Things that are different: The Day of Sacrifice

Here is Dave with our village leader, a kind man that we respect and appreciate.  To the left you can see the girls and women working on the smaller pieces of meat.  Giant tarps are spread out on the front patio of the mosque to keep the wet, blood, and slime contained.  To the right you can see the men in the background working on the larger animals.

The Muslim community in our neighborhood recently celebrated Idul Ahda, or the Day of Sacrifice.  On the Sunday before the holiday, Dave joined the neighborhood work party to cut the grass and rake leaves in the field adjoining our local mosque.  It is custom to have a work party, kerja bakti, every month and Dave joins when he can.  A few days later the neighborhood children, including our own, were delighted to see 6 goats and 2 cows grazing there.  I didn't have the heart to tell Jonathan they would be slaughtered on the spot the next morning …maybe next year when he's five.  On weeks like this I just want to be a vegetarian.  

The animals were delivered the  day before.  The neighborhood children all came and giggled and gawked like it was a petting zoo.  The animals grazed nervously.  I wonder how they liked all of the chanting and activity at the mosque all night long.  

The night before Idul Adha is one of the noisiest of the year -- even more so than the eve of Idul Fitri, when the adults are tired after a month of fasting.  Starting at 6:30 pm, parades of batik-clad children rotate the streets to the beat of drums and Islamic music.  Then the volume is turned up on the mosque speakers and the chanting begins.  First the boys of the community take turns, and then the men, for several hours.  "Allahu Akbar," the takbir, over and over.  Oh, and did I mention there were also fireworks?  About 10 pm or so, the community leaves the mosque and someone puts on a recording which keeps the chant going at high volume…..all….night….long….until 8 am or so when it is time for the sacrifice to begin.

As outsiders not involved in the festivities, this is a hard night for us.  We worry about the boys sleeping.  They did, though.  Jonathan slept through the night without any problems.  Joshua I did give some antihistamine because we are night weaning him and I felt he needed a little extra help.  Dave puts in his earplugs PLUS noise reducing headphones with white noise playing.  He even slept with the ear muffs for part of the night.  I don't hear the sound quite as much as Dave, but it does get wearying after several hours and especailly in bed when it's finally time to go to sleep.  And every hour waking up to hear it still and then try to go back to sleep again.  When the speakers are finally turned off in the morning, the silence is truly golden!

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In the morning, honored men in the community take turns reading special passages from the Koran while the animals are killed.  Finally the speakers are quiet at 9 am and the men and women are busy for several hours butchering the meat, cleaning the entrails, cooking rice and stews.  There is a community feast, and portions of meat are divided to all and special attention to the poor. 

Disclaimer:  The following photos portray some of the butchering process-- parts of dead animals, blood and entrails.  You don't have to look if you don't want to.

The neighborhood women working on the smaller pieces.

The men working on the larger pieces, the 2 cows.

Nothing is wasted.  Here a group of men have the special job of cleaning the entrails.  Cows have 4 stomachs.  There were 2 cows and 6 goals.  That was a lot of entrails.  

Dave stopped by the mosque midway through the morning to say hi to the neighbors.  It really is a festive scene with all of the community working together to prepare the meat.  The price of meat has been going up, up, up at the markets so it is a real treat to have so much meat in one day.  I suppose, to the typical person here, it's a bit like Thanksgiving.  For us, the entire sensory experience is a cultural stressor but it is a good time to interact with our neighbors and build rapport.  We were invited to the feast, but didn't feel quite comfortable enough to join.  To our surprise, later that afternoon a portion of meat (a mix of cow, goat, and entrails) was delivered to our house too!  Interestingly enough, in our neighborhood there are perhaps 8 ex-pat families but none are very active in the neighborhood activities.  To be honest, we are not that active either, but we are trying to increase our involvement.

Things that are different: Dry Season

Showing off our quickly drying laundry!

It's the tail end of dry season at the moment ...at least we think so.  Wet season is supposed to start around September, since it is an "ember" month.  In Indonesian, "ember" means BUCKET, get it?  So September, October (should be Octember, ha, ha), November and December are all bucket months....but so far no rain for at least 9 weeks here.

So this post is an ode to the dry season.....things we like, and things we don't!

