Selamat Malam di Indonesia!

Selamat malam di Indonesia!

Good evening from Indonesia!

Hello everyone! These last few days have been filled with:

Exhaustion: 13.5 hour flight to Tokyo, 6.5 hour flight to Bangkok, 2 hour hotel stay, 3.5 hour flight to Jakarta, 1 hour flight to Surabaya in East Java! We are then up each day by 6:30 AM and our time is booked until 5:30 PM.

Classes: Bahasa Indonesian instruction happens in small groups of 6 people, my language teacher Henkgy (pronounced "Hanky"), and my cultural liaison Teguh. We did 3 hours of class yesterday and 3 hours today. I know a smattering of words that are very, very useful; now I have to commit them to memory. Here are 2 of the most important phrases!

a. Maaf, saya tidak tahu. (Sorry, I don't know!)

b. Maaf, saya mau tanya! (Excuse me, I have a question!)

Some of the more quality mnemonics we have created to help us learn Bahasa Indonesia:

a. Amerika serikat (United States)- second word sounds like "Sarah's cat" said very quickly

b. Bagaimana tulisannya (How do you spell...)- second word sounds like "tulip lasagna!" Thank you, Melanie!

Odd dreams: I am taking Mefloquine pills once a week (Semalat Malaria Thursdays!) for malaria prevention. This can lead to "vivid dreams." This includes: a dream that my sister Lizzie is very upset at me for not spending enough time with her prior to leaving for Indonesia (come on, Liz, we said goodbye 3 different times!), as well as a dream about Devon, a fellow volunteer, being exposed as a convicted murderer- yikes!

TMI about bathrooms: Medical training today included a 45-minute discussion on how to use the squat toilets. For your viewing pleasure, please consult this very informative (read: ridiculous and hilarious but true) YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKkryfdtMNQ

Good Friday! Turns out, my intention to explore what it would mean for me to identify as Protestant is harder here than one may think! Indonesia has 6 religions, one of which each citizen must identify as his/her own. (Indonesia is a country of much diversity; their motto is "Unity in diversity.") These 6 are: Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, and Confucianism. Anyone spot the road bump? Yes, that's right, Catholics and Protestants are two separate religions. As in, Indonesians say that Protestants are Christians and Catholics are, well, Catholics. Wow! Imagine how hard that is going to be for me to wrap my head around.

That being said, it is Holy Week and I really needed some quiet reflection time during this busy time. Also, I have yet to meet another volunteer who is a practicing Christian, so I'm a bit lonely. I was looking forward to a room full of Christians. Whoops, I mean Catholics! I went to mass tonight at the local cathedral. Here are some reflections on that:

a. I told Hengky about the conservative bishop in Madison, WI not allowing women's feet to be washed on Holy Thursday and how I disagreed with this exclusion of women. He laughed and said that here, women and girls did not get their feet washed, either.

b. Anyone who is interested in racial discourse would have been equally disturbed to walk into this huge cathedral today and seen the large painting of white Jesus. Ugh, can we dispel this image already?   

c. The entire mass was in Bahasa Indonesia, so I understood about .05% of what was said! For this very reason, however, I fully embrace how the church follows the same mass format worldwide. This provided a lot of comfort and familiarity today in a world that is very different from my own quartier.

d. I learned the three most important concepts for Christians! Allah bapa, Yesus Kristus, dan roh kudus. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

e. The gospel reading was divided into multiple roles, just like the scripted plays many churches back home use during Holy Week. However, this gospel reading was sung rather than spoken. It sounded beautiful, but it became a bit long to sing two whole chapters of Johannes (the Gospel of John; I assume that Johannes stuck after Dutch colonialism).

Thanks for reading, and that's all for now, folks! Interested in a quick Bahasa Indonesia lesson?

Q: Nama anda siapa? (What is your name?)

     Nah-ma ahn-da see-ah-pa

A: Nama saya ___________! (My name is __________!)

     Nah-ma sigh-a...

Sampai jumpa!

Goodbye