Kebo-keboan

Street Decorations

Every year, Aliyan (a farming village in Banyuwangi) holds a type of harvest festival called Kebo Keboan. This is a tradition particular to our region of Java and we were happy to check it out this year.

Making his way to the mudpit

Enjoying a roll in the mud

During Kebo Keboan, the community decorates the streets with palm leaves and fruit to celebrate the new harvest season, and the village prepares for the celebration by filling pits throughout the village with mud. Every year, many people become “possessed” and “become” water buffalo, they run wildly, throwing themselves into the mud and lying there for a while (like water buffalo do.)

Then their friends dress them up as water buffalo with wild hair and horns. At the beginning of the day, the muddy buffalo people dragged plows behind them in a parade, followed by some fancily dressed ibus. For the rest of the morning the possessed buffalo people were led around, being fed corn and participating in other spiritual rituals we didn’t really understand.

They guy who offered to trance us

For example there was this one shaman sitting next to the main mudpit in front of the village office who offered to put us in a trance if we wanted. “No thanks,” we said. Later we saw another shaman like person who would hold the possessed buffalo person close to them, whisper in their ear for a while, then blow in their ear. The possessed person would immediately fall back, appearing to be unconscious, and be carried off by their friends (probably to get dressed up as a buffalo.)

These fellows with the large mustaches have the role of rounding up the water buffalo people when they get out of control

Mama bought me a pink Masha balloon as a joke, which I was happy about, but then Craig caught me making a fear/disgust face as this fellow walked towards us

Craig and Mama with the water buffalo kids

This was cool to witness, a little scary when a newly possessed person runs by you to get to the mud pit as fast as they can, but it’s a part of Banyuwangi culture that has been happening for a long time.

BEC 2015

The BWI 5 hard at work ( banyuwangi pcvs jen, keela, van, emily, and CRG in the back)

By Jen

We were invited to be a part of Banyuwangi Ethno Carnival (mentioned in the Thanksgiving 2014 post) again this year- but while last year we were VIP observers, this year we got dressed up as Traditional Gandrung dancers and walked down the runway and danced in the parade. I guess we’ve really gotten used to being in the spotlight here because we had a lot of fun leading a bunch of Scandinavian and German business students down the red carpet in front of a couple thousand spectators! (At least we knew what we were getting into, those poor things had no idea!)

Of course Craig ended up in on the front page of the newspaper entertainment section. And I got to meet my favorite celebrity singers from Banyuwangi: Suliyana and Wandra! We also got some time backstage to talk to them about stopping by our IGLOW-IBRO youth camp to talk to the kids!

It was a long day and pretty tiring, but it was fun to get dressed up and act famous for a day. Enjoy the photos!

 

 

One of my students also joined the parade and costume festivities. here she is at our dress rehearsal

We FINALLY got to meet Wandra, super famous local singer, celebrity and college student…

another sighting of awesomely tall boots at the dress rehearsal

Participant standing in front of his costume… Yes, he put that whole thing on his body and walked down the runway

vanika selfie!

husby selfie!

the amazing emily

Keela a.k.a. Calypso the Caribbean sea goddess

I was so starstruck to finally meet Suliyana, my favorite local singer 🙂

Craig with some kids about to walk down the runway

My makeup artist, Tika… yes, i know he’s prettier than me 🙂

Backstage with Suliyana convincing her to come to our IGLOW-IBRO camp

The BWI 5 and Ratri, our good friend who always gets us into cool stuff like this.