NUMBER ONE THING WE LIKE (ABOVE PHOTO):  Dry laundry every day!  (During the rainy season, our laundry can literally hang around for DAYS before we finally fold it up a bit damp!)  The same is true about our dishes.  They air dry really fast these days.  We have a rule that we don't towel dry dishes here.  Did you know that most pathogens do not survive the air drying process?  Since our water quality here is very questionable, we've just made the decision to kill more germs by air drying.  The only problem is, during wet season, sometimes our cups stay wet for hours and hours!

NUMBER TWO THING WE LIKE:  Dry dust.  In my opinion, dry dust is better for playing trucks than wet mud, because it is a lot easier to clean off of a dirty boy and his clothes!  However, I could also say it is a number one thing I don't like, as the dust gets everywhere in our house.

Demonstrating the excellent play possibilities of dry dust

NUMBER THREE THING WE LIKE:  Patriotic Cheer and Sprucing up of the Neighborhood!  Indonesian Independence Day is August 17.  Since it is the only holiday that all Indonesians of all religions share, it is the most largely celebrated holiday of the year.  Traditionally, everyone spruces up their homes and keeps their yards clean and tidy for Independence Day. A lot of people even put fresh coats of paint on their gates and such.  It's also REQUIRED for every home to display the Indonesian flag....even the foreigners!

Indonesian flags in front of every home

The neighborhood display of 5 neighborhood flags, right next to the neighborhood list of rules/values

Freshly weeded and swept flower beds and gutters

NUMBER FOUR THING WE LIKE:  Red Tomatoes!  During dry season the tomatoes actually get enough sun and heat to turn red and ripe....while during rainy season we are often stuck with green, hard ones. 

Red tomatoes.  Still not as tasty as Walla Walla back yard toms, but good enough.

NUMBER FIVE THING WE LIKE:   Daily viewings of our local volcano, which is always covered in clouds during the rainy season.

Our volcano, Mount Merbabu (which means Ashy Mountain)

NUMBER SIX THING WE LIKE:  It's kind of like Autumn!  While we don't have autumn here, we do get a lot of leaf fall because things are so....dry....and so trees take the opportunity to change their leaves, as the local expression goes.  The bad thing about it is .....it's a lot of leaves.  Interesting, the Indonesians don't call them leaves once they fall.  They call it "sampah" which is garbage, and if we don't get our leaves cleaned up often enough, to them it's the same as just leaving piles of garbage laying around our lawn.  So, while it's fun for Jonathan to get to jump in the leaf piles, the truth is I don't really like this component of dry season.  I can't find a decent rake ANYWHERE ....here we just sweep our yards with a witch's broom.  

It's "Autumn" but it's still 85 degrees right now!

NUMBER SEVEN THING WE LIKE:  Frequent swimming!  There is a hotel nearby that has a nice pool and best of all they also provide free pick-up and take home service.  We all 3 can swim there for about $5 which includes towel and drink and transport!  During dry season we try to go every Sunday afternoon.  During the rainy season, it's usually raining at that time.  

Thank you to our Australian friends for giving us this very special pool walrus!

Now that I've accentuated the positive, I just have to share a few things that I JUST DON'T LIKE about dry season.

 NUMBER ONE DISLIKE:  Smoke!  Every day is burn day.  Since every thing is dry, our neighbors delight in burning their trash and leaves in their yard every day.  The smoke stays close to the ground and floats around and comes in the house.  Dave loves to keep the smoke out by turning on all of our ceiling fans to their highest settings....which keeps our house smoke free, but is kind of like living inside a hurricane.  Fortunately, no one in our family suffers from asthma, but many people really struggle with their respiratory system during this season.  We even know one woman who had to return home to the USA for treatment and healing because her dry-season related health problems were so severe!

NUMBER TWO DISLIKE:  Our yard has turned into a gravel pit.  We do have grass when it's raining, but all of our grass has now died to reveal.....this.  Now I know why our yard worker always uses a weed eater instead of the lawn mover he has access to.  To sift out all of this gravel would take 100 men with shovels a week to clear! 

Close up of our yard in September

Another result of the dryness -- large cracks in the soil, right in our front yard!

Savoring a small patch of green

I do have a lime tree and a hydrangea I am trying to keep alive by watering ....and thus there is a small patch of green in our front yard where some of the grass has been able to survive.  One day Jonathan crawled onto this little  patch and made up his own song....."I love grass!  I love grass!"  It made me remember this summer when he ran barefoot through the lush backyards of so many of our friends ....we couldn't even catch him most of the time! 

Neighborhood dust bowl----er----soccer field

The soccer field across the street from us has really turned into a dust bowl....we get so much dust when people ride their motorbikes or cars on it.  Or play soccer.  Or if a nice breeze comes through....

