An Experience with Islam & Democracy

This last weekend I traveled to Aceh with coworkers from Tifa’s Governance and Democracy Program in order to visit some of our partner organizations there, monitor the progress of their work, and discuss how to strengthen democracy in the upcoming local elections.  Over the course of three days we met with a group of religious leaders, anti-corruption activists, political activists, and a school for democracy training.  We drank copious amounts of the uniquely brewed coffee for which Aceh is famous, but none of the special coffee that is ground up with Aceh’s other famous locally farmed good. (Think what crop is usually grown to fund violent separatist movements).

With the group of Ulama from one of Indonesia’s largest Islamic groups, Nahdlatul Ulama, I listened to them lament the corruption and money politics that has taken hold in Aceh and how they envision Sharia-based democracy thriving in the future.  Afterwards we gathered for lunch and coffee with a group of activists who discussed goals and plans to strengthen local democracy as well as specific projects for this fall’s election. Friday, after two cups of strong coffee and a bowl of lontong Aceh for breakfast, we met with an anti-corruption NGO and listened to their progress conducting community discussions and hearings to create awareness of the government’s budget management.  Afterwards we continued on to the Saree School and sat in on the first day of a group training on peace and democracy.  While the school offers trainings on topics such as starting home businesses for women and organic farming, these attendees were both young and old, men and women; all invited because of their leadership at the local level.

Getting out of Jakarta again was both reinvigorating and reinforced my sense of purpose here.  Working in a donor foundation office everyday makes trip to the field such a treat, as well as necessary to see actual conditions and progress.

Trip Part Two: Abby’s Visit and Travels in Flores

After almost two days of flight-travel, Abby arrived in Bali on Tuesday morning and we met at Warji Homestay in Ubud.  After a short rest we got a lunch of babi guling (roasted suckling pig) at the famous Ibu Oka restaurant.  Feeling satisfied, we wandered around a bit, stopping at temples, a bookstore to exchange books, and a salon for a little Balinese pampering.  That first night we did the touristy thing and saw a traditional kecak dance, and I actually really enjoyed it since they performed the story of the Ramayana.  We spent the evening drinking Bintang and Balinese arak (not the kind that makes you blind) with our friendly hosts (I had stayed here several times before), and I introduced Abby to Indonesian cloves. 

The next morning we caught an early flight to Ende in central Flores.  Determined to take public transportation to Moni, the starting point for exploring Mt. Kelimutu, Abby and I found our way to the bus stop and spent the hour-long wait chatting with locals and getting some cheap Padang food.  I think the bus ride was only an hour or two, but the windy road, clean air, beautiful views and entertaining fellow passengers made it a unique experience.  We easily could have passed right through Moni without noticing there was a town there, but luckily the bus driver knew where we wanted to stay and dropped us off.  Opting for the cheapest room with a balcony, Abby and I settled in for an evening of exploring and relaxing.  The exploring only took 20 minutes as it was a very small town, but we capped it off with a surprisingly delicious “traditional” meal of banana flower vegetable salad, coconut curry chicken and veggie soup.

We had made plans for two ojeks to drive us up to the mountain crater at 4:30am and headed out promptly into the cold mountain air.  I was actually freezing (too adapted to hot weather) and while Abby was holding on to her motorbike driver, I was hugging myself for warmth the whole 10km.  It was definitely worth it though when we reached the top and completed the last kilometer by foot right at sunrise.  From the top we could see all three of the famous crater lakes, one was black and the other two almost fluorescent blue and green colored.

Back down in the town of Moni we connected with a Dutch couple to share a rented car for the cross-island journey we had planned.  First stop on the agenda was picking up some Padang food and taking it to the blue stone beach for a picnic and swim.  Then it was on to the town of Bajawa and we passed incredible scenery as the road wound around dramatic hills and green rice paddies.  Bajawa is known for the preserved traditional villages with unique architecture located around it and we visited a few before driving on to Ruteng.

This leg of the drive included another beach picnic/swim and a few stops to take in the views, a picturesque lake, rice paddies formed in the shape of spider webs, and tumbling rivers and waterfalls.  The night in Ruteng provided us with both the most comfortable and unique lodging: a convent.  Warm showers (with shower curtains!) made up for the 9pm curfew.  We continued on to Labuan Bajo fully rested the next with a stop at a local home-run arak production business and bought a bottle of the strong brew.

