Mount Merapi

 

Mount Merapi, an active volcano just 17 miles north of Jogjakarta, exploded last winter and killed over 300 people over the course of two months of activity. Many of the deaths and most of the visible destruction in the area were due to pyroclastic flows, terrifyingly hot and fast flows of superheated gas released during volcanic eruptions.

My NGO had coordinated some of the first water infrastructure installations on the base of Merapi in the 1970s. Now that infrastructure has been completely buried by volcanic activity, so the NGO is busy uncovering the source springs and their originating well, stone by stone. I took a trip to the field with project staff last week to visit the uncovering process. (Unfortunately I was only wearing a dress and flipflops when I was invited to come along, so I scrambled down the canyon cliff barefoot, and look a little ridiculous in the pictures!)

I’m used to grey and dust indicating construction, building sites, urban growth, and it’s hard to remember that all this grey is the result of massive destruction. Everyone in Jogja has their story of where they were or went during the Merapi activity last fall. The entire city was dusted with ash like snow, and countless homes and fields in the north, closer to the mountain, were burned or destroyed by the heat and gas. The landscape was black and grey after the eruption, but low shrubbery is starting to grow back now and there’s a lot of green — until you see the treetops that were scorched, which is the only way to follow where the pyroclastic flows were the worst.

Project progress at the site is slow but steady! One excavator is kept at the base of the river canyon and digs away at the buried water. It’s miraculous to see water come right out of the buried rocks and sand. The canyon itself is pretty dangerous and there’s always a threat of rocks falling to re-cover what the NGO has painstakingly unearthed. This is the nitty gritty of development: the hard stuff that communities need but so few people know how to do well and effectively.

Jogja solo

Rachel and Chrissy, my two fellow VIA Indonesia volunteers, climbed Mt. Merapi last night/this morning to see sunrise on a volcano top. Here’s Chrissy and Rachel (backs turned) and the mountain as we saw it last week – they climbed just about the whole thing.

Rather than climb up, much less down, a volcanically active mountain, my temperamental knees and I opted to explore my new city instead. Our new friend Andre and I are looking for roommates for his house, where I’ll also be living (if you know anyone in Jogja…), so we needed to hang signs up at cafes and schools across the city to advertise. But first I had to find Andre. He’s not sure where our house is, and it’s not on any maps, so we agreed to meet at 1:30pm at Mirotah, where I’ve been a couple times.

Being alone in a foreign language country is a little like the monkey bars: you just kind of (s)wing it until your next good hold. It was my first solo bus ride into the city, and I missed the stop at Mirotah Kampus. My curious “Mirotah? Di mana Mirotah?” questions to passengers and the driver had them pointing behind us, smiling, and giving me advice in Bahasa. Soon I was the last passenger on the bus, so I asked the driver to speak to Andre on my cell phone and they figured out where to leave me so Andre could pick me up. Turns out I wasn’t that far off from Mirotah after all, though the driver might have changed his route to help me (thank you!). Also, never underestimate the power of a phone-in translator, if you’re lucky enough to have both kind and multilingual friends.

I’m going to be heavily reliant on buses, taxis, friends, and a borrowed bicycle to get around Jogja until I can figure out my own vehicle. The bus system in Jogja is pretty comprehensive except that it only runs until ~6pm each day.

There are no official “bus stops” – the buses just pick you up and drop you off wherever you need, as long as it’s on the route. You hail a bus like a taxi cab, and to get off, you stand up and yell “KIRI, MAS! (“Left, sir!”) to the driver or money collector to pull over and let you off (traffic’s on the left side here). Sometimes the bus barely stops moving long enough for you to descend, and you have to hop the last step.

I successfully took the bus both to and from our house today and paid a total of 5,000 Rupiah (about $.63), whereas the same trip in taxis would have cost about $6.00. Of course, the most fun way to get around is the generosity of friends — and most friends here will inevitably have motorbikes. Wahoo!

Looking forward, Ramadan ends this week and the city shuts down to celebrate for a few days. We’re lucky enough to have been invited to a friend’s home to participate in the holiday tomorrow, which will bring a whole host of new culinary delights that only happen once a year. Selamat Idul Fitri!