My Presentation in Pictures

The internet was down this morning at the office so I typed up a professional article about how the presentation and discussion went yesterday, however, I don't really feel the need to copy and paste it all here. Instead, I present to you, how my Thursday went at Dian Interfidei, in pictures...

 The camera was following me around from the start of my day. This is a shot during the "English class" for employees Suraiya and I held in the morning.

A picture while I was presenting. 

Suraiya and I leading discussion and responding to questions after the presentations.  

A candid photo someone in the office got of me after the event explaining my internship and time at Interfidei with some other international students who showed up for our presentation.

The presentations seemed to go really well and the discussion afterword lasted for over an hour! I know I certainly enjoyed the event and I really hope that everyone who attended did too.

A Shout Out to the IT Guy...

I wanted to share a brief anecdote about one of my favorite characters I’ve (sort of) encountered in Yogyakarta. Technically I’ve never even met him, although I see him occasionally when Suraiya and I pick up Sarah from work. He’s PKBI’s (the non-governmental organization that Sarah works for) “IT guy”, however it took awhile before we actually discovered what his position was.

It was early on in our internships when Sarah realized she had a coworker who didn’t hold a very typical office job. Due to the intense heat and lack of air conditioning, Sarah tends to work outside on a covered porch area at the office. One of her first days of doing this she became intrigued by the man’s work schedule.

As she typed away working on data collection for PKBI, the man also worked. He brought out a hose and proceeded to hose down the office location’s driveway. After the driveway was thoroughly drenched the man would retire to some shade and indulge in a smoking break… before returning to watering the driveway. She repeated throughout the day for hours on end. Mind you, their driveway is not very long. It could probably fit three SUVs from end to end. But the man never wavered, except for his occasional cigarette, and made sure that the strip of property was good and soaked from morning until the end of the day. When Sarah returned home that night with the story it fascinated us, however, little did we know his job description held a whole slew of other requirements.

Another day the man rekindled his lost time with the water at PKBI, but in another manner entirely. He discovered water falling from the roof. But discovering wasn’t enough; he had to really observe it. So he proceeded to turn on the water spigot, then would walk over to stare at the roof. Water would eventually start to flow down the roof and he’d watch until a couple of minutes later he would turn the water off. The process would repeat every five minutes or so. After all, this was a full day’s activity.

By this point we had a variety of theories on the man’s position, but it wasn’t until Sarah was in a business meeting at her work that we discovered the truth. As her boss gave a presentation the man worked diligently, pressing the right arrow button occasionally to cause the PowerPoint to proceed to the next slide. When the meeting attendees were introducing themselves, Sarah’s boss introduced this man as PKBI’s IT guy.

And the IT guy never disappoints. Even as of today he utilizes the upmost technology (read: a bucket) to upkeep the facilities at PKBI (aka: the driveway). Because the last thing any office needs is dehydrated pavement.

Pluralism, Peril, and Purpose

A few days ago I was at an event where I introduced myself to an expat here in Yogyakarta. He immediately took interest as to why a young American student was here working in Yogyakarta and inquired into my field of work. It was going well until I explained that Dian Interfidei is an interfaith non-governmental organization. His reaction was less than pleasant.

The other interns and myself responded to his verbal attack, trying to explain that interfaith work is neither useless nor proselytizing. However, it made me realize just how little the international community knows about the religious situation in Indonesia.

Dian Interfidei has given me an opportunity to dive into this field in a way that would never be possible on my own. The religious culture here is definitely something you need to be a part of to truly understand, but being able to work alongside an organization that actively engages it everyday has allowed me to gain a unique perspective where I can personally glimpse some of the culture despite my foreign status. By no means would I consider myself an expert, or even well versed, but I've been able to experience an interesting time in Yogyakarta that makes me a hundred percent certain that interfaith work is not only useful, but necessary. 

Probably unbeknownst to everyone at home, in an eerily correlating time frame to my presence in Yogyakarta there has been a sharp rise in acts of religious intolerance. 

