Bule masuk kampung...

Last Thursday I went with Ani to her village near Lumajang, South East Java. We traveled by motorbike. The first part of the trip was lovely, passing through the mist-shrouded foothills of the largest mountain in Java, Semeru. The forest was bright green, punctuated by the occassional small village or white minaret. Nearly four hours later when we finally arrived I was aching, the last stretch of unpaved road nearly bringing tears to my eyes. Ani’s family were lovely and welcoming, and after a delicious meal and a rest I was back on my feet.

The day we arrived was Mohammad’s Birthday. As part of the cellebrations each household cooked big piles of food – rice topped with side dishes, covered with a banana leaf and topped again with fresh fruit. We first went to eat with Ani’s extended family. I tried not to eat too much, and just as well because immediately afterwards we headed to the village cellebration, where yet more food mountains were on offer. The men were seated in chairs in front of a small stage, whilst the women sat on the ground, facing the men. Everyone was very excited to meet the newest bule and I spent a significant amount of time posing for photos.

Over the next couple days Ani and I had a look around her village and the nearest town of Lumajang. My face got sore from smiling for the camera, and my stomach got bigger from all the delicious food and sweets that I ate. All in all it was a lovely experience – everyone made me feel welcome and were keen to chat. The only horrible bit was the slow, stuffy, cramped, four hour bus and one hour bike ride back home. Exhausting!

Research begins...

As some of you may know, I moved to Malang intending to research organic food. People had said there was a growing organic industry that would be interesting to look into. When I looked around though, I could only find one shop that sold organic food. Given the consequently small group of potential respondents and the fact that I had no interest in looking into the agricultural side of things I decided to change topics. I am now researching gated communities – essentially who lives there and why. Its an interesting topic to look at, because Malang is over run with these housing estates. Driving down any of the main roads you’re sure to pass several signs, either pointing the way to a complex, or advertising one. A few days ago I drove through a few with Ani. Some of these houses were just insane. I cannot begin to describe the over the top extravagence of some of them. Their sheer excess is even more evident when you exit the gates and enter a normal Indonesian street. Im at the waiting stage of the research at the moment. Ive done a reasonable amount of background research and now have to get into the field to get the ball rolling.

In other news I have a leaky roof! There was a pretty heavy storm yesterday. I was sitting on my bed when I started feeling drops of water. Not particularly surprised I got up to close my open window and sat back down. But still it continued. I looked up, and there from the crack in my celing was a big leak. I pushed my bed halfway across the room and put a towel under the leak, but it didn’t seem to stop the spray. Hopefully it wont rain heavily too often.

And a couple of days ago I cooked! Yes in the place where you can get a good feed for Rp.4000 I actually bothered to cook. Ani and Lufi wanted to try some ‘Australian food’ so after explaining that this didn’t really exist, and taking into account the limited kitchen I decided to cook Nachos. The cost of the ingredients could have payed for my dinner for 3 weeks (!) It was soo good to eat some food from home though. The girls seemed to like it to. They couldn’t quite bring themselves to eat the guacomole (avocardo here is treated like a sweet fruit) or the sour cream. And they had to eat slowly because the taste was so strange to them. But they ate the left overs the next day, so it must’ve been alright.