Oops! Forgot a day. I wrote this in Word on the 12th, and forgot to add it in time. Sorry it's out of order, but work with me here people! :)
Today was my favorite day so far. We visited the National Park of Indonesian in Jakarta. It was full of displays of traditional dress, musical instruments, agriculture tools and architecture from the original 33 provinces on Indonesia. It reminded me a little of Epcot Center at Disney World since ever 100 ft you’d get to walk into a totally different world. We only stayed there 3 hours so we only got to see about half of what they had to offer, but what we saw was gorgeous. All of the traditional houses we saw were built on stilts. Our tour guide told us it was for protection (there used to be a lot of inter-province wars) but also served as a barn. The family would live upstairs and house their goats, chickens, what-have-you, underneath.
We spent a lot of our time taking pictures with the natives there. As I may have mentioned before, seeing “white folk” is not very common. Bettina, my roommate, is Laotian and fits in perfectly here. Buy Kallie, my other roommate, and I stick out like sore thumbs. They call us over to get a picture on their phone, or just get their camera out and creep from afar. It was a totally new experience. But I liked getting to meet a lot of Indonesians and we had a lot of fun. We also came across some street performers who invited us to join in their traditional Indonesian dance. I’d like to think of myself as a quick learner, but I was struggling with the basic motions. After a while I was bobbing and side-stepping with the best of them.
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| They all have pet monkeys. |
We then moved on to the sky-lift where we got to view the park from above. It was surreal. I felt incredibly honored to be here sharing the traditional Indonesian culture with the natives. As I looked out over the park I felt so…small; like when you look at the stars at night and try to imagine the size of the universe. I had one of those “wow” moments then. I even got a little choked up. Here I was, halfway around the world, with the people of North Sumantra, loving this new and foreign culture…All I could think was…I want more. I want to know more, and experience more of what’s on this earth. Yes we’ve had to stay in bug ridden rooms, and no, it’s not ok to drink the water. The sidewalks have craters in them, and AC?? whats that? But WHY would we ever complain?? This is a part of *their* lifestyle! So let’s appreciate the fact that we get to have this adventure, and take advantage of what we DO have. The people here are decent and gentle and hardworking. They have a very rich history and always take pride in their work. They don’t take anything for granted. I have never complained about our living environment, and after interacting with the locals, I don’t think I ever could. I am grateful we’ve had such a warm welcoming, and I really appreciate all the help we’ve received here. It’s only been a week, but this entire experience has increased my desire to travel and explore.
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