The first attack occurred on May 30th. I sum up the event with a quote from the AsiaNews.it article: "[It took place] when Catholics held their weekly meeting to pray the Rosary and practice their Sunday hymns. Local witnesses report that, suddenly, a group of Islamic fundamentalists raided the private house owned by a local Catholic leader, throwing stones and rocks. The assailants brutally beat him and then fled in haste."

On June 1st, the anniversary of the Pancasila, another group attacked a Pentecostal church in Yogyakarta. (You can read more about it here.) The Pancasila are the five principles which are the official philosophical foundation of Indonesia and they include "just and civilized humanity" and "social justice for all people of Indonesia". Apparently, the groups thought that stoning a church was the appropriate way to celebrate the anniversary of those principles.

Finally, this past Sunday cleric Ja’far Umar Thalib gave a message at a local mosque where "he repeatedly called on Muslims to wage jihad against so-called infidels and [religious] pluralism. He said pluralism had the potential to cause conflict as it taught that all religions were equally right and that was not the case" (source). 

However, on a bright note, yesterday Dian Interfidei hosted Benedict Rogers who presented his report "Indonesia: Pluralism in Peril, The Rise of Religious Intolerance across the Archipelago". His presentation could not have come at a better time and he even commented on Ja'far Umar Thalib's preaching, reminding the crowd that pluralism does not teach that all religions are equally right. Pluralism is realizing that everyone deserves the freedom to believe that their religion is right, but also the freedom to express the fears they have of other religions, but in a context where other religions can do the same and promote understanding of each other and peace. (Sorry Ben, I was paraphrasing from memory.) In other words, we all just need a little more interfaith dialogue. 

Welcome to Dian Interfidei's purpose. And to the purpose that I am so blessed to be able to experience and take part in during my brief but significant window into Indonesian life.

Bambang Muryanto from The Jakarta Post attended the presentation at Dian Interfidei and reports his observations which you can read in his article Study blames govt for rising religious intolerance.

The Weekend (Belatedly) in Review

Every other weekend America's Unofficial Ambassadors comes up with planned trips and activities as part of our program. Visiting the Buddhist monastery, white water rafting, and Borobudur are examples of these trips. However, that means every other weekend Sarah, Suraiya, and I are left to fend for ourselves. And apparently to our coordinator's surprise, we actually do things other than sit in the house.

The AUA interns out for dinner with other foreign women we've met who are working near Yogyakarta.

Saturday we attended a traditional Javanese wedding for the daughter of the couple who live next door to Dian Interfidei. They had invited us a few days prior, and as it turns out weddings here are more about pleasing the neighbors around you than much else. Translation: so much free food. Even for days before the wedding they provide food for all of their neighbors (us).

Tanto, myself, the groom and bride, Suraiya, and Sarah.

We waited out the afternoon heat (and power outages) with long naps before heading to Malioboro for dinner. We ate dinner and then met up with a friend from Holland for the grand opening of Art Jog, Yogyakarta's summer art festival / gallery. Hundreds of people, literally hundreds, packed like cattle into this hot building and slowly pressed their way from one piece of artwork to another. I found a little airconditioning machine near this one piece of art and stood there for as long as the pressing crowd would let me, enjoying the foggy coolness that would brush past me for a few seconds when the people between the airconditioner and myself would shuffle onward. A local not much older than myself looked at me and, after accessing my whiteness, pointed to the airconditioner before speaking to me in English and said, "This. This, is art.". The exhibit was impressively large and was a collection on Indonesian's feelings on democracy, politics, and corruption. (This is a popular theme right now as the presidential elections are coming up next month and there's a lot of interesting talk going around.) Also, we recognized a few pieces from Malcom's gallery opening the few nights prior. 

Sunday started lazily as we eventually made it out of the house and walked a few kilometers to a cafe for brunch. We met another international friend there who suggested we do some batik shopping that afternoon. And so we wandered Jogja finding batik and silver trinkets to bring back to the US. Our two weeks of Bahasa lessons served us well as we chatted with taxi drivers who drove us to different off the map artisan shops where we'd haggle for a decent price.

