Indonesia

Amazed. That's the first word that I can think of to describe my experience here so far. I'm amazed by the beauty of Indonesia - the scenery of the trees and rice paddies, the spirituality of the people, and especially the visibly rich culture. We had the chance to visit a lot of amazing places earlier this week. We saw Borobudur (the largest Buddhist temple in the world and also the eighth wonder of the world), saw the largest Buddha statue in the world, saw the Ramayana ballet, and of course shopped along Malioboro (our GIEU faculty leader remarked, "You haven't been to Indonesia unless you've been to Malioboro").

While we had a chance to immerse into the Indonesian culture, we also have had the chance to do some field work here as well. Today, we visited the Ombudsman Swasta again and were fortunate enough to have a chance to listen in during a focus group discussion. In the room, there was one of the consumers, a representative for the housing developers, an agrarian officer, a local government representative, a representative from a rural estate association, some NGO representatives, the ombudsmen, and some independent parties. The consumers were complaining about the delayed process of obtaining a building license, the slow certification process, and the lack of transparency within these processes. While the discussion took place, I was surprised by how peaceful the discussion was; there was no shouting over anyone and while the mood was serious, it was not tense at all. Typically, this type of issue is resolved within three to five days, and again, I'm surprised by how quickly such a dispute is resolved.

Afterward, we had lunch and then drove to a local cafe to meet up with Difla, one of the founders of Yayasan GAIA, and one of her employees, Ari. Yayasan GAIA is a local NGO devoted to helping street children attend school and obtain free health services. Durin the discussion, Difla told us that there were three main reasons that led these children to become street children - poverty, natural disasters and problems at home with the parents. Hearing her talk about the street children made me think about the poverty in Indonesia and despite all the beauty of the country, the juxtaposed signs of despair. It was something to think about and something I will continue to think about during this trip. However, to end on a slightly more positive note, hearing Difla and Ari speak with such passion about social work was uplifting and leaves me with some hope about the work of NGOs in Indonesia.

Also, on a quick side note, here are my other two highlights of the day that I felt compelled to mention:
1. trying dragon fruit, which is an amazingly delicious fruit. I also love the name! -a shoutout to Stephan for buying it
2. and one of the GIEU students getting left behind at the bookstore and the vans actually driving away. -I wont mention who it was for fear of embarrassing the person but I have to admit, it was kinda a funny situation ;)

-Karen