Initial-P

Rowo, Petungkriyono - Twisting and turning through the mountain passes, I finally arrived at Rowo slightly over a week ago. It is hard to imagine that the number of days that had passed could still be counted with fingers from both hands, it seemed much longer than that.

While still essentially a traditional Javanese village situated high up in the mountains south of Pekalongan, technology had clearly made some in-road into even an area considered remote and isolated. Modern day things like television and to a certain extent mobile cellular coverage exist here. Electricity for Rowo is supplied through two main means, one of which is the national electricity grid (PLN), which has managed to lay power lines to at least this portion of Petungkriyono, and the other being clean-green energy from micro hydro-electric generators that were cobbled together from, I kid you not, scrap motorcycle parts. The village head (Kepala Dusun, or as they call them here, Pak Bahu) whom I am lodged with is exceedingly cordial and warm in hosting the gaggle of university students (i.e Us!) for two months.

Despite the unreliable electricity (Pak Bahu's house along with 8 others are wired up from the micro-hydroelectric generators - thus at the mercy of the flow of water in the river and also strong winds which affect the wires), ice-cold water to bathe in, sleeping on a bench and snuggled in a sleeping bag every night, it is here that perhaps I have truly experienced first hand what is called the "simple pleasures in life". It doesn't matter that the food at the table is the same at almost every meal, the freshness of the vegetables, and not to mention one of the tastiest sambal I've ever sampled, makes certain my stomach is never too far from hunger. Teaching and playing with the local children in the spare time outside of the physical infrastructure improvement programs remind me of something that had been long forgotten, what it was like to truly "just play". It has also made me realise how my viewpoints towards children have changed over the years, and perhaps more so, how it has changed recently.

That is all the time I have at the moment for an online update, so with this, I bid all readers sugeng sonten and hope I can post another one soon.