Preparing for Lebaran in Ternate

Ternate is in the throes of preparations for the upcoming Lebaran! As I am driven around, I see it everywhere in many shapes and guises. The lead up to Lebaran feels very similar to the lead up to Christmas.
Contributing to the atmosphere are the many banners displayed along the road sides. Every day there seems to be more and each one wishes each and all a ‘Happy Lebaran’. They all include a huge picture of someone of political significance, either from local or federal politics. Even parties in opposition have utilised the occasion! The one that grabbed my eye was outside the kraton (sultan’s residence) and included a picture of the current Sultan and his fourth wife (couple on the left). Unfortunately the wife’s face is slightly obscured by the poles supporting the banner! The wording means: The large family of the sultan and his wife wish everyone a ‘Happy Lebaran’. Then along the bottom is the phrase that is synonymous with Lebaran. Mohon maaf lahir dan bathin which means please forgive my spiritual and emotion wrongdoings. For Muslims, Lebaran is not just a time of celebration, but is also one for asking for forgiveness from ones family and friends. In Indonesia, Muslims travel far and wide to return home to their families to not only join them in the Lebaran festivities, but more importantly to “Mohon maaf lahir dan bathin”. The huge increase of domestic tourists began a few days ago and each night on the news are reports of the packed airports and no doubt stories of the terrible traffic on the roads will also begin circulating. Even here, relatives have started appearing from neighbouring islands and every day I am introduced to a new face.
Which leads me to another common sight which hints that something special is on the horizon. The very long queues at the petrol stations where vehicles of all shapes and sizes are filling up in preparation for the long drives ahead for ‘mudik’ (the ‘pilgrimage’ home). The last time I saw queues this long were the days before the hike in petrol prices. I am extremely grateful that Bu Esty is only planning to travel as far as Pulau Tidore for Lebaran and that our travel merely involves chartering a speedboat. Joining the millions of Indonesians on the road at this time of year would definitely ensure any journey would take significantly longer than usual.
In preparation for the literally millions of people who will be out on the roads for Lebaran whether driving long distances to mudik or just out shopping, there are police everywhere, and especially concentrated in areas which have had high numbers of traffic accidents. In Bali they were all along the main highway to Java and here in Ternate, they are along the main road outside the pasar (market) and the 2 malls. Their numbers are particularly high in the hours before sunset as Muslims prepare to buka puasa, buying cakes or kelapa mudah.
Unless it is the few hours just before sunset or later after buka puasa, the streets are not that busy. It feels very strange and I am looking forward to seeing just how much this changes once life here returns to normal. What is really noticeable are the many closed shops during the day and at night and the almost deserted night markets! Most restaurants are not allowed to serve meals so some of them choose to sell cakes instead with their chairs and tables neatly stacked against the walls. Those that open at night rarely have customers. The area along the beach front is usually thriving selling meals, roasted corn and peanuts but during puasa, the chairs and tables are set up however sit there forlornly. The corn and peanut sellers are lined up along the road with their light hanging above their food yet I rarely see anyone patronising their kaki lima’s (push carts). It seems that families who rely on food sales in Muslim areas must find that their precarious occupation is even more unreliable during the lead up to Lebaran. Other shops do very well however and in most cases take advantage too of the pre Lebaran shopping frenzy for food, new clothes and all the other necessities.
One of the shops doing a roaring trade at the moment are the paint outlets as families prepare for Lebaran by sprucing up buildings and fences. Houses are painted the most amazing variety of colours and instead of looking garish as it would in Australia, it looks brilliant and colourful. Reminds me of the buildings in Little India or Mexico. The amazing colour combinations work very well.
As you can see, no preparation is done before painting. The new coat of paint is slapped on over last years paint. It is all about making everything presentable purely for Lebaran. The amount of each house that is painted depends on the amount of paint that each family can afford.

