Week 22 and 23: Solo our City & Ramadan

Here is a map of the city that we spend the majority of our time in. It is a large geographical area. We are so lucky to have a driver that drives us from one end of town and back then, criss-cross and back and forth without a complaint. This week we purchased the map to be able to get more of an idea where people live. In Utah we can always find the mountains and know exactly where we are.  The landmarks here are more subtle. Mt. Merape is most often hidden behind hazy warm skies. 

This day instead of walking, we waved for a quick ride  

We are experiencing 30 days of Ramadan in Indonesia. The Muslim people 360 days are called to prayer 5 times a day. It is a beautiful sound and often melodic. During Ramadan the faithful people participate in a daily fast from 4am to 6pm every day for 30 days. No Food and drink. This takes incredible faith and self discipline to not eat for 12 hours of daylight every day for 30 days. Even people that are in poor health desire to seek permission to fast from Drs. and Imam’s. This calendar year Ramadan is from May 16-June 16. There is a definite change as we go about our days as the bustling food street carts are mostly empty waiting for 6pm. These are photos of a family that prepare a cookie type crepe with chocolate or banana that they sell in small carts. During Ramadan they only sell in the evening.

We are respectful and do not drink or eat in front of others on the streets. There are cookies and food packaged in the stores for Ramadan holiday celebration for families when they gather and prepare and eat their meals at the end of the day. There is a huge day for a feast at the end of Ramadan 30 days something like Thanksgiving. Families gather from all ends of Indonesia to their hometowns and it is a national holiday. Where we live there are 10 floors of apartments and 15 floors of hotel rooms. Last night there was a large group of family and friends that had a great party around the outdoor swimming pool that lasted “Ramadan eating hours from 6pm until 4 am " with a huge TV screen watching soccer games and food and music all night long as they celebrated together. We watched out the window to see how much fun they were having. Shortly before daylight the party was over. Muslims do not drink alcohol, this party was festive with laughter, food, and music that included karoke participants.

There is a carriage that is a replica but still (150 years old) from the palace royalty outside our residence during Ramadan. There are traditional drums and music and banquets every night in the lobby that begin at 6pm for the fasting guests. 

We look forward to sharing more as we near the Lebaran “end day" of Ramadan.

Week 21: Safe & Secure in Surakarta

We will send just a short post today to let you all know that we are safe and secure here in our beautiful Surakarta. We have been instructed to remain in our apartment for a couple of days until things calm down a bit so I am writing while quarantined.  The bombings you have heard about in Indonesia happened about 130 miles from us in a very large city called Surabaya.  Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia behind Jakarta with a population of nearly four million people.  Surabaya is the capital city of the province of East Java.  

Solo, where we live, is about half way between Jakarta and Surabaya.  The previous mayor of Solo is now the President of the Country and while he was a leader here in Solo (the nickname for Surakarta) he really worked hard to preserve the identify of Solo as the cultural capital of Java.  Java is the largest and most populous island of Indonesia.  Javanese, as people from Java are called, have a very unique and rich culture of art, dance, lore and language.  Solo was the home of the King of central Java for hundreds of years so much of the culture originated here and many special schools exist to teach young people art and music of the traditional Javanese.  They often refer to traditional Javanese food, traditional Javanese songs, traditional Javanese musical instruments, traditional Javanese clothing, traditional Javanese puppets or traditional Javanese stories.  Much of the Javanese history is recorded in traditional Javanese art represented by interesting characters with long pointed noses and odd shaped bodies looking similar to what we in America might call “caricatures”.  Bright oranges, yellows, reds and lime greens are typically used.  

A young man that is studying with us comes from a long line of artists and he has a degree from an Art Institute here in Solo.  His pieces are usually large murals worth a great deal of money (by Indonesian standards).  I will include a small sample below.  This picture tells a story that unfortunately I cannot remember so you could probably just make one up and tell it to your children, which is probably what I would do if I were home.

His family were also designers of “batik” which is a word used to describe the patterns on fabric.  Most regions and cities in Java have their own unique patterns and colors; each style has a name and their are hundreds of them.  A collector, who has a museum just a few blocks from where we live can reportedly recognize and name all of them.  Over the years, Solo has become the center for the textile industry in Indonesia and while now manufacturing textiles of all kinds for sale all over the world, the design and production of batik fabric is centered in and around Surakarta. Three distinct quality levels have evolved for batik fabric.  

The most expensive batik is all hand made by artists who make their design on the fabric  then use melted wax contained in a small vessel that has a spout and is carefully and painstakingly applied to the fabric.  Each piece of fabric is made individually sometimes taking as much as 4-6 weeks to make a single piece.  When the wax is fully applied, the fabric is dipped into the colored dye and then the wax is melted off leaving the artists pattern on the fabric.  Solo batik has three colors, tan, white and black and all Solo batik is made of some combination of these colors with the pattern going from top right to bottom left.  

Each successive color requires a reapplication of wax and additional dips into the dye.  Traditionally, the King had a staff of professional designers and craftspeople that worked full-time making fabric for the King, his family and special members of the court.  The industry spread beyond the walls of the palace into the more common folk by developing brass stamps that enabled craftsmen to reproduce patterns over and over and make them more affordable for the common people. Now days patterns are simply printed on fabric in a wide variety of colors and modern designs but Solo is working hard to preserve the traditions of batik and trying to teach children the meaning of the traditional stories behind them.

Even modern dress styles retain a hint of the batik to them.  They had a small fashion show in the lobby of our apartments/hotel complex recently.

