When I got home, my ibu (a chemistry professor herself), was working to translate a proposal to a Japanese firm to help the Bantul region re-engineer its farmland to grow Indigo instead of rice, based on research which shows that Indigo would produce more wealth for the region per cubic meter than rice.

Indigo is a plant often used for making dyes to color fabric. It was fun working with her on a translation project! It makes your head hurt after about a ½ hour though,,, understanding what someone is trying to say, and repeating it succinctly in English. Mental workout, and I learned something about Indigo.

Interestingly, such a project is not a ‘shoe in’ for approval. Indonesia has a very centralized bureaucracy, so most major decisions like this have to get approved through Jakarta. Though it makes sense for the region to plant a new crop to raise more revenue, it runs against Jakarta’s promises to maintain Indonesia’s rice production; a feat I just read in the newspaper that Indonesia is falling short of by a substantial amount. So- I wouldn’t be completely surprised if Jakarta says “No”. Interesting politics.