So soon the rains will come and I will have a whole new list of likes and dislikes to document and share with you.  Dust will be replaced by mud.  Dry laundry by damp.  Gravel pits by mold.   Stay tuned!

Things that are diffferent: Idul Fitri date changed!

Imagine it’s 5:30 pm on Christmas Eve.  Family has gathered from out of town for a special meal -- the food is almost done and the table is set.   Kids, adorned in their new clothes, are excited about the festivities to come – whether marching in the Christmas Eve parade, or just spending time at home opening one special present or perhaps all of them!  Churches are putting the final preparations on their Christmas Eve services.  Some people are already on the road heading to church.  The next morning is CHRISTMAS – they can hardly wait!  Adults are a little frazzled with preparations but happy with a holiday glow. 

Then the announcement comes over the radio and the TV.... people start calling and texting each other immediately with the news!  Christmas has been postponed by one day!  Today is not Christmas Eve …..it’s the day before!   

I don’t know what everyone did ….whether they put the special food in the fridge or just ate it …and I don’t know how they felt ….

This is exactly what happened here last night.  The date for Idul Fitri are published on the calendar, but cannot commence until the moon is exactly right.  On the afternoon of Idul Fitri eve, Muslim experts all over the country peered at the skies for the sighting of the new moon….it didn’t appear and therefore the date was postponed.

Everyone was ready though, when the festivities finally started last night.  Jonathan was excited by the children’s parade that went by our house at 7 pm.  All of the kids were shiny in their brand new holiday clothes, singing and holding candles and marching to the beat of a big drum.  At dusk, the mosques started their all night broadcast.  The music continued until 7 am, when our neighbors gathered at the Mosque to worship and hear a special Idul Fitri sermon.  People are now officially breaking their month long fast with delicious food and will soon start visiting each other and asking forgiveness for any wrongs they may have committed over the previous year.  It’s Idul Fitri!

Things that are different: I hate mosquitoes more than ever!

We love our new home, but we are struggling with mosquitoes more here than we did at the other house.  Jonathan gets the worst of it.

I was happy this morning because Jonathan slept through the 4:30 am call to prayer and the 5 am sermon broadcast from our local mosque!  We got to sleep in until 5:30 am and it was WONDERFUL!  But my joy quickly turned to dismay when I pulled Jonathan out of his bed and his face looked like this!  Aaaaugh!

And this is just the right side of his face!

Jonathan sleeps under a mosquito net, but one evil mosquito got inside the net sometime yesterday.  I found that evil bug engorged on Jonathan's pillow this morning, too full of my child's blood to even fly away.  It fluttered it's wings feebly before meeting it's just end.  That thing feasted on my child's face no less than EIGHT times.  

Now we are trudging through our day with pain and suffering, as Jonathan's bites swell up horribly and they are so itchy for the first day or so!!  There are some nice remedies out there...but Jonathan is notorious about rubbing his eyes and none of them are eye safe.  I found a natural remedy on the internet this morning -- oatmeal water mixed with plain yogurt.  I mixed some up and dabbed it on -- he just scratched it right off.  The best thing to do is just cut those fingernails as short as I can and then distract, distract, distract!  I do resort to Ibuprofen and Benadryl at naptime.  It puts him to sleep for about an hour, but that's it.

The scene of the crime:  It looks like a princess bed, but it is Jonathan's Pak-N-Play with mosquito net installed.

We have done so much to try to combat the mosquitoes:  mosquito net, fans on at night, discovery and coverage of mosquito-entrance openings, bug repellent while out, removal of low lying foliage, avoiding being outside at all during prime biting time .....it's so frustrating that they still are getting in after all our hard work! So now we have some new things to try:  Keeping the mosquito net securely closed day AND night, and keeping Jonathan's bedroom door shut when workers are at the house and frequently opening the door.  Also today we installed filter paper over the ventilation window over Jonathan's bedroom door.

On the bright side, we are very fortunate in this part of the tropics that malaria is very rare.  Other mosquito-born illnesses, such as Dengue Fever, are also uncommon.  So it's likely our only problem is a day and a half of itching and swelling and a week of healing.  

If anybody has a great natural remedy for bites in young children, please pass it on!  As much as I'd like to think this will never happen again, I know it will.   

Things that are different: Going to the doctor

What is she doing?   Dr. Yos prepares Jonathan's DTP vaccine.

