"White People"

Today I read on Facebook that for Native Americans white people were the original "illegal immigrants."  That's how we feel here.  For one thing, we are still UNDOCUMENTED, after days of either sitting in immigration offices or flying to Jakarta, of being finger-printed on all ten fingers, and of countless photos  being taken. (I lost count after the original 19 have been supplemented about three times with six more here, four there.  You get the picture.)
  There's another aspect to the whiteness.  We are what the Indonesians call "bule" (sp?).  We are foreign because we are white and everyone else is brown.  So they don't actually know where we are from, which is new for me, because I'm used to being tagged as American right away.  Here we could pass for Aussies or even Europeans.
  And another ironic aspect of the whiteness is the vast array of whitening creams seen in even ordinary small shops.  Everyone, or at least those who buy the creams, and nearly everyone we see on television, wants to be more white.  I have tried to tell them that in America everyone wants a tan to look more like them!  What a funny world we live in. 

Islam in Java (First Thoughts)

I will probably change my mind about this several times before the ten months are over, but now I think that Indonesian Muslims wear their Islam more lightly than say, those in the Middle East.  That is, they do not bother to learn extensively the Arabic language of the Qur'an, for example.  They do know what they recite in the prayers (salat) that many say faithfully.  Yet, they take their Islamic faith very seriously.  It permeates every aspect of life here, from the call to prayer that occurs not only at the beginning of the five periods (starting at 4 AM) but often too at the end, to the everyday aspects of life, like food and animals. 
  Having said that, I have to add that here in Java there is another still very vibrant dimension of religious experience, and that is the mystical aspect.  I learned about it the very first week in the neighborhood, when our new friend, Mira, told us about JFK who was given the "kris," the sword or dagger carried by the Sultans.  It had mystical power, she told us, and only someone of Kennedy's stature could hold or pick it up.  "We have many mystical things here in Java," she told us.  A more intellectual version of this case was put by an anthropologist we are getting to know:  "The back stage is mysticism," he said, "and the front stage is Islam."  I am pondering and absorbing all that this means, as I navigate between the scholarly accounts (often conflicting!) of all this. 

Finally in the house and online

After five grueling days of shopping with many, many helpers to interpret and drive us around, we are in the house.  Getting it furnished and usable for us spoiled Westerners has been a major undertaking.  Basically, I have needed to learn all over 1) how to eat (more rice, no bread), 2) how to bathe (see below), and 3) how to communicate (very little progress on that front).  As for the bathing, I gave the "team" a huge belly laugh when I asked how to get into this large tiled basin that sits on the floor of each bathroom.  It is used for dipping and showering, and Pak Parto had to demonstrate that for me.  Thus, the need for a more familiar type of shower added to this bath configuration.  Essentially, the whole bathroom is now a shower.
  But everyone is so helpful!  I have just asked either the neighbor family we met or someone from the university (through interpreters of course), and they are out that day or the next to fix and engineer things that seemed unworkable.  Today, for example, we are getting more lighting.  I know I am beginning to appear to myself more and more like a colonial, and that will be even more evident when we (hopefully) get a housekeeper next week.  That is necessary because a) we don't know how or where to shop; b) we don't really know how to cook (really) with the available ingredients.  The food is delicious and more on that later.  For now, it is sufficient that we are here.

Classes begin!

Just met students in the class that Bob will teach in English conversation.  They are so lively!  All answered as one when I said "Salam aleiku," ("peace be with you").  They love using their limited English.  I left to come by the "American Corners" run by the American-Indonesian Exchange Foundation (AMINEF) that brought me here.  It is nice to have a little American corner in a country that can be overwhelmingly different, geographically, linguistically, and in many other ways.  Whenever I get the thought, "I can't believe I'm in Indonesia," I look around at completely new sights and sounds and am immediately reminded, "Oh yes, I am."  But it's nice and interesting and even fun.
 The other night was karaoke night at the hotel where we are still staying until we get our house fixed up (including getting a sink in the bathroom, along with hot water for a shower).  It was hilarious trying to sing along with Muslim women in head scarfs who knew our American songs so much better than we did.  What a great time getting up sing, and then even dance.  They told me it was "Javanese custom," but to us it sure looked like disco!

