my most useful indonesian phrase yet, "a little spicy." Indonesia continues to confound and blow us away. in Bali, the Balinese speak, well, Balinese, are devoutly Hindu, and have their own customs and dress and ways. On Lombok, the Sasak people are agreeably Mulsim loosely on tomp of aincient tradition and beliefs. They speak Sasak and Sasak food seems dominated by chilies. We we are now in Java, in Yogyakarta, where people are Muslim, of varying degrees, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, and speak Javanese, and of course, the young national language, Indonesian.
Yogya is cosmopolitan, busy but not overcrowded, arty, old and wonderful. Our first night we stumbled upon a night organized by a gay youth group promoting awareness of the gay and trans population, which is significantly marginalized and invisible. We missed much of the performances but saw an art exhibit which was really amazing.
Today we mostly walked around eating things from street carts and then went to a Batik studio to watch the process and learn about the art.
More soon!
I've fallen behind! I've been in a cave for over a week working on updates to the barter website. It totally sucked me in and I now have no clean underwear. Great to dip back into the stream and see you guys. Thinking of you lots!
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