Week 5: Religious and Social Diversity

This week we heard lectures on Education, "Pancasila" (the Indonesian national philosophy), Ethnic Chinese in Indonesian society (photo at left), Islam, Mennonite conferences in Indonesia, and the work of Mennonite Central Committee.

Demak

At the end of the week we took a two-day field trip to the north coast of Central Java. One stop was a visit to the mosque and museum at Demak, the sacred site where Islam first entered Java. The mosque (photo at right), like many here, uses traditional Javanese architecture. Although we, as a group, were not allowed inside the mosque, we did see the outer structure, visit some historic graves, and hear about the history of the site in the museum.

Mennonites in Java

From Demak we proceeded to the (over 90%) Mennonite village of Margokerto. There we were warmly welcomed and hosted overnight in homes. We participated in the youth service on Saturday night (photo at left) and heard about the furniture business organized by the pastor and congregation to provide employment to several hundred people who lost their land a few years ago for a proposed new power plant.

On Sunday morning, after saying goodbye at the Margokerto service, we went to the Mennonite Church in Jepara. There, after being introduced (photo), we sang a hymn for the congregation and brought greetings from Goshen College.

• We also met the parents of Avi, a current Goshen College student from Jepara. Scott and Susanna are shown with Avi's parents in the photo.
• After church we had an opportunity to visit a large wood carving area for which Jepara is well known. (Photo with Josh).
  

Mt. Merapi

From our house in Yogyakarta we have a full view of an active volcano, Mt. Merapi, some 25 miles to the north.

Getting up early--5:30 am--to leave for our field trip we were greeted with this ash eruption. About 20 minutes after taking the top photo the entire dust cloud had blown away to the east and the mountain looked like an earlier photo (bottom).

We have experienced hotter temperatures and more dust in the air, which can lead to health risks like asthma, sore throat, and diarrhea, but we have not had large amounts of ash like some places (Klaten and Solo) which are east of the mountain--winds tend to blow east or west, but less frequently south.

The Volcanological Survey of Indonesia maintains the Merapi Volcano Observatory--an extensive network of monitoring equipment, that routinely evaluates hazards. (Their website contains a weekly update on Merapi's activity). Villagers living on the slopes of the mountain have been warned to leave the area, but most have refused to do so. There have been no warnings for anyone more than 5 miles from the mountain.

People here treat the Merapi activity as normal, related to the supernatural, and definitely spectacular. Merapi's eruptions have been recorded for more than 400 years. There is grumbling about the inconvenience of the heat and dust, but people also gather at vantage points at night trying to see the red streaks from the hot lava. We have not yet been able to see that ourselves. We sometimes suspect that some things that are blamed on Merapi might possibly have other logical causes, but who are we to say?