Farewell Jakarta!

I still haven't figured out how to post photos on my blog, so you'll just have
to use your imaginations.

My time in Jakarta is winding down. By this time next week I will be in
Surabaya - hopefully in my own home. Supposedly I do have a house waiting for
me, however I have only been given vague details about the house and rumor has
it that there really isn't a house for me yet. So I don't have my hopes up,
but I'm also not too concerned because I have some contacts in Surabaya thanks
to the kind Indonesianists at OU.

While I await my departure, I am trying to do as much sightseeing as I can in
Jakarta. Today I went to the Wayang Museum which is a museum about Indonesian
puppetry. As far as I know, there are 3 main types of wayang in Indonesia:
kulit (beautiful 2D puppets made out of buffalo hide and intricately painted
with bright colors), golek (that may be spelled completely wrong, but these
are 3D puppets that look kind of like the puppets in Mr. Rogers's Town of
Makebelieve). I don't know what the third kind of puppet is, but there is a
third kind. I actually had seen a really good wayang kulit performance in
Athens with my mom, so it was fun to compare the two. The only difference was
that this performance was accompanied by gamelang music - traditional music
involving all kinds of percussion and xylophone type instruments. Plus it was
at least 10 times hotter in this theater than in the theater in Athens.

I also did a bit of clubbing this weekend so that I could experience Jakarta
night life. Let me just say that young Jakartans know how to party - and they
do it all night. I don't think I'll be going out a lot, but it was fun for
one night. Also, last night I went to a street fair of sorts that was
apparently a continuation of the Independence Day celebrations. Independence
Day was August 17, but since Indonesia is only 61 years old, independence is
still a really big deal so they don't limit themselves to one day of
festivities. Instead they have Independence Month. It's really fun to be in
such a young country with so many people who remember life pre-independence.
You can really feel their national pride.

Later this evening I will wrap up my cultural activities of the day with a
church service at Immanuel Cathedral, the oldest church in Indonesia (I
think). Last week I met a woman on the street and ended up eating dinner with
her and her family outside of her house. She works at the church, so she
invited me to join her today. I'm just really excited to see the inside of
the church because from the outside it is a very beautiful building.

Drop me a line sometime to tell me what you are up to.

I made it...three weeks ago!

Drum roll please…here it is, the long awaited first blog entry. I apologize for taking three weeks to put it together, but I think it was worth the wait. I actually tried on three occasions to write a suitable reflection to post as my first entry from Indonesia, but I could never write what I wanted to say…until now.

I think my writer's block was due to the fact that I am still trying to figure out if I've in fact arrived. I don't know what I expected a month in Jakarta, Indonesia to be like, but I know that I didn't expect this. True, Jakarta is large and fairly warm, as any guide book will tell you. But there is something happening here that no one warned me about: Jakarta is a city of contradictions. It is an international city complete with huge shopping malls, people from around the world, and a lot of wealth. But at the same time the extensive poverty here is unmistakable. In many ways, though, this economic disparity reminds me of various Latin American cities that I've visited, and even American cities, sadly making it more bearable. The more challenging contradiction has to do with contrasts between traditional Javanese/Muslim culture and "modern" "Western" culture. I don't know exactly who to blame, but a lot of people here seem to automatically connect Americans, especially women, with sex. This brings out all kinds of inappropriate comments and behaviors from people who, otherwise, are very conservative. On a larger scale this contrast is disturbing because it contributes to a juxtaposition of Islamic piety and prevalent prostitution. It's pretty discomforting, but I hope I never get used to it.

That said, I love it here (it's hard not to when you are living in a first-rate hotel and treated like a movie star). There are plenty of things to do and see in Jakarta as long as you don't mind the smog and traffic jams. Also the people are really friendly and incredibly eager to talk to "bulehs" (foreigners). So far my sightseeing has been limited – we're in classes from 8am until 4pm on weekdays and our weekend travel is limited to Jakarta – but I'm definitely learning a lot about Indonesia and its diverse cultures.