A weekend in Yogya

My little host sister, Vitra, was so excited at the idea of me going to Yogyakarta (Yogya for short, pronounced “Joge-ja”) and Borobudur, and now I completely understand why.

Yogya is known as Java’s cultural capital, full of traditional Javanese arts and language. The trek there is about 8 (Indonesian) hours by car, so we all piled into the van we hired for the ride at about 9pm on Friday. Surprisingly the driver was on time (right, Margit?) and we hit the road, stopping only for a middle-of-the-night meal of, surprise surprise, rice at 1am. Luckily I slept through most of the drive, including the terrifyingly twisty, downhill drive out of Malang. We arrived around 6am and showered at Dian’s house, one of our AIESEC buddies who was home visiting her parents, and then headed out to find a place to stay for the weekend.

I swear it was 33C and humid at 8am (I now get why Indonesians refer to Malang as being “cold” at around 27C on an average day). We found ourselves a hostel just off of Malioboro, the main shopping street, and then went out to get acquainted with the city. Yogya seems to be a lot more modern than Malang, with so much history to see in the centre. We checked out an old fort-turned-museum commemorating Indonesia kicking out the Dutch, the kraton (the sultan’s palace), and the taman sari, where the sultan and his peeps used to bathe.

Thankfully, the rain clouds rolled in around mid afternoon just when we were all seriously starting to miss the relief of the rain from Malang, so we hopped on the front of a few bike taxis for a ride back to a bar near the hostel for a much-needed beverage to cool down. All of the Western interns went on a bit of a rice strike this weekend so after eating Chinese for dinner, and being saved by the lady who owns the hostel who came to fumigate a giant cockroach in our bathroom, we crawled into bed early in order to be up at 5am to tackle Borobudur and Prambanan temples before the heat and crowds took over.

Borobudur is an ancient Buddhist temple right in the middle of Java. The setting is amazing, with the dark grey stone clashing with the deep green of the trees and volcanoes that surround it.  We followed the six levels up, walking clockwise in true Buddhist fashion, checking out the stone carvings and Buddha statues that cover almost every single inch of the walls leading up to the top. Unfortunately the very top was closed for reconstruction but the view from where we were able to go was incredible.

Next stop was Mount Merapi, a volcano that erupted just two and a half months ago (although people still live all over its slopes). Sadly the clouds had rolled in and completely obscured the view of the cone so we couldn’t get an idea of just how destructive-looking it really is. After a quick lunch (I gave in on my rice strike and had nasi goreng, or fried rice) we went to Prambanan, a gorgeous group of Hindu temples. Apparently us bule (“boo-lay”, aka white people) were more interesting than the temples though, since we all posed for about a dozen photos with random Indonesian tourists and groups of school girls doing interviews for class.

We were all hot and tired at this point, and headed back to Yogya for a rest, to enjoy dinner and a beer in this really cool little restaurant in the tiny backstreets among the hostels, and then relax on a cafe terrace across from where we were staying. While we were having dinner and hiding from the rain, I got a text from Vira asking if I was ok and to hide under a table since she heard there was an earthquake in Yogya. Obviously we hadn’t felt or even heard of anything and we later heard that fortunately (or maybe unfortunately, I kind of want to feel an minor earthquake) it was about 30km and only about a 3 point something on the Richter scale.

Our last day in Yogya was a designated shopping day where we bought wonderfully cheap batik (traditional hand dyed cloth with really funky designs) and bargained for leather flip flops for $1.50. After dinner we went back to the hostel to wait for the van to take us back to Malang and found the place completely packed with this really adorable Indonesian family. There were about twenty adults plus kids all there for a week-long reunion and so of course, a photo shoot commenced with us posing with the aunts, kids and grandma. Grandpa was manning the camera so after Grandma posed with Matej, she grabbed the camera and got me to pose with my arm around Grandpa. It was hilarious and everyone was laughing the entire time.

After our fifteen minutes of fame, we headed out on the road back home. The eight hour drive wasn’t bad and we passed the time listening to the driver’s house music, chatting about relationship norms and occasionally fearing for our lives as we passed other vehicles on the tiny highway with giant tour buses passing us. I thought Tunisian driving was chaotic but Indonesians, their motorcycles and tiny curved highways bring a whole new meaning to defensive driving.

