It's hard to summarize 16 days in Indonesia in a brief post, so we'll divide it into two: the people, and Indonesia, the place. All that with a caviat that we saw very little of Indonesia's many places and ethnic groups. We spent our time in the capital, Jakarta, in the cities of Bandung, Cilegon, Semurang, Bogor and Yogyakarta in West and Central Java (the same island that the capital is located on, and that has the majority of the people of Indonesia living on it), as well as the southern part of the resort island Bali. Java is about 95% Muslim and Bali is about 95% Hindu, and both linguistically and culturally they are very different from each other as well. The people we got to know were all Muslim. You see a picture of Utun and Brian in their hardhats. Utun is a site manager for a German chemical plant in Cilegon and he is the reason we visited Indonesia - he was Brian's AFS brother in 1973 - 4, 35 years ago! His family is the top photo, but missing is his eldest daughter who wasn't able to be there that night. We also met two of his sisters. Lilis is the mother of one of the boys in the third photo. The boys are all members of a pop-rock band, the Romance Band, which is having a modicum of success in Indonesia. His other sister, Inge is one of the teachers at a Muslim school, in the line-up of white-head coverings towards the top. We also met his father, Pahpi, sitting on the couch with us and his wife. We enjoyed meeting the extended family and getting to know life as it is lived by middle-class professional Indonesians.

Muslims in Indonesia are a very tolerant group, and they see their religious practice as one of many, which is a necessity for survival in a country that has so much diversity. They don't eat pork or duck, can't touch a dog's nose before prayer, don't drink or gamble, pray five times a day, etc. The women mostly cover their heads, but it is a choice for women in Indonesia, so particularly younger women are not inclined to follow the practice. Women and men both cover up, which means long sleeves, jackets, head coverings and long pants in 95 degree heat and high humidity. We noticed that in Bali, where the majority of people are Hindu, they wear shorts and cool summer blouses and have none of the lifestyle restrictions of the Muslims. In Java you find prayer rooms everywhere, in train stations, museums, parking garages (I'm not kidding) because of the requirement to pray 5 times a day. In Bali every house and restaurant has a temple for prayers and offerings, and little baskets of fruit, food and flowers are set out each morning to ask for blessings.

Being in Indonesia during the election was fun. Barack Obama spent 2 years of his youth attending school in Indonesia. I think his step-father was from Indonesia and he has a step-sister who still lives there. So he is practically Indonesian as far as people there are concerned. I think people there were as excited as us to see him become president!