#wutisdislife

[deboemily]

If you're forced to sing the classics at a teachers conference you may as well ham it up! #mgmp #indonesia #karaoke #teacher #hello #ham #crowdpleaser #pclife #peacecorps #wonosari #wutisdislife #ridiculous

[deboemily]

America has ice cream trucks, Indonesia has #travelingcarousels. This dude literally drives around on his motor cycle pulling this thing and pulls over when kids run out. How cool is that? #bestjobever #betterthanacandyvan #anakanak #nostrangerdanger #indonesia #wutisdislife #ponyride

[deboemily]

Things I wonder in Indonesia that I never wondered in the states…

Thanks to all my fellow trainees, I have compiled a list of things we've wondered over the past two months. This is the worst of the worst so don't freak out. Life isn't that hard for us. :) tidak apa apa (No worries). 

I wonder if I worms...

I wonder if I have a parasite...

I wonder if the mosquito that just flew out of the mandi bit my butt-hole..

I wonder if that mosquito had Dengue….

I wonder if that mosquito had Malaria...

I wonder how many more goats they can fit on that motor cycle...

I wonder if the worm that embedded itself into my foot has traveled to the rest of my body…

I wonder if Obama really likes Bakso…

I wonder if I washed all the poop off my hand...

I wonder if that fly carries Dysentary...

I wonder what other diseases from Oregon trail exist here...

I wonder if this air putih is really sanitary...

I wonder if my mandi water comes from the poop stream...

I wonder how much of my daily protein intake comes from the bugs ingest at night and in my food...

I wonder if I'll lose a tooth from munching on the rocks in my rice...

I wonder if that fly has giardia...

I wonder if that mosquito carries japanese encephalitis...

I wonder why there's a sock over the faucet… (this question was later answered and it is not pleasant).

I wonder if my butt just itches or if that's a worm trying to crawl out...

I wonder if I just horribly offended my family…

I wonder what they're say about me… to my face….

I wonder if this person is only talking to me because I'm white...

I wonder if those 8 year olds know what it means when they yell "Do you like sex?"

I wonder if I'll be able to corn-row my leg hair by the end of service...

I wonder when my kitchen sink will be fixed so I can stop standing in an inch of rice and old food while I mandi...

I wonder if my friends will forget about me...

I wonder if that man is legit possessed or just growling like an animal for kicks...

I wonder how many more lizards will join into this epic lizard battle that takes place on my ceiling every night...

[deboemily]

Kuda Lumping

Cedar shavings were spread all over one area of the street and people were sitting all around. Little boys were running around playing with these flat horses made out of what looked like wicker but intricately painted. Kuda means horse and Lumping means flat so the name of this ceremony is based on those flat painted wicker horses. Drummers were playing off to one side, Hot coals were burning incense and the excitement in the air was palpable. When the drumming stopped, a man walked into the middle of the shavings carrying a stone bowl with long leaves hanging out of it. He began speaking. A woman with a baby came and held onto one of the leaves while different man held onto another. I couldn’t catch what the man said, but when he was done talking the couple flung the leaves out of the bowl and some stuff (water, rice, money?) came flying out. The drumming started again and four boys wearing black came prancing onto the cedar wearing bells around one ankle and carrying a flat wicker horse between their legs. The dance was meant to embody the essence of a horse and the adorable boys (probably around 12?) pulled it off flawlessly. Some guy came out with a whip and started snapping it into the air over the boys' heads and some other guy rubbed what looked like a folded whip covered in flowers over one boy's face. The whip-rubbed boy suddenly started cocking his head from side to side and trotted to a bucket full of water and grass. He took a huge mouthful of the mixture before beginning to dance again while chewing. The next boy that had the whip rubbed on his face was not so docile as he started snarling and growling. He kept crawling away into the crowd really fast (think Gollum) until the shaman literally carried him back onto the cedar shavings. The boy convulsed and growled while two men held him down. The shaman chanted some stuff over his face while holding the wooden horse over his body. The kid calmed down and trotted (literally) over to the coals with his flat horse and started... eating them? I couldn’t tell what he was doing exactly but it sure looked like he was eating them to me. The third whip face-rubbed kid ran into the crowd like the second, but he herded another kid onto the cedar by head butting him out of the crowd. This kid is wearing normal clothes and keeps laughing and trying to go back into the crowd. The horse kid won't let him leave, though, and keeps head-butting him back into the ring. The normal kid finally goes and sits next to the shaman and the horse kid starts dancing with the others again. The last whip-rubbed kid was the most violent and took the longest to console. Once all four were... possessed... they started dancing again, periodically taking breaks to eat more grass and/or do whatever they were doing with the coals. Younger kids grabbed horses and started dancing around the first boys. Some of them became possessed and some didn’t. The normal boy that had been pushed onto the cedar became possessed after a few minutes of watching and guys... dude... this is so hard for me to describe objectively. The kid was contorted with his back arched inward and his arms stuck straight out behind him with his fists flexed toward the ground. Every muscle in his body was taut and his head was twitching back and forth really fast. This continued for about an hour and then the exorcisms started. For most of the exorcism, the shaman took the boys off to the side and the crowd closed in around them so I couldn't see. There was definitely a lot of screaming and growling and snarling, though. The one boy I did see exorcised was… indescribable. He had started laying down and when the shaman put his hand on his chest his whole body launches up until his torso is parallel to the ground. His heels are the only thing touching the ground while the rest of him is pushing up against the shaman's hand. Maybe his eyes were reflecting the light from the fire, maybe I was too caught up in the events and imagining things that weren't occurring… but his eyes were glowing red. Really eerily red. Many of the boys threw up after they were exorcised. The boy that had been drawn out from the crowd ran away bawling. 