Sometimes just the front facade is painted and in some areas, none of the houses are painted at all and they remain the original colour of bricks and cement even though they are many years old. It would also appear that the interior of Muslim houses are getting some attention if the number of curtains I have seen on clothes lines lately is any indication!
On the 27th day of puasa, was the Ela Ela festival. During the day, I saw many people selling empty bottles, bamboo frames and sticks all complete with wicks..

Bapak bought a bunch of the sticks and later that night I discovered why. The sticks are purely for young children who carry them around in groups roaming the streets. Here are Bu Esty’s children with a few of their cousins just after the wicks were lit.

The wick sits in a small reservoir of kerosene which keeps the lamp alight for about half an hour.

Later when out driving, we passed many groups of children wandering around having fun with their bamboo sticks and hanging on verandahs were the bottles or standing on footpaths were the bamboo stands all alight for ‘Ela Ela’
We still have 3 days yet before Lebaran, so I look forward to seeing what else will happen before Lebaran dawns on the 9th.

My Cooking Lesson With Bu Esty, Iba & Aja

A couple of days ago, I was extremely fortunate to be given a cooking lesson and a cooking demonstration here in Ternate by 3 experienced cooks. The 2 recipes were chosen for 2 different reasons. We cooked onde onde as I thought it would be a recipe I could do at school with students whereas the bopaco (beau-putch(as in crutch)-oh) was purely because I had one recently and absolutely loved the custard flavour and consistency.

Onde Onde

For my onde onde lesson, I made a video which is as follows:

Here too are a few additional photos from the onde onde cooking lesson
buying the cassava at the market

Aja grating the cassava

Squeezing the liquid out of the grated cassava

Bopaco

For Bopaco, I was more an observer! Here is the rough recipe and sorry there are no measurements!

Langkah 1 – make many cones from banana leaves

Langkah ke2- Mix flour & sugar together

Langkah ke3 – Add butter

Langkah ke4: Add coconut milk

Langkah ke5 – Mix till smooth

Langkah ke6 – Add more coconut milk to make a runny batter

Langkah ke7 – Add a lot of vanilla essence.

Langkah ke8 – Partly fill a large saucepan with about an inch of water and grated coconut.

Langkah ke9 – Stand the banana cones in the saucepan and pack reasonably close together.

.

Langkah ke10 – Carefully fill the cones with the mixture

Langkah ke11 – Cook over a medium heat till set

Langkah ke12 – Remove from pan and neatly trim the banana leaf tops

Langkah ke13 – Arrange decoratively on a plate

Selamat Makan!

Here we are proudly showing off our cooking!

Exploring Ternate

Another amazing day in Ternate with the wonderful Bu Esty and her family and friends. Today we commandeered Bapak’s driver to take us on a tour circumnavigating Ternate incorporating several interesting stops along the way. Joining us today was Bapak’s driver, Bu Esty, Ichal, Safa & Berliana,
After dropping Bapak at work, we headed off on our drive around Ternate. We drove in an anti clockwise direction starting in the city of Ternate. Our first stop in Ternate allowed me to replace my SD card which died yesterday. Bu Esty insisted on paying for it which was incredibly generous of her especially as I wanted to get a 8 gig card! The photos on this blog will be my first from my new card! Terima kasih Bu Esty!

We then headed off on our drive. We began by retracing the direction I went with Ichal on my first day n Ternate. Past the airport where the runway has been recently extended and in doing so, the outer limit of the grounds is a huge rock wall buttressing the huge amount of landfill needed to do so. Being incredibly isolated, Ternate residents rely either on air transport or sea travel and consequently the two major developments here are the airport and the wharf precinct. Locals would dearly love to see tourism flourish here however I can’t see that truly happening until there are direct flights from Bali available.

Once past the amazing fields of lava, I began traveling through unexplored territory. Just sitting in the car looking out the window as we drove passed houses and vegetation with Gunung (Mt) Gamalama in the background was fascinating. While many of the trees here are found all over Indonesia, it is not as lush as the rest of Indonesia and at times resembles Northern Territory (Australia) more. Evidence of the ‘Wallace Line’ is everywhere and it was further confirmed when I read on a sign at one of our stops that cockatoos are one of the native birds found here on Ternate! There are also no rice fields here on Ternate. While the slopes of Gg Gamalama would be highly fertile, the frequent eruptions together with low rainfall would ensure that rice farming would not be as successful here as it is on the other side of the Wallace Line. The major crops are cloves, nutmeg and mace which are native to this area and consequently a considerably more successful crop.