The lady in the head covering and flowered shirt is our new doctor! Jonathan is 15 months old and it was time for him to get his next round of shots. This dear lady was recommended to us because she routinely orders the Belgian vaccines that most foreigners like to give to their babies. We can get to her place via mini-bus with one connection, but Dave discovered a way that we can walk there by taking some of the smaller roads. So walk we did.....

Over the river...I mean ravine...

Past the cemetery....both Muslims and Christians are buried here

This "alley" is actually the main street for a whole neighborhood.  It works fine if your only transportation is a motorcycle, which is true for most people here!

We're almost there....just a little further.

Here we are at the Doctor's office!  She has clinic hours in the late afternoon! We arrived at about 4 pm.

In the waiting room....

Jonathan weighed 10.4 kg on Dr Yos' scale -- almost 23 pounds.  So she prepared the vaccines while we talked about her five grown daughters who all have PhDs.  She told us that she is 67 years old ....which is 12 years past retirement age in this country!  I'm thinking she must still be working to help pay for all those college educations!

And here is the second shot (varicella.)  Yep, he screamed, although we didn't get a picture of that part!

Now walking home.  I still have a hard time believing this is the most populated island on the planet, yet there can still be patches of thick jungle like this!  I expected a concrete jungle like Los Angeles!

Things that are different: Neighborhood work parties

Dave (in hat) cleans up with our neighbors

So the same neighborhood association that organizes the monthly baby clinics also arranges for a neighborhood work party every month or so. We usually get the official written invitation (complete with letterhead and offical stamp of the village leader) on a Saturday, calling for the work party to commence on Sunday morning at 7 am. Dave really enjoys these work parties because they happen at a good time for him and he can contribute to the effort while at the same time practice his Indonesian and meet our neighbors on a low key basis. Jonathan and I like to make a short appearance, and then head home for the baby's pre-church nap. (Okay, I must admit he is a toddler now, but we still like to get that nap in if we can!)

This week they were just doing superficial clean-up stuff -- picking up trash and leaves, cutting down the long grass, etc. Sometimes they do bigger things like dig drainage ditches or paint lines on the roads. They are always well attended -- I saw at least 20 people at work and more people were arriving as Jonathan and I were heading home.

The systems we have in America are nice, such as city street sweepers and road maintenance crews.....but at the same time, this is a great way for a community to take ownership of their space, hang out together and make fun out of a lot of hard work.

Things that are different: Asian problem solving -- what would you do?

I wish I had a picture for this post ....but I just don't.  But perhaps it's for the better!

So today we had a deluge rainfall, right at lunchtime when Jonathan and I go to school to socialize with the students and eat with Dave.  I put Jonathan in the baby backpack and we carefully headed to school under a big umbrella.

What would YOU do if you were driving along on your motorcycle and it started raining REALLY hard?  No poncho available.

Why, you simply stop by the side of the road, take off your outer clothes and stash them under the bike seat.  Then you continue driving in your underwear until you reach your destination, towel off, and put your dry clothes back on!

I saw this today at least twice!  It doesn't work for women, though.

Things that are different: Neighborhood baby clinic

One thing that is special here is that each neighborhood has special ways of taking care of it's own.  It's a government system, but it works very well.  There is a neighborhood man (elected but unpaid) who heads over 15-30 families.  Everyone who moves into the neighborhood or even visits for more than 24 hours is supposed to report to him, just so he knows what is going on.  We also have a neighborhood guard duty, made up of men from the neighborhood, who patrol every night to make sure all is well and safe.  The women and the men in the neighborhood each meet monthly to take care of business.  Each group has it's own bank account, from which members can take out small loans if needed, or get some money for medical care if someone is sick. 

All neighborhoods also have "Posyandu" or neighborhood  baby clinic, every month.   I used to help with the Posyandus when I was single working as a nurse in Kalimantan.   The Posyandu here is quite abbreviated compared to the ones I used to work with.  It goes like this:  On the 15th of every month, at 4:30 pm, all of the mommies in the neighborhood pack up their babies and toddlers (up to age 5) and head over to the house where Posyandu is.   A lady with a bar scale and a sling weighs all of the babies and the weight is recorded.  Baby and mommy are given a snack (a banana or candy or cake or soybean porridge), and then they head home.  Babies that are not gaining weight properly are referred to the nearest government health clinic.  A couple of times a year, mega dose vitamin A is administered to prevent vision problems. 