Craig got into the newspaper the next day

Success story

In the Peace Corps, it helps to find and appreciate small successes you observe. Yesterday in class, I was able to be a part of something really cool. You might not think it’s such a big deal, but it made me pretty happy.There’s a hard-to-reach student in my 11th grade class. Let’s call him Riki. I taught him all last year, too. Riki is the kid in class who never opens his notebook or his textbook unless you force him to. He seems to not care at all about class and his English level is very low- if I ask him “do you understand?” He turns to his friend and says “apa sih?” After trying to engage him in class for most of last year, i eventually started just trying to minimize how much he disrupted the other students. This year has been pretty much the same so far, with the exception of yesterday.
Yesterday, we did a lesson on comparative degrees… Who is the richest person in the world? Which one is bigger? Etc… In my classes, I recently introduced sticker charts to help with student motivation. (High school kids love stickers here!) So in class, I would ask a question and then give a sticker to whoever volunteered to come write their answer on the board. After a few students came up and got stickers, Riki raised his hand to answer the next question, “which is less delicious, pizza or hamburgers?” (My students don’t like either.) After a moment of shock, I called on Riki to come up, and he wrote, perfectly and without hesitation or any help from the class, “pizza is less delicious than burgers.” And then when I gave him his sticker, the whole class broke out in applause and cheers for him- which they hadn’t done for any other student. For a few moments, he was beaming.

I’m going to start expecting more out of him again and I hope today was enough encouragement for him to expect more out of himself, too.

Ba Pak Rings

 Anyone who’s anyone (and a man)  here has a Ba Pak ring. Also known as batu akik (gemstones), these would be pretty gaudy in the US, but here they’re a status symbol.
A while back, Craig got his own Ba Pak ring gifted to him by our Ba Pak Sumari, who brings these huge stones from Sulawesi, cuts and polishes them, and puts them in a setting. Now that Craig has one, he has an instant way to prove that he’s more than a foreigner- he’s in the Ba Pak club.

Craig’s Ba Pak ring is a conversation starter. Ba Paks who have Ba Pak rings sit around and talk about how much theirs cost. So now other Ba Paks ask Craig if they can buy his, for cheap. (It’s not for sale.)

Ikhlas

by jen

I think Craig and I have both learned to practice Ikhlas while in Indonesia. I probably won’t get my explanation of the concept exactly right, but it comes from Islam and is deeply entrenched in culture on Java (and surely other parts of Indonesia.) The main idea is: sharing what you have without ever expecting anything back. I recently learned that Ikhlas also applies to other situations, like when we lose a loved one, or something gets stolen from us. In these situations, I suppose the idea is more like, “it’s ok that I lost this because it was never really mine to begin with.”

In the US, I feel that we buy someone a cup of coffee or cover their lunch, we often say, “it all evens out.” What we mean is, “i know you’ll get me back someday.” Ikhlas is more like, “i want to do this for you, knowing that i may never be repaid.”

We experience Ikhlas every day here- people give us fruit at school for no reason, people take us to visit faraway places in their car and buy us lunch because it’s fun, people cook for us if we show up at their house- it doesn’t matter if we politely and persistently refuse something or try to pay for it ourselves, because the people we interact with are equally persistent about helping us. And it’s not just because we’re foreign guests in their country, because I witness Ikhlas between other people every day.

I challenge you to pracice Ikhlas today. Give something or do something for someone without keeping track of it. I guess we would call this “random acts of kindness,” but here it isn’t random.

Check out our recipe page!

We recently optimized our Recipe Corner page (in the left sidebar). We added many recipes that our host family makes pretty regularly along with lots of photos! Go check it out!

What Not to Do at a Flag Ceremony

Here’s a great post by a fellow PCV about a flag ceremony gone wrong at her school. The perspective she shares on the educational system here is something most Indonesia PCVs can relate to, not that we don’t have our own issues with the American educational system…

What Not to Do at a Flag Ceremony.

Mt. Raung Volcano Eruption

Photo of Mt. Raung from our site, July 14 2015

You may have heard about the most recent volcanic eruption here in Indonesia because of the massive numbers of travelers affected and flights cancelled due to volcanic ash being spewed into the air. We learned that when volcanoes  spew ash like this, airports don’t shut down due to visibility issues- they shut down because if a plane sucks volcanic ash into its engine, the ash will turn to glass and damage the plane. 

The volcano in question is called Gunung Raung (Mt. Raung), it’s 10,932 feet high (the tallest in the area, although less well-known than Mt. Ijen or Mt. Bromo,) and it’s about 45 km (27 mi) from our village. Here’s a map of our area.

Mt. Raung is the Western-most, tallest peak with the huge caldera. Our village is closest to Srono, the town in the middle of all the other towns Southeast of Mt. Raung.

