Independence Day - Part I

Monday, August 14, 2006 - 9:27PM

I was excited to go to Carrefour this morning, only to find that they didn't open until 10AM (I left our house at 7:30AM), so I ended up going to the Ramai supermarket, in the Ramai mall on Malioboro. No fun shopping cart escalators :-( I've gotten the shopping routine down pretty well, and made pretty good time.

When I returned to the house, I was the only volunteer there. We had just gotten a fresh set of photo prints (we're doing a photo project where we take pictures of the villagers and print them, posting them on our walls for the taking and handing them out if we see the subjects. It's a big hit), so I was immediately swarmed with kids, looking for their photos. I sat down on our squashy couch and the kids climbed all over me. Childrens' hands can be quite small, so when they press their palms into your thighs as they climb on you, the pain can be quite acute. I thought about high heels and force over surface area for a moment as a half dozen palms pressed into me and photos were passed around.

The kids here all know my name. It makes me feel quite popular, when I'm coming home at the end of our work day, and I've barely rounded the corner and a chorus of "Stefanie, Stefanie!" begins. But it makes me feel a little guilty too, as I haven't quite gotten all of their names straight.

A couple quick comments about things that I've noticed here:

• some of the kids have pretty bad teeth. They also eat quite a lot of sugar. The bad teeth tends to be in the younger children, so I'm hoping once their permanent teeth come in, they take better care of them. Also, the children in the (rural) village have worse teeth than the kids in the city, which I guess can be expected. One volunteer brought 100 kids toothbrushes with her, donated from her dentist, which the children have been excited to receive.
• people here keep pigeons as pets. We all know how I am not a fan of birds (and there are chickens, ducks, baby birds, everything, just wandering around the village roads). Anyway, they'll put these knobby whistles on the small of the birds' backs, such that when they fly, they make a whistling sound. Interesting. I wonder if that annoys the bird though. "I'm flying as fast as I can to get away from this darn whistling sound, but it only gets louder!"
• a popular street cart food/snack item is various slushy ice/drink type things. They're served in plastic bags, rather than cups, and consumed through a straw. I guess it could appear weird, if you look down the street and see a bunch of kids drinking out of plastic bags, but I've gotten rather used to it. But I thought it was a street snack/something that was instantly consumed. This morning, I saw a woman, probably about my age, waiting for the mall to open. She had a small gray plastic bag, which is what small purchases are normally placed in. From the bag, she pulled out one of these drinks in a bag. Having a bag inside of a bag seems silly to me.
• people in the village burn their trash each night. Including plastic. It smells great, and by great, I mean awful. However, it has made me acutely aware of how much packaging and trash I produce, since wherever it goes, it won't be far from me.
• women carry their babies on their left side, slung up with a wide strip of cloth. The cloth is held up with a single twist, and I guess the friction of the fabric on itself holds it all together well. I'm actually quite enamored with the technique, as it is simple and effective. I kind of want to try holding a baby, except that 1) the baby would probably cry once I touch it and 2) I would probably be like, aw mans, baby, you're heavy...goodbye

I'm a bit disappointed; I found out today that Ayu's teacher said they don't need a native English speaker in class this week, so I won't be going to school on Thursday. What's interesting is that they do indeed still have school on Independence Day.

Sunday, August 13, 2006 - 2:00PM

This coming Thursday, August 17, is Indonesia's Independence Day. Colorful flags have been going up in the streets, and the festivities begin today, with games for the children in the village. They continue through the week with special performances, cook-offs, actvities, and a parade.

Some volunteers from the local university came to our street to help run games for the children. I thought I'd stick around and watch, and honestly, was a bit concerned with how sedate things started out: the kids sat under a tent and colored pictures of Dora the Explorer. But then things moved to the street, and I laughed so hard that I cried and my sides hurt.

A long bamboo pole was strung up across the street, and was the centerpiece for the games. The first game was an eating contest. Four kids lined up at a time under the pole, and large round shrimp chip crackers (about the size of a rice cake) were strung up at face-height for each child. As the group chanted "Setu, dua, tiga!" ("One, two, three!") the kids would run forward and try to finish their cracker without hands. The amount of coordination and technique that five to ten-year olds have is amusing enough in itself, add in face fun, and it is a total riot. Yuli, one girl who I see every day, won the first girl round. The best round was when Fandi, probably about five years old, was matched up against several much older boys. He couldn't quite get his lips to the cracker, instead pushing it around with his face, such that it kept rolling around to the back of his head. Finally, he reached up with his hand, and steadied the cracker as he ate it. The clincher was that he finally pulled the cracker down off the string, and stood off the side, happily eating the cracker with his hands. Even with the advantage of using his hands, Fandi still lost the round, and was spotted five minutes later still working on the cracker. The teenage boys, too cool to participate in the games themselves, were all doubled over with laughter at Fandi's antics.

For the second game, the kids were blindfolded, in sets of three. Three plastic bags of water (think of the thin film bags in the produce section, only flimsier even) were strung up just above the height of each child. After being spun, the kids set off towards their bags, and with hands behind their backs, tried to hop up and break the bag of water with their head. Most kids, dizzied by the spinning, barrelled off the sides of the road into the crowd. Those who did make it remotely under the bamboo pole were then charged with the task of blindly hopping up and down, trying to find and subsequently bop their bags of water. Picture kids of varying height, blindfolded, all going in different directions, hopping up and down. Oh mans. So funny. The crowd was very diplomatic, taking a turn chanting each child's name, and applauding enthusiastically for whoever emerged the winner.

I am totally using these games at the next kid's party I plan. Laser tag and go-kart racing? No, my party will be all about the rice cakes on a strings and plastic bags of water.

Now I'll head into the city with some other volunteers, to wander around the Sultan's palace, the water palace, the bird market, Malioboro, and whatever else we find.