Mulih k' Desa

Melih k' Desa loosely translated means "return to the village" or "return home." Desa is my new favorite word meaning village or countryside. I'm not from the desa (or country) but I definitely want to return to it. A couple weekends ago we went on vacation to a city called Garut and stayed at a resort place named "Mulih k' Desa." It hosts people who are wanting to experience Sundanese culture, on a little bit of a nicer scale. We went with a couple whose kids go to our school and who are involved in a lot of work with the Sundanese people. At this place we stayed in traditional looking bungalows but with nice beds and hot showers inside. It was so nice to get away, relax a bit and have fun together. We signed up for the hotel's leadership program or team building activities where we did some silly games together. One of them was playing tug of war in the mud. Another one involved us balancing across a bamboo pole over a large pit of mud. More than half of us didn't make it across and ended up falling in and coming out pretty dirty. We got to learn how to plant rice and later went out to another field where we saw the end product and watched as it was being harvested. I was told by the man who was leading our group that I was the best rice planter... perhaps this might be a calling of mine. :) We sat outside on the porch of our bungalow looking at the rice patties, watching to see if our rice might grow, and enjoying quality conversation. We went to the pasar (traditional market), where the women found some cool tin dishes and the men bought machetes. We sat on the floor in open air huts and ate traditional meals. One night we went to a nearby hot springs, where there were two pools. One was hot and the other one was HOT. The smaller pool had the hottest water I have ever felt in my life. You could barely put your legs in, let alone get all the way in to sit in it. At the hot springs a few in our group decided to draw some attention and sing karaoke for all the people that were there. One played the piano while the other two sang. Another night we had a bonfire and layed around staring at the stars. We saw a lot of shooting stars and tried to spot the constellations because we had a star expert in our group or at least someone who had brought along a map of the constellations. On Sunday we gathered for some fellowship. Then before leaving the couple who had planned the trip had also prepared a scavenger hunt of sorts for us to do. We split into two groups to go out into the surrounding neighborhoods. We were given a wide variety of tasks to complete, worth different amounts of points, that had to be documented with photographs. The tasks ranged from things like plucking a feather from a chicken, catching a tadpole, and holding a baby under 5 months old to things like playing a traditional instrument, hearing a story from someone who has seen a ghost, and getting a signature from a midwife. We had a lot of fun trying to see how many we could accomplish and hang out with some local Sundanese people. They truly are generous people with such beautiful hearts.

Here are just a few snapshots of all that our weekend held. More pictures to come once I get the Picasa WebAlbum finished.