At The Ministry

Jeanne, Novi and I arrived at a very elegant office building near the center of Jakarta.  Novi told us this was the building for the Ministry of Religious Affairs and it had a very large foyer, where tables were being set up with decorations and serving dishes.  At one end of the building was a large reception area with a separate serving line and a multitude of tables.  At the other end of the foyer was a large auditorium with a stage.  The seating was temporary, with many row of chairs swaddled in white Spandex-type material.  I thought that was very practical, since the covers could easily be taken off and washed and the chair remained clean.  We had arrived around 3:00 and were taken to a corner area of the foyer while all the preparations took place.  It was obviously an area for over-flow seating, and I thought this was where we were going to sit for the performance.  I could not have been further from the truth.

At 4:00, we were ushered in to the auditorium and escorted to very comfortable leather club chairs that had been arranged in the front two rows.  We sat there through the final rehearsals and while camera and sound checks were done.  Three lovely young ladies dressed in kebaya (a traditional Indonesian dress) from MAN 4 sang “It’s Now or Never” and other young people practiced how they would pass out gifts to a group of orphans (the minister would later do this for real).

Now it was show time!  Cameras rolled and the VIPs began to stroll down the aisle to take their place in the front two rows of leather chairs.  A young girl in a red kebaya served as master of ceremonies (her father had been doing this during the rehearsal) and she had such clear, elegant diction!  She announced all the various performances, but first two young men came on stage and sang an opening prayer.  Next, a group of young women sang the national anthem.  With the exception of two speeches (one by the minister), all of the performances and announcing were done by youth, because after all, this was the National Day of the Child.  Drumming performance by MAN 4.

The performance part of the evening ended with the minister presenting gifts of clothes and books to the orphan children and then a group of drummers from MAN 4 performing and one young man with a beautiful voice singing the closing prayer.  We thought we were leaving after this, but Novi escorted us to the reception area where we broke-fast with everyone.  The first food eaten kind of reminded me of candied sweet potatoes: it was a cup of a syrup that looked as if it were made with brown sugar and had small, round orange dumplings and pieces of a translucent fruit.  The table was laden with rice, meat, fruit, salad (gado-gado) and desserts.  The table where we sat already had two dishes of different desserts and a plate of dates.  It was a very festive occasion.

After dinner, Novi excused herself to go pray in a small room.  Afterwards, we headed to the street to find a taxi and found ourselves crossing a road where traffic never stops; you just put your hand out with the palm facing drivers and step out on faith.  Cars do stop and you just kind of weave your way through several lanes.  Once we safely were in the taxi, we relaxed for our trip back to the hotel.