So Jonathan and I have been attending for several months now.  It's nice to be able to keep track of Jonathan's weight, and to get to know the other mommies in the neighborhood.  At his last weighing he was 9.9 kg (21.8 lbs).  His birth weight was 7.3 lbs (7 lbs 5 oz) so yep, he's tripled his birth weight in a year.

Here's a couple of pictures of Jonathan at Posyandu

A bar scale (like what they use in the market to weigh goods) and a sling are used to weigh every child in the village under the age of 5.  Here Jonathan is taking his turn.

Close up view:  This is fun mom!  (Note: this kid has got a lot of teeth!)

Things that are different -- Erupting volcano is local news

About 3 hours ago, this local volcano erupted 4 times. It is less than a 3 hour drive from our home. The city we visited last week is now experiencing ash fall and ash rain. So far I have heard of no casualties, but information is still being gathered.

Known as Mount Merapi, this mountain has erupted at least 100 times since history began, so volcanologists say. Yesterday, we started hearing rumors that it was expected to erupt, and we looked on the internet to find the rumors were true! Nobody in our town seemed very excited about it, since it was predicted to erupt in the opposite direction from us, to the south. So we didn't get very excited either. It last erupted a few years ago, so this is nothing new.

The government attempted to evacuate 40,000 people from the immediate area of the volcano, however not all complied. Many stayed behind to take care of their animals and fields.


In other news, there was a tsunami in the western part of the country today, far from us. It was the same fault that caused the tragic tsunami in 2004. So far, 110 people are known dead with many more missing. Rescuers are traveling even now to a group of islands 12 hours out from the mainland, to see how the people fared with the waves. Please pray for those who have lost loved ones, and those who have no hope because of this disaster.

Things that are different -- peanut butter

Peanut butter seems to be an essential food our family can't do without. It's just such an easy, hearty snack ingredient. Personally I (Jennifer) have never been a fan, but Dave loves to have peanut butter toast and I send a PB & J sandwich to school with him every day. Jonathan hasn't tasted any yet, as it's not recommended for babies, but I imagine it will be one of his favorites too.

There are some local peanut butters available cheaply -- they contain sugar, oil and mystery ingredients. I've chosen not to partake.

We can also get some very nice imported Skippy. It's about $4.50 for a small jar. Unfortunately it also has a lot of sugar in it. At that price I wanted an alternative!

Raw peanuts, however, are abundant here and very inexpensive at about $1 a pound.

So I purchased a Chinese meat grinder for $9 and we make our own peanut butter now! You can also make peanut butter with a blender, but it will probably break the blender in short time. (Yes, we use the meat grinder for meat, too -- but we bleach after every use.)

The result is not quite like that nice peanut butter I used to purchase at Andy's Market in College Place. It's not quite like Adam's either. It's kind of crumbly and hard to spread. I'm still perfecting the technique though. Dave thinks it's great!

Things that are Different: Cockroach control

I'd like to start a series in this blog called "Things that are Different" about our life here, compared to our life back in the states. Today I'll focus on cockroach prevention.

Our home had a lot of cockroaches when we moved in. After we had been here a week or so and plugged up their main entrance hole, their numbers decreased dramatically. However, quite a few of our kitchen drawers and bedroom cupboards were still inhabited. It was freaky and nauseating to open a drawer and see fast skittering of long wavy antennae and thorny legs. These guys are frequently 1 1/2 inches long.

One day I went to war and almost completely dismantled the dish cabinet, removing shelves, pulling out drawers and completely flipping the large piece of furniture upside down. I won't tell you what I found underneath, but it felt very satisfying to clean it. Everything was scrubbed with bleach and many roaches died under my broom that day. While waiting for the wood to dry I did some research on Wikipedia about cockroaches.

Here are some of the less than appetizing facts I learned:
1. A cockroach can survive submerged in water for 30 minutes.
2. He can also survive without food for 1 month.
3. He likes dark places only inhabited by many other cockroaches.

But there was a good thing too! I read that in Singapore, the taxi drivers use an herb in their car to keep the roaches away. You see, there are many roach sprays and poisons available here to keep the roaches at bay, but I don't want to have those in the same house with my infant. So sure enough I found out this herb, called pandan wangi, is available in our local market! It's used in curry dishes and only costs 50 cents a bundle!

So we've been using it for over a month now and so far no roaches in any of the places where we're using the herb! Amazing! And thank you Lord for creating a natural, non-poisonous solution to our roach problem!

Here is a picture of the fabulous herb, pandan wangi! Oh, and it smells wonderful too!