In Batu and Malang

I have come back to the city of Malang and the little hill town to the north,  Batu, where the air is amazingly cool and fresh,  even cold at night.  I was here five years ago as a Fulbighter, and now wanted to come back to meet old friends.
 Before,  I lived in a gated community which could be isolated from everyday life.  Now I live with a family,  the gently invite me into their life and into speaking the language.

  Today I will go to the vihara,  monastery,  to meet my old friend, Mutia, who was such a help to me before. Mutia cannot be a nun though she looks like one,  because the monastery in the Theravada tradition.  Yuli, a budding Buddhist scholar working on her Ph.D. in Leiden, came with me here from Yogya, and told me on the 8-hour train ridethat Buddhism revived here only in the 1950s.  The vihara is one of my spiritual homes here in Indonesia, where I went for meditation and peace.