We arrived back home around 4am, just as half the city was waking up to pray and get their day started (my entire host family is up by 5 or 6am, so I usually feel like a slacker with my alarm set for 7:30am). I crashed at Cinthya’s with the other interns and slept off the weekend until noon, when we got up and got to work on the project. We’re writing a paper about SMEs here in Malang, which we will use as part of our presentation to gain support from the government for Mr. Yunus and his recycling company.

Yesterday we switched gears and got to work preparing our presentation for the end of the month for Mr. Yunus and potential stakeholders. I had brought over some cinnamon hearts from Canada, classic Valentine’s Day candy, and took them to Cinthya’s place. She always has her little cousins running around, super adorable little girls, and so of course they had to try. They grabbed a handful and put it in their mouth, and then ran around yelling, “Spicy! Spicy!”, fanning their mouths and killing themselves giggling. For a country that eats spicy food for breakfast, I found it hilarious, and the girls turned it into a game to prove to me they could handle the hotness and kept gasping and giggling whenever I’d stick out my tongue and show them how many I could handle at a time. Such cuties.

Yesterday afternoon, Margit and I had a meeting with a university here about potentially giving some guest lectures or at least sharing our experiences with a few classes. I’m not completely sold on the idea since I kind of suck at teaching, let alone to university students, but we’ll see. After that, we headed to the street kids’ school to give them a lesson on entrepreneurship and introduce them to Mr. Yunus. It will be a busy rest of the week but there's definitely a light at the end of the tunnel: a week-long trip to Bali and Lombok (I know you’re all jealous right now but try not to hate me – I hear Winnipeg is near melting at least!). I can’t believe how fast February has gone, and with so much planned in March and especially April, time is going to fly like always.

The project

I was talking to my mom this morning on Skype (or at least trying to – the internet connection here is pretty brutal) and mentioned that for the wet season, it really hasn’t been that wet – maybe a shower here and there for ten minutes in the evening, but not at all the monsoon season I expected (I haven’t even busted out my rain coat yet). This morning was even burning hot, with the sun finally out, and my ride in Malang’s public transportation (a rickety, blue-painted minibus called an angkot) was practically a sauna. Mother nature decided to prove me wrong this afternoon with a torrential downpour coming out of no where, flooding the streets and deafening us with thunder. I hope my laundry dries in time for our road trip this weekend! But more on that later.

I quickly explained what it is I’m doing here, but if you’re wondering what exactly was so enticing to bring me half way across the world, without any pay cheques for four months... here's a little run down on the project so far.

I’m working on a PBoX (project based on exchange... AIESEC is full of wonderfully confusing acronyms), coordinated by a group of AIESECers and executed by a group of interns like me, who came from around the world to lend a hand, pool our skills, and make a difference here in Malang. It sounds all very idealistic, and I’m trying to explain it without sounding like a tool, all “we’re going to save the world”...  but it’s amazing how motivated and genuinely excited everyone is to make an impact and we all have really high expectations for both the project and ourselves.

We kicked off my first week on the project with a crash course on local SMEs (small/medium-sized enterprises), where we had a chance to visit a handful of local businesses and chat with the owners about everything from marketing and accounting (or lack of accounting) to HR and management structure. The differences between the way these small business owners think in comparison to things back in Canada was frustrating to me at first. There are so many recommendations that we could offer but to be honest, the majority of owners seemed perfectly happy meeting their current demand, using very little in the way of marketing or promotions, and living life as is.

Of course, money is a huge barrier to expansion for SMEs here. Both the government and banks provide little, if any, type of funding or loans unless your profits are high, regardless of potential, and it seemed all of the businesses were only pulling in a few hundred to a thousand dollars per month in revenues. Even with the extremely low cost of living, it still makes the business tough to grow when combined with a lack of entrepreneurial thinking.

Although frustrating, it was extremely interesting to see and to compare things like employee benefits, for example. We spoke with a woman who owns a hand-painted textiles business and since she employs mostly teenage girls who don’t have a very high level of education, and although she has a really hard time with employee turnover as most of the girls quit after they get married, she still brings in an Imam to teach them about religion and how to be good wives. Another woman, the owner of a woodcrafts business, pays not only a daily salary but also provides a monthly allowance for the worker’s family to cover things like elementary school or check-ups. She has a handful of male employees and said they stay 10-15 years with the company.

The second part of the project is what I’m the most excited for: drawing up business recommendations and a marketing plan for Mr. Yunos, the most adorable little Indonesian man I’ve ever seen. His business is incredibly progressive for the area, making goods like backpacks, bags and flip flops from recycled materials. So far he’s been doing this on the side but he wants to really boost sales and awareness of his products and so we’ve been enlisted to help. We’ll be presenting the plan at an AIESEC-organized gala dinner at the end of the month.