Halal bil Halal at the University

O.K., where to begin with another amazing morning.  This may take several blogs!  We were invited to a combination opening convocation, end of Ramadan, "Halal bil Halal" at the university where we will be teaching. The Arabic phrase means, "I forgive you and I ask your forgiveness."  To my surprise (and slight discomfort), I and Bob were asked to be guests of honor in the very front, right next to the Rector of the University.  At first, he seemed quite formal and stiff, but as we sat together, along with his two adorable four and five -year-old boys and wife, we began opening up to each other, and despite the loudspeaker blaring a Muslim singer of "soft rock," we had a fascinating conversation.  We heard what the organization that founded this school was about:  social welfare, education, and health care.  he was proud to say that Muhammadiyah (the name of one of the two major Muslim organizations in Indonesia) has founded schools of higher learning all over Indonesia, as one of their primary focuses.  They also have about a hundred hospitals, and he commented that when this organization was founded, 1912, they got the idea from the Catholic missionaries who were here.  He stressed the idea that they were "non-partisan," serving everyone.  He agreed that diversity was important.  He learned on a tour of American universities what building a great university would entail, so took this school from about 800 students 12 years ago to the 20,000 it has today. 
 Our conversation also involved the nature of Islam in Indonesia, and he remarked at one point that "we are all Sufis."  yet, he drew a distinction between his Muslim organization and the other leading one here ("N.U.), in that this one is more modernist, interested in reform.  At one point, he said we follow Muhammad directly, thus Muhammadiyah; we are not "followers." This was to point out that the other organization, the more traditionalist one, is founded on the principle of a charismatic leader, called a "kyai," and hundreds of followers.
Following a beautiful recitation (i.e., singing) of a Koranic passage, the Rector spoke to the assembled faculty and staff and their families. After another speaker and what appeared to be a sermon by an imam, all rose and passed by the main party in greeting. It was a beautiful gesture of community and halal.
 We joined a group in the rector's tent for a fine Indonesian meal and fellowship. We met colleagues and those studying from Spain, Germany and Australia. What a wonderful experience of hospitality, friendliness, and a family atmosphere that made us feel truly welcomed and valued!  

To Jakarta and back to Malang

We spent the last week running around offices in Jakarta.  "Running" is euphemistic for sitting in offices waiting for officials to prepare and sign off on forms.  We are still not quite documented, although I have something called a "KITAS," which I think means I can do research here.  I still have to visit the provincial governor in Surabaya, perhaps a holdover from the colonial days of hierarchy and bureaucracy.  But it gives more people jobs!
 On the last night in Jakarta we visited "Plaza Indonesia" which consists of four huge floors of sheer glitz, Gucci, Armani, all the big name stores.  As a man we met in the airport (another person trying to be helpful to these confused Americans) put it, there is wealth concentrated at the top, and that makes it look like the average is higher than it is, when there is still much poverty.  Sound familiar?  He should know.  He works for the Ministry of Finance.
 One great benefit of these days of satisfying officialdom was getting to know two other Fulbrights who were going through the same process.  Besides bemoaning the tedious process, we shared our interests in being here.  One has worked for NPR and will do reports for the World, on PRI.  The other is making a trip to Bali, a place he has known since going there many times when he was a surfer kid.  Now he does research on Balinese rituals and theater performances.  Very sophisticated. 
  I am just glad to be here, and whatever "research" I do will be to get to know and understand this country and its people, and especially try to link Muslim and Christian a little more.  As Pak Parto, our all-around helper in Malang, put it so well:  "When we open our hearts, love will find a way."  Could we find a better vision for this adventure?  Obviously, thanks for reading, and I welcome your comments.

