We Called Foreigner 'Bule'

Some expatriate in Indonesia consider this word as an offensive word. But, for us it’s a neutral word. We don’t have any hiding agenda to call foreigner a bule. Moreover, Indonesia thinks Bule is cool. That’s why many of civilian will be excited to see foreigner and want to take a picture together (well, it won’t happen in bug city but, in smaller town where there’s not much foreigner, it’s an exciting experience for them).

But yes, it can be an insulted word in some situation. In some internet forum for expatriate in Indonesia, I read there’s one saying: ‘I have never considered it [bule] racist, but I can see why some people might use it in an offensive manner towards you.

And he gave an example: When he was through Blok M (name of place in Indonesia) late at night and a gang of young males standing in a dark corner shout out "BULE". But don’t you worry, bule is often be used as a appreciation: ‘some of my Indonesian friends just love bules, they admire bules and everything that bules do - and they still call them bule’.

[LI]

Tempe

Tempe (source)

I remembered a few years ago I’ve ever heard that there were some people from foreign country came to Indonesia specially just to learn how to make tempe. At that time I laughed at that news because I thought it was ‘silly’.

Do people in foreign countries not know what ‘tempe’ is? ‘Tempe’ is a food from soy-bean. The basic ingredient is the same as tofu and soy-sauce. If in foreign
countries they’re familiar with tofu and soy-sauce, why is there no tempe?

However, it turned out that several times I went abroad and spent some time living abroad, I’ve never found tempe in those countries. Except in an Indonesian restaurant, of course. But I was also very rare. Most of the menus in Indonesian restaurant in foreign countries are those which ingredients easy to get or easy to make or of the basic ingredient should be imported from Indonesia, it should be the one that could last pretty long such as ‘terasi’ (shrimp paste).

The making process of tempe needs to be in a particular temperature and humidity. After so, the tempe also need to be kept in a place with particular temperature and humidity that is easy to get in a tropical area such as Indonesia. Maybe that’s why tempe is very rare abroad, moreover in four-seasons countries because the weather and climate there are not suitable for the making process.

It’s a bit sorry for that because tempe is very delicious and high nutrition. Apparently this cheap and common food in Indonesia could also be a precious thing abroad. I don’t know I should be happy or sorry with this fact.

(FK)

Too Personal Question?

I know western people will be offended when they are being asked about age, religion, or weight. But in Indonesia, those things aren’t a big problem. Yes, few people might be offended. But not all. In fact, that’s our way to know each others.

I think it’s because Indonesia has many cultural background. Religion in Indonesia is various and when we asked about that it’s not for making boundaries but to respect each other. The same reason also used for asking age.

We ask about age because we respect others. We will great someone older than us with ‘Mas’ (usually this is a way to call older brother, but it can be used for every man that slightly older than you ) or ‘Mbak’ (to slightly older woman). ‘Kak’ can also be used too, and this is for either man or woman.

To greet someone older enough to be your Mom or Dad, we used ‘Pak’ (Mr.), ‘Ibu/Bu’ (Mrs.)

Don't be offended if Indonesians inquire about your religion, your marital status or number of children. Those are common questions Indonesians ask each other, too. These topics usually occur during chit-chat. These questions are the opening conversation to get closer and more familiar to the persons they speak with.

[LI]

Tajin Milk

Not every child in this world is lucky enough to be able to drink milk. That was my thought almost every-time I wash rice before cooking.

I don’t know since when; maybe since long time ago during our ancestors’ era, maybe it was just started tens-of -years ago. In many areas in Indonesia, where there are still a lot of people from low income families couldn’t afford to buy milk for their babies, they use rice soup as the substitute for milk.


Tajin Milk (source)

It is called ‘tajin milk’. To make ‘tajin milk’, first we need to boil the rice with large amount of water. After that we get some kind of porridge. When we filter this, we would get some rice soup. This rice soup is the one used as the substitute of milk for the babies. We can add some sugar or just plain like that.

I myself have never tried how it tastes. Actually I’m pretty curious whether ‘tajin milk’ actually really has a lot of nutrition or not because there are still a lot of pro and contra rumors about giving ‘tajin milk’ to the babies and toddlers. I don’t know about the actual usage of this ‘tajin milk’, it’s just something that caught my attention: when people are force to ‘think creatively’ in the middle of economy pressure.

(FK)

Jamu

Jamu Gendong (source)

One of our traditional beverage is jamu. It’s tonic or herbs made by rhizome, leaves, or fruits. It’s either in liquid form, powder, or dried leaves. It tastes bitter, so it’s better drank with sugar or honey.

Jamu are sold by many ways, but the one we used to see the most is “jamu gendong” or a female seller who carry a basket of jamu bottles in her back. Nowadays we don’t see this kind of seller so often. Insted, we can see male and female sellers who sell jamu by riding a bycicle.

