The Long Gap

So I told myself at the very beginning of this that I would not apologize for my long absences from the blog world, because if I did I would start every entry with one. Even before blogs existed, I was horribly inept at writing on a regular basis. My childhood bookcases were scattered with journals containing only a couple of entries and then nothing but blank pages followed. So here I am officially NOT apologizing for doing nothing more than thinking about the fact that I need to write. I am keeping my promise to myself. 

So I believe the last time I found myself on this website was at the end of July, only a few days before Ramadan began. Well since then I have experienced my first Ramadan, passed both the three month make at site (which means I can take vacation!) and the five month mark in country, had my first get away (even if it was only to Surabaya to eat Italian, Chinese, Dunkin Donuts, Gelato, and Pizza and watch Harry Potter), and finally started teaching for real. So yes a good amount has happened. Well really a lot of nothing happened and then Ramadan finished and life started becoming normal.

It does seem like it would be very stupid not to talk about Ramadan. The fasting month began on August 1rst this year. Ramadan is officially the 9th month of the lunar Islamic calendar. This of course means that it does not follow the Georgian calendar and moves by ten days every year. Next year it will start in July. During this month Muslims do not eat or drink from an hour before sunrise  until sunset. They also abstain from sex and smoking (a real challenge for men in this country). The practice as a whole is to encourage purity. Muslims also tend to go to Mosques for extra prayers in the evening during this month and schools take time out of their schedules to focus on religious education. Many have told me that joining in fasting is the mark of a true Muslim.

 It is also common for more charity work to occur during Ramadan. Here are some pictures from an event that my school hosted. The school's band preformed and the students handed out bags of rice in a poorer area of town.

My host sister Elle.

The school band and village kids rocking out.

 I decided that I would join my family in fasting for the month. I wanted to do it for cultural integration, but more so I wanted to do it for my own spiritual reasons. Everyday started very early indeed. We generally woke up at 3:15 for Sahur, the meal before fasting. We would then fall back into our beds and sleep until we had to wake up for work. The school days were shortened on both ends. We started school an hour later and went home three hours earlier than usual. The periods lasted a grand total of 25 minutes so a lot of learning got done. In the afternoons I came home and generally participated in family naptime. Around 2 in the afternoon all the women  in my house would head back to the kitchen and start preparing buka, which literally translates to open, the meal that broke the days' fast. This was our general schedule for a month.

A neighbor celebrating the last day of fasting.

The month of fasting ended with Idul Fitri or Hari Raya (translated to "the main day"). This was the first day that we were able to eat during the day. Right before this holiday most people travel home to spend it with their families. If married couples live close to one set of in-laws then they tend to go to the other's home for the holiday. This meant that my house was relatively quite because most of my host parent's children live here.

Host sister and her son and neighbor
celebrating the last day of fast.

 

 On Idul Fitri and on the days following families travel around to the houses of friends and family and ask for forgiveness for anything that may have transpired during the previous year.  At each house a whole spread of "kue" (translates to cake, but it is really any sort of desert) is out on the coffee table of each house. It is expected that you eat and drink something at every house.

On the holiday itself my family stayed in the house. My host father is the spiritual leader of the community and therefore a lot of people came to us. Our first round of house hopping was the next day when  we went to visit siblings of my host father.  We went on a second outing after I came home from my trip to Surabaya we did another one of these trips, but this time it was to friends' houses.

To be honest there isn't too much to report on the house hopping practice. Although I understand the meaning behind visiting all the people who are important to you, none of the visits were more than half an hour and most of the time the hosts were spending that time preparing a hot beverage of some kind. This meant that the people that you talked when at each house were the people you arrived with. It just seemed a bit counterintuitive because theoretically we went to these people's houses to spend time with them, but really just spent more time with ourselves. Its kind of like trying to  go to too many Thanksgiving dinners on one day. 

My sister Ira with her nephew (Elle's Song).

My host mother during our Idul Fitri excursions.

So it may not have been a midnight showing,
but I made it there!

So during this holiday I took the opportunity to get away from site for a few days. I met up with a few friends in Surabaya (our base city in East Java) and we spent the weekend in luxury. We ate a lot of really good food, pampered ourselves, watched a movie and just enjoyed being together. I suppose that there really isn't a whole lot to describe. We did things that would just be considered normal in the US. We went out for Italian, Dunkin Donuts, Gelato, Chinese, and Pizza Hut; I suppose the not so normal thing would be that
we did it all in one long weekend.

The sandwich I had craved for five months.

We found a cute tea shop with some delicious tea.

School started again three days after break and I have now been back for two weeks. It seems like it has been longer than that, but then again those two weeks have really flown by. Time is strange here. Minus the initial hic-up on my first day back in the classroom, these two weeks have gone very well. Although I am not really sure that the students are understanding all the material, I am confident that I have made good lesson plans. I know that sounds contradictory, but if you were in my situation you would understand. A majority of the students here have never learned how to learn. To be honest they aren't really expected to, but that is an entry for another time. Suffice it to say teaching here is not black and white, or maybe teaching in general is not black or white. I just know that at the moment I can measure the effort and quality that I have put in and overall I think that the real beginning of this job has gone off as well as can be expected.

Some  Photos from the last two months.

The biggest Kurpuk Container I have ever seen.

Mmmm chocolate chip cookies.

Pizza Making. Totally delicous.

4 Americans adults + 2 Indonesian adults do NOT fit in a dokar (traditional horse drawn carriage.

This was on Indonesian Independence day.
There I am in my all time favorite school uniform (read that with A LOT of sarcasm).

The biggest star fruit I have ever eaten.

Just a note to people for the future. If you want to read more/ want me to write more, then please pester me. I do better when I have a reason to do things for others.

Love you all!