Dress Up Day

Me in a traditional Sulawesi outfit with Krista

So as part of our culture week at COTI we had a day where students from different ethnic groups (of Indonesia of course) came and gave descriptions of their culture to us and then we turned around and gave presentations to everyone else. I was sent off to a room with two groups (one for me and one for Julia even though Julia was sick) one from Ambon and one from Sulawesi. I remember the most from Sulawesi because that is the one I chose to give my presentation on. Why? It had the prettiest outfit, duh. This outfit consists of a kain, the skirt, and a baju bodo, the shirt. No h. Bodoh means stupid and this outfit is beautiful, not stupid. Notice there are also accessories and they are gold and made of tin. There were also wrist cuffs but my American wrists wouldn’t fit in them. That is saying something people, I have small wrists by American standards, I have to order bracelets special. Also notice you can see my black tank top through this shirt. Traditionally, pre-Islam, this shirt was worn with nothing underneath. Which, due to the heat in Sulawesi makes sense. However, according to Islam is makes very little sense. On this day I was very thankful for Islam.  Emma also wore an outfit from Sulawesi and the others had beautiful outfits from Bali. It was very fun. There were also snacks. Snacks are good, well most of them were. The Balinese snacks were very yummy. One of the snacks from Ambon I did not quite like. Here are some more photos from the event:

Bu Juliana, Sulawesi, Bali, Bali, Sulawesi, Ambon x2

The whole group

Then, that same day the Balinese boys, seen above, from James’ homestay threw him a going away party! It included PORK! Oh holy, non-Islamic Pork! This day I was also thankful for not-Islam. Being in a large Christian community in Indonesia means I can still eat pork. The boys made spicy pork sate and it was delicious. We sat outside, made sate, sang Indonesian songs, and had a lovely time from about 7-10. Then I went home because I was tired. I’m old and tired in Indonesia, OK?

PORK

 

MORE PORK