Indonesia Research Program

Day 3:

Welcome to Indonesia!

After a frantic two days of after-school freedom and touring around Paris one last time, I passed through Abu Dhabi to Jakarta to my intended destination, Yogyakarta, where I will spend the next 10 weeks learning the language, discovering more about the culture and history, and doing my research for an NGO in environmental economics.

Directly after arrival at the airport, my fellow interns (Jacob, Amanda, Alex, Elizabeth, and Colin) picked me up for a quick dinner with Godeliva Sari, the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC) in-country coordinator, with her husband Bram and super adorable daughter Rose. Admittedly, I caught a minor flu on the way over (really amazing timing, like always), and everybody probably fell asleep for a few seconds over dinner, but our first taste of Indonesia did not disappoint.

Gado-gado – a salad of carrots, string beans, cucumbers, tempe, kropek, and loads of other great veggies doused in peanut sauce – was my first dish and clued me in to the great wealth of flavors that I would be experiencing in my sojourn here.

After a rough morning start the very next day due to waking up in the night and getting a bit of a cold, our new teachers introduced us to the compound of Universitas Sanata Dharma, which we will get to know well for the first five weeks of our internship. We’ll be studying Bahasa Indonesia for two weeks, and then taking our classes on research techniques and methodologies in preparation for our researches.

Then we had a refreshing and tranquil lunch under this Banyan tree in the courtyard, where we mingled and made friends with our new teachers and other students in other programs in the university. Lunchtime over, we went for a trip to get Sim cards and phones; unhappily brain-dead due to jetlag and overall lack of sleep from the flights, we all were very excited to crash after an awesome dinner. I got a bowl of kangkung and noodles – oodles good and spicy!

This morning, we had our first two classes. We went pretty fast! But the great thing about the language, and my fellow interns and I agree on this, is that it doesn’t have as many complicated tenses. Nevertheless, trying to talk to other Indonesians while using the vocabulary and the right tenses is currently a challenge, but a fun one.

In the afternoon, we went to visit an NGO, the Satunama, where we learned about their various capacity-building activities and conflict-resolution activities in many areas, notably in Merapi mountain. It erupts regularly, but several indigenous villages have positioned their homes in this precarious spot. Jacob’ll probably be working with them. I have my fingers crossed that he’ll get into this complicated Merapi situation so I can grill him on it later: two villages of indigenous people living on the mountain, upstream and downstream, who share a common water source and deal with issues such as conflict of interests in water and natural resource management and use, land reform, illegal mining, etc.

Whoa. Dropping right into the heart of Indonesia is perhaps the best way to get over spending an awesome semester abroad. After two days of being shown around, getting to know people, and savoring the tasty cuisine around our jalan-jalan (streets), and glimpsing possible knowledge growth and experience, my excitement level’s rising.

Yesterday I made a last-minute run to Target to get a few things I still needed to pack for my trip. As I was approaching the checkout counter I remembered what Ayu, the staff member at YKP who will be overseeing my research, had suggested to me in an email: she recommended that instead of bringing a small souvenir of chocolates that I instead bring an assortment of condoms for the clients (HIV- positive women, some of whom engage in sex work). She explained that “the girls love getting one or two foreign condoms in fun colors” and that the gesture would be more appreciated than a generic box of candy.

So, I swung back around to the pharmaceutical section and grabbed 2 boxes of assorted condoms- one Durex, the other Trojan.

I walked up to the express checkout, not realizing that my purchases would be construed as anything out of the ordinary. The cashier did not agree. As he processed my order, eyebrows were raised, and an audible sigh escaped from his mouth. He would not look me straight in the eye, even when I said “thank you.” I’m pretty sure he wasn’t judging my toothpaste brand selection, rather, he was taken aback that I was purchasing 36 assorted “fun” condoms.

Perhaps I went into this situation with the wrong attitude. I assumed that, being a twenty-one year old woman in a relatively liberal area of New Jersey, I could procure contraceptives without being second- guessed. I found the whole incident perplexing, and went home and talked to my mom and grandma about it. As soon as I told them what I had bought they burst into laughter. My grandma explained that “back in my day, a woman NEVER bought contraception! And it was always behind the counter, you had to ask for it!” Both she and my mom continued to chuckle about my interaction, noting that  it was demonstrative both of how progressive our community is, as well as how it highlighted lingering prejudices and gender inequalities.

Condoms are tricky: they are an effective contraceptive and can protect against STIs.They also serve as a proverbial scarlet letter. Purchasing or owning condoms is a very clear marker of sexual activity. And, as my experience at Target demonstrates, even if the objective is to promote safer sex, the reminder can still provoke feelings of discomfort.

For now, I can only wonder what condom use and distribution is like in Indonesia. However, knowing what I do about the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Bali, especially as a result of sex tourism, I cannot imagine the topic being any less taboo. I don’t really have a concluding thought, other than I’m glad I was able to purchase them for YKP, and I look forward to learning about the women’s experiences with contraception.

Madeline Smith-Gibbs ’13 is a political science major and Jen Zelnick ’12 is an Anthropology major with a Spanish minor and a Gender and Sexuality Studies concentration. Both are interning via the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship with the Indonesia Research Program. Learn more about their internships>