Sister Miller and I are very fortunate to live here in Solo.   I do believe that the efforts to preserve Javanese Culture here in Solo have contributed somewhat to way of life more resistant to what we are seeing in larger cities like Jakarta and Surabaya.  The political and spiritual leaders throughout Indonesia are aggressively working to push back efforts to bring undesirable elements from countries in the Middle East and we pray for the people we are learning to love so much that they are successful.

Sister Miller would never do this but here is what I lounge in now while in our apartment. :)  It is called a “Sarung”.

Elder and Sister Miller

Week 20: “He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” Matthew 10:39

I am certain we have always known this statement by Christ to be true but never  before in our married lives have we been freed from life’s burdens to focus exclusively on others. I remember this feeling from when I was a 19 and 20-year-old missionary in Berkeley and San Francisco, but from the day I was released in December, 1972, the daily necessities of getting an education, building a great marriage, having and raising children, nurturing a career, providing for my family
and serving in the church consumed all of our time.

It’s a wonderful blessing to be able to devote our time exclusively here in Central Java, Indonesia to thinking only about others. When we think about what it took to create the conditions where this is now possible we realize that it only happened with many years of planning and preparation. We have been blessed to have great children that are supportive and self-reliant. We had great employers that provided great experiences and wonderful church leaders that helped provide opportunities for us to develop and strengthen our faith.

This week we spent several days preparing a presentation for the young missionaries in Central Java on how to rescue a choking victim with critical life techniques we all need to know in the case of a life-threatening emergency. Neither Sister Miller or I are professionally trained in this field but we are good researchers, learners and willing teachers. We put together a fun workshop, taught it to the young missionaries and have been asked to do it again next week in Jakarta for another group in West Java.

This week we assisted in a discussion presented by another senior missionary couple for people interested in family history research. Documenting family history in Java is substantially complicated. Names have few standards. Many people do not have a last name and others take on the last names of other people they select for a variety of reasons. Like everywhere else, people love their families and making the effort to document family stories and a family tree “turns the hearts of the children to their fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children”. We will continue in the coming months to find ways to support local members in this important work.

Teaching a new member and two investigators how to research their ancestors on "Family Search" the church's database of now billions of individual records

The highlight of the week was a two-day church stake conference for Central Java. Members from Semarang, Magelang, Yogyakarta and Surakarta all met at the Novotel Hotel Ballroom in the city of Solo. It is good to feel the strength of numbers. A choir of about thirty young men and women on tour from Brigham Young University came and gave a one-hour devotional prior to the beginning of the conference. This was exciting and wonderful for everyone to listen to the beautiful harmonies of well-trained voices. We heard speakers from our Stake including an area leader of the church from India who was assigned to speak at our conference. Along with the young missionaries, it was great to share this Sunday session of conference together with many, many friends and investigators.

A sister who lost her husband in an accident. Her son takes piano lessons from sister Miller

A wonderful three generation family 

The man on the right is the recent convert with the new leg and everyone to his left he has recently introduced to the church. Two of them hope to be baptized this month. 

This is Elder Williams, an area church leader from India that presided at our conference. He was a mission president's councilor to a man that was my first mission companion when we were both young missionaries serving in California in 1971. 

I had to include this week a picture for my good friend Greg Wahl. Every where we go we see Wahl clippers hanging from the countertops in shops. This picture is from in the small shop of a member in their home. Everyone loves Wahl Clippers in this country!

We are grateful for this special time in our lives that we can focus on learning to better minister to the needs of others. We love the Lord, our family, the people in Indonesia and all our friends.

Week 19: "ELDER MILLER YOU MADE ME VERY HAPPY TODAY"

The Highlight this week was an activity we presented at the Muslim Boarding School.  Our Topic was “It Begins With You”.  Our goal for each child at the school was to fill their mind and spirit with self esteem and happiness with who they are.

Our driver laughed when he picked us up at 6 AM he said that we looked like we were packed to travel to America.  We had 3 large suitcases. One was filled with our printer and supplies, another was filled with 50  thin decorative bricks, permanent markers,  plus cookies for a minute to win it game. The third and smallest suitcase held our personal items to stay overnight to attend a branch in Magelang.

What a day!!!  Three Elders helped us translate and we began by taking a photo of each child.  I can say that I believe there were many there that do not have a photo of them self.  In fact, maybe, have never had a photo ever of themselves.   Elder Miller  printed two color photos for each child right on site.  We  played cookie face. Elder Miller and I taught and shared activities that illustrated to the students simple principles and how to recognize the many positive character attributes that they all possess.  Each of the children decorated their own brick to keep  with their name and at least one positive word on the back that described them. Three girl students prepared us a beautiful traditional lunch of rice, tempe, and vegetables that they raise on the grounds of the school. They eat fish every 25 days and saute chicken once a year.  As we left one boy ran to Robert and looked in his eyes and said  “Elder Miller you made me very happy today”. Our objective was accomplished!!!  Enjoy the photos and look at their eyes and faces!!!.

Bricks with names & positive attributes

Activities at the boarding school 

Muslim School 

Hari Kartini Day  Wow What a great day for Women!!! Hari Kartini died in 1904 and she emancipated women.  Her name and her achievements in the area of education for girls and women’s rights are celebrated by the women in Indonesia on April 21, and it is a powerful day of sharing for women.  There are celebrations centered around that date.  Here are photos of how women and their families share their traditions and cultures  which are different depending on the tribe and islands where they live. They promote education and rights of women.   I told my friends that next year Elder Miller and I will come and celebrate the day in traditional Solo batik!

Hari Kartini

Culture and Traditions 

Elder Miller at Mt. Merape (in museum) 

Mt. Merape and Mt. Merbabu. Two active volcanoes. Driving between them on Ketap pass road on our way home. 

91 year old church member 

Elegant wife of 91 year old member in Malagang