Unlike our day in Tidore, the weather today was overcast and very cool. Gunung Gamalama was constantly shrouded with low cloud. The northern side of Ternate is well known by the locals to be considerably hotter than the rest of the island, so I packed sunscreen and a hat however neither were needed at all. It was the umbrellas that got a workout today! At times, I was positively cold, especially after a walk in the light rain. A real contrast to our day yesterday and a very pleasant change.

Our first stop of on our tour of Ternate was a lake called Danau Tolire. This legend of the lake explains why there is no path or steps leading down to the lake. Apparently there used to be a village situated where the lake is now. This village leader was someone who unfortunately encouraged inappropriate behaviour which the gods disapproved of. To remove the village and the villagers who refused to behave respectfully, the valley that the village sat in was filled with water. This lake now serves as a reminder to other villagers in Ternate. A crocodile also has been sighted swimming in the lake which makes it an even less attractive place to explore! Being Lebaran, it was deserted but apparently on Sundays it is a popular place for people to visit. There were seats and tables under cover and areas set up for warungs. Close to the concrete fence surrounding he lake is a very detailed sign about the lake. Signs such as this are often found at locations designated as tourist attractions.What I particularly like about this sign is the map of Ternate! As you can see, the lake is almost directly opposite the town of Ternate.
As we were driving along, I was given instructions to ask the driver to stop whenever I saw anything interesting that I wanted to photograph. It seems that most of the places and objects I photograph are bizarre because I often hear Bu Esty explaining to locals that I am an Indonesian teacher which instantly gives my ‘peculiar’ photography credibility. My first request for the driver to stop was by this river bed:Interesting because it is not a water river bed but a molten lava river bed. Look at the boulders in the river bed, they and bigger ones erupted out of the volcano when it last erupted in 2011. All around the island, we passed over many bridges like this. The molten lava creates the river beds and the government then builds a bridge wherever the road is swept away as the molten lava makes its way to the sea. Imagine how the sea would boil and bubble as the lava flows into it! Surprisingly even though it has rained most days since I have been in Ternate, there beds are almost always dry. Bu Esty standing on the bridge.

Our next stop was the Benteng Kastela which also had a gruesome story to tell. This fort was built by the Portuguese in 1522 but is famous as a scene of betrayal. In 1570, the Portuguese leader of the garrison based here invited the reigning Sultan for a meal. After the meal, the Sultan was murdered as he was leaving. The son’s of the Sultan and the local people of Ternate were so incensed that they immediately began a resistance movement against the Portuguese which led to them eventually being forced to leave 5 years later. Closer to the beach was a fantastic mural depicting this story too however parts of it have been affected by the weather and are covered in mould This panel is one of my favourites: The arrival of the Portuguese ships and the fort where they were based.
A short walk up the beach from this mural was a Pertamina ship which got into trouble 3 days ago and lost most of its cargo of fuel. At first the hull was only slightly damaged however while waiting for assistance, high winds blew it onto the jetty. The ship then capsized and its load of petrol and diesel spilled into the sea. Apparently villagers descended onto the beach in droves with containers of all shapes and sizes to harvest the fuel. I would have liked to have seen that! How on earth does one harvest fuel from the top of water? We could still see fuel in the water and along the waters edge were animals that sadly didn’t survive contact with the fuel.a beautiful tiny shrimp
a variety of sea cucumber
a sand worm

Our next destination was the oldest clove tree in the world. To reach it, we had to climb up a very steep slippery pathwhich really tested our fitness. It was only the children who were able to climb without needed constant rest stops! The tree is apparently over 400 years old and is the ancestor of all clove trees in the world today! At one point, clove trees were only found on Ternate. The tree is almost at the end of its life with only one branch of leaves and cloves.

