteer friends and Heru. After roughly 7 hours, 2 of
which we all about froze, we made the summit in time for a beautiful sunrise
over a sea of clouds. The summits we have seen here are amazing due to the
surrounding volcanoes peaking above the clouds as if we are in another world.
After the hike we hosted the others and enjoyed showing them our community
while enjoying some delicious food.
We will be coming home for
Christmas, and curious what we see, think, and feel about what we
used to call normal. Now Nasi Pecel 5 times a week is normal, so we’ll probably
go into over stimulation overload being around the abundance and variation of
America. In the meantime, we continue to enjoy and learn as much as possible from
our community and this culture. Trying to soak them up like a sponge and
hopefully combine the past and present to make a strong future.
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