May 15

This afternoon Martin and I walked to a bridge from which the view of Merapi is supposed to be spectacular… First off, we were told that it was about a twenty minute walk…. 1.5 hours later we arrived at the bridge… and let me tell you, we weren’t going at any snail’s pace! Anyway, we have learned quickly not to necessarily believe the entirety of what Indonesians tell you… not that they misguide you intentionally… but in their culture, if you ask them a question, they feel compelled to give you SOME answer… and so they tell you SOMETHING, even if they don’t necessarily know… they are very helpful…

Anyway, when we arrived, the entire horizon was full of smoke… Today, Merapi has had two eruptions, and even though last night molten lava could be seen spewing from the volcano, we can't really see the volcano at all anymore. Apparently the Australian embassy has evacuated some people from Jogja, but that is because they are overly paranoid of having more Aussies die in indo (after 200 died in bali bombings)... we will be fine. I think, Bro, that lava may travel at 100km/h, but only in a huge eruption, and maybe only for a shot time... regardless, the current scientific report is that the main flow will go to the opposite side of the mountain than we are on... because of the lay of the land. Also, a journalist I spoke to this afternoon told me that he was within four kilometres of the volcano a few hours before, and apparently the lava had travelled almost two kilometres from the vent, but not via eruption, but more just overflowing the edge of the crater. For more Merapi information, you can visit my friend Chad's (another student at Realia) blog at: http://www.mountmerapi.blogspot.com/

Another interesting tidbit of Indonesian culture is that when someone asks you if you have done something/ been somewhere/ met someone, etc, etc… the answer is always, not yet, or gives the impression that it is a possibility, or something that will happen sometime in the indefinite future… They never just say no. For example, when Martin asked someone if they had ever been to Bali, his response was “No, I haven’t been to Bali YET”… or, in the more unlikely, but funny example… today someone asked me if I had ever been to the moon… in Indonesian, the invariable answer is, “No, I have not yet landed on the moon!”

So, I have not yet met the president, been to every corner of our planet Earth, nor grown my own garden…. but the Indonesians give me hope that this may someday come to pass!

Our homestay is a room in a house... Ibu Dihar is the ‘Mother’ (Ibu) of the house. We eat brekkie there, lunch is provided at Realia, and dinner we find on our own (usually in a street stall or “Warung”. We don't sleep with a mosquito net, and haven't see too many mosquitos. We did see a rat, though… much to my chagrin… It entered the room of the other (Australian) couple living at Ibu Dihar’s… it entered via the window, and so we have not once left our window open (and we keep the door closed always)! There are also many harmless salamanders and geckos living in the cooler cement corners of the house. Our ‘home’, as with most mid-to-upper-class Indonesian homes we have seen, has a central courtyard with a few plants and a small pond which is home to many goldfish.