view from the snack table

Beyond the trees is the ocean. A gorgeous setting for my first day on holiday. These ponds are stocked with fish. To get to this restaurant, which are platforms over the ponds with wooden tables, you take a long, dirty road. But the food and view were worth it!

Snack time

Here we are eating this afternoon, outside over water, right near the beach. Doesn't Regina look just like her mom?!

Americana in Jakarta

I know it shouldn't surprise me but....found Krispy Kreme in a Jakarata mall. Don't know what bothered me more - seeing the establishment or the message!

First Day in Manando

My hotel is called the Formosa and is directly across from the ocean. Unfortunately food stalls block the view, and there is no beach, just rocks. However, tomorrow we are going to a place that has a beach. I am so thrilled to be near water, I watched an amazing sunset, and had a wonderful day meeting Regina's family. She looks just like her mom and both of her brothers. We went to a noodle restaurant for breakfast - enak (delicious) and then to a place by the ocean for a snack. We always seem to be eating! Regina's parents' car kept stalling out on us and eventually we had to leave it and get a ride home with Regina's brother. It is always an adventure travelling with Regina.

Lebaran Holiday

Idul Fitri, more commonly referred to in Indonesia as Lebaran, is the celebration that comes at the end of the Muslim month of fasting, Ramadhan. The Arabic meaning of Idul Fitri is “becoming holy again”. Lebaran will fall on October 1st and 2nd this year - so we have a long vacation! It seems strange to be having a long holiday in October, and stranger still that it's not cooling down. Amazing how accustomed I am to the change of seasons.
Strongly held traditions to visit family at this time necessitate the exodus of 3 1/2 million (yes million!) people from Jakarta alone, as well as additional millions from other urban centers, to rural villages and hometowns for the Lebaran holiday. The logistics of this exodus cause headaches for the government each year. During this period the streets in Jakarta are nearly empty as the population decreases by nearly one third. The hardships and inconveniences endured by the travelers in overcrowded buses, trains and cars is unbelievable, yet they feel that this is a small price to pay to spend the holidays with their family and friends. Traditionally these urban dwellers come bearing gifts or money earned during the previous year for their family.
I'll be joining the exodus. I am leaving today (Saturday) to go to a city called Manando, which is located on the island of Sulowesi. Sulowesi is the island that is shaped like a k with a squiggle on top. I'm taking a train to Jakarta and then a bus to the airport and will fly out this evening. I'm amazed at how large Indonesia really is - and how inaccessible many places are.
I am going with Regina and her family - Regina is from this island. I will be staying at a hotel, while her family stays with her mother and father. Rumor has it that the hotel has a hot shower! If it has a flushing toilet- I may never leave the hotel room.
I am hoping to get in some beach time, and go snorkeling, since the island has a coral reef, and many people go their for diving.
As I've told some of you, the food in Manando is very different. They eat snake, wild hog, bats, and dogs. I think I'll be sticking to rice and vegetables.
I will keep you posted as I enjoy my holiday.

Spelling Bee

This is the final round! The two previous rounds were paper and pencil tests. During those tests, we the audience were relegated to sitting in the parking lot under a canopy. They started with 28 contestants (2nd and 3rd graders). Now the final round is like jeopardy - they have a buzzer and a microphone. They get three points if they spell it correct. Livia (the first girl on the far left) was very quick with the buzzer, so she accumulated points quickly. Tasha, in the middle held her own. The other contestants barely hit the buzzer. The contest began at 8:30 in the morning and went until 3:00 in the afternoon.

The winning contestants

Abdul (the other American) is presenting the winners with their prize money and trophies. First place goes to Livia (one of my students) Second place goes to Tasha (Regina's daughter and also one of my students).

