Experiencing Malangan Dancing

Last week, the mother of a little girl in my ballet class invited me to come with their family to a place that teaches traditional Javanese dancing. As usual, I had no idea what to expect, but excitedly said yes. She met me at my kost this morning and I rode there with her and her daughter on my bike.
We ended up at a place that had an outdoor stage and had about 20 kids learning and praciticing a traditional Malangan Dance. I started talking with a girl there and she said that all the kids are "anak jalanan" or street kids. In Indonesia there are many kids who beg for money on the side of the street or at intersection, many of whom are forced to beg for money by their parents, who can't provide for them. This group was formed by an older Indonesian man and a group of students at a local university. It's a place for these kids to meet every week to learn this dance and eventually perform around Malang. I got to talk to the man about his vision, which revolves around teaching these kids this type of dance as a way to learn more about Indonesian culture and sharing it with the people of Malang. He also wants to pour into the education of these street kids and provide education where they may not receive it otherwise. It was so awesome to talk with him, hear his throughts and vision and to share some ideas. I am looking forward to going there again and being able to help out in any way that I can. These kids are precious and to see God's desire for them to be cared for through this man is great.
This was definitely not at all what I expected, but it turned out to be way better!! Here are a couple pics and a video of the kids dancing. Sorry in advance for the horrible quality, but they were taken on my phone. Stupid me forgot my camera. The kids made me join in toward the end of the time, but I was AWFUL. Don't worry...the man who started it gave me a DVD of how to learn the dance! Now I can practice in my kost with my kostmates!! :)

A traditional mask that is worn in a Malangan dance. Don't ask me how they see through the little slit for eyes!

New Food Friday...Sate Hiu

As I already posted before, last weekend was Malang Tempo Dulu. There were so many vendors selling all types of food. After I thought I had tried all the types of sates here, to my surprise, I came across a new one--sate hiu...or shark sate!!! Yummmmmm! It was so good that I even went back to the festival 2 days later just to get it for lunch. This one was hands down my favorite of all the sates I have tried. You know what they say...save the best for last!!

The guy making it fresh for us! I hope none of his cigarette ashes fell in... :)

Shark sate in all it's glory. The peanut sauce and fresh sambal made it even better!

Festival Malang Tempoe Doeloe

May is the anniversary of the City of Malang and every year they have a festival to celebrate the history. They completely shut down and revamp one of the main streets with stages for performances, stands for vendors and replicas of buildings from the past. The festival goes all day and late into the night for 4 days straight...it was definitely a cultural experience!!
It was so fun walking around, learning more about the city, stopping at the different vendors, and trying new foods(some that are popular from the past).  Everyone in Malang goes and a lot of people come from out of town for the festival. This results in huge crowds at the festival, which also means lots of attention for being a white person. It's still not normal(or will it ever be) to me to have people asking to take a picture with me just because I'm a white person. Indonesians are constantly saying how beautiful white people are and how they want to look like that(tall, pale skin, blue eyes). I'm constantly trying to reinforce how beautiful Indonesians are and how people in America try to look like them(tan skin, dark features). These people are beautiful! After all the attention we get as Americans, it was so great to experience the pride these people have for their own city of Malang and their own culture. Indonesia truly is a remarkable place and is so rich in culture.
Below are a few photos from the weekend:

A shot of the crowd at night. The one time I'm thankful for being tall here...it would be so hard to see anything, or breath for that matter, if I were shorter!

One of the shops with a bunch of antiques

Vendors sold this everywhere along the street. It's called gulali...melted sugar with ginger that they put on a stick to make a lollipop.

My friend, Ida and her sister, Lila, enjoying some gulali :)

Some traditional dancers before a performance.

This was a cool stop that showed how the city of Malang collects and recycles trash here. There are always trash collectors that go around every morning and this place showed how much money they receive in return for bringing in different kinds of trash. They were also selling different things(stands, purses, tables) that were made from recycled trash.

One of the performances we past of traditional Javanese dancing

This was a video of a guy that was making pottery. I thought it was so neat to see how he was making it.

New Food Friday...Sate Kelinci

Continuing on in my journey with the different sates, I FINALLY tried Sate Kelinci(Rabbit). There are only a few spots you can find it around here and the place that is more well known for it is in Batu(right next to Malang). I've been talking about going for weeks(maybe months haha) and a couple weeks ago, timing finally worked out and I went with a couple of friends.
My friend, Widya, invited us to come eat at her home. Her dad knew a great place to buy it(sometimes the sellers mix the meat with chicken so it's cheaper). It was a win-win situation...I got to eat sate kelinci and visit Widya in Batu, too!
The rabbit was delicious!! I mean, compared to the last sate I couldn't even stomach to try, anything would taste good. But, sate kelinci was really good!!

