It began Thursday night with a dinner at the US Consulate. A few area ETAs were invited to the Consular General's residence to meet different locals, US government employees and ex-pats. The house was absolutely gorgeous and everyone was friendly. We all did some good networking and, if I can be presumptuous, made some new friends, too.
Bright and early the next morning (no school on Fridays for me!) I boarded a train to Yogyakarta to meet up with some friends for the weekend. I'm currently reading Jane Eyre, so the 5 hour ride flew by rather quickly.
The moment I stepped of the train I instantly felt good. For me, Yogya is very much like Interlaken, Switzerland. Granted, Interlaken is the adventure capital of Europe in the snowy Alps and Yogya is the hot, humid site of pilgrims of Eastern religions. But it was the feeling, and sight, of backpackers all around that felt homey to me. Small in size, rich in experience. Anyway, two of the sites we visited were Prambanan and Borobudur.
Prambanan, to the East of the city, is the site of a Hindu temple (which actually originally included over 200 smaller temples) and three Buddhist temples (the body, the spirit, and the soul) which were each completed by 860. Here we enlisted a guide who turned out to be a mini-guru, giving us the run-down on Buddhist and Hindu theology, including the similarities between them and, metaphysically, to Christianity. It was rather cool.
One of the Hindu structures
One of the Hindu structures
The Hindu temples were largely ruined by an earthquake in 2006. But the park has been working on reconstructing the structures, which was actually a good learning opportunity. We were able to see how the stones fit together like puzzle pieces. Different letter were assigned to placements ("L" for a corner, for instance); stones have this letter etched in them, one side convex and one concave, so they all fit together. It was also quite interesting that these two sets of temples were built so close together at relatively the same time. This was due mostly in honor of the marriage between a Buddhist prince and Hindu priestess. When we asked in which tradition their children would be raised, our guide first said "both" but then replied with a phrase which best translates as, "the truth has no name."
A crumbled structure
The next day we visited Borobudur, one of the 7 Ancient wonders of the world and the largest Buddhist temple ever built. The strangest part of it all is that the temple, which was also completed around 850, remained buried under volcanic ash until 1815 when an excavation team began to unearth it. Apparently the temple was completely abandoned soon after its completion. This may be because, on three sides, the cite is surrounded by mountains, including a still active volcano. The landscape it quite breathtaking. The mountains are lush and high, reaching right into the clouds. On the fourth side is a mixture of rain forest and rice paddies - green as far as the eye can see (and with minimal pollution!). The temple has 7 layers, which represents the ascension into nirvana. You are supposed to walk each layer clockwise before ascending to the next. The beginning levels are rife with Buddha statues and carvings. The last 3 have only 2 things - Buddha statues with "cages" on them. You are supposed to try to place your hand on one of these enclosed Buddhas (women on the head of shoulder and men on the feet) and make a wish (which I did!). It was such a beautiful and spiritual place and I am so happy I got the chance to visit (thanks again tax payers!).
Wall Carving
An "uncaged" Buddha
The "cages" with Buddha statues inside at the top of the temple
I'd like to add that I had my cheapest meal thus far in Yogya: fried noddles and one litre of water for $0.90. Come visit.
I've planned a game and getting-to-know you activities for this week's lessons at school. I'm pretty pumped to be done observing and to start teaching.
One small point of comparison (sans judgment). In America, when we have a family with more than 4 members, we tend to buy an SUV or minivan. In Indo, they still stick to the one motorbike. You want to fit 5 on a bike? No Problem. Dad drives (the same!), Mom sits behind him (remember, her hands should go in his pockets). Child one sits on Mom's lap. Child 2 sits in Child 1's lap. Child 3 sits in Dad's lap (ie on motor/handlebars). The kid in the front always looks like he's having the most fun. Especially at 6 am when he's still in his PJs.
I've received a few questions on the status of women here, and while I myself am still trying to get my mind both in and around it, here is what I can offer thus far on covering and escorts: My city is pretty progressive, mostly because of its size. This means I don't ever need to cover even though I teach in a predominately Muslim school (I say predominately because I am in a public high school), unless, of course, I visit a masjid, or mosque. This also means I don't need escorts. However, I would never go out at night by myself, unless I was in my neighborhood (and that's only because we are in a gated community guarded by marines and the nicest mall in the city is right next door). But that is just my preference thus far. And a white woman walking alone does elicit more "Hello Mrs.!" than when with others. Now, I do have women friends who teach at pesantrans (Muslim boarding schools) who were asked to cover (for us bules -"foreigners" - that means closed toes shoes, long skirt or pants, long sleeve shirt preferably with a collar and/or buttons, and a scarf over your hair). For some this is merely a school dress code and is not required for daily village life. For others, they only take their scarf off in their homes or after they've left their village for traveling. Similarly, some women in these particular situations are strongly discouraged from leaving their homes after 7 pm (darkness). But these women really wouldn't have anything to do in the places which ask this of them except visit friends, which is allowed if you're not alone. But I remind you, Indo is only ~85% Muslim (in a country of 220 million people, 85% is a large number of Muslims, but is also a large number of non-Muslims as well), and not every Muslim woman covers. There is the entire breadth of possibilities - those who dress like Westerners, those who dress like Westerners but with long sleeves, pants and a cute scarf, those who wear the more traditional long tunics with scarves, and even those in a burka (although this last one I have very rarely seen, if at all). Most Indoensians, in fact, wear long sleeves and pants most of the time anyway. I also know a lot of Christians, Buddhists and Hindus, but not many Jews. For some reason, anti-Semitism seems to pervade the country a bit. But every single citizen must choose one of 5 religions which is placed on their ID card - Muslim (most if not all are Sunni), Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic or Christian (their word for Protestant).
Back to the escort thing; in more conservative areas, it is uncouth for a woman to even be walking next to a single man (married man would be OK, but not great). Even in some public schools in big cities, not mine, there is sex segregation. One particular friend of mine in a small, rural pesantran has entire classes of only boys and then only girls. When he is in the girls room there has to be another teacher present because he is a single man. He cannot even directly hand them things, much less come in contact with them. My students, regardless of sex, touch me every day as they leave the classroom and feel free to sit next to and touch the opposite sex. So there's an entire range here.
Did I mention the 2 additions to my home? 1. Another ETA has moved into our house. Her (she is the3rd and only other teacher in Surabaya) house was pretty unsatisfactory, so she decided a commute to school was better than her former living situation. The more the merrier. She's from South Carolina and will be teaching me Ebonics in return for me teaching her how to swim. 2. We now have a TV with as many channels as in a hotel. I haven't really watched it yet, but it's nice to know it's there. We turned it on for a few minutes when we first noticed it (it just appeared one day with no notice) and watched a bit of CNN. Can I tell you how happy I am to not have to witness the middle-school behavior that is the (and all recent) election process? Elections are not politics; they are the evil, polarizing step-sister of politics, a dumbed-down rhetorical circus and I am happy to make a decision based on the knowledge I seek out (which I will most certainly do!), and not the media driven, lowest-common-denominator, us-versus-them hoopla. Just thought I'd share.
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