The Bird Shouter

Behind my house are rice fields.  Each morning, I awakened by the shouts of this boy, whose job it is to scare away the birds so that they do not eat all the rice.  He does this by throwing rocks, shouting, and using complex setups of strings and cans to raise a clatter throughout the rice field.  His family only rents the land they farm and is hence very poor, although school is free, they cannot afford the books and the uniforms, and they need his help in the fields.

 

 

Kids at a Wedding

Here are some kids at a wedding.  In the background is some Quranic chanting.  Some the kids are invited guests.  Some  are not really invited guests, but are neighborhood kids helping themselves to the snacks..  However, since it too the whole neighborhood to organize and cater the wedding and  reception, these kids belong there as much as the invited guests.

The Shoe Shine Boys

These two boys are out many nights on the busy street in front of my house looking for shoes to shine.  They are 8 and 10 years old and in the second and fourth grades.  They work like this at nights and sometimes on the weekends to help their parents make ends meet.  However, they still go to school.  I pay them too much.  I pay them 5 to 10 times the going rate.  When Indonesians see do this, they laugh at me.  But, it is also clear they approve of my “wasteful” ways.

 

Making Songket

Songket is a special kinds fabric made in various places in Southeast Asia.  The Songket from Palembang, South Sumatera is know for being especially beautiful.  The beauty comes from gold thread woven into elaborate patterns into the typically maroon or burgundy red cloth.

 

 

 

Recent Discussion about Islam as Peace

There has been a lot of talk lately in Indonesia about how Islam is a religion of peace and those who do not practice it as a religion of peace are not practicing it correctly.  Parents! -- to see what has prompted this discussion, please go to http://indonesiarlb.blogspot.com/.

ACIS Entertainments

Last week I went to the Annual Conference of Islamic Studies.  Here is a “highlights reel” of the entertainments during the two day event.  Calling them “entertainments” isn’t quite right because most of them were meant to be enriching or educational.

 

The US Presidential Election -- an Indonesian Perspective

Indonesians are very excited about the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States.  They view him as a bit of a native son, since he went to grade school here.  Above is a local political cartoon that expresses perfectly the mood.   What do you think the cartoon means?   What symbols are being used?  To what person is Obama being compared?  Why do you think the cartoonist is making that comparision?

The Haircut

Remember the post about how living in another country is like playing a game to which you think you know the rules but you don’t.  Well today I played, “Let’s Get a Haircut” and lost.  Thankfully hair grows back.

Oktoberfest in Medan

On Friday, October 31, I went to an Oktoberfest.  It was a bit strange.  Why?  Oktoberfest is a German cultural festival.  I am in Indonesia.  The people hosting the party and many of the guests were graduates of German universities.  However, a representative for the German Embassy did come from Jakarta. So did many people from Medan’s small expat community (maybe 20-30 Westerners). It was also strange because of the ways that it combined aspects of Indonesian and German culture.  As an “international event”, most of the speaking was done in English and translated into German, often leaving Indonesian out of the loop.   In my mind, it would have made more sense to leave English out and have the event be bilingual Indonesian-German.  As an Indonesian event, there were the required three speeches, two from the hosts and one from the German representative, which was in English.  As an event local to Medan, the Embassy representative was given a Batak ulus embroidered with her name and the name of the event.  It was presented with a small dance (see video).  As a “German” event, there was the official tapping of the beer cask with the pouring of the first round of beer.  After the honored guests only had received their beer, a German drinking song was sung and the guests were all toasted.  Afterwards the emcee invited us all to go have dinner and to enjoy the beer, but not to enjoy the beer too much.   She warned us not to enjoy the beer too much about 8 times in less than two hours, which also spoke to the fact that we were still in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country.

 

 Please excuse the misplaced title screen at the beginning.

