Fashion, put it all on me! Don't you want to see these clothes on me?

- Lady Gaga

I'm gonna call this the "traditional" shot. My host bro, Iqbal, looking uncharacteristically very Asian in this farmer's hat! He's the host bro that works out and is tall and buff, so this hat tones down his usually Western-style appearance!

              

Babies on Parade

Fadil sporting a cute character (winter) hat, not uncommon here...but it's 90 degrees, Indonesia!

Efi dresses Nylah to the nines every day!

When joining the PC, most volunteers probably tend to do what I did, and go buy some cargo pants, Keens or Tevahs, and some baggy white Hanes T-shirts. The reality of PC Indonesia is that wearing this makes one look like a slob!

From what I have observed, Indonesians, or at the very least the Javanese people in my community, take great pride in personal hygiene and appearance.

Check out this schedule:

4:30 AM: wake up for morning prayer time #1, do the ritual prayer washing, wudhu. This generally includes washing the face, hands, forearms, and feet (see details here on wudhu  here. Yes, that’s right, I’m using Wikipedia. It’s actually a reliable source for the most part, as so many people read it that mistakes are corrected instantly. I read a legit article about Wikipedia’s validity, an article which was not from Wikipedia!)

5-8 AM: Somewhere in here people take a bath, but I’m not sure when. Indonesians are quite sneaky about using the bathroom, I don’t frequently see them use it. After bathing, women powder their faces to absorb sweat later and to keep smooth skin. This time frame is also bathe your baby time #1. After the bath, oil down the baby’s body, then powder the whole body, resulting in the baby looking like this:

Adira after his daily afternoon mandi!

At first I was shocked to see this, as I thought that people were using skin-whitening. Indonesians are obsessed with being white, though the few people I have seen that are really white sorta just look sickly. I amaze them when I explain that white Americans love to look tanner!

Anyways…

12:30 PM: prayer time #2 wudhu.

1:30-4:30 PM: somewhere in this time frame, people tend to bathe again after work (work can end for farmers (I think…) and teachers between this time, so we can rest during the hottest part of the day). Powder down the body again, fresh clothes. Also, prayer time #3, wudhu. Bathe your baby time #2. Repeat oil and powder procedure. Darn, these babies are clean here, 2 baths a day!

5:30 PM: prayer time #4, wudhu.

6:30 PM: prayer time #5, wudhu.

So as you can see, Muslim Indonesians wash at least 5 times a day if praying, and all Indonesians take a bath in the morning and late afternoon. I admit I stick to just a face wash in the morning, meaning I pathologically lie when asked, “Did you already bathe this morning?” Which is asked like every day. “Why, yes, of course I did!” No one needs to know…

Anyways, Indonesians take great pride in appearance. Check out this fashion parade below!

Men's Style

Aang is wearing the traditional Muslim man's hat, a kopiah. It only has to be worn when going to the mosque, to pray, or to an important religious event, but many men wear it all the time. Adira is sporting a set of more traditional patterns, too!

Udik is wearing a saraong, potentially worn over pants though it seems inappropriate for me to ask!! Wearing a saraong follows the same rules as the kopiah. 

My host dad (far right) has 8 brothers and one sister. The brothers all look alike, especially his twin, far left! This is part of the crew getting ready to visit family to ask for forgiveness during Idul Fitri. We went in 2 cars...each car had 10 people in it. Brothers were literally pouring out of the front seat, the back seat, the trunk!!!

Ananda, PC training manager, sporting traditional batik.  According to PC, whenever in doubt, wear batik, you can't go wrong!

Indonesians love uniformity

Practicing for the Independence Day flag-raising ceremony

Students from my school wearing their gym uniforms. They wear these a full school day when then have gym. Complete with jilbab. 

This is the uniform students wear every day (color varies!)

All the teachers wore this government-issued batik on Independence Day. 

Independence Day, complete with a full-fledged student band! 

The dreaded khaki seragam (uniform). 

Oh boy!!!

Miss Sarah, ready to turn the tides of Mojoagung's English speaking skills! Huzzah!

Fortunately, Friday and Saturday are batik day at my school! 

Around the House

A saraong gifted to me by a friend from church. 

My neighbor sports a duster, the loose dress middle-aged woman wear around the house. 

Also gifted to me was this cardigan (?!), which took a long time to figure out how to wear, followed by much laughing at how ridiculous this thing is. But look, it's reversible, too! I have been using it as a tablecloth, don't tell my church friend!

My Bahasa Indonesia teacher, Pak Hengky, sporting a sweater in the 75+ degree heat because a) Batu is "cold" and b) he's going on his motorcycle. Hence the dust mask! 

Everyday dress in Batu consisted of the young people wearing Western clothes and the older women wearing Indonesian clothes!

I read on Amy's Blog that wearing the hijab (called a jilbab or krudung in Indonesia) is for some Muslim women a fashion statement more than anything. While most women I have spoken to wear it because they want to for religious reasons, I have definitely seen my fair share of crazy different ways to wear the jilbab that leads me to believe that it certainly is used as an expression of fashion, too. I really encourage you to read Amy’s post on the jilbab, it’s really thorough. Amy and Will are the married couple of our group, in their early 30s, hailing from KY!!! Their blog is hilarious and really informative, so feel free to follow it, too! http://twocupsofjava.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/the-one-about-the-jilbab/

And now... check out those jilbabs!

Bu Ya and Pak Ruslan on Idul Fitri.

Aan and Ellie!

Nurul on Idul Fitri. Wearing white indicates the purity of asking for forgiveness and starting over. But mostly I thought she looked like she was getting married! 

My ibu loves bling. Bright, shiny pins and sequins and frills with her clothing and jilbabs! 

Happy Idul Fitri! Here I am, going native!!!