Warung

This is the "kitchen" of the warung - food stall where we ate last Thursday. In the big pot at the bottom of the picture are your choices; hard boiled eggs, boiled potatoes, breaded, steamed fish, and steamed cabbage. You then can either have them boiled or fried in the huge wok next to the pot (not pictured). I tried some steamed and some fried, but I could not try fried hard boiled eggs- I left that up to Regina and her son Jason. The food comes with a variety of sauces, both sweet and spicy.(bottles are in the front of the cart, to the left. ) The cook/owner then brings the food to you as you sit on plasic chairs around a wooden table, right on the side walk. He sat and smoked a cigarette while we ate. If you want more - you just get up and pick out which item from the pot.

Thursday Night Dining

After quite a long day of creating Medy's exams with Regina, we went to a warung- which is a basic food stall that lines many of the streets in Indonesia. The food is very good, although not healthy. The atmosphere is created by watching the people in the street, or in this case, we had a young lady with a microphone and boom box who sang - until we gave her money to leave! See how short the hair is- and it's been a couple of weeks

Exans Indonesian style

This has been a very busy week and a half, unfortunately, not with many “fun” expeditions. Rather, I have been creating exams for second and third graders that are scheduled to last 2 ½ hours. The children come at 7:15 and leave at 10:00 a.m. This proves difficult when you factor in language restrictions as you try to create a science exam that is about animals in their various habitats. Or you have student like Alfian, who tell me that his brain is broken and he can’t do the exam!
Compounding that, I’ve been creating and running off my co-teacher’s exams as she has been hospitalized. Medy has not been able to keep any food or liquid down for the past two weeks of her 8 weeks of pregnancy, so her doctor put her in the hospital to receive nourishment via I.V.
I’ve not been sleeping well, so I am up and ready to go long before Pak Toto (the driver) picks me up at 6:00 am. So I began walking to school. It’s light and somewhat cool at 5:30 in the morning, and the school is about ½ hour walk from my house. I get to see a quieter Cirebon. There are becak drivers who have 8 or 9 huge blocks of ice stacked in their becak as they laboriously pedal to their destinations. I’m fascinated and wonder how much ice melts during the journey.
I’ve also begun to walk around a track that is part of a military base next to the school. After school, when it’s slightly cooler, I head over and walk for about 20 minutes. I’ve attracted a “gaggle” of little ones, who at first were shy and would only peek over the dirt mounds that line the track. They remind me of the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy’s house lands on the wicked witch in Munchkin land. After a few times around the track they began to pop out and became bolder, waving and saying hello. Now we all look forward to my daily walk.

Family gathering

After the Bethesda party we went out to dinner. These are cousins of Tasha's and Jason's: Violetta is next to Tasha and Debbie is the young girl with the two fingers in the air. Her mother died, and her father didn't want her (unfortunately very common here) and she was going to go into an orphanage. I'm not sure which relative adopted her , she is a delightful young girl with a quick smile and now she goes to our school.

Bethesda foundation

Relatives of Deny's, Pak Chaundra and Ibu Irene have an eighteen year old son with spina bifida. 11 years ago they started the Bethesda organization which helps children from Cirebon and far away with both physical and mental disabilities. Yesterday (Saturday) they had a the 11th anniversary party. These young bamboo players all are mentally challenged yet it brought tears to my eyes how hard they performed and how delighted they were with their performance. Other children sang, (wind beneath my feet was a popular tune) and some read. There are no government agencies that help these children or their families, they are often poor and isolated. There was a remarkable feeling of strength in that room.

Bethesda t-shirt

This is the t-shirt that the children and the workers for this organization wore during the festivities. I loved it so much that Ibu Irene gave me my very own.

clams

Hard to believe that these tiny shells have delicious clams in side. The small shell is actually quite pretty, and nothing like we have on the east coast. When I explained to Regina we don't eat the ones that are not open - she said they just open the ones that are not opened. I opted to only eat the open ones.

crabs

Regina and I love crabs so we were excited to see these being sold at the stall. Very expensive and very light - no meat at all. My niece Devin would have been very disappointed!
It's not tomato sauce but chili sauce that they are cooked in and then put over rice.