The next step of the project will start in March, when we'll start working with an NGO and kids living in less-than-ideal conditions who are either from very poor families, living on the streets or in the rooms at the NGO. Our goal is to introduce them to the idea of entrepreneurship and work with Mr. Yunos to teach them skills to make their own goods from recycled materials, and ultimately either start or at least write a plan for a gallery where they can display and sell their products. It's a huge goal to achieve in the short month we'll have but we had a chance to meet the kids on Wednesday and their energy level was insane. They'll be a lot of fun to work with and we all stand to gain so much.

This project would really be nothing without my lovely team of interns and AIESECers who I’ve been working with on the project: Margit (Netherlands), Mia, Sarah and Elivs (Team China), Matej (Slovakia), Laisa (Brazil), and of course Vira, Cinthya, Arin, Ragil, Hadi, and everyone else who’s been working hard and fighting off the stress.

As a great end to the week, I’m heading to Yogya and Borobudur with Hadi, Mia, Sarah, Margit and Matej for a weekend roadtrip. More when I get back. Bon weekend!

P.S. Sorry for the lack of photos in this blog - there are so many I want to share but the internet connection today is making it impossible.

Made it!

This is my first ever blog, so I’ve been taking this blog-writing business more seriously than needed, putting off starting it by 5 days already trying to figure out what to call my blog. (I think 5 days, anyway... time has sort of blurred together here since I arrived last week).

Anyway, I’ve been sitting up in my room in my host family’s house this afternoon trying to brainstorm a title, sweating from the humidity and trying to wage an unsuccessful war against the ants in my room. Still no title but in the meantime I might as well start at the beginning.

I had only just got back from spending 15 amazing months living in Tunis, Tunisia and without a job back home, or the desire to find one, I decided that it’s now or never to finally move to Asia. Signing up for a second round of being an intern through AIESEC’s exchange program, I found a project focused on entrepreneurship with the local committee at Brawojaya University here in Malang, East Java, Indonesia. I stumbled into my host family’s house at about 10pm on a Thursday night after boarding the plane in Winnipeg about 50 hours earlier and Vira (an AIESECer here), her mom and little sister met me at the door. They showed me up to my room and gave me a crash course in navigating their bathroom (a porcelain hole in the floor requiring a pretty good set of quads, and a bucket with a sink full of water for showering), after which I crawled into my bed to sleep off the 13 hours time difference.

Adapting to life in Malang was incredibly easy thanks to my super adorable host family and the amazing AIESECers and interns and I’ve had a lot of fun picking out all of the similarities between the way of living here and back in Tunisia. Indonesia is a Muslim country (it’s the 4th most populated country in the world, with the largest population of Muslims) and it took me a couple nights to be able to once again sleep through that first call to prayer in the morning (I swear the call to prayers last 5 times longer here).

My host family lives about 15 minutes from the centre of the city in a really quiet neighbourhood with a great view of the mountains surrounding Malang. Actually, the entire city seems to have a view of the mountains and volcanoes nearby and I’m still in love with how green the city is. Vira, the oldest daughter, is in her first year of university and has been such a life saver for me, organizing my schedule and getting me to and from where I need to go, along with explaining the ins and outs of daily life. She has a younger sister in junior high and a younger brother in grade one. The two girls are my in-house translators, since their parents, brother and servant don’t speak much English. I’ve been putting myself through a crash course in Bahasa Indonesia to try and make life easier and more interesting for all of us.

Since arriving, I’ve had the chance to hike through rice fields, climb to the top of a temple, swim in a natural pool with monkeys observing us from overhead, sample insanely delicious Indonesian dishes, meet a team of super-motivated AIESECers and interns, and get to know the conditions of local small businesses here. I’ve also gotten used to eating rice at least two or three times a day, looking the other way when crossing the street, having spicy food for breakfast, re-learning to suppress my urge to wear a seatbelt, and pretty much accepting the fact that I’m going to look sweaty in almost every photo I take here.

Landing in Jakarta, hot and delirious after a night spent in Hong Kong and almost a full day sitting in one plane or another since leaving Manitoba, and trying to navigate the chaos that is the capital’s airport, I seriously did ask myself why I willingly move to these random places but after finally meeting everyone, seeing the city and getting started on the project, I definitely know why I put myself through so many confusing situations and embarrassing/frustrating misunderstandings. In the end, it’s all part of the fun.