Desa Living

Desa is the bahasa Indonesia word for “village,” and since Saturday I have been living in the desa of Tulungrejo, located in the beautiful region of Malang.

I keep having moments when I think, “I can’t believe I am really here!” My experience so far has ranged from amazing to almost unbelievable. Just two nights ago I stood in the middle of the street in front of my new home surrounded by children as I flipped through my dictionary, only to discover that the word they kept using to describe the flashing lights in the clouds over the distant mountains was volcano!

The people here are incredibly friendly and hospitable. On my first night my Ibu (host mother) took me around to visit all of her relatives. Every single one was warm and inviting, offering me tea or food. My new favorite saying is “Saya kenyang!” – “I’m full!” There have been awkward moments, of course. I hardly speak the language, which makes for many humorous and some embarrassing moments. On my first day here I was trying to say, “one” (satu), and accidentally said, “shoes” (sepatu). Everyone laughed and was having a great time, but when I tried to make a joke about “satu sepatu,” I was met with blank stares. This happened again when I was trying to say a little boy wearing a hat looked cool (keren). When I pointed to the hat and said, “keren!” they just looked at me and said, “No, hat.” Ah the joys of learning a new language!

But, our many miscommunications aside, everyone has been so friendly and so helpful to me. Hopefully in three months I will be able to tell them how much I appreciate everything they have done for me!

My Ibu is my go-to for basically everything. And she gives me a big ego boost by praising everything I do that shows I can take care of myself. I asked her, in my very broken bahasa Indonesia, to show me how she hand-washes clothes. After demonstrating each step, the whole family came to watch me. With huge smiles across their faces, they kept saying, “anda bisa!” – “you can!” Later that evening when I was walking around the desa with Ibu, she told every relative we saw about how I had learned to wash my clothes and what a good job I had done.

I have had so many new experiences here, and there are so many things that I look forward to telling you about. Pictures are coming soon – I need a little more time to upload pictures on the internet here. I’ll post again soon!