Food stall at the mosque

During Ramadan the field in front of the huge mosque is turned into a food stall frenzy. From 3:00 pm until they sell out the Muslims set up different food stalls so that Muslims and others can buy the food to break the fast. This gentleman was frying some vegetables for me. Sanitary conditions are optional - in all the food stalls. But the food is enak! (delicious)

Paying Bills the Indonesian Way

I can’t believe I’ve been here 2 ½ months already and I think I’ve finally figured out the way to pay my bills.

I am responsible to pay for my own electric, telephone, water, internet, security and garbage removal.

First, the relatively simple ones- the security and garbage removal. Or at least it should be relatively simple. The guards come and knock on your door around the 8th of the month requesting the payment of 40,000 rupiahs. Not an unreasonable sum at all since it translates into $4.00 a month. However, for the past three collection cycles, the guards have knocked not on my door, but the other American’s door, Anna. She has repeatedly told them to come to me to collect the fee, but it appears that they are “shy”. Which leads me to wonder – if I need security help in anyway – are they going to be to “shy” to respond? So each month, Anna pays both her fee and my fee, then I reimburse Anna.

Now, on to the other bills. The water, electric, internet and phone companies do not send out monthly paper statements. What people do is go to the different companies, wait in line to see how much they owe, and then hopefully, they have enough to cover the bill. If not, they come back and pay the next day. Or, for those of us working, you can hook up with someone to pay your bills for you (for a nominal fee, of course). So for the first two months, I gave a high percentage of my weekly pay to a stranger (who came recommended, but a stranger, nevertheless) who then took my money and brought back the “change”. Call me crazy, but this went against my grain.

Talking with Regina, she informed me that I could pay my bills online. Now we’re talking, where do I sign up? As with many things in Indonesia, it is a process. First I needed to activate my debit card via the ATM machine. Next, I had to apply for and pay for a keypad to pay my bills. Finally I had to get the keypad, which required me to go visit two banks sites before I was given the keypad. When I finally was handed the keypad, I was also handed the instructions booklet. Which of course, was written in Bahasa. When I asked if they had an English version, the bank teller could only respond, “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
This took an entire month to complete, so once again, I gave the stranger my hard-earned money and off he drove on his motorcycle.

This past Saturday, I was bound and determined to get the bills paid on-line. Regina sat with me and explained the process, and I was good to go!

Not so fast! It appears that out of the five bills that I must pay each month only three of them can be paid on line. The one that baffles me the most – I can’t pay my internet bill via the internet. Go figure.

So, I am back to paying the bills the Indonesian way – handing my money to a stranger who will then pay, and perhaps return change or need more money each month…..it takes bill paying to a new level of adventure. Anyone in need of a keypad? Used only once…..like new.

Friday night fine dining

As another workweek wound down, that involved construction directly outside my classroom, as I was attempting to teach. By 3:30 I had a headache from the banging of metal, and the drilling into the wall When the plaster directly over my computer came down in chunks and dust covered the computer and me I knew it was time to get out of the classroom and kick back.
Also as many of you know – I like a good bargain, so I emailed Regina and said let’s go for the 2 for 1 deal at a local dining establishment. We had to be at the restaurant before five to partake in their special so we quickly closed up shop and were on our way.

As we pulled into the parking lot – it was virtually empty. I thought perhaps it was closed for some reason. Regina explained that due to Ramadan there would be very few customers until after 6:00 p.m. Also the curtains were drawn so that passing by Muslims would not see people eating. This is a restaurant people frequently dress up to visit they think that highly of their Pizza Hut.

Regina also decided to have me practice my Indonesia but when I went to order the menu is completely in English. Like a fool I asked “How do you say calzone” in Indonesian? Simultaneously Regina and her daughter responded “calzone. I ordered a mushroom calzone. What was I thinking??????? Out came this pastry puff which the three of us were going to share. They gave me the middle piece – which had a boiled egg in it. There was a cream paste and one mushroom. I don’t know why I thought it was going to be anything like a real calzone. That will teach me.

