First Experiences

Selamat datang! Welcome to Indonesia!

Have you ever seen TV series called “Aliens in America”? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790603/ It tells the story of a Muslim teenager living in a Christian family in America. My situation is the exact opposite. A girl from Europe living in a Muslim family in Indonesia, city of Malang.

I will try to describe my experiences and help you imagine how life down there in Indonesia is.

What do you know about Indonesia anyway?

Jakarta? Bali? Java?

Probably the most important fact about Indonesia is that it is comprised of around 13.000 islands. I live in one them, Java. Not in the capital city, Jakarta, but in a “small” town of Malang (~1.000.000 people). Fun fact about Indonesians –they have no clue how many people live in their city. When asked, the number of inhabitants in Malang varied from 1 to 6 million people. Quite a big error margin, huh? So let’s trust Wikipedia for the time being and believe that there are around one million people.

That one million speaks Javanese language, which is totally different from the national language called Bahasa Indonesia. My boss and “father” Mister Sugiyanto is doing his best to teach me Bahasa Indonesia. Still a loooong way to go in this area.  And yes, I said boss and “father” cause I live at my boss’ place which is situated exactly 1 min walk from his office.

More about the family. Super caring, sometimes even overprotective Muslims. “Father” Sugiyanto – the owner of Malang Tourism Center and future owner of TravelCafé. “Mother” Baroroh – English teacher at Indonesian high school. “Sister” Diena – very shy 16-year-old and “brother” Brian – totally not shy 5-year-old. Another fun fact about Indonesians – they usually add the word “Ba” in front of any name, so one would say Ba Diena, instead of just Diena. Teachers and mothers are called by the name “Ibu”. That’s how I have to address to my “mom” and how kids at school have to address to their teacher.

Ba Ugi (this is how I have to call my “dad”) christened me Ba Tina (Ba-for miss, then cross out Justina and this is what you get). The little Brian seems to enjoy this quite a lot as he runs around and boasts to his friends that now he has two sisters- Ba Tina and Ba Diena (pronounced Dina).

Family is quite devoted Muslims who take their prayers seriously. They have a so-called Mosque in the house (it’s just a room meant for praying), where they pray every afternoon, wearing special clothes. Ibu prays wearing a hijab and a white gown covering all her body. She looks something like that: http://islamicsoftware1.blogspot.com/2011/09/islamic-clothing-islamic-clothing-for.html. I would lie if I said that I didn’t freak out not even a little bit when I saw her first time like that. I felt relieved when I found out that she wears only a hijab and normal clothes for everyday and uses the previous outfit only for praying. Men, on the other hand, don’t need to wear any special clothes while praying, they only have to take a shower beforehand. Muslims in general are not very religious in Indonesia. According to Koran, women have to cover all the body with clothes, though in Indonesia three quarter sleeves are quite popular among women. Some don’t wear a hijab altogether. This changes with time, as the older generation still wears a full-body covering outfit.

More on the religion. Muslims are supposed to pray 5 times a day and repeat the prayers four times. Though I have seen my family pray only once a day. On the other hand, Muslims in the mosque right next to our house are much more devoted. I am woken up every morning at around 3.30am by super loud singing, chanting and what not at the mosque. Apparently, out of the 5 praying times, this early morning and late afternoon are the most important times during which the singing is much louder.

That’s it for the time being about family and religion.

Oh, I almost forgot. The family has a maid and a personal driver. How cool is that?

And they all ride motorbikes. Even cooler.

More about my everyday life and pictures coming up next!