Every fifth night of the month is the neighborhood Bertemuan (meeting) Bapak-Bapak (guys...more specifically married or old guys). Here in Indonesia, and specifically on the Island of Java, towns are split up into very specific areas and neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods have monthly men's and women's meetings!
So tonight was the monthly meeting. I've been to several since coming here. I remember at first feeling incredibly out of place at these meetings. Now, well I still feel out of place! But now I feel like I understand most of what is discussed. The Indonesian and Javanese languages are both used in these meetings. They try to stick to Indonesian for the sake of me and my friends Daniel and Aaron who are also in my neighborhood. If they use Javanese.....were for sure lost!
I took the opportunity near the end of the meeting to take a picture of the scene....first I asked the neighborhood leader or "Pak RT" if it is proper if I do that. He was more than happy to allow me.
So tonight was the monthly meeting. I've been to several since coming here. I remember at first feeling incredibly out of place at these meetings. Now, well I still feel out of place! But now I feel like I understand most of what is discussed. The Indonesian and Javanese languages are both used in these meetings. They try to stick to Indonesian for the sake of me and my friends Daniel and Aaron who are also in my neighborhood. If they use Javanese.....were for sure lost!
I took the opportunity near the end of the meeting to take a picture of the scene....first I asked the neighborhood leader or "Pak RT" if it is proper if I do that. He was more than happy to allow me.
There are probably about 40 or 50 guys who come. On the right in the blue shirt is my friend Daniel. It was his last Bapak meeting before he moves to Papua. Pak RT asked him to give a short speech. They kept asking me to take more pictures. So I obliged of course! This next one is from the other direction.
And because the living room of the guy who hosted it this month is shaped like an L, I had to get the guys sitting in the far corner too!
There are also guys who usually sit outside on the porch and chat, and don't actually partake in the meeting. My friend Aaron joined them tonight. He loves to chat.
So the little dishes of food you see are little snacks prepared by some of the "Ibus" or the wives who are in the back and out of sight. We usually have a good selection of snacks at these meetings, and sometimes they roll out a full scale dinner! What do they talk about? The meeting is usually kicked off with a 20 to 30 minute Muslim prayer service (in Arabic), followed by discussion about the neighborhood funds (that we all contribute to monthly). Then it's fair game for any issues in the neighborhood. A common topic is the "jaga malam" or the guys who take turns guarding the neighborhood at night. We also talked for a while tonight about a new cement rainwater ditch that was just built in our neighborhood by Pak RT himself and a few other guys from our neighborhood (Exciting stuff eh). The guys usually "Bercakap cakap"....or "Ngrobol ngrobol" (shoot the breeze) for quite a bit. Tonight we ended after ten PM. It is a lot of fun though and quite a privilege to get to be included in this very cultural experience every month, and relationsips with the guys there are slowly built as you sit next to a different guy each time and get to chat. It's also encouraging to understand more and more every month. It helps to realize this language school thing is paying off!
Finally......check out some of the sights and sounds from the bapak meeting in this video I took!, It is after the meeting when guys were chatting and eating snacks. About halfway through the video the guy I was sitting next to asked me a question and we talked (in Indonesian). Hopefully that disbands the rumor that we haven't really been going to language school here but instead have been living the good life here, soaking up the beach, the sun and the sand!
