The beach is on the south side of Bantul, so everything down there shows scars from the earthquake. I’m told that Parangtritis beach, while not the top beach on Java’s southern coast, was once vibrant. Today it looks like the kind of spaghetti western town Josey Wales would find appealing. That is to say, near deserted.
You have to balance the sadness of the circumstances with the cheerfulness of the people you meet there. The kids I caught on video jumped out of their house giggling and laughing when they saw a bule walking by… sugeng sonten means “good evening” in Bahasa Jawa. (= I only wished I had my Frisbee and a few more daylight hours. That would have been fun!
On my way home I dropped by the Bari family house to say hello & see how they’re doing. This is the first family we helped when we got here to Yogya 2 months ago, and the house Marty, Dan & I worked on 3 weeks ago.
They were all smiles & doing great; and just finished a bamboo extension on the back of their house, with straw matting walls, which they’re all sleeping in now. (7 in the family). Pak Bari used broken bricks to fill in the foundation behind his extension.
They’re so happy with what they have, which is great to be around; even though I feel like a Donald Trump millionaire by comparison, which is funny.
After exploring a bit, a bunch of us were taking advantage of an opportunity to see a Javanese puppet show (wayang kulit). This show was in Bantul, so I was already there…
The show was supposed to start at 9pm,, but because of some Jesse Jackson religio-political speech-making by some guy about my same age first (30 something), the show didn’t get going until nearly 11.
My liveliness batteries were already flickering,, with a self-announcement of 20 minutes of power, before I had to find a spot on the grass to nap for a bit, in hopes of making it to the interesting parts… the show would go on through the 4am hour,, and there was no way I was going the distance. My plans were to be up at 8 to go volunteer in Bantul again.
This gamelan show was televised, and pretty well attended. Out of the 1,000 or so people there, I counted 2 foreigners besides us, and there were about 7 of us from USINDO. I bring that up only because it was funny, feeling like we were unwittingly stealing the show in little ways.
Indonesians are equal parts curious and friendly, and have no social barriers against staring. They seemed particularly enamored with Dan, whom the tv camera happened to scan over to every few minutes or so. I feel significantly taller than the average Javanese guy,,, but at 6’8”,, Dan looks like he walked out of a Marvel comic book or something.
I really enjoyed testing out my 3 useful expressions in Bahasa Jawa. (Good night, thank-you & you’re welcome) ha ha.
You have to balance the sadness of the circumstances with the cheerfulness of the people you meet there. The kids I caught on video jumped out of their house giggling and laughing when they saw a bule walking by… sugeng sonten means “good evening” in Bahasa Jawa. (= I only wished I had my Frisbee and a few more daylight hours. That would have been fun!
On my way home I dropped by the Bari family house to say hello & see how they’re doing. This is the first family we helped when we got here to Yogya 2 months ago, and the house Marty, Dan & I worked on 3 weeks ago.
They were all smiles & doing great; and just finished a bamboo extension on the back of their house, with straw matting walls, which they’re all sleeping in now. (7 in the family). Pak Bari used broken bricks to fill in the foundation behind his extension.
They’re so happy with what they have, which is great to be around; even though I feel like a Donald Trump millionaire by comparison, which is funny.
After exploring a bit, a bunch of us were taking advantage of an opportunity to see a Javanese puppet show (wayang kulit). This show was in Bantul, so I was already there…
The show was supposed to start at 9pm,, but because of some Jesse Jackson religio-political speech-making by some guy about my same age first (30 something), the show didn’t get going until nearly 11.
My liveliness batteries were already flickering,, with a self-announcement of 20 minutes of power, before I had to find a spot on the grass to nap for a bit, in hopes of making it to the interesting parts… the show would go on through the 4am hour,, and there was no way I was going the distance. My plans were to be up at 8 to go volunteer in Bantul again.
This gamelan show was televised, and pretty well attended. Out of the 1,000 or so people there, I counted 2 foreigners besides us, and there were about 7 of us from USINDO. I bring that up only because it was funny, feeling like we were unwittingly stealing the show in little ways.
Indonesians are equal parts curious and friendly, and have no social barriers against staring. They seemed particularly enamored with Dan, whom the tv camera happened to scan over to every few minutes or so. I feel significantly taller than the average Javanese guy,,, but at 6’8”,, Dan looks like he walked out of a Marvel comic book or something.
I really enjoyed testing out my 3 useful expressions in Bahasa Jawa. (Good night, thank-you & you’re welcome) ha ha.
posted by jonathan adventures at 12:30 AM
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