If I were in the US today, I have already looked through an Easter basket, even though I'm well past the age of getting chocolately goodies and small amounts of silver money.  If I were back home, I would be experience both of my baby brothers' first Easter, watching them explore the oddities of colorful hardboiled eggs and being terrified of a large man in a furry costume.  I would sit in the living room and enjoy the company of my family and look forward to heading to Tulsa to spend the evening with church family.   

      Alternatively, if I were in my usual home in Indonesia, a fairly large village in Bali, I would be surrounded by the extremely visual Hindu presence, watching my host ibu put out her daily offerings to Brahma, Shiva, Wisnu, and other dieties, while my old bapak delicately places prayer flowers behind his ear.  But I'm not there either.  Instead, I am in central Java.  Rather than being surrounded by commercialism or inumerable handmade offerings, I have walked the streets among hijab-shrouded women and listened to the Muslim call to prayer.  I am thankful, though, because it has given me a unique opportunity to ignore everything that Easter represents in America and remember only the promise of salvation it truly represents.  I know the real story of Jesus and the life, love, and purpose he has given me.  But sadly, most of the people around me don't.  They don't know how much God has already done for them.  They make countless offerings for reasons they don't even know themselves, and are told not to question.  They strive to be as perfect as possible, in hopes that maybe in the end the good they are doing will outweigh the bad so that they can enter Paradise.  But how could it be different?  That is all they have ever known.  "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'" (Romans 10:14-15).   Today I encourage you to join in prayer so that the Indonesian people, all 200+ million of them, will have a chance to hear what holidays like Easter are really about... And, if you feel obligated enough, do something about it yourself.  

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12

Selamat datang di Yooooogya!

Sorry for not updating in a while... things have been really busy here!  I suppose I will start from where I left off last time.  We did indeed find that wonderful grocery store, called Coco's, which I have decided to rename "Indonesian Walmart."  If you know me well at all, you will know how happy it makes me that we found that store.   They even had real peanut M&M's! 

Over the weekend some friends and I went to a little beach town on the coast.  It had awesome waves, so we body surfed a lot (we aren't allowed to surf for real).  At night we hung out and santai-ed (chilled) a lot!  Perhaps the most exciting event of the weekend besides the beach was my purchase of 4 authentic "Ray Ban" sunglasses in various colors.  I'm currently wearing my blue pair as I write this. :)

Since we got back to Bedulu our week has been crazy!  It was our final week of regular school together before we left for our ISPs (idependent study projects.)  After class on Monday, Sara and I went to wayang once again.  While there, I sneezed four times, which was weird because I have only sneezed probably four times the whole trip.  Whie we were waiting for a bemo to take us home, I noticed my throat was sore and I remember saying, "Hm, I think I am getting sick."  And wouldn't you know it, by the time I got home after dance I thought I was dying (not really, but I felt pretty crummy.)  That night I went to sleep early, hoping that extra rest would help, but the next morning I woke up feeling even worse.  That made school that morning pretty awful because we had student-led discussions all morning for our final on Thursday as well.   So naturally, I slept through lunch.  I didn't feel much better when I woke up, just less tired, but I decided to go to wayang again anyway because we were supposed to present our projects the next day (Wednesday).  It turned out to be a really good decision because 1. I felt a lot better when I left the lesson, and 2. I finally finished my wayang!!  I decided I felt so good that I kept on truckin' through dance as well, which was really fun too.  Although it was a really busy day, and didn't have the best start, it turned out to be a pretty good day!

On Wednesday we had our final test for bahasa indonesia (Indonesian language) before the ISP period.  It went pretty smoothly, but made me nervous to be out on my own.  We had arts presentation part one that morning as well, so I was able to share with everyone in the program the wayang that Sara and I had made.  Later on, we had the afternoon free since I had finished my project, so my friend Alex and I decided to finally get one of the famously cheap Balinese massages.  It was about $6 US for an hour!!  Bagus, ya?  After some chill time in Ubud, we headed back for our final dance lesson.  The next morning we had our thematic seminar final, which felt like a marathon!  It was more or less constant writing for 3.5 hours... It was like an AP test!  I think I did well, however we won't find out until after ISP. Afterwards we had lunch, a little break, and then had to get ready for the arts presentation that night.  We weren't performing our dance until 6, but we had to start getting ready at 3!  Make up alone, for the four of us, took almost two hours.  It was insane!  I'm not sure if I enjoyed the dancing or the preparation more.  Mirah stuck around to hang out with us, and she's always very fun!  The performance started a little late, as usual in Bali, but went by really quickly.  I think we did well, especially for only have 5 lessons (two of which were three weeks before the others!)  Here's us in our crazy Balinese getup! 

