Nongkrong {hanging out doing nothing}

The other day I took a walk through my neighborhood. It had been awhile since I had been out and tried to interact with my neighbors and be visible in the community. So I left my house with my camera, not sure where exactly I was headed. I ended up walking around and snapped a few photos of daily life.

Rice fields... always in different stages of growth

I walked up upon this group hanging out by the side of the road.
I love this old man and the little boys together.

He's got a pretty good Indonesian squat (which I personally find very difficult to do).

You would think they were watching something cool happen, sitting there together.
But actually I think they were just chilling and watching this- an empty rice field.
The word nongkrong in Indonesian literally translates 'sitting around doing nothing'.
Pretty sure they have this mastered... and perhaps I could learn something from them.

As I continued walking the sun started to set and I was awestruck by
the beauty that surrounded me. It spoke to my heart and to my soul.
Life has been so busy and I rush around failing to just stop and take in the good gifts God gives.
I need a little more nongkrong in my life,
especially if it involves sitting and doing nothing but enjoying things like this.

As I was out walking it started sprinkling so I decided to turn back toward home.
Suddenly it started raining harder and then started pouring.
As I got nearer to my house my neighbors had already all returned home.
Indonesians really don't like being out in the rain or being wet.
Huddled together on their porches, out of the rain, they made comments to me as I passed by.
"Hujan!" they exclaimed. Yes it is raining. I know. I am walking through it and very wet from it.
But that didn't stop them from informing me anyway. I have yet to understand why they like to state the obvious. Clearly I know it is raining but they will always tell me anyway.

starting over

Biru {blue}

The other day my 7th grade class decided that it was blue day. They talked amongst themselves and contacted each other the night before. They all wore these bright blue shirts that they had gotten at a retreat. I looked up as they were taking their math test and realized they were all matching. Cracks me up.

Macet {traffic}

This is my life...

Reflections

I have been pondering life lately...
in the few moments of thinking time that I can fit in these days.

I know it has been awhile since I updated this blog. Some of that comes from a severe lack of time. But another part of that has been a intentional choice to refrain.

It seems sometimes that technology and electronic communication overtake us and suck us into a false reality. It takes away from the genuineness of our actual relationships. We spend more time connecting with people in virtual reality than in real life, face-to-face interactions. I am not sure what to do with this but it has spurred me to want to live in the present, in community with the people around me, instead of searching for meaning and recognition from an artificial world or electronic friends.

In the meantime life continues rolling by, filled with simple moments of kampung life and daily living.

Like the other day when I was on my way to school and a little boy was standing on the side of the road. He could not have been older than 4. When he saw me passing by he stopped, kind of got down in a squatted position with his butt sticking out. He stuck his finger out at me, pointing and staring me down until I was out of sight.

Another morning down the road a little further an older man was standing in the middle of our dirt road in nothing but his boxers. He looked a little lost. Perhaps he had just woken up and stumbled outside. Standing there in a daze, he seemed to be trying to remember what it was he came outside for.

Yesterday on my way out in the afternoon, I looked over down the small path that is across from my house. Outside one of the houses was a girl in maybe 4th grade wrapped in a towel. She looked like she had just finished with her afternoon mandi (bucket bath). I have no idea why she was standing outside but she was.

Today I came home from school to find they had harvested what I affectionately call "our rice field." There is a small field that sits right in front of our house. I claim ownership over it even though I take no part in the labor involved in making the rice grow. Over the past few months we have watched it go from small little sprouts to tall stalks of bright green. But now it has all been chopped down and the field lays barren and brown.

Just some random reflections of life here in the kampung.

Bekk and Adam are getting married!

Some good friends here recently got engaged.
Adam is from Alaska and Bekk is from Australia.
They met here in Bandung and have been dating for the past year.
We are so excited for them!
Their plan is to get married here over spring break and
their families will come to Indonesia for the wedding.

To celebrate their engagement we gathered for a picnic in Bekk's backyard.
We drank homemade chi tea
Ate yummy treats.
Chatted, laughed, and soaked up the sun.
It is so fun to celebrate life moments like these with good friends.
And it is a reminder to me of the importance of living life in community.

Here are a few pics of the fun:

Picnicing is the perfect way to celebrate
and the perfect way to spend a saturday afternoon.

Bekk has a strange teletubbie statue in her backyard.
Charity and I look on puzzled and a little frightened.

Lots and lots of laughs

Bekk and her sister team up to try moving it out of the way
so we can party without the creepy statue looming.

Bekk tells the story of how she proposed to Adam, in a way that only she could.

