Easter Approaches

Selamat Sore dan Apa Kabar? ("Safe late-afternoon and How are you?")

And now it's April! Five days away from Easter, and just over two weeks away from the arrival of two much-anticipated visitors from Canada ;)

Honestly, this past week has been a bit of a longing-for-home week. I thought that perhaps these little bouts of homesickness wouldn't happen anymore, since I'm three and a half months away from the end, but I guess one is never immune to those bouts of homesickness, no matter how much or how little time one has left away from home. With Easter just around the corner, my mind has been wandering to the traditions of Easter egg hunts, Easter baskets, paska (which is actually the word for "Easter" in Bahasa Indonesia, so my mind has been on paska in particular!), and above all, spending time with family. There is nothing I hate more than missing out on family stuff!!

I also find that I am really missing my church at home. At holidays in particular, I find myself longing for the familiar songs, the familiar faces, the familiar length, and the familiar language of my home church. Sunday was admittedly a bit of a meltdown day for me, as I have found any 3+ hour church service day to be. On Sunday I attended the typical morning service (2 and a half hours) and then the youth service (another 2 and a half hours). Like any given Sunday, this time was spent with lots of loud and repetitive hands-in-the-air praise and worship music, long sermons, lengthy prayers that got more and less passionate as the background music got louder and softer, and alter calls. In my head, I know that this is what people here get meaning out of. This is the worship style that they grew up with, and these are the people that they grew up worshiping with (and the language that they've grown up worshiping in). Frustratingly, my emotions cannot seem to catch up with my brain, and I find myself increasingly irritated with this style of worship that I am entirely unable to connect with. Two and half hours is my limit- I start turning a little bit ugly after that!

As Easter approaches, I'm confronted for a second time this year, with a difficult moral dilemma. In Indonesia, where bombings are a more common occurrence than in North America, church security is a concern, particularly around the major holidays (Christmas and Easter). A few years ago, 19 churches on Java were bombed on Christmas Eve, by Muslim Extremists. An interesting result of the bombings was the provision of security to churches all over- by Muslims. I honestly do not know the details of the story (though if you are interested, I can find out the specifics for you) but to me, that gesture on part of the Indonesian Muslim community, was a very significant act of peacebuilding and reconciliation between the Muslim and Christian communities. The result of this also means that an armed security guard stands at the entrance/in the parking lot of churches on these major holidays. This is where I struggle. After we were required to leave Solo following the bombing in September, I have not been able to shake a feeling of uneasiness in church, particularly on these major holidays. So, even though it doesn't entirely squelch my anxiety, I am partly grateful for this provision of security. However, this raises huge contradictions in my beliefs about pacifism and the rejection of violence- particularly lethal weapons- as a means to control people. A few weeks ago, Jason brought up a similar bone of contention that he struggles with in his/my own home country; the police. Even Canada uses violence- or the threat of it- as one means to keep its citizens in line. How simple- and hypocritical- it is for me to say that I reject the use of violence and consider it wrong, while I live in security because others, who I don't have to face, are willing to carry the gun. (I say this with the realization that this grossly oversimplifies circumstances and situations.) How much more complicated and uncomfortable it is for me to walk past an armed guard at the gate of my Indonesian church. I am SO thankful that I went away this year, rather than next year, after my undergrad would be finished. I'm so eager to get back into the classroom and have these discussions and raise my confusions with those who may have more insight and therefore a more grounded and justified opinion on topics such as these. I also welcome the thoughts of anyone who considers this a topic worthy of discussion, no matter what your views are- I am very interested to hear what you have to say!