However, we did also have “cakes on parade” (also in English- so I knew how to order it!) and one of the three small pieces of cakes was an avocado cheese cake. Avocados are very popular here, and in fact there is an avocado drink called juice alpokat. It consists of chocolate milk and crushed ice, avocados and sugar. I have not tried it yet, but plan on it.

So the next time you pass a Pizza Hut, or frequent the restaurant – remember calzones are not always calzones.

While you are enjoying the end of Labor Day weekend, the Muslim month of fasting, or Ramadan began here. At l: 00 a.m. Monday morning, I was awakened by the banging on pots by young boys walking around the neighborhood. Muslims who fast awaken this early to prepare and eat a meal before sunrise. Daily fasts begin at dawn and end at sunset. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims must refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, marital relations or getting angry during the daylight hours. In addition, those fasting are supposed to refrain from bad habits - lying, getting angry, and using bad language as well as to be more diligent in prayer and give to charities. It is believed that fasting heightens spirituality and develops self-control.

I’ve immediately noticed changes .First, all the schools, including ours are closed for the students for the first three days of Ramadan. It is courteous to refrain from eating and drinking in public during the daylight hours of Ramadan, so I’ve been quietly eating in my classroom. Restaurants are less busy at lunch, and some places may even draw their curtains so as not to disturb those who are fasting, many of the food stalls along the roads were closed during the day- only to open and stay open throughout most of the night.
After sunset, the fast is broken by consuming a sweet snack and drink. Often it is a date or two (they are stockpiled in the grocery stores, much like candy canes and peeps) or kolak and cendol. I've eaten the dates - I'll keep you posted if I try the other two sweet treats.

Another popular way to break the fast

Kolak, the most famous snack during Ramadan, is made of vegetables (such as sweet potatoes, or mung beans) or fruit (banana, pumpkin or jackfruit) and then stewed in coconut milk and palm sugar.

Cendol

A popular snack to break the fast is cendol. The dessert's basic ingredients consist of shaved ice, coconut milk, starch noodles with green food coloring and palm sugar. Red beans, glutinous rice, grass jelly, and creamed corn are optional additions.

An Evening at the Kraton

One night, Anna invited me along with her mother to attend an event at one of Cirebon’s three kratons. A kraton is the Indonesian word for palace. Now while that word may conjure pictures of opulence and refinement this is not the case. While the courtyard was beautiful, the remaining buildings of the compound are in various levels of disarray. The sultan has no real power, and relies on the government’s meager funds and whatever he can garnish from tour groups. The night I attended it was with a Japanese tour group.

First there was the gamelan. A gamelan is a musical ensemble of Indonesia typically featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums, and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings, and vocalists may also be included.
The term refers more to the set of instruments than the players of those instruments. A gamelan as a set of instruments is a distinct entity, built and tuned to stay together — instruments from different gamelan are not interchangeable. Anna began to play gamelan when she was in college in the States, and her husband is a very accomplished musician so they both performed during the festivities.

Next came the food. The snacks are what were most intriguing to me. As you sat in very ornate chairs you were served a very sweet ginger tea. I’m still not accustomed to drinking something piping hot while it 90 degrees outside, but I must admit that it is wonderful. It was also very soothing for my sore throat that I had at the time.
The boiled peanuts in a bowl were passed out next, followed by boiled potatoes. These were the snack we nibbled on as we listened to the gamelan and watched the dance performances.

The dance that most intrigued me was the trance dance. This is a performance that is said to communicate with the spirits. Trance performances are common throughout Indonesia. The dukun (ritual specialist in dealing with spirits and cures) with incense and hand motions called the appropriate spirit into the young female dancer. As the performer danced in a trance money was thrown at her and she would faint. The male performers were there to catch her.

Eats and Treats II

Now that I’ve got my appetite back- I have to make up for lost time. Here is one soup that I’ve had a couple of times and it is very spicy and very good.
Tom Yum Goong - Sour & Spicy Lemongrass Shrimp Soup. It is a clear sour soup which is flavored with fresh lemon grass and kaffir lime leaf. The most well-known version uses shrimp.