Sriwijaya's Revenge

Ugh.  I am sick.  I went to a ceremony on Monday.  It was the opening of the 8^th Annual Conference on Islamic Studies.  It was at the Governor’s Mansion.  The dinner was supposed to start at 6pm, but by the time the honored guests arrived it was past 7 pm.  The most honored guest as the Minister of  Religious Affairs, who is a member of the President of Indonesia’s cabinet.  The decision was made to have the speeches first.   The outgoing Governor of South Sumatra, took the opportunity to address a controversy to the Minister of Religious Affairs.  The controversy concerns Ahmaddiyya, a religious movement that claims to be Muslim but recognizes a Prophet after Muhammad.  Since it is a complicated matter that includes matters of faith, theology, and religious freedom, the governor’s speech and the Minister’s response took a long time.  Although the buffet had been set out before guests  started arriving at 6pm, it was closer to 10pm before we ate.  I would have skipped out except for two reasons: 1) I was nearly fainting with hunger – trembling and all; and 2) its hard to just run out of the Governor’s Mansion.   

 

I took Pepto-Bismol and Imodium to get through the day.  I was still sick this morning, but did not have my stand-by of Cipro (Ciprofloxican) with me.  I asked the hotel to help me get the anti-biotic.  Before I headed out, I looked up the various names that Cipro might be sold under here.  There were no less than 11 names by which Cipro is known in Indonesia.  A taxi took me to a Pharmacy and without having to consult with a doctor, I got 20 tables of Ciprofloxican (they had it by the main name) for 65 cents.  That will be enough for this bout of Traveller’s Diarrhea and another bout.  I sincerely hope that I will not need the second round.  The expensive part of the excursion was the taxi, which cost 10 dollars to go there and back. 

 

I took the medication a few hours ago and am starting to feel better.  I know that sounds unlikely, but it is consistent with my experience, and if experience holds, it should be all cleared up by tomorrow. 

Friends interpret my sickness as being related to masuk angin which literally means "the wind enters."   They gave me minyak kayu putih (tea tree oil) to rub on my stomach to make it hot.  They said I should also turn down or off the air conditioning.  My stomache was cold they said from eating the cold food.  Making my stomach hot will let the wind out.  The said that the antibiotics that I took will from from the inside but that the oil will work from the outside and I will get better faster.

 As for the title of this post, I am in Palembang which is supposedly where the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Srivijaya was located.   The archaeological remains of this kingdom are few and so some people think it might have been somewhere else.

The Baby Swing

I was eating lunch when the owner of the stall needed to get her baby (2 years old) to fall asleep.  This was what she did,.

 

The Great Medan Flood (not really)

It is the rainy season.   Almost everyday it rains hard.  The river that runs through my neighborhood is almost always full and the streets in front of PPIA (the place I live) flood a little almost every time it rains.  Last night was a little different.

 

I woke this morning to find that the river had overflowed its banks and the flood waters had reached my front door.  Since my front door is up two steps from the ground level, no water entered my house.  The PPIA grounds were completed flooded.  The security guards had caught and killed a small eel that they planned on eating for lunch.   However, only a few ground floor rooms were flooded, including the Children’s Library.  No books were lost, thankfully.  The street in front was almost too deep for cars to drive through.  Some did, and even some motorcyclists dared to try to cross the water.   One picture shows children standing in water that is ankle deep.  However, they are standing on a road divider that about 18 inches tall.

 

Since I had to catch a flight to Jakarta today, I was faced with a small problem. A taxi could not enter to pick me up.  So I called the driver who was scheduled to pick me up and told me to meet me in front of the Catholic Church down the street.  I asked the security guards to help me carry my bags.  I did not have many bags but did not want to be imbalanced as I had to walk through muddy water that sometimes would up to my knees. I rolled up my pants, wore rubber sandals, and carried my shoes.   Since I could not see where I was walking, I had to walk slowly and carefully.

 

We moved slowly toward dry land and found my taxi.  The flood had only affected a few blocks but I suspect there were other parts of Medan that had flooded.  The street in front of my university here is given to flooding.