Selamat Siang Keluarga dan Teman!!
It has been a week since I blogged! The nice thing about that is that it has been an eventful week, leaving me with much to catch you up on, so while this post may be long, perhaps you may find it of interest!
Last week was the first week where I had activities going on every single night, and I must say that I was excited for this week, where my schedule was much less busy- I’ve come to really enjoy the down time! On Tuesday night, a bunch of us went to Karen and Major’s house for games. I learned a game that has been my nemesis for nearly two years, and I am downright proud to say that I conquered my bad feelings towards it, and have gone so far as to request that we play it when the opportunity has arisen over the past few days… Yes Grebel folks, it’s Dominion that I speak of! I think that this may just be my biggest accomplishment of this journey thus far.
Mike invited us over on Wednesday night, and four of us went out for dinner before more people joined us to spend the evening together. We went out for dinner to Cosmo Café, a really fun little restaurant near the language school where the food is good, the atmosphere is unique, and the price is right. In order to get to the café, we took an angkota (the Salatiga version of a city bus). By the time we finished dinner, however, the angkotas had stopped running. After 5PM, the transportation options are limited to those that require bartering- namely becaks (rickshaws) and dokars (horse-drawn carts). I told everyone not to worry, that I, with my vast Bahasa Indonesia vocab, and a real knack for bartering, would get us a dokar home. I walked confidently up to a friendly looking dokar driver, and asked him how much it would cost us for a dokar ride home. “Tiga puluh ribu”, he responded with a smile. Tiga puluh ribu! That’s a mere 3,000 rupiah! Less than 50 cents for all four of us! It’s practically free! I eagerly agreed, excited both at the shockingly low price and at the fact that I didn’t need to barter, and turned to the rest of the group with a triumphant smile. I was met with looks of shock and disdain. “You didn’t even try to barter!” they said. Well why would I need to when the price was so good? As it turns out, my Bahasa Indonesia vocabulary is still lacking in the number-comprehension department, and the dokar driver had asked for 30,000 rupiah- about three times more than it would normally cost. Since I had already agreed, we had no choice but to climb into the dokar and suck up the hit to our Personal Drawing Accounts. I apologized profusely, and everyone agreed that it was still worth what we paid since the experience ended up being really fun! I’ve lost my credibility though, and am no longer allowed to barter when other peoples’ money is at stake. No better way to learn than through mistakes, right?
Thursday night was “forced family fun” night (weekly games night), and it was hosted at the house I am staying at. While my “help” in preparing for the evening was limited to cleaning my room and asking Ibu Christine what snacks we would be eating, I felt like I had hosted the event in my own home, and felt a real sense of pride that the event had gone well and people had had fun. I realized that I am really starting to feel at home here in Salatiga, and am so excited to discover that I truly do have a home on the other side of the world.
I woke up early on Friday morning to receive an expected call from home, which started my weekend off on a really high note! We met at the school at 8AM as usual, but we had no class as we were heading to the city of Solo for the weekend. Mas Putut came with us on the way there (Karen and Major went ahead in the car) so that we could learn how to use the inter-city bus system and so that we could explore Solo with someone who knows the city. We went to the bus stop (which is an unmarked spot along the street- I suppose you just have to know it’s there) and waited for one of the non-economy (or air conditioned) coach buses to come along. We were taught beforehand to board the bus with our left foot first because the buses often don’t come to a complete stop, and it’s easier to trip if you board with your right foot first (not the first concern that comes to mind when boarding buses in Canada). We paid the fare (10,000 rupiah- $1.25 for an hour long bus ride to another city), and enjoyed the comfortable bus ride.
Once in Solo, Putut took us to a market and to the Batik district, where I bought some souvenirs and tried a local food (something similar to a crepe stuffed with chocolate and banana). We had also been cautioned about pickpockets before arriving in Solo, and I clutched my purse tight and concentrated very hard on not getting pickpocketed. So concentrated was I that I missed a very unique experience when a man jumped out from around a corner, and began tickling Jason in the stomach while making whatever noise a person makes when they tickle someone else. It was very unexpected for Jason (understandably), and from then on, he employed a “keep with the herd” mentality, never straying off by himself after that. (On the plus side though, I did not lose my money to any pickpockets… only to stores with exciting items that I just had to buy). The excitement tapered off a bit after the market, and we enjoyed a very calm and relaxing afternoon at Sushant and Priti’s, two MCC workers who are based in Solo. Sushant and Priti are from India, and are incredible cooks. We enjoyed a phenomenal, fresh, home cooked Indian dinner on Friday night, and went to bed quite content.
On Saturday, we were taken under the wing of Pak Paulus, a man who works with the GKMI church in Solo (the same synod that I am a part of this year in Semarang) and who is also the founder of several big peace building and relief organizations here in Central Java. We heard about some of their projects, and I was excited to learn that they teach trauma healing, which is something that I am really interested in. Pak Paulus also happens to be friends with the Prince of Solo, so we spent some time at the Prince’s house after our meeting in the morning. The rest of the day was filled with a trip to the palace (the prince doesn’t live at the palace), lunch, a restful afternoon, a trip to the night market, and dinner at a beautiful Italian restaurant called O Solo Mio, that served the most delicious pizza the world has ever tasted. It was amazing!