The view from where the clove tree was growing was beautiful and shows just how high up we had to travel to reach it.

Just as we were heading down the mountain, Bu Esty stopped at a place where bamboo furniture is made. Being so close to Lebaran, most of her stock has gone, however I could still see examples of the larger furniture they make. Seeing it was like a trip back in time. It doesn’t seem that long ago that this furniture was often found in homes and hotels throughout Indonesia. It looks great, especially the peices that are made using the variated bamboo. The bed is very practical because it comes apart which makes it easy to transport or to remove just the base if it needs to be put out in the sun.

Ternate, for such a small island, has so many interesting places to visit and has so much history.

Pulau Tidore (Tidore Island)

We have just arrived home after a brilliant day exploring Tidore, one of the many islands neighbouring Ternate.
Our day began just after 8am, when we walked down to the dock to hire a speedboat.

L-R Inten, Totu, Bu Esty, Berliana & Salfa. Ichal also joined us but for some reason left the house later than we did.
The day dawned perfectly for an outing across the sea. There was no wind and the sea was so flat, you could see the bottom as we walked along the path to the harbour. Tidore was also cloudless and the peak of the extinct mountain could be seen for the first time since I arrived in Ternate. All great omens for a boat trip to Tidore.
There were many speedboats available for hire at the dock and they looked nothing like I imagined them to look.

Fancy isn’t it! It flew through the water with 2 engines and we arrived at Tidore in nor time at all, felt like just 5 minutes!
Waiting at the dock in Tidore were many microlets

which are the local form of transport both in Ternate & Tidore. The ones here in Ternate are generally souped up with mag wheels, amazing speakers which belt out music with lots of doof doof, and often too a row of what looks like spot lights along the roof! They have rows of seats in them just like a mini bus and look a lot more comfortable than the public transport I have seen else where in Indonesia. What makes me hesitate riding in one is purely the speaker volume. When they drive past, the music is so loud, it is deafening, so I can’t imagine what it would be like to travel anywhere with that racket wailing in your ears.
Also at the dock were many 8 seater cars called Avanzers available for hire, however Bu Esty had prebooked one for us, so it was waiting for us, complete with driver just as we emerged from the terminal. The weather in Tidore was still cool when we arrived so we drove along with the windows open enjoying the fresh air.
As soon as we started moving, the first thing I noticed were the many tarpaulins covered in cloves drying in the sun along the roadside.

Many more than Ternate and the higher into the hills we went, the more there were. At times there wasn’t enough room by the edge of the road, so the drying cloves were placed in the middle of the road instead!

The smell was just lovely. I wanted to see cloves being harvested, so we stopped where the driver thought there may be pickers and we followed a well worn walking path into the forest. As we walked along Fa called out in Bahasa Ternate (the language of Ternate) the equivalent of cooee and from miles away someone echoed her call. When we were close enough to yell, Bu Esty call out in Bahasa Ternate, ‘Where are you?’ and we discovered why the answer was not clear because we finally came upon 2 young boys playing in the forest. Their father was nearby and turned up eventually to explain that as it was Friday, no one was picking cloves today. Friday is the most important day in the Muslim week, just like Sunday is for Christians, and as the workers have to get to the mosque for midday prayers from deep in the forest, it is not worth working Friday mornings. So to give me an idea of how the cloves are picked, Bu Esty kicked off her shoes and shimmied up a tree for me!

She picked a few bunches of cloves and then brought them down to show us.

Bu Esty and Ichal then explained to me that as cloves are sold by weight, it is better to pick them before they flower as they weigh more! We then headed back towards the car however we were constantly distracted by other interesting plants also growing in the kebun. We firstly found lots of nutmeg & mace trees. The fruit looks like apples hanging in the tree.The trees grow quite large. Here is Bu Esty standing at the foot of one of the larger trees we found.

The fruit is absolutely beautiful, both to look at and to smell. When they are ripe, the split open like this

They are then harvested and opened. The seed inside is the nutmeg and the red lacey covering is mace.