Once all the boys were de-possessed, adult men replaced the boys and began a more intricate dance with mock fighting and bigger horses. Because we have a curfew during training, we had to head back during this ceremony. We did not manage to escape before some of the men became possessed, though. Because the Dukun (head shaman) had invited us to the ceremony, he walked with us back to his house to thank us for coming and say goodbye. The possessed men were apparently not very happy about him leaving and came chasing down the road after us to find the Dukun. One found his house and stood at the door pawing and snorting until the Dukun led him back the the fire and cedar shavings. Walking back to my village with the other volunteers that night was eery. After dodging demon possessed horse-men running through the streets. We reached the rice padis where there was a thunder storm brewing and lightening began striking in the fields around us. The moon was full and bright and reflected off the storm clouds giving the sky that perfect horror movie look. We arrived back in our village unscathed and demon-free with only stories to tell and many questions to ask.

According to what I could piece together from the Dukun (head shaman), my host sister, and some locals, ceremonies such as that are held for entertainment as well as for cleansing. The demons in the area are thought to be enticed into the dancers and then purged during the exorcism, thus banishing them from the area and rendering it demonless. The particular Kuda Lumping I attended was for a one-year-old’s birthday party (hence the couple with the kid at the beginning), but they are also commonly held at weddings and circumcisions. The practice is a remnant of a religion called Animism that was widely practiced in Indonesia prior to the introduction of Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism. Various versions of this ceremony are practiced all over Indonesia with different animal foci (e.g. bulls and lions) and unique effects (arm cutting, glass eating, fire breathing, or just dancing). Boys start training to participate in these ceremonies around 6 or 7. While they are not revered, theses boys and men do command a certain respect from community members and make a good amount of money from participating in the ceremonies. While it is possible/legal for women to participate in these ceremonies, there is a negative stigma attached to female participants. One local explained to me that there are ceremonies in West Java that involve only female participants. These participants remove all their clothing and dance seductively. Male observers can pay to have sex with these women while they are dancing. This is seen as ok because it is not the woman that is performing the sexual deed, it is the demon inside her. The government of Indonesia considers these ceremonies to be prostitution and has outlawed them in the country. However, my local source says that they are still occasionally held in secret.

[deboemily]

Recent happenings in Debo/Indonesia world:

The past few weeks have flown by, which is good because that means I’m adapting. 

I FINALLY got a chance to explore Batu (the nearest city). Bought some ballin’ Indonesian pants and rode a ratchety Ferris (Ferrish) Wheel.

My body is acclimating to the heat and 75ºF is now cold to me. Wutisdislife... Those cold mandis didn’t bother me whatsoever when I first got here but I’m finding them a wee bit nipply nowadays. I didn’t think to pack a hoodie (did I mention it’s 75º?) so I snuggle up in a big scarf my best frand in the world bought me before I left. It’s like sleeping in a hug and it makes me happy!

There’s an earwig crawling around under my keys as I type this. Will bug guts hurt the inside of my lappy? If not, I'm envisioning the most epic game of whack-a-mole.

Some days I’ll come home and I my Ibu will hand me a chocolate cake. Those are the best of days! She calls it a brownie (pronounced: bro-ny).

There are boxes that randomly show up in my house. The boxes are always full of various “sweets.” Sweets is in quotes because I’m never entirely sure what they are and every box is a palatal adventure (not guaranteed to be an excellent one). Every time a box shows up my host sisters sit down with me so I can “ini apa?” everything. All the little girls that hang out at my house beg me to try each treat so they can laugh at my facial expression. Most have the consistency of flan. Some contain unknown fillings (occasionally ground chicken). Most are coated in sugar and/or coconut. All are brightly colored. The green muffins are my favorite. They’re delish. The green bread is not so delish. The other day, my Ibu tells me to follow her if I want to eat. I was pretty confused because we never go anywhere to eat and I couldn’t understand where exactly we were going but I hadn’t had dinner yet and I’m pretty fond of food. We walk around the corner and go into a building with tons of people. At the end of the ever-present gauntlet of handshakes and smiles, my Ibu sits me down at a table and hands me a brownie. A bell is rung and everyone stands up and gets into a line to get food. The whole event kind of reminded me of a potluck. As soon as I finished eating my Ibu rushed me out of the building. On my way out I was handed one of those boxes. MY VERY OWN BOX! The next day I asked our cultural liaison what the event was. Apparently I had attended my first circumcision. Moral of the story: circumcision boxes are the best of boxes.

Sunburns/tan lines are not a familiar concept in Indonesia. I’ve developed a pretty fabulous farmers tan since I’ve been here and my family is forever cracking themselves up with the joke that I’m becoming an Indonesian flag (red and white).

  Differences: People eat avocados with sugar or juice them here. I miss guacamole but man... avocado juice is the bomb! I could drink it semoa hari satiap hari (All day everyday!)! Also, carrots are considered sweet and commonly put in oatmeal. Word.