Indonesia - Day 18 - May 18, 2011

 Day 18 - May 18
Location: Yogyakarta, Java

Today us Wednesday -- only two more days in Yogya. Every day is long, but the time is flying by. I can tell that some are getting a bit tired, I think there were five people "napping" during the Assistant to the Mayor's speech. It didn't look too good on our part, but given our ages and activity level, everyone is doing well.



MJ's Tummy wasn't good this AM, but she didn't have to stay home. I think everyone actually made it to the group activity today.



Today  started with a visit to the leather puppet maker and a puppet show with traditional music.   Incredible artistry in the making of the puppets and the performance. There were puppets for sale and they were masterful, but expensive. I think they would look great hanging on a wall at home, but I also think that I'm out of wall space.  I have to remind myself that my current mode is downsizing, not acquiring more. It's hard to stay in that mode here -- there are so many beautiful things, much of it is so inexpensive, but even the expensive things are such a huge bargain when you consider the work that went into making it.



Frontal view of the leather puppets.





This is the view when watching the shadow
puppet performance.


Next stop was the Mayor's office. His assistant met with us in a rather formal setting -- conference room, microphones, a welcome to Yogya speech, which was translated and many pleasantries. I received a gift from the Mayor and the city of Yogyakarta, which is nice, but the practical side of me I'd wondering how I will get this stuff home -- I am no longer traveling light!


Meeting with the First Assistant to the Mayor of Yogyakarta.
By this time I was getting used to being a celebrity :)




A one hour drive had us at Borobudur Temple -- another UNESCO World Heritage site -- the largest temple in the world. Check it out online -- hard to believe I was actually there. We had a great guide, which made it extra special. It was another incredible experience -- lots of photos.



I made it to Borobudur -- coming here was one of my
primary reasons for being ED for this exchange!



 

On the way to Borobudur, we traveled through an area devastated by the Merapi volcanic eruption in Nov. 2010. The eruption was not like the volcanic activity I have seen in Hawaii. This was what they called "dry lava" -- powdery, hot ash that flowed down the mountain, burning and/or burying everything in it's path.




Note the enormity of destruction -- see how tiny the people appear to be whoare walking in the ash.



So sad -- I felt terrible passing through the area. Mass destruction, houses crushed  and buried, trees dead, roads swet away, 100s of people lost their lives, which is all terrible, but what is so heart-breaking is to see the lack of resources for recovery. I don't have the words to describe how I felt -- as we comfortably drove through the area in our air conditioned bus, drinking bottled water on our way to another destination. I have concerns about tomorrow's schedule when we will be going up further into the area where the greater damage occured.


On a brighter note:
We returned back to the main office -- Dr. Adam's house (compound as we have come to call it) at 5:30. Time to rest a bit, but not too long. MJ & I took Dr. Adam and Siti out for dinner. It was a good break from eating at the house, but not a very special food experience. They seemed to enjoy it, but MJ and I had hoped for more.
I guess they are just not foodies  :)
Fortunately, they have many other fine qualities.


On the way home we stopped at the Sonobudoyo Museum to see the last part of a Wayang Kulit Performance (Shadow puppet performance). Beautiful theatre and performance. This was a condensed version -- from 8-10:00 PM. The traditional version goes from 8:00 or 9:00PM to 5:00 AM. We were dead tired by 10:00.


Off to bed -- another big day tomorrow.