17-December-2011
I’ve been in Indonesia for 10 days now and acclimating to the weather and living conditions. It’s the hot, humid, rainy season. And Andrea’s house in the village of Ngentrong, near Campurdarat in east Java has no air conditioning, no shower, no hot water, no toilet, no toilet paper, etc. I survived it all last year, and will again this year.
On the first night here at dusk, there was an invasion of hundreds of flying insects. The house has large open vents near the ceiling, so anything that can climb or fly is free to come in. The flying insects lit on the wall and dropped their wings becoming larvae. Geckos climbed the walls and ate most of them. It was interesting to watch; but the entire ordeal lasted only about 30 minutes and was over except for sweeping up the wings.
Last week there was a full lunar eclipse; but that was not the only highlight in the sky for the night. When I looked outside as the moon was rising, I saw stars that were swaying back and forth. Andrea said they were kites, layang-layang, that glow; she had been seeing them lately. There were about 20 of them flying from the rice fields high in the sky looking just like very bright stars, except they had a slight back and forth movement.
A couple days later, during a walk in the early evening, I saw a couple of kids preparing to fly their kites. The kites are home made with a bamboo frame and wings of plastic like that in thin shopping bags. They have a series of many small LED lights which are powered by a small generator taped to the frame and driven with a propeller. The kites have about a 6 foot span and are flown out 500 yards on fishing line.
I’m getting used to the time change; we are 12 hours ahead of eastern standard time. But it is hard to sleep in with the call to prayer at 4:30 am and roosters crowing loudly from 5:00 to 7:00 am. The food has been better than last year because Andrea has found familiar things locally, and I brought some things from the USA. Already we have had delicious Spam and Velveeta omelets, BLT’s, grilled cheese, bruschetta, pancakes, and spaghetti with real parmesan cheese. It is so much better than relying on her host mother’s cooking three times a day.
Another change is that last year there was some corn grown in the area, this year a lot of corn is being grown in the rice fields. I expect this is because the world commodity price of corn has almost doubled in the last year. I’m sure they would be amazed to watch a corn harvest in Ford County, IL. Here the corn is cut by hand with scythes, the cobs broke out and husked by hand, and the cobs shelled by hand.
The local park has an addition of deer and monkeys. I don’t recall it last year, but it is Rambutan season. Vendors are selling this small red fruit out of trucks and off of motorcycle carts.
Hope all is well, and that the Packers have another win Sunday.
Jim