Raung erupted on July 2nd and ever since then, people in our region have been talking about the “ash rain.” The ash blowing around the atmosphere was enough to close Bali airport as well as our tiny local airport, Blimbingsari, and the airport in Jember. To make things worse, flights this week have been overbooked anyway- practically everyone in Indonesia is in travel mode right now, trying to get back to their home villages for Idul Fitri (Eid Al-Fitr), the holiday that marks the end of Ramadhan. Our PCV friends who had been in the US and Australia were stranded for days in Melbourne and Jakarta while trying to get back to site, and our own Ba Pak Sumari had trouble getting here from his work in Makassar- he got on the first flight to Bali after the Denpasar airport opened again, and ended up taking a bus home from there.

Piles of ash being swept off the floor of a nearby mosque

The ash on our faces wasn’t as bad as Derek Zoolander in the coal mines.

Fortunately the ash rain hasn’t been too bad here, but it depends on which way the wind is blowing. A few days ago on our walk we stopped to watch as our neighbors swept piles of black ashes off their porches. We got home and had a bunch of black flecks on our faces and skin. A couple of days later on a particularly windy day, people at our house (including us) were stressing out about having to sweep over and over- the ashes just kept flying in and settling down. It felt like a dust storm outside. Craig said it felt like walking on an ash carpet inside.

Wearing my Peace Corps ash mask

Our town hasn’t been that bad, but other towns in our area have started doing Mask Drives because the local stores ran out of masks people can buy to protect their throats and lungs. Craig and I are wearing around our Peace Corps issued volcanic ash masks as needed. 🙂 here’s hoping the ash clears soon and everyone can get on with their daily business.

Baluran National Park

 

In June, one of the teachers at my school invited us to go with her family to Baluran National Park in Situbondo district, North of our site. We had a great time and we really enjoyed hanging out with my teacher friend. The previous time we hung out, she took me to a trash-covered beach where she talked about how people should care more about the environment, and we should organize a beach cleanup day for the students. And if that wasn’t enough to make me completely love her, on the way back to the car, we found a mama cat and a box of abandoned kittens and my teacher friend packed them all into the box and took them to her car where her husband just said “ya allah…” ( “oh god…”), shook his head, and put the box in the backseat to take the cats home and feed them. Then when we got in the car, I found out that she doesn’t even really LIKE cats!!! She just felt bad for them and rescues them because she’s a compassionate human with a giving heart.

We had been unsure if we wanted to go to the park with them because just a couple of weeks before, a fellow PCV tried to go to Alas Purwo National Park (the place Craig visits in his post, “I have no idea where I’m going”) and she was asked to pay the “Foreigner” price of 250,000 RP ($23 US). By comparison, the “local” price paid by Indonesians is 7500 RP (less than 75 cents US). No matter how many times our friend explained that she is a volunteer, she isn’t a tourist, she doesn’t get a salary, she lives here in Indonesia, the ticket people at the park wouldn’t budge. She was also with her counterpart, a fellow teacher from her school, but since our friend didn’t want to pay over 20 times the normal entry fee (and hadn’t even brought that much money with her,) they turned around and went home without even going into the park after making the 2 hour drive there. It turns out that the exorbitant entry prices for foreign tourists at national parks in Indonesia is part of a new governmental policy enacted in the past year to increase revenue at the parks. I guess as a foreigner, I can understand having to pay a little more than the local people, but 20+ times the local price is ridiculous, it’s horrible business sense, it’s unfair and I think it will really backfire . Maybe I will write more about this one day in another post on responsible tourism and call it “On Responsible Tourism.”

