Day 3: Mt. Merapi

You may recall in the fall of of 2010 that Mount Merapi, a volcano here in Indonesia erupted multiple times. It caused all kinds of destruction and mayhem over a few weeks. Many people died, lost homes, cattle, and flights were cancelled all over South East Asia as well as delaying President Obama's trip for yet another time. I have never been anywhere near an active volcano before (that I know of), so I was very intrigued to go and see Mount Merapi while we were in Yogya. On the drive up, we saw a lot of green and trees, and I thought that it was weird because I was expecting a lot more devastation.

It really was green, green, green, trees, trees, trees, and then BAM....

The only way to describe how the area looked was like one giant pile of pick-up sticks. There were ruined houses, motorcycles with their tires melted off, and rusted cars...and everything was ash gray. It was very sad to think about how this natural disaster affected so many people and their families, and at the same time I was totally fascinated by the power of nature. The volcano was super cool looking...and it is still puffing out smoke (that's the technical term) out of its crater. The boys were fascinated by it because it was a real life volcano "just like the one in Backyardigans!" We actually got to talk to Clark about what the volcano did and how amazing it is, and also how sad it is because sometimes it destroys things like houses. He clearly understood and it was interesting to see him trying to figure it all out while we were walking around.

You get up to a certain spot and then they have a bunch of guys with motorcycles who will drive you up a little bit further closer to the base of the volcano. Of course we just HAD to do that, so Tanner actually drove one motorcycle with the boys and I hopped on another with Audrey and a driver. The thing that is interesting about the people in Yogya is that they are a very spiritual and also superstitious people. There has always been a spiritual gatekeeper that they believe 'communicates' with the volcano to help keep the people safe. He died during one of the first eruptions, and soon after, a new gatekeeper was appointed. There were people up there starting to rebuild houses and mosques, but this thing erupts every few years so I was kind of wondering what the point was, or why they don't go and build elsewhere. But I really think that many of them just have no other option.

Don't know if you can tell from looking at the picture, but this is an area that controls the river flow from the mountain down into the city. After Merapi blew, they had a number of rainy days and there was so much ash and water that it went right over the top of this dam/bridge and took out the guard rails (if you can even call them that) on either side of the road. Here we are 3 months after the fact and the water is still liquid ash. Yes, we had to drive across that bridge. awesome.
So there is a story behind this very cute picture of Andrew tush. While we were wandering the landscape surrounding Merapi, Andrew decided he just had to use the bathroom. There weren't any porta potties that we could see and in reality there weren't even any trees for him to hide behind, so we were kinda trying to decide what to do when this woman and her little boy saw us, and Tanner asked her if she knew of a place we could go. The next thing we knew she had this black pail that she filled with water and she guided us over to a toilet from one of the ruined houses. Tanner couldn't help taking a pic, and just fyi, you use the black pail of water to in effect flush the toilet by forcing water down the drain. The lady was so nice to help us, and she had been trying to sell some postcards and pictures before our bathroom emergency, but we really didn't need any of that stuff. While Clark and I were waiting in the car, I got some money out and asked Clark if he wanted to go and give the little boy some money so that he could help his mom rebuild their house and he got all excited. He hopped out of the car and ran over to the boy and gave it to him and the little boy was so cute and showed his mom excitedly and then folded up the money and proudly put it in his tiny little pocket in his shorts. When Clark came back to the car, he was so happy and he said "I gave him some money so now they can build their house again and be safe!"

Priceless.

Borobudur

So after our visit to Mt. Merapi, we decided to go to the ‘must see’ site in Yogya. It is a Buddist temple called Borobudur. One of the fascinating things about Yogya is that there is a lot of different religious history here. There is the Borobudur Buddist temple and then about an hour away there is another amazing Hindu temple called Prambanan. Plus there are also some Christian influences here so it really has been a melting pot of religious influence throughout its history. When we arrived, we were mauled (not even exaggerating) by people hawking their wares. We could barely even get out of our car at first. I have actually gotten very used to people coming up to me asking me to buy things, but what makes me mad is when they start handing stuff to my kids and my kids run up to us all excited thinking that they have just been given a gift. It seriously bugs and it’s hard to be nice when that happens. Anyway, once we got through all of that, we made our way up towards the temple when the sky opened up and we were stuck in the middle of this huge downpour. We had a tour guide and we could tell she was telling us some very interesting things, but it was raining so hard and so loud, we could barely hear her even though she was standing right in front of us. The kids of course were having a blast running around in the rain and I was busy trying to keep Audrey and myself as dry as possible under an umbrella, and Tanner was trying not to get his precious new camera wet (it’s true, but I can’t say I blame him….much.)

