Debriefing Day and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night

On our final, full day in Jakarta, we all came back together for a debriefing session in one of the hotel’s meeting rooms.  Even though most of us had been blogging throughout the trip (some did not have internet access consistently), sometimes it’s difficult to process ideas, thoughts and emotions immediately after the experience.  So this meeting was an attempt to synthesize what we had observed, learned and gained from our journey. 

We had a broad range of school experiences: some of us were in public schools, some private, some religious but none really secular (at least via comparison with US schools).  One teacher duo (Nancy and Arlis) lived in the shadow of a volcano, walked past rice paddies to school and had classes in the forest.  Another team (Amy and Jennifer) were in a school that seemed to have every convenience and teaching methods that were more akin to what we experience at home.  Yet another team (David and Daniel) were in a private, military boarding school with tuition of $400/month and a host teacher who was a Christian.  If you haven’t checked out other blogs (the link at the top of this page will take you to my Weebly and under ‘Resources for Teachers,’ there are links to all the blogs), I would encourage you to do so because we had such a variety of experiences. 

Mosque at Miniature Indonesia

But I would say the commonality of all our experiences is the utter graciousness of our host teachers and schools.  They did everything possible to insure we would have a good experience in Indonesia.  Another commonality experienced was frustration with the nature of the traffic; it took a long time to cover even fairly short distances and I feel this cut down on our exploration time of the city.  We came across a beautiful book in the batik boutique about all the mosques in Jakarta, but we didn’t have the opportunity to explore any of them.  Driving around the city, we could certainly see a multitude of different designs for mosques but rarely up close. 

Tellang flower and seed pods

One of the reflections Susanna asked us to write was about memorable experiences here, the small moments that are more cherished than mere sight-seeing.  Two of the most moving for me were the young girl in a wheelchair at the Hari Anak Nasional celebration and Wiharti’s (chemistry lab teacher) eagerness to share botanical treasures.  The young woman gave a very moving performance of a poem urging more help and compassion for the disabled, and even though it was not in English, her emotions came through the barrier of language.  Wiharti was a small woman, who, once she understood what I was doing in the lab, brought in some flowers (tellang) and seemed so delighted that she could share those with me.  I still see her bright eyes.

The lantern in the tree

We finished with the debriefing around 3:00, so there was plenty of time before dinner.  Although nothing was formally arranged, all but two of us ended up at a wonderful restaurant called Lara Djonggrang.  The ambience was just magical; the restaurant was set back from the street in a courtyard that had a huge banyan tree and amidst the hanging rope-like roots were hung glowing lanterns.  A statue of Ganesh stood by the door and we walked into high-ceiling rooms with a multitude of smaller, intimate dining rooms.  There was a large red bust of Buddha that separated our dining room from another.  Large stone carvings were everywhere and even the menus were spectacular.  Oversized and in red, they promised (and delivered) a mouth watering array of dishes.  But the best thing about the menu was the legend of Lara Djonggrang.  She was a princess of stunning beauty whose hand in marriage was sought by an evil warlord, Bandung Bondowoso, who had slain her father.  She cagily agreed to marry him but only if he could construct 1,000 temples in one night.  He, of course being the evil person he was, commanded an army of demons to perform this task.  As the night drew to an end, Lara was afraid he was actually going to be able to complete the temples, so she had her handmaids pound rice and spread fragrant flowers around the palace, which attracted roosters which began to crow.  Smelling the flowers and hearing the roosters, the demons feared that the dawn was approaching (and the demons could only be about at night), so they fled, leaving only 999 temples.  Bandung was not a gracious loser and he turned Lara into a stone statue, to stand loveless in the temple forever.  But the maidens of the kingdom prayed for her release, and she was taken into heaven, riding on a Javanese mythological lion.  So, this dutiful and loving daughter at last had peace.

David, and the literary menu

Even the rice was artistically served in the shape of a traditional puppet head

What a perfect ending to our time in Jakarta!  And, if you’re wondering about the incident with the dog, unlike the Sherlock Holmes story, the curious incident was that we heard a dog bark.  Curious because we had never seen a single dog while in Jakarta, and just before we reached the restaurant, we heard one bark.  I think it was a good omen.