So we told my teacher friend about this experience our PCV friend had, and she said, let’s just try to get you in and if we can’t get you in for the normal price, we’ll go somewhere else. And to our awesome surprise, when we got to the park, she and her husband were able to negotiate with the ticket salespeople by saying that yeah, Craig and I are foreigners, but we live here and we’re her friends and can’t we just pay the normal price? Which is what we did- 15,000 RP 🙂

Baluran is marketed as “The Savannah of Java.” One of the slogans you see around are “Spending your holiday in Baluran, is like spending your holiday in Africa.” It was indeed very different than what we’re used to here- less lush green forest, more open, dry meadows, less sand and more mangroves at the beach, and lots of monkeys, deer, and water buffalo bathing in mudpits. We saw wild cattle native to SE Asia called Banteng, and some peacocks! Apparently there are also foxes and wild cats in Baluran- a cat called a Fishing Cat as well the Javan Leopard. We didn’t see either of these, but if you go to Baluran, keep an eye out for them because they look AWESOME.

Instead of telling you more about the park, we will just leave you with these photos to enjoy. We definitely recommend going to Baluran if you can get in at a decent price.

Adventures with my School’s Scout Group

By Craig (disclaimer: long post, but lots of pics)

Day 1

It starts at school Friday afternoon, all the kids excited and giddy as we pack up 4 large trucks (like dump trucks) with bags, bamboo, propane, food, water, and their red and yellow hiking sticks that is a sign that you are with the Pramuka (Indonesian Scout group). It is almost the entire 10th grade, so around 200 kids plus a few veterans (11th grade) to show the new recruits how to camp, and about 8 -9 teachers from my school. We are heading to a place called Songgon, where the kids tell me there is a beautiful waterfall.

Kids packed in the back of one of the 4 trucks

After all the “stuff” is packed in the back of the trucks, we start packing in the kids like sardines in the rear beds of the trucks, piling on top of each other and on top of there bags so that no one is left behind.

We then leave for our three day adventure. One of the girls says to me “This is my dream adventure.” which really hits home to me because as a kid I was fortunate to have many opportunities given to me by my parents to go camping. But to think of kids here, who some don’t even go to the beach 45 minutes away, having their dream vacation as small as a camping trip 1.5 hours away, blows my mind. It really opens my eyes to the small things I’ve taken for granted growing up, like being able to go camping many times a year.

Camp Set-up

We drive the distance to this large soccer field on the edge of the small village Songgon. We unload and start to set up camp. The kids use rope, and bamboo to set up their initial structures and throw tarps over to use for shelter. This is definitely legitimate camping, For me they bring a normal tent like you would buy at the store so I feel I’m living like a king with my own tent. Its around 4 pm and everyone is almost set up when we begin the opening ceremony of Pramuka. Pak Akromin, one of my indonesian counterparts and fellow English Teacher is the Scout Leader, he starts with introductions and an explanation of why we are here and how to behave, etc.

Pak Akromin holding the opening ceremony

We also have brought with us a generator to give light to each tent set up (about 9-10 tents) they string an electric wire between each single light bulb in each tent. They also have brought two large speakers a little taller than I am and a microphone so that everyone is able to hear announcements and instructions on what comes next, oh there is also very loud music being played while everyone finishes setting up.

A river near our Campsite

The first night is filed with guitar songs, a bonfire, playing cards, exploration of the area which there is a beautiful river just down the hill from where we are, and lots of chit chat and excitement. For some of the kids, this is the first time being away from home for a night and being away from their parents so they happily enjoy their freedom and some end up staying up all night. I finally go to sleep around midnight, anxious to know what lies ahead the next morning.

 

Day 2

I wake up to the sound of someone blowing into the mic to test it at 4am announcing that it is time for the morning prayer of Subuh. Soon after there is an announcement that there will be Sanam (a type of group jazzercise) in 10 minutes and that everyone should be getting ready to participate, at this time its about 4:45 so I decide to rise out of my tent and join the activities.

After about an hour of sanam and breakfast, we all get ready to go on our 1.5 hour hike to the nearby waterfall (the reason why we are camping in this spot) As Scouts, all the kids form groups of 9-10 in which they will be hiking together, I join a group of 9 girls to stay with on the hike.

