Symposiums, Ramadan

Photo 1: In my official among tamu uniform
Photo 2: The ACICIS/BEM symposium committe

Wednesday was the day of the Symposium. I arrived, as instructed, at 7am, only to sit around doing nothing in true Indonesian style until an hour and a half later. On the surface it seemed that the organisation had come together – the venue was impressive, there were high quality gift packs to hand out to the participants and we all looked very official in our batik ‘uniforms’. However by 9am (the official start time) one major hiccup had arisen – no one had come! Well that is a slight exaggeration, but numbers were well, well below what the BEM committee had been hoping for. I can’t say I was particularly surprised – advertising had only begun a week before the event and as a result, no one knew about it.
After fulfilling my role as an among tamu (guest greeter) I filled in with the everyone else, trying not to cringe at how empty the hall looked. The actually symposium itself wasn’t too bad, although it didn’t really seem to address the issue of spiritualism as a new form of diplomacy. But Emma gave a brilliant paper addressing the problem with the words spiritualism/ spirituality from an Australian perspective. In an earlier speech a retired Australian academic had given a paper about declining religious participation of Australian youth. When he asked the audience if they were surprised there was a general nodding with wide eyes ‘yes, I am so surprised’. So if nothing else, at least they’ve learnt something new about Australia!
The next day was the start of Ramadan. Having decided to do at least one day of fasting, I got up at 3am with the rest of the girls in my kos to eat breakfast. They all nearly fell off there seats when I emerged bleary eyed from my room, not quite being able to comprehend why I wanted to get up. It really wasn’t so bad and it was brilliant breaking the fast at the end of the day. Ramadan hasn’t really changed anything too much around here, although at about 1pm you can actually cross the road without fearing for you life because everyone is sleeping! At the end of the day, around the time of the evening prayer the foot paths are packed with little stalls selling sweet drinks, fried snacks and young coconut juice for people to break the fast with – it's really quite a party atmosphere!