LifeInContrast.com

The other night as we sat on our porch and watched the first serious thunderstorm since we’ve arrived, we both remarked that we couldn’t believe it was 5 months already. I told Denise “here we are!”

It was really relaxing to watch the hard rain fall from the dark clouds to the green landscape below, dripping off the banana leaves, making the birds fly for cover, and making the road in front of our house very muddy. The day slowly turned into night and the lightning lit up the sky. Thunder rolled across the hills. Our friend Russell came over later and chatted with us on the porch.

This weekend I am headed to Jakarta as the only competitor from all 3 of our Bandung schools, to participate in a Bahasa Indonesia spelling bee for teachers whose first language is English (i.e. Westerners).  The spelling bee in Jakarta pits me against representatives from our schools all across Indonesia, although it’s possible most of my competitors will be from Jakarta itself.

Not only do I have to spell Bahasa Indonesia words, but I have to spell them in Bahasa Indonesia.  So if I’m spelling a word with the letter “k” in it, I have to pronounce it “kah” instead of  “kay”.  My Indonesian co-workers have been quizzing me and helping me to understand the pronunciation.  Since Bahasa Indonesia words are pronounced consistently the same based on spelling, I’ve been able to figure out the spelling of most words, even if I have no idea what they mean.  Apparently I’m doing pretty well.

First prize includes a decent amount of cash, a case of beer, and other goodies from sponsors.  I expect to bring home the gold.  

It’s a little after 2am on Friday night, and every mosque in the city is still going at full volume. The mosques began their vigil at around 6pm and have been loudly broadcasting prayers ever since. I’m told they will continue non-stop through the night until the morning. It is an amazing symphony of thousands of human voices - I’ve never heard anything like it. In the streets are pickup trucks with people banging drums and singing, and others are blowing big horns on the sidewalks. Fireworks - big flashy rockets - have been exploding over our valley all day, but mercifully have stopped now.

Today is the last day of Ramadhan, and tomorrow marks the beginning of Idul Fitri (or Lebaran), the end of fasting. Wikipedia says that Lebaran “is a day of forgiveness, moral victory, peace of congregation, fellowship, brotherhood and unity. Muslims celebrate not only the end of fasting, but also thank God for the help and strength that they believe he gave them throughout the previous month to help them practice self-control.” Specifically, Indonesian Muslims “greet one another with ‘Mohon maaf lahir dan batin’ which means ‘Forgive my physical and emotional (wrongdoings)’, due to the fact that Eid ul-Fitr is not only for celebrations, but also the time for Muslims to cleanse their sins and strengthen their silaturrahim with relatives and friends.”

Soon, food will once again be readily available during the daylight hours, I won’t have to be careful about eating or drinking in public, pool halls and bars will re-open, and my students and co-workers will have more energy. Ramadhan has been an eye-opening experience, but I am looking forward to life returning to normal.

Yeah, that’s right.  I’ve got the Simpsons Movie on DVD already, complete with fancy packaging.  It’s a very good bootleg, completely watchable.  Watched it on my laptop last night, in fact.  And it cost me all of 80 cents.  Don’t hate.

 
(Photo: A massive KFC here in Bandung)

There are many Pizza Huts, McDonald’s, and KFCs in Bandung. In most cases the food is not exactly the same, but it’s still pretty good. The sauces are usually a little different, sometimes sweeter. The ingredients are generally the same, with tiny changes. Combo meals cost $2-3 each, and usually come with rice (or sometimes french fries). Every establishment has fried chicken, including McDonald’s, but none of them have bacon, due to Muslim sensitivities. I just had a “Big Double” at the new Wendy’s in Bandung, and found it to be “okay”. Of course they also had fried chicken. The restaurant interiors are remarkably similar to back home. I admit to eating fast food a bit too often, but not as often as back home. McDonald’s has 24-hour McDelivery - how weird is that?

Thursday the 13th marked the beginning of the holy month of Ramadhan (also known as “the fasting month”), when all Muslims must refrain from food, drink, and sex during the daylight hours.  In fact, nothing must pass their lips during the day, so that includes water and smoking.  Ramadhan is a time when Muslims are expected to show great restraint in emotion, and also tremendous spiritual discipline as they attempt to focus and become closer to God.  Here is a Wikipedia article on Ramadan.