We hike through some small villages, We pass monkeys, motorocycles, banana trees, elementary schools, and kids playing in the streets, back alleys through a school, down and up a few hills when we come to this big opening where we are greeted with an amazing mountainous landscape and rice, tomato, and pepper fields as far as you can see. (pic below)

Hiking through the fields

Selada fields

Selada Fields

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we find ourselves walking through a little bit of jungle before we come to the top of a hill, walking along a cliff we come to another opening where in front of us is a lush green valley of water filled paddies, I come to find out they are Selada fields, filled with what the kids described as salad greens, I’ve never come across a salad as far as Americans think of salads here other than in a big city at a restaurant but I would imagine they use these greens for fried greens, and to mix in with noodles and rice dishes like fried rice and fried noddles.

We get through the wet, winding, narrow pathed selada fields and come to this amazing river, not too wide but very loud as there is about a 60ft water fall pounding the black slate rock just up river. Down stream from the large water fall there is about a 12ft waterfall where the kids try to convince me to join them and jump in (I must of sat up there for about 15 minutes asking the same question, “is it safe?” they would say “Ya Dong” which means “ya man, duh!”[we are doing it so of course its safe]) and they would ask me “Berarni?” which means Brave? and I would say “Belum” which means not yet, but I did finally jump in.

At first I’m very afraid because the water is not that deep at the bottom but they assure me to just ball up and I will be greeted with small pebbles and soft sand at the bottom. I do it, I jump in, and its amazing. The water is cool and refreshing and the rush of the jump has my adrenaline going 100 miles per minute. I love it. I do it over and over again (probably about 20 more times). The kids love seeing me act as a kid too. 🙂 We hang out at the river for about an hour before we start packing up and heading back to camp.

We get back just before sunset, enough time to take a mandi (bath) before dinner and to get ready for the massive bonfire we will have that night. Before we start the fire, there is of course a ceremonial ritual (they just make it up that night but they love ceremonies) they go through a practice run before the real thing. There are 5 candle holders, they each say a rule or code of the pramuka, light their candle on the eternal flame of the pramuka and each walk to a point which seems to be the five points of a star around the fire, set their candle down and march away in a militaristic fashion, in a line one after another. Then the head of the scouts (Pak Akromin) takes the eternal flame of the pramuka walks to the stack of wood and proceeds to give a speech about honor, bravery, courage, and what it means to be an Indonesian Scout and then places the flame into the fire. Of course if you know anything about fires, you need three essential things to start a fire. Fuel (wood), Oxygen (fires need to breath), and Heat. If you’re fire doesn’t start you are lacking one of those three important parts. In this case, we are lacking heat, since its actually cold out where we are, when Pak Akromin sets the flame in the fire, a few of the veterans (11th graders) have prepared a few “fire starters” to get this bonfire going in a matter of minutes. These fire-starters are actually small plastic bags of gasoline or Propane, not big enough to cause any kind of damage but enough to when thrown at the wood, it bursts and spreads the flame around the wood to catch. They must have thrown about 15-20 of these little bags on the fire, each exploding with fire around the wood but burning faster than the wood could catch. After about 30 minutes of this the Bonfire finally catches by itself and turns into a massive triangular bonfire, burning red ashes reaching 30-40 ft in the air. I was about 20 ft away from this fire and i could feel the skin on my shins starting to burn which meant I was still too close.

The rest of the night is filled with skits and songs sang by the different classes of MAN Srono, anywhere from parodies of Pramuka chants (they call them “Yell Yells”) and main stream Indonesian songs, to songs made up by a class to show their love for MAN Srono Pramuka. I love it. Every class has something to offer and often are greeted with laughter and applause when finished. Just being silly and having fun.

Day 3

Another morning filled with Senam, breakfast, a final closing ceremony and you can tell there is a lull in the kids motivation for jazzercise this morning because they are tired, and also they know they will be going home soon. Our last adventure is taking a “jalan sehat” a “health walk”. At school we take these and they are about 2km long, down and back the streets near our school. Here we head out on this walk and end up walking about 5km up this huge mountain and back down to end up back at camp. I get a nice glimpse of Mount Melalu, and just behind it is Mount Raung (the volcano which is currently spewing out grey ash that is closing nearby airports including Bali.) Once we get back everyone starts packing up their tents and we head back to MAN srono. I definitely hope to join these scouts again before I come back to America so I can learn to appreciate a little more what Camping really is about.