inspired in indonesia: idul adha, mini hajj and thanksgiving

Some interesting things have happened over the past few weeks, so I’ll try my best to remember and summarize the most important as best as possible.

On the 17th most of Indonesia celebrated Idul Adha, the second largest Muslim holiday after Idul Fitri (the end of the fasting month of Ramadhan). This meant that instead of class, everyone gathered at the school (amazingly all of the teachers/students were not only on time, but early and ready by 6 am!) for a special prayer. I embarrassedly strolled in at 5:50 while everyone watched the unveiled teacher make my way back to the group of women who couldn’t participate in prayer because they were menstruating. I am teased on a daily basis for my promptness, so I was shocked by everyone else’s punctuality on this sole occasion. Since I don’t pray, I took this opportunity to observe the masses of students and faculty simultaneously going through the prayer motions- a wave of white. It was an amazing sight; beautiful in a very spiritual way. One of the male teachers led prayer, which to me sounds like singing in Arabic. It’s definitely different than the preachy tone of Catholic mass that I grew up with. All of the women were dressed in their prayer robes and were-as religion dictates- clustered behind the men who wore sarongs and their kopia or traditional Islamic hats. After observing prayer and meeting countless returned alumni, I joined the teachers in the office to eat (because food is central to Javanese culture, and there is always some excuse to devour large amounts of it) before heading to the back field for Part II: Cow Sacrifice.

I wasn’t sure I could stomach watching the same cows that I had walked by earlier that same morning be slaughtered in public. But seeing as how I’m trying to participate in every new cultural experience, I opted to walk over with another teacher and stand in the back. Luckily I missed the execution of the first cow, and only had to bare witness to the second killing. More than enough cow blood for me for a lifetime. I think I’ll be skipping next year’s viewing. Then members of OSIS (a type of student council) as well as some of the male faculty proceeded to skin it, chop off the head and put it in a bag, cut off the limbs, take out the intestines (have you ever seen a cow’s stomach? It’s huge! And the smell when they were cleaning it out made everyone gag for meters), and carry the smaller parts into an empty classroom to be portioned and packaged for the poor. Although I had offers to be more hands-on, I politely declined and watched from afar. That was enough involvement for me for my first ever sacrifice.

To rewind a few thousand years, a bit of background info about this most important day. Please be warned, this is based on my not-so-great translation skills, a little help from Wikipedia, and my less than stellar knowledge about biblical times, so please excuse my ignorance in trying to explain this. Here it goes, in very abbreviated form: Muslims celebrate Idul Adha as a commemoration of when God (Allah) asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son as a sign of devotion. With honest intentions, both Abraham and Ishmael prepared for the sacrifice. But before the deed could be carried out, God intervened, commanding that Ishmael be replaced by a ram. So, once a year Muslims commemorate this act of faithfulness by sacrificing cows, goats, sheep, camels, etc (only animals approved by Sharia law). There are various rules about how the animal should be sacrificed and certain criteria that the animal and the person sacrificing must meet. But I, unfortunately, will not be the one to enlighten you with all of those details.

There was no class again the following day. Instead the school was set up as a miniature Mecca, and all of the grade 10 students dressed as if they were going on their holy pilgrimage (one of the five pillars of Islam). The students pretended to take different group flights into Saudi Arabia, and went through all of the motions of an actual hajj or pilgrimage. They said the special prayers, walked the loop several times (I think 7), collected and threw stones at various pillars to symbolize chasing Satan away, and they had even built a mini version kaaba, the place where Muslims go to strengthen their faith. It was yet another surreal experience in my time here; the boys walking around in their Islamic togas and 300 students and teachers dressed from head to toe in white chanting in Arabic and showing their devotion to God.

Although wonderful to share in, all of these surreal cultural experiences unfortunately cut into class time, and semester exams are next week. I’m frustrated because I didn’t get to help write/edit the English exam, and when I stole a peak at it, it was riddled with grammatical mistakes and irrelevant, impossible texts. No wonder the students feel the need to constantly cheat on exams! Why wouldn’t you have the ‘native speaker’ look over the test before printing and distributing it to 17 other schools?!? I realize that the Indonesian teachers understand the curriculum better, but some of the mistakes that I saw were imperative to the students’ comprehension. With all of the frustrations, disappointments, confusing moments, and days I wanted to fly straight home to Colorado over the last few months, I’ve learned a lot and am looking forward to a new year and a new semester. I better understand the significance of having a 2-year commitment in Peace Corps; it takes a long time to figure everything out, and 8 months in, I’m still perplexed most days. I feel that 2011 will be infinitely better. I have new ideas, a better understanding of how things work both as a teacher and with the Indonesian system, and a more optimistic attitude about this whole experience.

One final note: it doesn’t feel like the holidays. I wish there was snow and 24-hour Christmas music. Mom’s baked treats and real pine trees. Menorahs and latkes. Midnight sledding and snowball fights. Hot chocolate and the chaos of buying and wrapping the perfect present for those you love. Here, it’s just another day, another month. We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday at the Consulate’s home, but it’s just not the same when you’re not with family. So, I wish everyone back home Happy Holidays and don’t forget to take time to appreciate the time you do have with family, as crazy as it may feel sometimes.

Lots of Love from Indo!