Last week was a bit of a tumultuous one for all of Indonesia, as it was announced that fuel prices would go up by 33% as of April 1. Fuel prices have not been climbing in Indonesia as they have in other parts of the world, and people can still fill up for 4,500 rupiah per liter. The proposed price increase had a lot of people really upset- of course, an increase in fuel prices also affects the cost of everything else, including food and electricity- and last week there were a number of demonstrations in the major cities (including Semarang, but they were not too huge here) that were significant enough to sway the votes in the government. Long story short, prices did not go up on April 1 as was originally planned, but with conditions. If you are interested, here's a link to an article about it:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/03/31/fuel-price-hike-still-play.html

And now onto lighter, day-to-day stuff... We have been heavily immersed in "Easter Crafts Week" at school, and I really got in touch with my creative side, as we made chickens, bunnies, eggs, and Easter baskets in my classes. Easter break begins as of this afternoon, and the fun picks up again next week, as the TK will be celebrating Easter a week after the actual holiday. I have to admit, I've been quite impressed with how the crafts have turned out-I felt like Neil Buchanan (Art Attack anyone? Anyone born in the early 90's should know what I'm talking about). At my church, and possibly in other churches here, it is a tradition for kids to go on an egg hunt for Easter. The biggest difference between this egg hunt and the egg hunts that I am used to, is that these kids search for real eggs (chicken or duck), where we most often search for candy-filled plastic ones. The eggs here are not decorated or coloured either. I told them about the Easter Bunny today, using a yellow rabbit puppet to help paint the picture in their minds. They had never heard of the Easter Bunny, but they were pretty enthused about the idea of getting chocolates for Easter. We decorated paper eggs today, and stuck them together, leaving an opening at the top. I promised them that the Easter Bunny would put a chocolate inside these Easter Eggs, so long as they did a good job colouring. The kids took this task very seriously; one of my kiddies was colouring her whole egg yellow, and she showed it to me, asking, "Miss Ellery, semua kuning, tidak-apa apa??" ("Is it ok if it's all yellow??") I said that it was ok, but that the Easter Bunny would like it better if it had more colours on it. The next time I looked at her egg, it was covered with every colour in her pencil crayon packet. They take that chocolate seriously.

Last week, I was invited into the house of one of my students. A part of his house is used for the PPA Sendang Guwo office/meeting place, so I am there every week, but never inside the living quarters. However, the last few weeks, this student who lives there has taken a bit of a liking to me, and has been eagerly telling me about his vast and diverse DVD collection (of top quality films, let me assure you...). He asked me in class if I would like to watch one of them next time I was at PPA, and I said of course I would, so sure enough, he came running out with two DVDs in his hand- one in Mandarin and one in English- for me to choose from. I chose the English sing-along (sung by non-English speakers, which made it an extra special treat), and in we went to watch. This was the first time that I have been inside a really low-income home, and it was also one of the first times that I've been really overwhelmed by the conditions that some people live in. My 5 year old student invited me to sit down on the bed, and I discovered that, besides being really dirty, it was rock hard. It was just such a wake-up call for me, to the struggles that this family, and so many others like it, must face day-to-day- struggles that never even enter my "middle-class" mind.

I was told a really interesting little story on Sunday, about a comment made by a guest speaker at a conference that one of the YALTers attended. This speaker is, from what I've been told, heavily involved in a church planting organization. He spoke of one of his mission trips that he took, to an area that was hit hard by a tsunami, an area where MCC was also working at the time. This man spoke of the money his organization spent, and the money that MCC spent (MCC had spent far more), doing two completely different types of work in the region. He concluded his story with the statement that when all was said and done, his organization saved hundreds of souls, and MCC didn't save one. I was taken aback by this story, and I have thought about it a lot since Sunday. It really astounds me sometimes how divided the views are about how to most effectively help others, even within one religion. Of course, since I'm serving with MCC because I believe in their values and priorities, it is extremely difficult for me to see the mission that this man believes in, as even an equally-as-effective service program, let alone one that is more effective (as this man implied). I would be so curious to see what this man would have to say if the opportunity arose to engage in a sit-down discussion.

Like I said before, we have just begun our Easter break. I plan to make paska on Thursday (or attempt it anyways), and there are a few little events here and there throughout the weekend. Of course, Easter festivities in church will be taking place as well. I ask for your ongoing prayers, particularly for a peaceful Easter season in Indonesia.

Have a great week, everyone! Happy Easter!!
Love,
Ellery