Botram {potluck}

Thought I would share a little bit more about our staff picnic we had a couple weeks ago. We had about 90 of our staff show up- both Indonesian and bule (american). We went to this really cool place that had big grass fields, a large pond filled with fish, a zip line, and a covered picnic area perfect as shelter from the rain. We picniced Indonesian style. They call it botram. Everybody brings their own food and a little to share. We sat around on woven mats in little family groups. Then you go around tasting what everyone else brought. Kind of like potluck but everyone keeps their own food and waits for others to come to them to try what they have. At the beginning they guys got a game of soccer going and some volleyball while the kids played in the fish pond (they were trying to pull the fish out of the water), and the woman sat around chatting. Then after we ate and it started raining we played some intense games of crab soccer under the roof. It was a very fun day to hang out as a staff outside of school and just be together.

finding time to breath

It has been so busy around here lately.
I have found myself running here, there, and everywhere.
The calendar is packed full and there does not seem to be any reprieve any time soon.
It has been hard to find time to breath in the midst of it all.

This morning I read, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Oh, how true that is.

This evening heavy rains have come again and it is pouring outside.

A couple of weeks ago our staff gathered for a picnic.
Here's some proof that we have been getting lots of rain lately:

Selesai {finished}

Ramadan is finally over. For some reason it was a tough season for me this year. You really have to reorient your whole life so that you do not eat or drink in front of anyone all day. Especially in our little house in the kampung. It felt like we were hiding behind our door and curtains- perhaps because we were.

The last night of Ramadan was a crazy one. The neighborhood stayed up all night and partied. The prayers were going off on the loud speaker, chanting and singing and sometimes just someone speaking. Occasionally they would have a drum session and music would fill the air. Throughout the night fireworks were continuously being set off.

But personally I think if you successfully fast- from food and water- from sun up (6am) to sun down (6pm) every day for a month you have every right to party it up.

All that to say, I am glad Ramadan is finished. I feel a new sense of freedom as I am sure my neighbors do as well.

In other news we are getting lots of rain these days. It seems there won't be a dry season for us this year. It is suppose to quit raining in April or May until about October or November so we can dry out before raining season starts up again for the rest of the year. Looks like that won't be the case this year. It just keeps raining. Guess that means we will have lots of green hills.

Sawah {rice field}

I am obsessed with rice. Both eating it and watching it grow.
My neighborhood is surrounded by rice fields. In every nook and cranny it seems
that someone has planted some rice- across the street, in between houses,
along the road, in every patch of empty space.

I find it absolutely breathtaking.
I am amazed at how green the fields are, from the time they are planted
with little tiny bundles until it grows up tall and bushy. Only in the very final stage
does it begin to turn golden brown and then you know it is time for harvest.

This morning on my way to school the air was crisp
and the sun was shinning
and the rice fields were glowing.
Little water droplets clung to the tips of each individual blade.

And somehow it seemed that all was right with the world.

Village Life

Just another day in the kampung

A friend asked me the other day, "How's life in the village?" I just had to sigh. Some days it is more fun than others. Sometimes you realize the benefits of not having everyone know all the details of your life and keeping track of your coming and going. The benefits of going wherever and doing whatever. The benefit of not getting stopped every time you enter or exit your house by the landlord who lives across the street and wants to talk or the neighbor who lives next door and wants to know where you are going and where the rest of your roommates are.

This afternoon my roommate and I took a short walk through the neighborhood and stumbled upon a large group of women and children hanging out. We struck up simple conversation with them. They asked us where we were going, where we lived, our names, etc. The crowd slowly grew larger as more kids gathered and more women came out of their homes. It is amazing to me how many people can be living in seemingly such a small area. Suddenly we had a whole group of people standing around us just starring, like we were a spectacle and unlike anything they had seen before. They did not know what to say and honestly neither did we. We spent a few minutes trying to play with the kids and teach them a hand game- one of those where you stand in a circle, sing a song, and people get out if they are the last one to get the slap. Quickly though the sun began to set and it was time for everyone to go home. There was talk of "let's do this again," "see you later," "come to my house to visit tomorrow" and then the crowd dispersed.

Oh village life, some days you overwhelm me.

Anak-anak {kids}

Kids are everywhere in the kampung. Sometimes I wonder where they come from and who they belong to. They wander along the streets, waving hi and smiling as I pass by in the mornings or afternoons. The other day I heard our front gate open and expected that my roommate had just come home. When I peaked out the window I saw a group of kids playing on our front porch. I went out to say hello but they quickly scurried off. As cute as they are, Indoneisan kids tend to be very shy.