Luckily the storm didn’t last forever, so we were able to walk around a bit after the skies cleared and marvel at how the ancients were able to build such amazing structures with no machinery. One of the things I actually enjoy about touring around this part of the world is that there are no additional safety features installed, which on the one hand you think I would hate it because I have to watch my kids like hawks to make sure they don’t fall 30 feet off a ledge, but I just enjoy that everything looks as it should or as it was and it makes it feel a little more authentic and real….as long as you don’t mind the crazy mom yelling “STEP AWAY FROM THAT LEDGE!”

(seriously, is there any object that a boy WON’T turn into a gun?)

(yes the stairs were SUPER steep)

Sultan Palace and The Beach

So the one thing the locals love to talk about is how Yogyakarta has a Sultan. So there is this weird and recently very strained relationship between the Indonesian President and the Sultan of Yogyakarta. The people there love their Sultans and we were quite excited to go visit the palace where he lives. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment. You know it's time to leave when they have the oven mitts that the Sultan used once, on display. They did have a cool ceiling in one of the rooms.
Once we got out of there, we ate some lunch where Andrew managed to con the entertainer into letting him play his gamelon, and then we decided to go to the beach.

The nearest beach is a little ways away, but it was an interesting drive through some rice paddy fields and countryside. The beach was super crowded because it was a Sunday, but it was still fun and quite the experience riding in these horse carts along the beach. The boys loved it even though we hadn't originally planned for the beach so they had to play in their normal clothes...but thank goodness k

ids never really care about stuff like that. On the ride back to the car, they took us on a detour and made us get out at this weird spot where these people were waiting to take us somewhere. Tanner and I were both feeling really weird about it, and we ended up walking to this area that was surrounded by a cement wall with a couple of large boulders in the middle...literally nothing to look at, and these people were telling us that someone important got married there. yay. We realized on the walk back to our horse drawn karts that these people were pretty much just trying to get money from us and acting like they were showing something important to us. It bugged us both, but it is just one of those things...I think Tanner gave them the equivalent of 50 cents. Anyway, all in all it was an interesting day and I think it was good for the kids to have some play time on the beach after we dragged them around all day seeing more touristy stuff.

P.S

(yes, that is a mini motorcycle, and yes that is a monkey...a real one. He entertained my children while we were shopping in a batik store. There are so many wrong things about this picture, I don't even know where to begin...but the craziest part is, this isn't the first time I have seen this in Indonesia. Trained monkeys riding motorcycles...who comes up with this stuff????)

Yogyakarta Trip: Day 2

The next day, we started off with a trip to a place where they make hand-made batik. It was pretty amazing to see how it's made and the amount of human time and effort it takes, but I have to say you can definitely tell a difference between hand-made batik and the kind that is not.

First they have someone either draw/trace the design on the fabric or they use a copper stamp dipped in wax to print a design directly onto the fabric.

Then, someone actually goes over the design with a wax pen.

Then depending on how many dye colors they are using, they may dye the whole fabric or they may just hand-dye parts of the fabric. Regardless, there is a lot of hand-waxing, and hand-dyeing going on.

Finally, in order to get the wax off of the fabric they have to soak the fabric in super hot water if it is cotton, or if it is silk, they soak it in gasoline. I asked how they get the smell out of the silk and she said "we wash it a lot".

The finished product is amazing and I just love seeing these types of things because each one is really a unique piece of art. The workers there were all very sweet and just loved the kids. One funny thing that happened was when we arrived and we went to grab a translated pamphlet, the lady asked us if we wanted the Dutch translation. Honestly, it has never occurred to us that people might think that we are not from the U.S., but I guess the towhead thing can be a little confusing!

Yogyakarta Trip: Day 1

Since we stayed home for the Christmas Holidays, we thought it might be fun to go on a little trip to Yogyakarta in January over the Martin Luther King Holiday. A lot of people had told us that this is a place that we definitely needed to visit while living in Indonesia. I have to admit, we didn't plan everything out before we left, but it all worked out once we got there. I did book ourselves into a quaint little Villa. A lot of expats stay in the really nice hotel here, but there is something that I love about going the 'local' route. We arrived in the evening so all we had time for was a little swim and dinner at the Villa before we all went to bed to get a good nights rest.