Another kind of jamu seller is a stall with STMJ speciality. STMJ stands for Susu Telor Madu Jahe or Milk Eggs Honey Ginger, which is one of the most popular jamu mixtures among adult males.

Jamu convinced to be good for health and able to cure cough, muscle pain, sprues, and it’s also good for women who is on diet or men’s sexual health.

There are a lot of jamu mixtures, such as beras kencur (made of rice and greater galingale), kunir asam (made of turmeric, tamarind, and other plants), jamu pahitan (made of sambiloto—latin: Anrographis Paniculata) and many others. Each mixtures has its own benefit for our body.

For beginners, jamu might be hard to drink. But for our ancestors, jamu is like a daily drink, and that’s how they keep their body healthy before they knew any of modern medical treatments.

I can’t stand most jamu mixtures either, but I often drink beras kencur. It tastes rather sweet, so it’s easy to drink.

Next time you find a jamu seller around, please give it a try. You can try beras kencur for starter. But I tell you now, it’s not good for those who’s on diet, because it’s raising appetite.

Those who’s on diet, please try kunir asam instead. It tastes rather sour, and good for women.

By the way, please pardon my bad English. m(_ _)m

[OR]

Salaman/Shaking Hands

source

Shaking hands or salaman is Indonesian’s way to greet people. Hand shaking is used to introduced yourself, and to congratulate someone. Right hand is always used if you want to salaman. Indonesia considered left hand tobe an impolite hand.


Please remember, if you want to give or receive something, you should use right hand also. When you eat, you also use right hand to hold your spoon, except if you are a left handed. But, most of Indonesian especially elderly still thinks that left hand is not appropriate to be used in eating.

Salaman (source)

If there is a parents that has a left handed children, they will (at least try) to teach their kids how to use right hand for eating and for writing. But, nowadays left handed is not really a big deal (in writing and eating context). I have few left handed friends and they still use their left hand to write and eat. It’s acceptable, but if you want to give or receive something to someone, it’s a big NO if you using your left hand.

[LI]

Congklak

Congklak board (source)

Congklak is one of Indonesian traditional games. The people live in Java should know what congklak is, or at least ever saw the congklak board.

Congklak game uses congklak board – could in form of one long board with some holes in the middle – and also the congklak seeds that usually use some shells or small rocks.

This game is a very casual game that can be played by two players. First we will place the congklak seeds in the holes except the two holes in the corners, same number of seeds in each hole. After that the players will in turn take the congklak seeds from one hole and put them in the next holes in sequence, except the opponent’s base hole.

If in the last hole he / she put the seed there are still some more congklak seeds, then he / she could take the seeds in that hole and do the same again, put the seeds on the next holes. If he/ she ended in an empty hole or in his / her base hole, then the turn is ended and now is the opponent’s turn. The winner is the one who get the most congklak seeds in their base hole.

This game is actually very simple, but I didn’t know why when I was little I could play it for hours. I never have a congklak board; instead I just drew it on a paper or use the tiles of floor to act as the holes of congklak board. As for the seeds, I could use anything: from the small rocks, marbles, candies, or even just a paper torn into small pieces and squeezed into small balls.

Too bad that most of nowadays kids are prefer to play the electronic games rather than the traditional game that other than it’s cheap, it also could emphasize the creativity, just like what I did, I could experimenting changing the tools with anything available around me. Oh, I miss my childhood games…

(FK)

Rattan

rattan crafts (source)

One of our respectable export commodity is rattan crafts. About 70% rattan in the world comes from our country. And I have to be proud, because Cirebon, where I live now, is national’s biggest rattan crafts producer.

People around the world likes rattan because it’s more eco friendly than woods. It’s easier to harvest and it grows faster, yet it’s durable and elastic that is easier to be shaped.

Here in Cirebon, there used to be a lot of rattan craft industry centers. They produced furnitures from rattan braids, as chairs, tables, baskets, and many more. It used to be so well-known, but now it’s almost gone.

Yeah, the our local rattan industries is dying. Lack of raw materials is the main factor. Actually, world demand over rattan is still high, but then we have this strong competitor from China, who produces rattan craft massively with cheaper price.

Who’s to blame?

Believe it or not, we export the raw materials to China ourselves. Yeah, I know. It sounds awful. It is.

Over 60% of 400 rattan craft industries in Cirebon went bankrupt. Hundreds of ready stock rattan crafts piling up the stores, and eventually will get perished by time and weather.

There used to be this giant rattan chair in the middle of the road when we are entering the city, but now it’s not there anymore. It’s kinda sad, because the industry once our pride, now is coming to the end.

However, I’m still proud of rattan. In fact, I’m sitting on one right now. I really hope our rattan producers will get a better condition in the future, as our goverment has to do something with the raw material exporting stuffs.

For the time being, let’s buy and use local rattan crafts!

[OR]

Eat That or the Chicken Will Die

That’s the sentence that will be said to children who don’t want to eat his food in Indonesia. Well, I don’t remember my parents said that to me. Maybe it’s because I like eating and there was never a leftover from my plate. So that’s why I don’t need that sentence. Or… my parents don’t like to give the wrong impression about food and death.