Since the sun rises around 5:00am or so in Indonesia, that means that the morning call-to-prayer now comes around 3:30am, reminding the faithful to wake up and eat something before they start the fast.  I guess it’s more of a wake-up-and-eat than a call-to-prayer.  When the sun finally sets around 6pm, they break their fast, generally with a light meal and some tea to get their digestive systems moving again.  Indonesians often break their fast with friends, and with joy.  In the evenings (and often during the day), they visit the mosque to pray.

For Westerners, it is noticeably harder to get food during the daylight hours, as all of the myriad warungs (streetside food stalls) sit eerily empty during the day.  You can find some restaurants open, but even then you must take care to be respectful, not eating outside or brazenly in front of those who are fasting.  The streets have much less traffic, and the calls-to-prayer seem to happen much more often, almost constantly.

Last night I was talking with my Sumatran friend Dedyan in his brother’s Padang restaurant in our neighborhood.  He explained to me that this month (about 29 days) is about control.  Control of desires, control of hunger, control of emotions and thoughts.   This month is “all about God,” as he put it.  Truly a holy month.

My motivation to post lately has been pretty low, but I assure you we’re still alive.  :)  Oddly, we didn’t feel a thing from the 8.2 earthquake that happened on Sumatra earlier this week, or any of the 40 massive aftershocks that are still terrorizing residents there.

It’s late on Saturday night, and we’ve spent most of the last 2 days battling fevers, stomach cramps, and diarrhea from hell.  And Denise also vomited several times.  Today was basically a wash - napping, reading, drinking fluids.  The fevers and vomiting are gone, but the stomach cramps and diarrhea are still there.  Crappy way to spend a Saturday.  And I must have sat on the toilet like 8 or 9 times yesterday.  It sucks.  Hopefully it will clear up soon.

About midnight last night I was working on my laptop when I felt the whole house shaking, our cement house. I yelled for Denise to wake up and stand under a doorway, although in retrospect all of our doorways have glass overhead. It lasted for about a minute, pretty minor shaking, similar to the tremors we’ve felt back in Seattle. Apparently the epicenter of the earthquake was in Jakarta, about 7.5 magnitude, which makes it a pretty major earthquake. Fairly harmless here in Bandung, but I kept thinking about the predictions of a Bandung earthquake that I’ve heard lately. Thankfully it was no big deal.

Here’s a link to a news story about the earthquake.

Last weekend we took a trip to the province of Garut. First stop was the traditional village of Kampung Naga, where they eschew the use of electricity and live the way their ancestors did. It was a little depressing to see antennas sticking out the top of some of the huts, but it didn’t detract from the natural beauty.

(View near Kampung Naga - click thumbnail to enlarge)

Then we headed to our hotel, and later on to some hot springs with an awesome water slide. Read all about it on Denise’s blog. We also visited the resort-y Kampung Sampireun with beautiful uplit palm trees, a fantastic buffet, and traditional Sundanese dancing (see below).

After a crappy night’s sleep, we headed up to the smoldering volcano known as Papandayan. On the way we saw this other “floating mountain”:

Check out the pictures below of Papandayan, one of the most active volcanos in Java, and know that the sulfur crystals were truly that yellow, and the smoke was extremely noxious to the nostrils.

Then we traversed a small lake to an island that holds the oldest stone Hindu temple on Java. It’s also very possibly the smallest Hindu temple in the world - it couldn’t have been more than 50 square feet of land area. A little bit anti-climactic, but the trip on the bamboo boat provided some stunning views:

This weekend we are off to Pangandaran (the most popular beach on Java) and the smaller Batu Karas beach.  Can’t wait to catch some waves and see if I can remember how to surf.

Here’s my new motorbike - a 2006 Honda Supra Fit that I bought for about $900 USD. It’s got some serious power! Now I just need to practice more so that I can actually ride the thing. Then maybe I can join that motorcycle gang.

(click thumbs for larger images)

Here’s a cool view that I found when I was out practicing: