The skinny on Muslim women

The translator that was hired for Sean and his group is a Muslim woman.  Chittrek is probably not the correct spelling but it is how her name sounds.  She is a wonderful young woman and was happy to answer any questions that I had.  Clara, one of Sean's colleagues thought that I missed my calling and should have become an interrogator.  I can't help it.... I have questions!

Chittrek wears a Hijab, not a Burka.  A hjab is head scarf that covers the hair, neck and upper body of a woman.  She started wearing this within a year after she reached puberty and did object at first but found that she did not like having men gazing at her with desire when she was not wearing it.  The reasons for a woman wearing a head covering is for modesty, privacy and morality. The Quran states that women should cover themselves, except for the face and hands.  A burka is the long black cloak worn by some Muslim women, generally in the dessert countries.  Chittrek tells me it is to keep them from being covered with the dust that pervades those hot, sandy countries and that when they move to places with a different climate, they tend to wear them more from habit than any other reason.   Muslims in this part of the world are not as strict as in others so it is not unusual to see young women wearing tight jeans, sandals and riding a motorcycle.  Chittrek is an educated, forward thinking young woman with an opinion that she does not mind expressing.  She in no way appears to be oppressed.  I cannot help but think about the way that we dress in the western world.  Women are just as much at the mercy of the fashion industry and dress the way we do for the opposite reason that Muslim women do.  We want for men to gaze upon us with desire and are often willing to put up with any amount of discomfort to attract their attention.

Muslim women do swim and have a bathing suit that covers their entire body.  It was designed in Indonesia. They are allowed to swim with men.   Here is a photo that I found online.

On to prayer.  Muslims here pray 5 times a day and the prayer time coincides with the positioning of the sun.  First prayer of the day is just before the sun starts to rise which I have deduced to be 3:45, second is at noon when it is straight overhead, third is at 3:00 and I am not sure why, fourth is at 5:00 which is dusk here and the last is at 6:00 when the sun has gone down.  Lucky for people who live here, the sun does not change positions in the sky.  If you live in Canada, prayer time is a different time everyday.  Before praying, Muslims must wash their face, lips, ears, hands and feet with CLEAN water.  In this part of the world, that is a feat in itself!  Clean water is something not fond in abundance.  I can only imagine the management that goes with this lifestyle.  For instance yesterday, on the bus trip, Chittrek had to find a place to go and wash herself and pray.  She knew that she would miss the 3:00 prayer so she did that one at noon when we stopped for lunch, as well as her noontime prayer.  It seems to me that your life would revolve around praying.

No alcohol, no pork.  That about covers my lesson for today.

counting game

How many do you see?

 

This video may give you a better idea of the number.  At least they are wearing helmets.  Most of the children we have seen on scooters are not.

Sleep

Those of you who know me, well know that I do not sleep at the best of times.  Throw into that 2 days of airline travel, the time change and the crossing of the International Date line.  NOW, lets top it up a notch with the 'call to prayer' that echos over Muslim cites at 3:45 each morning.  The mosques have loudspeakers so that there is not a chance that any Muslim within hearing range is going to sleep thru it.  Unfortunately,  it wakes the rest of us, too.   To make matters worse, we have a rooster living just underneath our balcony.  This rooster does not sound as if it is an early morning riser and when it is awakened by the Imam, before sunrise, it begins its half hearted crowing and keeps it up till the sun is well overhead.  Last nite my body and mind finally caved to its desperate  need for some shut eye and I slept thru the nite.  Today I feel as tho I have won the lottery.  This video, with sound, was taken during evening prayer from our hotel balcony.  The rooster was resting up for its strenuous morning activity.

 

Best washroom sign ever

 I guess these are pretty self explanatory.

The Craft Tour

Spent yesterday scooting about the city checking out the things that Jogja is famous for.  Puppetry and batik are at the top of the list.  Here are a few pics and explanations of both.