These are my next door neighbors. The little guy's name is Radit.
Most Indonesian kids are quite shy, but not him. He lets me hold him and play with him.

A friend took this picture.
Indonesian kids are so beautiful!

Bola Voli {volleyball}

Ever since moving in, our neighbor has been talking about volleyball. He asked us if we play. None of us do. But we said we would be willing. He took that as a green light and told us to get a group together from the school. Everyday he pestered us, wanting to know when we could do it. We finally agreed on a Sunday afternoon. He said he would get a local team together to play us. Everyday he would stop us on the way in or out of our house and ask again about volleyball. The Saturday before we were set to play he caught me in the driveway. "Can we play this morning?" he asked. No. "How about this afternoon?" No. "Sunday morning?" No. I reminded him again that we agreed on Sunday afternoon. I recruited some of our female staff at school and we gathered at our house, then our neighbor led us to the court. After walking a ways down a small road, he led us to a dirt court on the edge of a different kampung. There we found a team of local woman as well as a small crowd that had gathered to watch the game. We knew we were in trouble as they started warming up. These woman were serious. They play every afternoon, just for fun. We on the other hand had a whole team of bules (white people) who were willing to play but had no skills. After one game of us vs. them, it became obvious who the reigning champs would be. They beat us so quickly and so badly, that the next round they decided we should mix up the teams. This provided a more well matched competition and we played half a dozen games like this before calling it quits. Perhaps one thing I will gain this year is some new skills in volleyball. I have no doubt we will play again many times before the year is up.

Our bule team

The local competition

Not prepared for what we are getting ourselves into.

I am so bad at volleyball it's pathetic.

Some new friends look on.

Everyone gathers for a group shot.

We stood around talking and laughing afterward, mostly at how bad we were.

Sumur {well}

Sometimes it is the simple things in life that we take for granted. Or perhaps not even the simple things but the basic things.

We have been having ongoing water issues at our house this past week. Our well that provides water to our house (and keeps us from having to pay any sort of water bill) has been having one issue after another.

The afternoon before the first day of school I arrived home to find our landlord standing by the front door, waiting impatiently for one of us to turn up. He quickly informed me that we do not have water and should find a friend in Kota Baru who does and go bathe there. I smiled and listened while he filled me in on all the details of the problem, not understanding 90% of what he was saying. Later my roommate came home and got the complete story. She firmly insisted that we needed to have water to bathe the next day as school was starting. So he brought us some water from his well and we gave up on the idea of hot water showers for the first day of school. Unfortunately, the water we did have was a bit murky. I kind of felt dirtier after bathing in it than if I had not bathed at all. He spent all the next day working at our house and it seemed like everything was fixed. We enjoyed a couple days of normal working water.

The next night, my roommates and I were sitting around upstairs when all of a sudden mati lampu, all the power went out. Not just in our house but the whole neighborhood. We scrambled around in the dark to find flashlights and went our separate ways to bed. There is not much you can do once the lights go out, especially when it is already late and an early morning awaits the next day. As I lay in bed the sound of a guitar playing softly drifted in through my window. My neighbor, also having nothing to do with the power out, was sitting outside playing the guitar and occasionally singing along. I lay there for awhile, unable to sleep, serenaded by the music.

Yesterday we were back to the same water problems- none. We had a couple buckets left over with water so we bucket bathed. This time all the dirt had settled to the bottom and the water was a bit cleaner. I was not in the mood for a cold shower so I heated some of the water on the stove to mix in, creating at least lukewarm water. This evening the problem persisted so our landlord stole everyone’s hoses in the neighborhood, connected them all together, and ran it from his well to our back porch- filling half a dozen buckets full of water.

So for all of you out there with running water and power that does not randomly die, be thankful today for the consistency of these things. They are so easily taken for granted.

And tonight I am thankful for a very kind neighbor who is so eager to help, even if it might mean he gives us all the water he has from his well and is left with none.

Mekar Pananjung

Welcome to my neighborhood.

Each kampung has a gapura (or gateway) marking off the area,
telling its name, and the number associated with it.

The name of my kampung is Mekar Pananjung.
Our house is right next to the gapura that you go through to enter.
There is one main road, with many house sprouting off from it.

I don't actually have an address. No street name or house number.
Just find your way to Mekar Pananjung and ask for the bules (white people).
You'll be able to find me.

Lots of motor bike traffic. Everyone trying to get home to break fast at sunset.

The same road going the other direction.