The port town of Labuan Bajo was our base for the next three days to visit what was probably the most beautiful scenery I have seen in Indonesia.  We got a bungalow up on the hill and, once again, headed to the beach.  The next day I headed out on a dive boat and had two incredible dives, the first a beautiful wall dive and the second an extreme drift dive where we saw a black-tip reef shark, four turtles, and fourteen manta rays.  I hadn’t read ahead that it was manta season, which unfortunately coincides with jelly fish season so I sustained numerous minor stings, but the mantas, they are incredible, majestic animals.

The next day Abby, me, our Dutch friends and another American girl chartered a boat to explore Komodo National Park for two days.  We got to hike a bit on both Komodo and Rinca Islands, seeing just a handful of the famous dragons in the wild but piles of them waiting outside the park’s canteens.  We snorkeled at two picturesque beaches, slept on the boat roof underneath the stars, and sunbathed on the prow of the boat.

Wednesday we caught a flight back to Bali and spent one night in Sanur before flying back to Jakarta.  Then it was time for me to show off this polluted mass of a city I live in.  Having Abby around energized me to do some actual tourist things though so we went to the top of the national monument Monas for views of the city, walked around the old city of Kota to see colonial architecture, old ships at Sunda Kelapa, tasted the most expensive coffee in the world at a chain named after it, Kopi Luwak, and of course, went out clubbing.

Saturday was Abby’s flight home and after a full day, and loaded with souvenirs, she caught a cab to the airport.  Overall it was an amazing trip, so much better for having done it with close friend.  She didn’t help my resolve for staying here that much longer though as her visit was a strong reminder of everyone I miss back in the US.

Update Part 1: VIA Conference and Travel in Bali

I think I must have underestimated my job at the Tifa Foundation because I was definitely not expecting to be as overwhelmed as I was my first week back at work.  Taking three weeks off work is never really a good idea, and as it turns out, even in Indonesia a lot can happen during that time.  I came back to a never-ending pile of translations to do, a mid-year evaluation with my Executive Director, hundreds of emails, website design work, planning needed for my next writing project and requests for me to create a work plan and new English teaching plan.  Consequently, writing about the past three weeks and what an amazing time it was, has been daunting and not prioritized until today.  But here it is, part one of my trip to Bali and Flores.  More pictures have been uploaded to Flickr for your perusal.

The primary purpose of my trip to Bali was to attend VIA’s annual conference, held in the culture-rich town of Ubud just like last year.  With a much smaller cohort of volunteers this year the actual conference was shortened and left us with a week and a half of discretionary travel.  This mid-year conference is always highly anticipated by the vols as a chance to escape the villages, speak English and eat Western food (or Cuban and sushi as it turned out) that can only be obtained in the only part of Indonesia that most tourists visit, Bali.

I began the trip by meeting up with a fellow volunteer, Derek, and we spent the long weekend before conference on Nusa Lembongan, an island off the southeast coast of Bali.  We got a room facing the ocean and then rented a motorbike to explore the island and its hidden beaches.  Our first stop was Dream Beach, which incidentally had the strongest pounding waves I have ever tried to play in.  After get tumbled around a few times and finding my hair saturated with sand, I resigned myself to the beach and the hotel’s infinity pool to test out my new waterproof camera.  Later we checked out another beach and drove around the small island to see the mangroves and the views.  The next day we went on a snorkeling trip but didn’t see anything too remarkable.  I want to come back again during late summer when the diving draws people from around the world to see the mola-mola fish.  On Monday we took a boat back to Bali and met up with the other volunteers and VIA’s Country Representative Sugi in Ubud for conference.

The five days in Ubud were spent discussing VIA’s Indonesian Program and brainstorming ways to improve the volunteer recruitment, orientation, and training processes.  We also reviewed current posts and looked at post proposals to determine the schools and NGOs we should send volunteers to next year.  Staying in Ubud was made even more relaxing as we did most of our work on our hotel’s expansive balcony that overlooked rice paddies and protected us from the drizzling rain.

We concluded conference on Friday with a group outing to a hidden white sand beach on Bali’s eastern coast.  When everyone parted ways, I got dropped off in the small port town of Padang Bai for a few days of reading, relaxing and snorkeling at its beautiful beaches while awaiting Abby’s arrival.

Update Part 2: Abby's Visit and Travels in Flores to come.