Bombarded

Well, luckily we got through Christmas mostly unscathed by sickness although Andrew has been sick pretty much for the last two months straight with ear infections and viruses. Clark had 3 weeks off of school and I had these big plans for this last week to take the kids to do some fun things, and then Audrey got pink eye the end of last week, so we were all pretty much quarantined at the house while we fought that off. Then as soon as she started to clear up, Andrew went down with his second throat virus in a month. This time it was hand, foot, and mouth, so once again, we have all been pretty much chillin' at home together. Andrew has such a difficult time fighting these throat infections and he gets at least 2 or 3 a year and they are just awful and hang around FOREVER. I would really love to have his adenoids removed in the hopes that he can have more of a reprieve from sicknesses but doctors are so anti these days about doing it. The doctor here says that if they were bacterial infections then yeah maybe, but they are viruses so chances they would recommend it are pretty much nil. However, clearly it is THE weak spot for him (as it was for me) in his body and I just would rather get rid of them. Anyway, for now, motrin is my best friend and Clark goes back to school on Monday. Hallelujah. There is one silver lining. With all the time we have spent in the house the last two weeks, Andrew became potty trained! Is it bad that I potty trained my kid while he was down and out dealing with a 102 temperature pretty much non-stop? One night Tanner and I were in bed reading and all the sudden we heard the light flip on in the boys bathroom and suddenly a steady tinkle noise. We couldn't believe it! We love Clark, but the dude is 5 and I still have to wake him up every night and take him to the bathroom, so to hear Andrew doing it already is WELCOME relief.

Quarterly Clarkisms and Andoozies

10/9/10

Tanner: Andrew, did you have fun today?
Andrew: Yep.
Tanner: Were you a good boy?
Andrew: Yep.
Tanner: Did you make good choices?
Andrew: Nope.
Tanner: Why not.
Andrew: Because Clark stupid!
(Cherylyn later clarified that what Andrew meant was that he had made a bad choice earlier in the day by calling Clark stupid)

10/11//10
(Andrew bursts into the bathroom naked while Clark is in the shower)
Tanner: Andrew, get out!
Cherylyn: Can’t Andrew come in?
Tanner: Nope, its Clark’s turn and Andrew’s letting all the hot air out.
(Andrew exits and closes the door)
Andrew: Mom, dada’s the bad guy!

10/23/10
Clark: Mom, dad, when you have too many birthdays you might become 100 years old, and then you’ll have to be outside and get struck by lightning.

Clark: Dada, when I was two years old, I made bad choices.
Tanner: Are you taking a trip down memory lane?
Clark: (with a distant expression) Yeah … I remember that.

10/31/10
(Clark: After going poop)
Clark: I just had a really, really, really, really, big poop.
Clark: And we need to flush it because its digsgusting.
Clark: And we never like to eat poop.
Andrew: Yeah, disgust!

11/02/10
(Andrew, after being told it is unacceptable to say no to mom and dad)
Cherylyn: Andrew, go clean up or I’ll need to take some of your Halloween candy away.
Andrew: No!
Cherylyn: (glare)
Andrew: We don’t say no mom. We only say yes to you (quickly scurries off).

12/8/10

Clark: You know guys, I listen to you too much, now it’s your turn to listen to me.

Clark: My peepee is sticking to my leg.

12/11/10

(Cherylyn eating lunch at the table in her underwear because she spilled ketchup on her pants)
Clark: Mom is that your underwear that you’re wearing?
Cherylyn: Yeah.
Clark: Why did you take off your pants and let everyone see your underwear?
Cherylyn: Because when I shook the ketchup, some spilled out on my pants … but I should probably put new pants on huh?
Clark: Yeah, you should go.
(Cherylyn sheepishly leaves the dining room to get new pants)

12/23/10

(During a conversation between Clark and our friend Katie after a Christmas dinner)
Katie: Clark, were you a good boy this year for Santa Claus?
Clark: I made some bad choices, but it’s okay because Santa Claus didn’t see.

12/24/10

(During a Christmas Eve presentation on the Christmas Story)
Cherylyn: Clark, do you know who Mary is?
Clark: Yeah, that’s Jesus’s mom.
Tanner: And who is Joseph?
Clark: That’s Jesus’s dad.
Cherylyn: …. And Mary’s husband, just like daddy is my husband.
Clark: Yeah, and I’m baby Jesus.

12/25/10

(After opening a sword for Christmas and raising it above his head like He-Man):
Andrew: By the power of PRESCHOOL (instead of Grayskull)!!!

12/26/10

Cherylyn: Clark, did you have fun on Christmas?
Clark: Yeah, Santa Claus is the best guy there ever was.