Let’s think about this. What’s the connection between the leftover food and a death chicken? The purpose of this sentence of course to make the kids eat all of his food. If we want to know about the origin of this sentence… well, I do have a theory.

I think that sentence come from a suburb family/family that lives in the village. I mean, nowadays, people who live in the big city don’t have any chicken. So, I don’t think their kids will care about a chicken that is not his. Moreover, if the chicken is dead, I think the kids will be happy since he will get a fried chicken as his next food.

So, this is the conclusion of my theory about the origin of this habit: one family has chicken as their pet. Then, when the parents see that their kid didn’t finish eating, they simply said: son, if you don’t finish that, your chicken will be dead. Do you want that to be happened? And just like that, the kid finished his eating. At that time, maybe one of their neighbors overheard that and he tried that to his kids too. And bravo! It’s effective. That’s why this habit is inherited from generation to generation.

Chewing Betel (Menginang, Menyirih)

When I was a child, I pretty often went to a traditional masseuse for a light massage. I used to really like massage, but now I couldn’t stand it. Hihi…

I forgot what the name of the masseuse was, but I usually called her ‘Mbok’. This Mbok is one of traditional Javanese women that in her daily life she still wore kebaya and kain, her hair was tied into bun, and her mouth was reddish and her teetch was blackish.

Old women chewing betel (source)

At that time when I still didn’t know why it was like that, I thought that Mbok – and also a lot more other Javanese traditional old lady just like this Mbok – didn’t know how to wear lipstock, so they stained their lips. Then the black teeth were because she was lazy to brush her teeth.

But I was wrong. All that was because of the leaves Mbok often chewed. It was actually a little disgusting seeing Mbok and the other people chewing betel. She would chew the herbal roots wrapped by betel leaves with her molar teeth (but not all of them was put inside her mouth) until it turned black. When she felt enough chewed them in one side, she would move it to other side of the mouth. Sometimes she would also rub it all over her teeth, then after that she would spat. Yucks…

People say once you try chewing the betel, you’ll be addicted to it, just like smoking. So in the past, most of the men would smoke and most of the women chewed the betel.

Even though it seemed a little disgusting because the lips of people who like to chew betel would become messily reddish and the teeth would turn black, but some said that those black teeth are actually stronger than usual people’s teeth. I forgot where I read this before, the article said that the people who chew betel usually still have full teeth and have no problem chewing the hard food even though they are already elderly. Whoah… (o.O)

Is there anyone want to try chew betel to proof it? ;)

(FK)

Weekly ceremony

Monday ceremony at Middle School (source)

You might think I’m kidding if I say that here, public schools and governmental institutions hold a ceremony in every single week. But no, I’m not saying things. We do hold ceremony in every single Monday, isn’t it so boring?

Me, like millions other people, just following instructions and stand for about an hour or so. Not mentioning if the ceremony speaker is a talktive one, like my former headmaster... ^ ^;

Some says, ceremony is like our way to give respect to our heroes, and show our patriotism. But in fact, some of us think ceremony is simply a torture. I mean we just stand still and hearing some iteration from week to week under the blazing sun... where’s the fun?

Well, I know ceremonies is not supposed to be fun, but at least there is something about it that should make us feel the patroitism spirit. I almost felt nothing when Sang Saka Merah Putih (our national flag) being rose, or when UUD 45 (our basic act) being read... Maybe that’s because I was busy chatting with my friends? ^ ^;

Although I thought Monday ceremony is lame, but after I graduated, I kind of missed it. Monday ceremony means a lot of chance to sneaked out of my class’ line and thread way through another class. And when it came to singing we could sing our hearts out and gave it a good laugh. After it’s over we could sneak to cafetaria before entering class. And if we were lucky we could skip first lesson...

Yeah I was that kind of student. But as I grow up, I realize there are more to it. Monday ceremony is something our nation has been inherited for years. With Monday ceremony, we could always remember how hard our heroes’ struggle to rose the flag. How hard the basic act was made. How hard to brought our country to be in this very present state.

Sadly, nowadays some schools disregard Monday ceremony. Most of these schools are private ones or International ones, but not a few public schools disregard it too. Reason? It’s a waste of time. Better use the time reading textbooks than hearing and watching things.

If I was still in highschool, I would’ve think the same way and welcoming the idea with glory. But now? I feel ‘a waste of time’ is overrated. It’s only an hour, and we are not hearing or watching things. We are hearing and watching our heroes’ struggle that make us even able to go to school.

No, I’m not patriotism-wise here, just sharing my thoughts. I would love to attend Monday ceremony, but as I’m not a schooler anymore, and my job doesn’t require a ceremony, so.... ^ ^;

Well, I can sneak to my brother’s school. But then I’ll be stamped as ‘Monday ceremony freak’. xD

[OR]