Isn’t it the most beautiful colour! When ripe, the red mace loosens and is very easy to remove from the nutmeg.
We also passed some orchids growing wild in the kebun

and several cinnamonn trees

Because the spice cinnamon is actually the bark of the tree, the poor tree dies after having it’s bark harvested. Even the leaves were aromatic!
Back at the car,

they decide that the next tree I needed to investigate was a kanari tree. According to Wikipedia the kanari tree is more commonly known as a pili tree however I am not familiar with either. Apparently it is native to maritime South East Asia, New Guinea & Northern Australia! The trees that we found were enormous and very solid looking so it is no wonder they can withstand strong winds! We searched underneath the trees for some nuts and luckily came across a stash of nuts at the base of one of the trees!

The shell is very hard however once it is cracked open, the kernel inside resembles a large almond.

The flavour was far superior to an almond. It was so crunchy yet creamy, a beautiful flavour and consistency. According to Wikipedia, pili are used in chocolate, ice cream and are also one of the major ingredients in Chinese moon cakes!
We then drove to what was originally a Spanish fort and then during the Dutch colonisation was adopted by the Dutch. It is called Benteng Tahula. To reach it, we had to climb over 100 steps in the suddenly very hot and incredibly humid sun. The humidity by this time was very high and you could actually feel the moisture in the air. At the top though, was the most amazing view across Tidore. We could see the Sultan’s kraton and mosque, both with blue rooves, as well as neighbouring islands.

It was close to midday by this time, time for midday prayers. We all jumped back in the car and for the first time, put the air conditioner on and cranked it up as high as it would go. We were all soooo hot! We headed to a cousin of Bu Esty’s so that the men could ‘solat’ (do their prayers( while we enjoyed sitting on the back verandah where there was a beautiful cool breeze. Once prayer time had finished, we headed out again driving high up the side of the extinct volcano trying to find a good vantage from which to enjoy the view.
On our way back down the mountain, we stopped where by the side of the road were many large baskets of tomatoes next to a hut. Hanging in the hut were back pack baskets made from woven bamboo and just as Bu Esty put one on her back to demonstrate how they are worn, 3 locals appeared carrying baskets of tomatoes perched on top of their backpacks. The baskets were so heavy they needed 2 people to lift them down onto the ground! I can’t imagine picking tomatoes on a very steep surface and then throwing them somehow onto a basket hanging behind my shoulders. As a teenager I helped picked many a tone of tomatoes at our family market garden and that was hard work, never mind throwing in all the other variables! At least I could see the container I was throwing the tomatoes into!
The driver then took us to a beautiful little hot spring right on a beach. The spring itself was at the base of a tree and the hot water seemed to be coming out at its roots. The locals had enclosed the spring with a stone wall which not only helped to create a shallow pool but also gave some privacy as we discovered that the older locals enjoy having their mandi there! While we were sitting with our feet in the very hot water, a steady stream of elderly people arrived carrying small buckets of soap & shampoo. Our presence more than likely gave them something to talk about when they finally descended into the pool for their mandi after we had left them in peace!
Our last destination and the one that Berliana had been looking forward to all day was a swim in the ocean. Our driver stopped by a beautiful black sandy cove where the water was surprisingly cool and extremely clear. While we frolicked in the water, a little way up the beach was a fishing boat untangling it’s huge net. The entire net was in the water and while one person stood chest deep in the water, the polystyrene floats along the edge of the net helped him to feed the net to the rest of the crew standing along the side of the boat. They were gradually pulling the net up onto the boat and folding it in front of their legs. The net would have been very weighty and awkward to handle yet they managed it smoothly. While they were working, they had their music blaring which made it difficult to ask if I could take photos. However as they were working as a team, they couldn’t stop anyway to answer, so it didn’t matter that the music drowned out my request!
We headed back to the car in our wet clothes and I was amazed that our driver didn’t mind that we all hopped into his car dripping wet! He was probably just being very polite! We were hoping to catch the ferry home but we missed it, so Bu Esty chartered another speed boat and we were home before we knew it. As her house is very close to the harbour, she talked the fellow into taking us closer to her back door which was an added bonus! I think those of us in wet bathers were pleased our walk home had been shortened so that we could all quickly jump into a warm shower and put on some dry clothes.
Terima kasih banyak Bu Esty for the absolutely brilliant day exploring Tidore. I am looking forward even more now to celebrating Lebaran on Tidore!

