Farewell, Sawit
Today I took a day "off" and just slept, called home, sat in an air-conditioned apartment, and caught up with internet stuff. Except that instead of writing emails and doing research, I read recaps of all of the episodes of the current season of Project Runway, which I am missing. This is important stuff! The designs are interesting and Tim Gunn is my hero. Take his succinct breakdown of the most recently ousted designer:
The majority of my last week in Sawit was spent planning the Hands On farewell party, or pesta perpisahan, for the town. The night before the party, there was an earthquake, which means ... yeah I don't know what that means. Although brief, it was strong enough to yank me out of my sleep and to underscore the importance of wearing shorts to bed lest you have to dash out into the street in the middle of the night with your male Muslim neighbors in an area that is particularly sensitive to any sort of tremor. You know, that particular situation.
The pesta consisted of brief speechiness, (all I could make out from the village chief's speech was "blah blah Marko Indonesian blah blah Marko blah Marko blah,") a slideshow, which decided that it didn't feel like participating a third of the way through, and raffle of all of the Hands On possessions, from kitchen items, to tools, all the way up to Marc's motorbike. Organizing a raffle of that much stuff, for a town of people, in two languages, is super complicated. I basically did a terrible job. But it's over!
On Saturday Sept. 23, the day before I left, I made my rounds saying goodbye to people in the town. Yuli, one 10-year-old girl who I spent a lot of time with, took me around to the homes of the kids in our RT, and by the time I had finished RT5, Yuli and I were joined by Oki, Lena, and Ika, who all stuck with us through the remaining four RTs in the town. We played with a tiny gecko, took a lot of pictures, and walked around all of Sawit under the hot sun, so I finished off by treating us all to slushy drinks in bags.
I left early in the morning on Sept. 24, the first day of fasting of Ramadan. People in town woke up around 3AM so that they could eat, and then go to mosque and pray at 4AM. Then they walked around town. Sounds bizarre, I know, but that's how Wiwin explained it to me. At 4:30 in the morning, I got a text message from Wiwin, saying she was outside the gate of our house, asking if she could come in. I went out to see her (again, important to wear shorts to bed in case you get a goodbye text message and have to hit the he street again in the middle of the night) and we cried and hugged each other.
Since other people were up and about the town, some of then were walking down our street and I got to say goodbye again, as I piled into Suparman's taxi and we rolled away. A jumbled up mix of feelings, gratefulness and sadness, love and hope, as I watched the sunrise through watery eyes.
"She called the top 'Edwardian.' I thought it looked more like something you’d wear for a dislocated shoulder. Bye, Angela.''Ok, so what have I been up to these past two weeks?
The majority of my last week in Sawit was spent planning the Hands On farewell party, or pesta perpisahan, for the town. The night before the party, there was an earthquake, which means ... yeah I don't know what that means. Although brief, it was strong enough to yank me out of my sleep and to underscore the importance of wearing shorts to bed lest you have to dash out into the street in the middle of the night with your male Muslim neighbors in an area that is particularly sensitive to any sort of tremor. You know, that particular situation.
The pesta consisted of brief speechiness, (all I could make out from the village chief's speech was "blah blah Marko Indonesian blah blah Marko blah Marko blah,") a slideshow, which decided that it didn't feel like participating a third of the way through, and raffle of all of the Hands On possessions, from kitchen items, to tools, all the way up to Marc's motorbike. Organizing a raffle of that much stuff, for a town of people, in two languages, is super complicated. I basically did a terrible job. But it's over!
On Saturday Sept. 23, the day before I left, I made my rounds saying goodbye to people in the town. Yuli, one 10-year-old girl who I spent a lot of time with, took me around to the homes of the kids in our RT, and by the time I had finished RT5, Yuli and I were joined by Oki, Lena, and Ika, who all stuck with us through the remaining four RTs in the town. We played with a tiny gecko, took a lot of pictures, and walked around all of Sawit under the hot sun, so I finished off by treating us all to slushy drinks in bags.
I left early in the morning on Sept. 24, the first day of fasting of Ramadan. People in town woke up around 3AM so that they could eat, and then go to mosque and pray at 4AM. Then they walked around town. Sounds bizarre, I know, but that's how Wiwin explained it to me. At 4:30 in the morning, I got a text message from Wiwin, saying she was outside the gate of our house, asking if she could come in. I went out to see her (again, important to wear shorts to bed in case you get a goodbye text message and have to hit the he street again in the middle of the night) and we cried and hugged each other.
Since other people were up and about the town, some of then were walking down our street and I got to say goodbye again, as I piled into Suparman's taxi and we rolled away. A jumbled up mix of feelings, gratefulness and sadness, love and hope, as I watched the sunrise through watery eyes.
posted by Stefanie at 11:48 AM
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