This is the waxing process for batik, a form of fabric painting. A small funnel is used like a paintbrush.  It dips up hot wax ( a mixture of beeswax and paraffin) that drips thru the opening in a steady stream.  The painter draws a pattern on the fabric with the wax.  The gold colour on this fabric is all wax and has all been done by hand.  The fabric is then dipped in dye but the wax resists the colour leaving those areas white and the unpainted areas dyed.  After each dip in the dye, more wax is painted on and the fabric is dipped again to create a second colour and on and on it goes.

Another pattern.  The wax pot is sitting on the floor between the two women.

Another form of waxing using a stamp.

After the waxed cotton fabric has the required coats of dye it is dipped in boiling water to remove the wax.  Silk is dipped in gasoline.

Here is the cotton hanging to dry after the wax has been removed.

This gentleman is making a puppet.  He has cut out a piece of buffalo hide into the shape of the puppet and is hammering out tiny, shaped holes, in intricate patterns for the light to shine thru.

This is a closeup of the work in the picture above.

Here a puppet is being hand painted.  Our tour guide told us that it takes about a week to do the cutting and a week to do the painting on the painted type.

A close up of the painting process.

The puppet shows take place behind a well lit screen.

Borobudur Temple

We are here with 4 of Sean's collegues from across the nation and since they are working, I have become the self appointed social convener.  When I announced that we would be visiting Borobudur temple at sunrise and that we would have to be up by 3:30 am, there were a few groans, but they are good sports and signed on.  Borobudur is a 9th century Mahayana Buddhist Temple.... a must see if you are in Yogyakarta.  It is the world's largest Buddhist temple and one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world.  The ride thru the city in the dark was entertainment in itself.  The city is coming alive at 4am and the vendors are biking thru the streets or setting up their stalls for the day.  We arrived in the dark and started the hike to the top and were there in plenty of time for the rising of the sun.  Yes, Jesse and Zack, the sun did come up... can you imagine?  It was spectacular.  I thought that the smog would hide it but it made it that much more beautiful when it shone thru.

 This proves that we were there in the dark.  That's me.

 Not sure what this guy is but we can call him Ralph, Zack's future wonder dog.

  Here comes the sun. 

 Spare Buddhists.  Nairn stubbed his toe on one of these and Sean laughed till he was sick.  He says it is because he had just been wondering how they lost their heads when Nairn crashed into it.  A very nice tourist interceded and offered to help with antiseptic wipes while Sean slapped his knee and guffawed.  Poor Nairn.

 The temple in daylight.  These are the east stairs and the only entrance as you must approach the temple from the east.  We saw a Buddhist monk making the mandatory three circles of the temple.  Every three steps he would lie on his tummy, arms extended, facing east.  I tried not to stare but it is really hard for a girl from small town Newfoundland not to gape.

There is a volcano called Mt. Merapi 28km north of Jogja.  It is the most active volcano in Indonesia and has erupted regularly since 1548.  It erupted during the night in 2010, killing 200 people in a village near the bottom and spewing ash and dust over the city of Jogja.  You can barely see it thru the smog in this photo but if you look closely you can see the shape of it towering over the city. 

Breakfast

I wonder what came first.... the island of Java or the nickname for coffee.  This island has the best coffee I have ever tasted. 

 Morning coffee.  The blob in the center is where I put the seven spice mixture from below.  Best coffee ever.

This holds sugars and spices for the coffee.  The one with the spoon is a seven spice mixture (that they tell me is a secret), the one in the center is a different spice mixture and the one to the left is cinnamon with something else.  They are all delicious.  The ones in the front are all sugars.

 Breakfast fruit.  Watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, papaya and guava

 Traditional Indonesian breakfast.  The only words I could understand were mushrooms and banana flowers.  I recognize the rice.  Sean had an omelette 2 days in a row... and a club sandwich for lunch yesterday.... sigh.

This is Soursap juice.  I have no idea what it is but it is delicious.  Yesterday I had the guava juice and it was deadly.  There are a dozen to choose from but people stare at you when you stand by the juice bar and try all of it.

These are the two musicians that play and chant at breakfast.  They have a drum behind them in the middle that they play as well.  It is very subtle and soothing music.

Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta, commonly known as Jogja, is the tourism capital of Indonesia.  We flew here from Jakarta yesterday afternoon and will be here for a week.  I sat next to an Indonesian gentleman on the flight who lived in Canada for 2 years and did his MBA at UNB.  What kind of a coincidence is that, Zook?  He loved living in Canada and found Canadians to be kind and very honest.  When I said that my experience in Indonesia so far was much the same he said 'Yes, but in Canada it is not an act.'  Forewarned is forearmed.  I have to be honest, tho, I do find people here are not pushy and they seem very kind.

We spent the morning at the local market.  Very, very hot.  I was glad that I got up at 5 and enjoyed the cooler part of the day. Here are a few photos from the morning.

 This one is for Jesse.  Can you smell it?  Hmmmm?  Do you want to throw up?  For the rest of you, this is Durian fruit.  It is the grossest smelling thing you could ever imagine and it is a real delicacy here.  They even have Durian ice cream.  Apparently, you earn real respect from the locals if you will try it but I don't need anybody's respect THAT badly.

This one is for Chris.  You wanted photos of the food?  You see these plates of chicken at every food stall.  Diarrhea waiting.  It smells almost as bad as the Durian. 

This one is for Paige.  It is a tiny lizard on the floor of a pharmacy that I went into.  It was about the length of my forefinger and the girl working there almost had a nervous breakdown when I pointed it out.  She ran for cover.

 Family transportation.  Note the parents wearing the helmet but the child has no protection.  Go figure.

 You see sleeping rickshaw drivers everywhere.  I am not sure how they make any money at all.

 I think this must have been a vendors children.  They were sitting quietly and entertaining themselves.  There did not seem to be any parents in site. 

Jakarta

We are on the move again.  It has been awhile since I have had an adventure to write about.  Sean and I just arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia via Hong Kong.  It took two days to get here   Gotta love sleeping on an airplane in the middle seat between two strangers.... not that I slept!  Air Canada go out of their way to make sure that Sean and I never sit together on a flight.  I am now stuck in a time warp, 11.5 hours behind where my body thinks it should be.  I was so looking forward to getting to the hotel in Jakarta last night so that I could fall into a real bed and sleep.  No such luck.  My brain thought it was 10am and there was no convincing it otherwise.  Sean, on the other hand, has the good fortune of having the ability to sleep anywhere, anytime as his super power.... GRRRRRRRRR.

It is an experience being in a taxi in a city that grew and left the street planning behind.  The drivers weave in and out of traffic like pros but it is like being on a circus ride without the safety checks.

Arriving at the hotel was a little disconcerting as we had to have our taxi checked for bombs upon our entrance.  As well,  we had to go thru a security check ourselves before we were allowed to enter.  We are not in Kansas now, Dorothy!

The hotel, LeMeridian, has a multi cultural breakfast buffet.  I went for food that I had never seen before.  It was wonderful.  It was more like what we would consider 'supper' food than breakfast food.  The selection of juices is the best.  I gorged myself on fresh mango and watermelon juices and fresh mango yogurt.  One of Sean's colleagues who is with us on this trip is a fussy eater.  Bahahahaha.  She's gonna starve!

Sean and I went for a walk after breakfast and walking out of the hotel was like being wrapped in a warm, wet blanket.  The heat and humidity hit you in with a vengeance.  It is monsoon season and since I have been at the computer the sun has disappeared and it looks as tho the clouds will burst at any moment.  When we arrived last nite the rain was torrential but fortunately stopped by the time we left the airport. I am not sure the drive would have been quite so entertaining in the rain.

I have attached some photos to help you with the sounds and smells of the city as well as the sites.  About one third of the people we see are wearing a face mask. That should help with the sense of smell that I am trying to portray.  As well the photo of the river might put you off your cookies.  That said, it is positively spotless compared to Delhi.  We fly to Jogja this afternoon and from what I have read about that city there will be lots to write about there.  Till then....

                                                      Notice the lady wearing the face mask

                                                   This driver is also wearing a face mask

                                               A vendor cooking on an overhead walkway

                                                 River in the City.  Can you smell it?