Sunday began with church at 6:30AM. After that, Karen and Major headed home in the van, leaving us with Sushant and Pak Paulus. Our plan was to spend some time with them, then go out for lunch as a group, maybe stop in at the mall, and head home on a bus. We were taken to a park shortly after church ended, where we were spending the morning just relaxing, listening to some performers in the park, and watching the (very brazen) deer mill about. Around 12:30, Sushant asked us to gather close, and then quietly told us that there had been a bombing in a nearby church, and we needed to leave immediately. We swiftly packed up our mats and everything else we had brought, and within 10 minutes, we found ourselves on a bus back to Salatiga.
While no one else in our group seemed too terribly fazed by the incident (at least they handled it well on the outside), it impacted me quite a bit. It was downright scary for the few minutes when we didn’t fully understand what was going on (and being a “worst case scenario” thinker, I envisioned something quite a bit bigger than reality), and has left me with a lot of unanswered questions. We learned that the attack was a Muslim extremist suicide bomber who went into a local Pentacostal church with a nail bomb strapped to his stomach. The bomb did not go off as planned, and exploded only after the service was over and a few people were still hanging around after church. The blast killed two people (including the bomber) and injured 22 more. We were really lucky to be with Pak Paulus, who is one of the most connected and well-informed men in the city (you have to be to be friends with the Prince, I think); We knew about the bombing before many did, and steps were immediately in place to get us to a safer area. I’ve never been more relieved to return somewhere, and Salatiga just felt so homey and familiar.
Good things have already come of this experience, at least on a personal level. I have thought a lot over the last two days about how, in a weird way, I feel even more blessed to be a part of a Christian community. Complaining about a two hour worship service just sounds ridiculous to me right now; it should be considered a blessing and not a burden to be able to gather and worship together in a church setting. (Ohhh man, do I ever hope these feelings hold out until next Sunday!)
This experience has also piqued my curiosity about the Muslim faith, and has really filled me with a desire to learn more about other religions in general (particularly Islam as it is most relevant to me this year). I was talking to Mike, who mentioned that his brother believes very strongly in the importance of Christians having a deep knowledge about other religions too, and that resonated with me. It is so easy to fuel stereotypes and create wider divisions between God’s creation when I choose to remain ignorant to the beliefs and deeply held values of those who believe differently than I do. I think that it is only through intentional discussions and learning and understanding that we can come to a place of mutual respect and thus begin to build the connections and bridges that are so desperately needed between people of different faith backgrounds. We too often isolate ourselves from others, preferring to remain in our familiar little comfort zones, and such actions do us an enormous disservice; we remain leery and fearful of those who believe differently, and I would venture to say that that is particularly true between Christians and Muslims.
The other thing I am realizing is just how skewed the news is that we receive about things that go on in other parts of the world. The media has the power to include or omit details at their discretion, and to word the news just so, so that what remains is a sizeable discrepancy between what we hear and what is reality. Within hours, the story of the bombing had reached BBC news. There is certainly truth to a lot of it- the bald facts are there. I found it sad that the wording painted the Muslim faith as a whole with one (very negative) brush. While the article did not shy away at discussing the drama of the event, they failed to mention that immediately following the bombing, many Muslims backed up the Christian church, openly expressing their sorrow over the event as well as their desire for peace and understanding between the two faith groups. All we hear is another attack against Christians by Muslims. We do not hear the whole story.
I am becoming more and more thankful that I am in a situation this year that leaves me no choice but to break out of my comfort zone and start those discussions and a search for truth that will lead to understanding. I didn’t anticipate it, but I think that it’s another reason why God has put me in Indonesia, and I think that my perceptions will be radically altered if I allow them to be this year.
In the meantime, I seek your prayers for the people affected by the bombing in Solo- both the Christian and Muslim communities- and for me as well, that I will actively seek opportunities for a deeper understanding and that I will allow God to use me to establish positive connections between two different faiths. It’s both a scary and awesome position I’m in, and I want to feel nothing but gratitude for it.
Before I sign off, I just want to throw out one more prayer request, for three really special people here in Indonesia; Sari, Maria, and Satria. These three planned to spend this year as IVEPers in the USA (Sari and Maria in thrift shops, and Satria on a farm, I believe). For weeks, their visa status was “pending” and last week, they were told that Satria would receive a visa, and Sari and Maria would not. This was difficult for all three of them; Satria has been carrying the guilt of getting a visa while his friends were denied, and Sari and Maria, who had planned on spending this year away, are now trying to discern where they are supposed to be and what they are supposed to be doing this year. Satria flew out this morning (his first time ever in an airplane!) and having talked to him yesterday, I know he’s very nervous. I know all three of them would be really grateful for the extra thoughts and prayers!
Thanks for reading!
Love,
Ellery
No comments:
Post a Comment