First day in the neighborhood

Idul Fitri

Today is the beginning of Idul Fitri, the Muslim holiday that ends the fast of Ramadan.  It is party time!  But all last night we heard the chanting of the Qur'an, most likely from the large mosque that borders the university inn where we are staying.  That did not put us in the mood.  I wonder if it was Sufi chanting.  That sort of thing also seems to be present on some of the television shows.  Except for American cartoons, we seem to have the "Muslim package" on our TV here.  But it's all part of the learning experience. 
Next week we are invited to the university celebration of Idul Fitri, since it goes on for at least one more week.  I asked what happens when the whole university gathers in the "Dome," (like our convocation center), and our hosts told me that people shake hands, eat varieties of foods, and make gestures of forgiveness to one another.  This element we had not heard of before, and it is really impressive.  When do Christians ritually do this act of forgiveness?

Shopping

Yesterday we went shopping with the "team" for all the items we will need for the house, which is mostly unfurnished.  We were a bit dismayed to learn we had to buy a stove, but learned that a "stove" consisted of two burners fueled with gas, costing only about $38, which in rupiahs looks more like $380,000. We are still trying to get used to the conversion and thrown off before we realize it's far less in American dollars.
  We also met Eka, one of the team.  Her name means "One," because she is the first-born, and many Indonesians name their children by the birth order.  I think I learned this in "Eat, Pray, Love."  When Eka taught me the first three numbers, something like "Sat, Digo, Trigo," I wondered why the difference in the number one.  I was delighted to learn that "Sat" comes from Sanskrit, an early influence on this language of Bahasa Indonesian. That connects this language in some distant way to all our Indo-European languages.  I said, "we are one globe after all."

Also, in the car on the way back, I saw a water buffalo grazing in a rice paddy, which line the roads even within the city.  After saying "Look" to anyone in particular, I commented, "We are easily impressed."  They all laughed.  This is one example of a common experience of their laughing at my amazement over it all.  I hope that never stops, even in the ten months I have here.  Well, this is more than I meant to write, but since sleeping at night is still not quite possible, I write blogs in my head, and this is the result.

House

Thanks to our wonderful hosts, we found a house, or rather they found it for us.  It will not be ready until we get back from Jakarta and the Muslim holiday of Idul Fitri (end of Ramadan) where everything stops, as it does in the U.S. for Christmas.  But riding around in the van with the team meant laughing often.  I am glad they even laugh at my little jokes.  The Indonesians seem unpretentious, just themselves with nothing to prove.  They are a happier people than those of East Europe who had had the trauma of the war (1992-95) and so much else before that. 

House hunting

From Bob:  Yesterday Pak Parto took us to see possible living places. One, on campus, is not inviting. The other, lovely from the outside; we shall see the interior today. Our guests are very hospitable. The staff at the University Inn are delightful youngsters.
  I have been asked to offer conversational English to new students at the university. It would be like the elective I offered in Bosnia.

New "Home": Malang

Hearing the call to prayer right now outside the campus of Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang.  Once I saw people's faces getting on the plane in Singapore I felt real happiness, the beginning of connection.  And everyone smiles at us, enhancing that connection.  The Indonesians love to laugh at little things, at finding amusement in the everyday, and that is sheer delight for me.  Everything else is slow, and painstaking, trying to get registered with the police, but not having the documents and permits that we have to go back to get in Jakarta next week.  At least we have a week before another airplane ride.  Then four days of office-hopping and papers to validate ourselves to myriad authorities.  But we will persist. That's it for now, in this novice attempt at a blog.  Thanks for reading!

Leg one of three-leg trip

We are waiting in the Hong Kong airport, having given up several nail files and my nice Apple spice body wash (very thorough security).  Now having a coffee latte, with free Wi-Fi Internet (for a change!). 

We're going!

Our visas arrived today to our great surprise.  I was actually called by the president of the International Institute of Education who greatly sympathized with our predicament of waiting and living down in our basement while waiting.  He personally got the Embassy of Indonesia going on processing the visas and the passports came (to our mailbox) through Express Mail.  Good thing we called and found out they had been left there.  Anyway, now it is all excitement, all the time, anticipating the complete newness of Asia, its sounds, smells, people, food.  It will be overwhelming for  quite a while, I'm sure.  But we're going.

Waiting

We are still waiting for visas, for confirmation from the contact person in Indonesia, for everything to begin.  Some of us ten Fulbrithters are already over there, and for us, it is just a big wait.  Slow.  Welcome to Bureaucracy.