Postscript: Unfortunately my camera SD card is malfunctioning and I could only access a few of the photos from yesterday. Luckily Bu Esty also took many photos, so once I work out how to transfer photos from an ipad & samsung phone, I will add some more photos. Fingers crossed tightly that the photos on my SD card are retrievable somehow but in the meanwhile it looks like I will have to buy a new SD card.

Buka Puasa (Breaking The Fast)

Every evening in Ternate, Indonesia, during Ramadan, the Muslims ‘buka puasa’ (break their fast) at 6:40pm. The time varies from place to place because it is dependent on the time of sunset. Indonesia has 3 time zones, so each time zone would buka puasa whenever the official time of sunset would be. This time zone is the first to buka puasa.
Breaking the fast is not a time to feast, it is about moderation. Breaking the fast is usually done with something light and sustaining.
Here in Ibu Esty’s house, they buka puasa with bubur (rice porridge) topped with a light vegetable soup. It is absolutely delicious. Some families break their fast with kelapa mudah and consequently along the side of the road are many sellers selling green coconuts with the rough outside husk trimmed off.

Many families also break the fast with a selection of jajan (sweet or savoury snacks). A couple of hours before sunset, sellers set up along the side of the road.

Parents shop selecting a variety of jajan for their families. Here are some photos of the jajan that were available yesterday when Bu Esty went out with Bapak and me.

Bu Esty choosing some jajan.

Which of these would you like to try?

Kue Lapis – Layer Cake.

kue agar agar jagung & chokolat

kue ubi parut & kue sus

kue pelita

ketupuat

roti coi oles pakai kacang & apang coi

Lumpia & kue sus

kue Donut with margarine & chocolate sprinkles

dadar gulung (green pancakes)panakok

onde onde

agar agar choklat

sambiki coi (labu)

panada

kue cara

kue cucur

pisang coi

Here is Bu Esty paying for the jajan. What hand is Bu Esty using to hand the money to the jajan seller? What hand is the jajan seller using to hand the jajan to Bu Esty? Is it their right hand or their left hand?

ALWAYS

offer everything in your right hand, even if it means you give the money and then receive the jajan at the same time.

A Taste of Ternate History

On my very first day in Ternate, Bu Esty’s nephew, Faisal (Ichal to his friends and family) took me on a motorbike around Ternate. For such a tiny island, it is steeped in history with many interesting places to visit.
Our first stop was Fort Oranje which was built by the Portuguese in 1540.

A Spanish plaque on a wall at the Fort.

The Portuguese controlled the spice industry here till 1575 before being forced to move to Ambon.

In 1580, Francis Drake stayed briefly here in Ternate on his way home with the Spanish Amada gold on the Golden Hind and to Ternate’s absolute amazement, showed no interest in their clove industry while here!

However, the Dutch were incredibly interested and in 1607 first based the Dutch East India Company here in Ternate with Fort Oranje becoming their headquarters before they moved it to Batavia (the present day Jakarta) in 1608.

This cannon used to face the sea! It now faces rows and rows of shops and houses!The Fort is now used as a base for the Armed Forces.

After looking around this amazingly old structure which has witnessed much change here in Ternate, we continued on our journey down a main street before stopping outside a house. I couldn’t believe my ears when Ichal told me that this was where Alfred Russell Wallace lived and was the very place he wrote his paper on natural selection which he sent to Charles Darwin. The ‘Ternate Essay’ instantly propelled Charles Darwin into publishing ‘The Theory of Evolution’ .

