mempesona

Well it is Friday. The kos is a hive of activity because Friday is the day where all male Muslims MUST go to the mosque, but as far as I can tell, nearly all the girls here pay a visit to the mosque on a Friday too. They float out of the gate wearing their special jilbab for praying (I think it has another name but I have forgotten it) and float back in after half an hour or so. The jilbab is the head covering that many Muslim women wear here. For praying they have a special one that is white. Basically they just throw it over whatever they are wearing at the time and then go and pray.

The commitment of Muslims to the obligations of their faith is amazing. I don’t profess to be an expert in theology but to unfailingly pray 5 times a day, or more, is pretty devoted. That’s not to say that every Indonesian Muslim is like that, in fact, as far as I can see it is a minority that is that committed, but nonetheless in my living environs the family I am with and the girls quietly carry out their obligations to God in a way that is completely integrated into their daily routine. Unassuming and unobtrusive. It’s interesting to contrast the practicing of faith in this way with some of the in your face “new” Christians in America and even Australia, measuring their commitment to their faith with how sizeable their donations to the Church, or how profound their conservative impact on government policy. For every contrast there is a counter-contrast. Every faith has extremists and extremism. Tarring the whole of Indonesia with the muslim extremist brush, it is becoming increasingly apparent to me, is not only completely inaccurate but also lazy. Jihadists receive about as much affection from the average Indo muslim as from you or I. And that concludes Adelle’s pondering on religion 101. Where did that rant come from? I must be grumpy.

Terus. Moving on. I am supposed to finish telling you about my regular routine aren’t I? I might do it another time.

So what’s new with me anyway? I spent all week doing progress tests for my language classes. I got 86 for writing but haven’t got any other grades back yet. I am fairly sure my grades for Translation and Vocab will be mediochre. But regardless of how good (or bad) my marks here, it just translates back to 12 unmarked points on my Australian transcript. So my philosophy goes something like- every minute I spend sitting at my desk alone, is a minute I could be out with friends speaking Indonesian, talking to people on the street or volunteering or something like that.

Speaking of which, I am going to an organisation called Satu Nama on Monday to start volunteering with Esther. Not sure exactly what I am going to be doing there. They are basically an NGO that does community development activities across Indonesia. I may end up doing some work on a new law that has been passed which essentially starts a process of decentralization from the central government, and will give increased autonomy to the provinces. I think that there is a belief that corruption will be reduced if the regions have more control over their governments. I am not so sure. I am also going to an orphanage this afternoon. A lot of the ACICIS girls have been going there. Will try and get photos and stuff.

I have a funny corruption story as well. Actually, it is probably better described as alarming, but anyway. Corruption is so overt here. Just last weekend we had to pay bribes for riding without documentation. There was no documentation because it was stolen with Ben’s wallet the day before. I had mine, but I wasn’t a rider so I personally didn’t have to pay a bribe. Another guy I know got pulled over by the Narcotic police in another city and had to pay money for not having his documentation on him, even though, quite obviously, he was not carrying narcotics. When this guy offered 50 thousand rupiah, the policeman suggested he go to the ATM and withdraw more. I am sure that I will have many more stories like this one for you before my time is up.

Anyway, this is a rather schizophrenic post. My apologies. I am a little tired, a little narky, a little looking forward to going to the beach tomorrow. Am in the process of planning my traveling for the mid semester break, my only real chance to go far from Yogya. Hopefully to Lombok and the Gili Islands. Finally. But my expectations are low that anything will actually happen. It saves disappointment!

And finally, I really shouldn’t have been so quick to call the word mempesona a useless word. Since I blogged that comment about it being a waste of a neuron, I have seen it on a million advertisements for new housing estates. Rumah-rumah pesona. Enchanting homes.

See. What the hell do I know about this language? 