The sate came with the usual peanut sauce and with "lontong" which is rice cooked in a banana leaf and comes in roll. And of course, with fresh sambal(hot sauce) too. mmmmmmm 

Me with the sate...doing the typical "peace sign" pose often seen in this country. Don't judge :)

Gotong Royong

Along with learning the language here, there has been so much in regard to Indonesian culture to learn about. One recent phrase I learned that's used when talking about their culture of helping others is called "gotong royong." Gotong royong describes the process when a whole kampung(neighborhood) comes together and helps to fix or build something in the neighborhood(road, house, mosque, etc.). The fact that they have a phrase for this shows how much "community" is such a big part of their culture and lives. Indonesians don't just live communally and help when they can, they go out of their way to help those in need. It's been humbling to experience and be on the receiving end of that, but has also opened my eyes to see Acts 2:44-45 lived out--living communally and giving to those in need. And the thing is, they don't do it grudgingly...they love doing things together and helping!
This past week I experienced yet another example of how a community comes together to help. I went to Bromo for my friend, Nana's, sister's wedding. It was quite the event that lasted a couple days. I actually didn't get to attend the actual wedding, but went for a reception the day before. I got to see the "behind-the-scenes" look of all that goes on before the wedding and I was amazed.  Neighbors, friends and family from their desa(village) and the surrounding desas came to help cook and prepare all things days before the actual wedding. Below are a few pictures from my trip to Nana's house for the wedding, although pictures can't really do it justice. It was a beautiful set up. I wish I could've stayed for the whole thing!

They completely transformed the front, inside and backyard of their house and the 2 houses next to them. This is the backyard where they all cooked and prepared food days before the wedding. There was so much going on! 

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There was probably about 100 women helping in the back cooking together.

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It's not a very clear picture, but I had to take a shot of the head of this guy just hanging out in the back. Yikes...

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There were 2 fire pits like this they built in the back.

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The teachers from KPN I went to Bromo with, Kristina and her mom and dad. Such a sweet family...love them!

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This is where the bride & groom would sit with both sets of parents on either side.

This is a photo borrowed from Nana, but I wanted to include a pic of the bride & groom. Congrats Meri!

New Food Friday...Sate Kupang

Recently my blog updates have been far and few, especially the New Food Fridays. I'm sorry for the neglect in posting! It doesn't mean I haven't tried new food, I just don't feel comfortable whipping out my camera when someone offers me food that I've never tried before :) Or knowing I'd probably get a backlash from people after I was offered a certain food that most people would have as a pet and call him "Fido". I've been having my share of new foods for sure.
Well this week i wanted to continue on in the "sates". I was driving down the road yesterday and past a cart that said "Sate Kupang." I had no idea what that meant or was...all I knew is that I had never tried it before. I ordered 1 portion dibungkus(to go) and brought it to my friend's house. When I opened it, the smell hit me before anything else. It was some kind of sea creature. I have to say...I failed this week. I couldn't get past the smell and ended up not eating it. Since no one was offering it to me, I wasn't obligated to taste it, right? Well, there was another person at the house who liked it, so he ate it. He saved me!


So, come to find out, Sate Kupang is made of kerang(oysters), which is not a big deal...I've definitely eaten them before in something that a family made for me once here. But, the catcher was the juice that was served with it(seen in the bag). It was a mix of chili, oyster juice and these little tiny things that looked like eyeballs. I still don't know what they are.

This is a close up of the "juice." It's supposed to be poured into the bowl and eaten with "lontong" or packed rice and the oysters.

Sorry I failed this week's new food friday. I guess it will still remain a new food for me....forever.

Happy Birthday To Me :)

Even though it was a week ago, I wanted to post some pics from my birthday. To most people 26 isn't a big birthday year, but for me, I realized that I'm now closer to 30 than I am 20...yikes! It's also a big year for me because I spent it in another country, my first year living in Indonesia. I experienced many things that were out of the ordinary and new experiences for me on my actual birthday and made the day really special!
Well, Malang(the city I live in) was kind enough to host a 10k and marathon on my birthday. I've done a few races before, but this was unlike any other race I've ever done. For example:


 Even though the Start Time of the race was 5:30am and we all lined up for it, it didn't actually start until 6:30am(Indonesians like to call it "rubber time" since it's flexible to say the least)

There was an entire performance before the race began of traditional dancing and "gamelan"(the traditional music here).



The group I ran with(see below) were about the only foreigners in the race. This is a picture that sums up my life here...stick out much? :)



Part of the group I ran with(there were 3 others not in the pic)

After the race, we were flagged down by the officials(because we were white) and were given a gift bag and had our pictures taken, like we were important or something--even though we all finished far from anything impressive. I thought these 2 guys were worthy of acknowledgement...in their 70's and still running strong!!

Needless to say, we did make the newspaper the next day! I think it will always be hard for me to understand why we get so much attention and why they make such a big deal of being a bule(white person)

One big difference in birthday traditions culture wise is the person who pays. In the States the birthday person never pays; usually they are treated by friends or family. Here it's the complete opposite. If the birthday person plans a gathering or outing, they are expected to pay for everyone who comes. Well, I sure am glad I learned that one early on in language class...that could have been a really awkward experience come my birthday outing! I took out some of my kostmates(those who were around) to a cafe nearby.

Then, a total surprise...they took me to a karaoke lounge. Karaoke is HUGE here. Indonesians love to sing, and for good reason--they're so musically talented!! It was a blast and a great way to end my birthday. I'm so thankful for the friends God has blessed me with here and am looking forward to and am very expectant for the next year.