(That is the sort of standard Balinese dancer pose, with the eyes and all.)  My host parents even came to watch me, and all dressed up too!  It was so sweet.  After we performed, Pak Garret (an employee of SIT who is originally from Hawaii but has live here for almost 30 years) performed one of his Javanese dances; he was awesome.  We had a final presentation and then our last meal together at the program center before ISP.  It was very bittersweet because we are all excited to get our projects underway, but it marks the end of our learning experience together.  When we get back we'll have a final test for Bahasa, ISP presentations, and then debriefing... so sad!  I will miss everyone a lot when the program ends, but until then I'm going to try to make every moment worth it!

On the way home Misra and I walked by the Pura Bedulu and remembered that our dance teacher was performing that night, so we stopped in to see if we could watch.   Turns out that we got there just in time!  In Balinese dance, the performers always enter the stage through a little door, usually in a large gate, and wait for the gamelan band to cue them in.  While she was waiting she looked into the crowd and yelled "MISRA!" and gave a big wave to both of us.  It made us feel really special, but a little embarrassed because then all of the tourists, who had all bussed in from Ubud, turned around to stare at us.  Whoops!  Anyway, she was such a good dancer!  Absolutely beautiful too!  I wish we could have gotten to know her better, but the whole language barrier thing gets in the way a lot of the time.  After the performance an Indonesian man got up and started talking to all the tourists, but we had no idea what he was saying... Before he stopped talking, Misra figured out that he was speaking French.  After he was done and while we were waiting, a few of the tourists came up and tried to talk to us, and after learning that we spoke English, directed their conversations elsewhere.  Eventually Indonesian tour guides tried to talk to us in French as well, I assume because they thought we were a part of the group, and we just stared at them open-mouthed... We didn't know what else to do!  It was such a bizzar thing to happen to us.  We are used to speaking their language, and sometimes they speak a little English, but I don't know any French, and at first it didn't even occur to us to say "I don't know what you're saying," in Indonesian.  So, we just stared.  Then our brains kicked in and we proceeded with conversation in Bahasa like normal.  

When I got home, I was given the most warm greeting I have received the whole time I have been here!  My ibu walked up to me, pinched my chin, gave me a hug, and kept telling me how skilled I was at dancing while patting my cheek.  She was so proud of me!  It made me feel great and really cared for, like with my parents back home.   The next day Bu Ari said that they talked very highly of me at the performance to her, saying I was the most clean and organized student they have had (which is especially funny because they have only had one other student, haha.)  After she greeted me, I sat down with her and my bapak (father) and talked for a long time about my research project.  I will miss my Bedulu family a lot during our ISP!  

Friday was a big day.   Melissa and I began our trip to Yogyakarta, Java at about noon.  After packing up on some serious snacks, we headed to the Denpasar bus station to awake our 18-hour bus ride.  While waiting, a man started talking with me about where we were going, what we were doing, etc.  Whenever people get to the "Where are you from?" part of the conversation, they always say "Aaaahh, Obama!" when we answer that we're from America.  They also always ask how he is.  I'm not the best at keeping up with politics, so whenever people do this in Bahasa, I always like to answer like I know him personally; "Oh, you know, he's doing alright.  Pretty good, nice family."  This man, however, took it to a new level.  From here we started talking about our preferences of George Bush versus Obama and their views on gun policy.  I don't know why he brought that up, but it was probably the most political conversation I've had in Indonesian so far.  Why this man cares about gun policies in the US beats me.

Anyhow, back to the bus ride.  I am very glad we decided to take the bus rather than fly, given the flight would have been maybe half a day's worth of travel, in the bus we were able to see some of the most peaceful and beautiful parts of Bali I've been in thus far.  We road up along the west coast for a few hours, which is much less densely populated and is covered with rice fields that run right up to the ocean.  While we were driving the sun was also setting which made it all the more breathtaking!  About an hour after sunset, our bus drove onto a ferry, and we were able to get out on the deck and enjoy the short ride across the strait to Java.  It was so peaceful!  It was the first time I had been on a real boat too (canoes don't count in my book) so it was extra exciting!  When we landed we got back on our bus, and Melissa and I promptly went to sleep.  When we woke up the next morning we were in Solo, Java, about an hour or so away from our destination.  When we finally got to Yogya, we took a shuttle to our hotel.   Since we've been here, Melissa and I have run a lot of errands for our ISP, as well as get set up in a sweet boarding house that we will be living in for the next two weeks.  It has a lot of luxuries that we've been without at our homestays for the entire trip, including tvs (with cable!), air conditioning, hot water, a fridge and cooking area, laundry service, and wifi!  We are living it up for our ISP for sure!  But right now I need to go to sleep, because tomorrow is Easter! Yay!!

Selamat malam!