Women applying wax as part of the process of making batik.

We closed our evening with a gathering at our friend Tanto's house where we sat around in the backyard over delicious food and conversing in a blend of English, Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese, German, and Romanian with just as interesting a blend of people. Life might be calm, but it's never boring!

I'm Published on Pink Pangea!

If you were to go to your URL bar and type in http://pinkpangea.com/ you would arrive on their front page. And, at least for today, you can see a picture of the other AUA interns and myself smiling from there. My face managing to still cheerfully smile despite the ridiculously hot weather and the fact that I'm in long sleaves and a hijab.

But wait, there's more! Click the photo/link on the website (or right here) and you'll be taken to a piece I wrote for the website about some of my experiences with clothes and body image in Indonesia. Or as Pink Pangea decided to title it: "Bikini vs. Hijab: Choosing my Wardrobe in a Muslim Country". Either way, it's my first of a chain of articles I've been selected to write for their online community, insha'allah.

Coming Soon to Dian Interfidei....

Jogja Art Scene

It's amazing how life works when you're abroad. Two weeks ago we didn't know anyone here and last night we had an invitation to an art gallery opening from a friend of a friend. So, we descended upon Yogya by cab and watched as our driver took us one turn after another. Eventually we were off in some unfamiliar district with few people between the occasional still-open restaurant. We took another turn and ended up in a pitch dark neighborhood. Thoughts of the cab driver dropping us off in the wrong location flitted through our minds as we frantically tried to identify any building that might be an art studio. Finally, we turned onto a road that suddenly seemed to be full of life.

The entrance to Krack Studio, where the exhibit was held. 

Welcome to the art district of Yogyakarta. A mix of trendy and alt-culture Indonesians, Australians, and Dutch hovering in the light of the studio building as if their proximity to art was like oxygen to their lungs. Hijabs were traded in favor of graphic thrift store outfits and tea was replaced by beer in plastic cups.

We perused the art exhibit taking in piece after piece. It was an impressive collection of screen printed renderings of old (or not so old) advertisements from Indonesia's history. The official description of the exhibit is as follows (from their Facebook page here): 

A new life. Democracy. Heaven. Winning the lottery. A big house. Career. Celebrity. Sex. Smartphone. We are defined by what we dream. Tanah/Impian (Dream/Land) explores the aspirations of Indonesia over 100 years, as reflected through popular culture. The exhibition highlights the often stark difference between ‘Dream’ and ‘Reality’, and, as an election approaches, challenges us to think critically about the values that define us as individuals, as a community and as a nation.

The pieces did not disappoint. It's amazing and horrifying what advertising sells to us. For instance, 3 Swords Wine...

The advertisement reads: "Be strong! Be fit! 3 Swords Wine. Increases your blood. Makes your body stronger. Makes you fatter. Makes you smarter. Good for bones. Never feel tired. Makes women get pregnant faster."

Or even more horrifying, this one from 2012....

For $0.64 you can buy your own Indonesian maid. But don't worry, if paying in full is too hard for you, you can just pay a deposit of $0.30 to get yours. So I reiterate, only two years ago you could literally buy your own slave for less than a can of Coke in the United States. 

Since we were in an unfamiliar part of town we decided to do a bit of wandering before returning to our house. There wasn't much open since Yogyakarta seems to close up pretty early, particularly on weeknights unless it's a busy area. Eventually we decided to call a cab to come get us, as there were clearly none in the vicinity. Which worked really well considering we had no clue where we were.

An amazing man at his Roti booth on the corner of the street watched as we struggled. Although speaking no English, he understood our intentions and when we handed our cellphone to him, he gave the taxi directions to where we were and then provided us with chairs as we waited.

The Roti booth on the street corner.

He and I bonded over the fact that his stall was called the same nickname my friends call me, considering telling my name in Bahasa Indonesia and pointing are two skills I've gotten really good at perfecting during my time here. But eventually the cab came and collected us and our night of mini-adventure came to an end as the fatigue from our workday hit us in the airconditioning of the car.