Merry Christmas to all. It's Boxing day here, but we're a day ahead. We went to Garut for the day, and had a break from the town. We set up a small christmas tree and decorated it. We decided to cook our own supper for Christas Eve, which made us feel more in the spirit. Christmas morning we spent giving gifts as part of a secret Snata, and our supervisor Krista put out some things for stockings. Overall it was a good day, we worked through the problems that came up. Most of our food was pieced together from what we could find at the grocery store. We made an Italian dish called Gnocchi, potato pasta with marinara sauce from scratch, stuffing without savory, some stir fried veggies, and a salad sans lettuce. All the food was great even so, and the cooking was fun resulting in flour fights and many pictures.
Madrasa, the governement program paired with CWY, is a bit confusing. They had planned our day, consulting us but without really telling us what was goung on. Ths led to repetitive activites and visits we weren't keen on, like a trip to a school to give and hear more speeches, and lunch at a polluted lake with paddle boats and the remains of a sorry little park. About halfway through we waded across the language barrier and explained that we would like to make other plans, and, after much explaination, we convinced them to let us have Christmas to ourselves. We got some shopping in for secret santa and did food searching. A few of us went to church here, regardless of faith. That was an interesting experience, and since all the christtians were celebrating the holiday, it seemed a little more familiar and comfortable. Helped get into the spirit. We got back yesterday and watched home alone, which counted as our christmas movie, and got to spend a few more hrs as a group.
Life other than Christmas is going well. I'm getting more comfortable in the country, if not really at home. I'm getting used to having people smoke around me, and I can ignore most of the piles of burning garbage in the road. I'm still working on getting used to the driving. n the car is fine, but its discomforting to be walking down the road and have a bike or truck whiz 1/2 a foot away from you dong 60. Also, there are few mufflers to be found, so conversation has to stop when you're be9ng passed. It sounds like living on a highway, but the road is pretty small compared to the rest of the country.
This town is supposed to have some of the cleanest air and quietest area in the country, which is sad but better than it being the worst. We've been walking a lot, going up into the mountains where it's a little fresher. Unfortunately, there isn't any wilderness around us. We've walked for hrs and found only farms and fields. It's beautiful up in the mountains, and the rainy season has kept the weather in a careful balance of not to much sun or rain. Either are dangerous in large doses. I've already had a couple bad burns, and apparently the rain in Indonesia will make you sick. Not sure of the validity of that claim, but best not to risk overexposure considering the other toxins I'm getting.
Heading over to friends house for a movie day now. Movies are stolen and really cheap, but DVD players are hard to come by, so now that we've pinned one down we want to use it.
Merry Christmas
love Justin