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.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Ramadan

Well, I am back at work and have quickly realized that summer is over. After getting here and settling into my house, I spent time soaking in the last days of summer and LOVING it. Sleeping in, staying in my pajamas til 10, sometimes 12, reading, hanging out with friends, long dinners filled with much laughter. But all of that ended yesterday when all the teachers went back to work to start getting ready for the students to come. School starts again on Monday, August 16th.

The fasting month, called Ramadan, also started yesterday. For the next thirty days most Indonesians will be fasting, both food and water, from sunrise to sunset. This means that they get up really early to eat a big meal before the first call to prayer. They also gather after the sun sets at 6pm to "buka puasa" or break fast together as families and eat another large meal.

These cultural traditions have never been so real to me as they have over the past couple days now that we live in the kampung. Our neighbors, who I can hear crystal clear through my bedroom window, began the first day of Ramadan by shooting off fireworks, making lots of noise, and calling for everyone in the neighborhood to get up so that they could make sure to eat before sunrise. After being awoken by all of this, I looked at my clock and it was 3:30am. I was tempted to go out and join them but opted to just lay in bed, awake and unable to go back to sleep.

Last night I was awoken a little after 2am, not to noise outside my window, but to the realization that my bed was shaking and quite hard. It took me a few seconds and then I realized that we were having an earthquake. It felt like it lasted a long time and as soon as it was over I could hear all my neighbors pouring out of their houses (which is a typical response for Indonesians to have to an earthquake) and begin chatting in the street. Then just a couple hours later they were all up again, calling everyone to start their day and eat.

It is going to be an interesting month. Please pray for good rest for me, especially as the school year gets started so soon. And pray for us as we respond to our friends and neighbors during this month of fasting.

Rumah Baru {new house}

The day after I arrived back here, my roommate and I went to the paint store, had my room painted, and hung curtains. A week after arriving, we already had the whole inside of our new house painted with a fresh coat of paint. Now two weeks later, we are all moved in and settled in and I am loving my new house. I thought I would give you a tour so you can have a picture of where I live.

This is the road that I live on. At the very end is my house.

Here's my lovely little house in the kampung.

This is the first room that you see when you enter. It's very Indonesian to have a
front sitting room where you can host visitors. This furniture is also very Indonesian. :)

There is a door that shuts off the front sitting room from the rest of the house.
This is what you see next as you enter through there- a more casual living room.

Going out the back door you'll find our back patio. Our landlord put lots of plants-
because we are women, he said. Also, back here is a small guest bedroom
(to the right) and very small bathroom (to the left).

Here's my room, which is downstairs and the largest room in the house.
My window faces the street so the curtains are imperative for privacy. :)

Our house has two levels. Here is the view of the living room/dinning area from upstairs.

Here's our kitchen and a view of the stairs, along with our beautiful chandelier-
also very Indonesian. :)

Going upstairs, there are two small bedrooms.
This is the upstairs bathroom that my roommates share.
The big basin is normally filled with water and local Indonesians would bucket bathe
from that. As you can see we had a normal shower installed and a hot water heater,
along with a western style toilet to replace the more common squat pot.

Our upstairs "study"- We transformed this small room into a little sitting area.

Outside from that room is our balcony/upstairs porch area.
It's perfect for sitting and admiring the beautiful view.

It also doubles as a laundry area.

This is Pak Ian's house. He is our landlord and neighbor across the way. He has been great so far at helping us get settled in and is our regular "fix-it" man.

Oh, ya and a motor bike passing by- a very frequent occurrence.
If you look closely there is a family of four on it.