It Literally Felt Like Christmas!

For about 5 minutes. We were lucky enough to be able to snag the Ambassadors house up in Puncak for the weekend before Christmas. We invited our friends, the Beerman's to come up with us. We had been told it is actually quite 'cool' (literally and figuratively), but we really weren't sure what to expect. On the way up the fog had settled in near the upper part of the mountain, and at one point I rolled down the window and exclaimed "It's COLD!" We then proceeded to roll down all the windows and blare our Christmas music. The people who live up on the mountain are always burning fires to stay warm and so it smelled Christmasy too! The kids were like "it's cold! Can we roll up the windows now?!" and Tanner and I were like "No way, this is the closest it is going to get to winter right now so we are going to enjoy it!"

It was actually very beautiful up there and we just had a blast staying up late playing games with friends and have the air be cool and clean outside! We also did another trip to Taman Safari since all of us can't really seem to get enough of the place. I only wish I had pictures to share but our camera broke in Bali on the last day so we didn't have one. It was a perfect little getaway just before Christmas.

Decorating for Christmas

When you live in 90 degree weather year round, it is a little more difficult to get into the Christmas spirit. But after we returned from Bali, I was determined to get our Christmas stuff out so it would at least feel like Christmas...inside. My friend Kelly came back with us to have more dental work done, and we did so much in a week! How can it NOT feel like Christmas with this cutie around trying to eat the light bulbs?

Clark's Progress Report

We have been really happy with Clark's school and he is doing great. They had their first progress report the end of November and I was totally shocked when I saw how extensive the report was. It was 5 pages of Socialization, Language, Sensorial, Math, Computer, Pre-writing/writing, Art, Manipulations, Music, Practical Life, Physical Education, Science, and Social Science evaluations. It was awesome and I can only imagine how long it took his teacher to fill this thing out for each of her 10 kids. They pretty much have Clark pegged, which is no surprise since what you see is what you get with Clark. There is no wondering or guessing about what is going on in his head because he just lays it all out there for ya. I enjoyed the comments made by his teacher, who is Indonesian. My random thoughts and comments are in parentheses:

Clark is an active child (ya think?). Academically he is a good and a fast learner, for example when he was taught about math for addition and place value, the teacher just taught him twice and Clark quickly understood it. Clark has very good memory ability (yeah like he always remembers when I last got mad about something...awesome). He often thinks rationally, if there is something that he thinks is irrational, he will protest against it (Mom, I should only have to go to bed if I am tired...and I'm not). For example, one of his friends said that he was a spider, and for Clark it is nonsense so he told his friend that he was not a spider and this caused a quarrel. (Is it bad that I actually think Clark was just picking a fight with this kid? Clark does imaginative play ALL the time, so I am not quite sure what that is about, although I do think Clark generally thinks pretty rationally...gets it from his dad). Clark is not able to accept being defeated in a game or activity (gets it from his Mom...sorry). He does not want to get the role of the antagonist in a drama class i.e. Troll in the Bill Goats Gruff. (Dude, I'm with Clark. Who wants to be the troll yo?) These disappointments will cause anger and tears. We're working with him on handling disappointments. (We just tell him to man up at home. Is that....not...good?) Clark is basically a good child at heart (Yes, yes he is...shhh...he gets it from his mom ;-), he can make Rebecca laugh by making funny faces to her and he makes her happy (gets it from his dad).

(Rebecca is a girl in his class who has downs syndrome.)

I have started teaching Clark to read, and the teachers at school suggested putting him in an after school class that will help him learn since they felt he was really ready for it and I declined because I just really want to be the one to teach my child how to read. We have a great time with it and he is doing really well. I don't worry at all about him academically starting school next year. For Clark it will always be the socialization aspect that we will have to keep an eye on. He is so full of life and fun, but it can be a little (or a lot) 'in your face' at times (I have no idea where he gets that from ;-). But the teachers say all the kids get along great now after the first month or two adjustment period.

Clark also had his end of year school play the beginning of December. It wasn't Christmas themed, but it was darling and the kids were all super cute. Clark got to play a bird and the human king (there was a bird king too). I also got pegged by the teachers to be a part of a traditional Indonesian welcome dance that three of the teachers were going to perform at the beginning of the performance. It was actually a lot of fun, and my neighbor video taped the whole thing and then proceeded to show it to half my neighbors, without me being there and not ever having seen it. Nice eh? I am still trying to get a copy from her and if I do, I will have to view it first before I decide whether I want it on the blog!