Our next stop was the Sultan’s Palace.

Today only 2 flags are flying, however when the Sultan is in residence, 3 flags are hoisted. Can you see the symbol on top of the light poles?

This is the Sultan’s family crest.
The Sultanate of Ternate is one of the oldest Muslim kingdoms in Indonesia, established by Baab Mashur Malamo in 1257. At one point, the Sultanate of Ternate and the Sultanate of Tidore were the richest Sultanates in Indonesia because they were the sole producers of cloves in the world however they wasted much of their wealth fighting each other!
The grounds are enormous and include a garden similar to the one in Catimor, East Java, where a Dutch family lived during the 18 century, so I am wondering to what extent this garden was also influenced by the Dutch.

Also in the grounds was an impressive water feature which used to be the Sultan’s family’s swimming pools however they are no longer used because the water is so polluted.

This would have been an absolutely amazing place in its heyday.
We then hopped back on the motorbike and headed to Benteng Tolucco, another fort built originally by the Portuguese and then adopted by the Dutch when they took control of the Spice Trade.

As the gates were closed for this fort, we only stayed long enough to take a photo and then feed a caged monkey

We next headed off to some lava fields. On the way, we passed many groups of primary school aged boys playing with horrendous looking guns that apparently shoot pellets.

This group of boys were thrilled to be photographed. Their game looks so dangerous as not only are they shooting pellets at each other but they are running along the road finding objects to hide behind. I couldn’t relax while driving through the streets where these games were being played.
Beyond where the boys were playing, are the lava fields. While the remains of the many eruptions are everywhere in Ternate, there is a particular spot where a path has been concreted for people to wander through. The lava here is protected unlike elsewhere on the island where it is harvested for building. The rocks are used for building foundations and the soil is sieved and added to concrete. I loved it here even though it was incredibly hot. The view was amazing with Gunung Gamalama behind us and in front of us was the ocean.

It will be even more beautiful and much cooler once the trees are mature. Here is Ichal, my tour guide extraordinaire:

We then headed back home. On the way we stopped to look at a beach which looks like the sand is white from the many broken shells mixed into the sand. Most beaches in Indonesia are black from the volcanic rocks and soil. Can you see the goat on the beach?

The water was absolutely beautiful and I look forward to one day snorkeling here inTernate.
Apparently there are several spots off Ternate which are fantastic for snorkeling but it will have to wait, maybe till another visit, as during the Puasa (fast) water is not allowed to enter the ears or mouth of muslims during daylight hours, thus no swimming.

Along the edge of the roads were many tarpaulins covered in cloves drying in the sun. The scent was amazing, so strong, spicy and fresh.

The view was always changing. Sometimes very old traditional houses, sometimes jungly scrub and often beautiful views out to sea towards the many neighbouring islands.

We just reached the main township when it started to pour with rain, so we ducked into an English School where people can learn English or gain qualifications to teach English.

Even though Pak Rusdy, the teacher, was in the middle of teaching a lesson, he would set his student a task and then come out into the office and chat. He is really keen to visit Australia so I have invited him to come and visit our 3 schools on the south coast! He is very excited about the possibility of visiting us and lets hope it happens. He has travelled very widely and I loved the photos in the front office of him with various school leaders around the world.

Be good to see one of Mr Hudson up there too, wouldn’t it?

Fasting & Lebaran In Ternate

Ternate is a tiny island between Sulawesi and West Papua and is one of the 9 kebupaten (districts) and many, many islands that make up North Moluku. Here is a map from Wikipedia to give an idea of just how far northeast Ternate is.

On this map, you can see the larger islands but there are also many other islands which are way too small to map!
Flying into Ternate, what immediately grabs the eye is the enormous volcano right in the middle of the island. This is Gunung Gamalama and it is definitely an active volcano.

The largest eruption recorded was in 1840, but more recently eruptions were in 1994 and 2011. Yesterday I passed empty lava river beds which prior to 2011 had houses built on either side but were totally destroyed in the 2011 eruption.

Where the houses once stood has now become an area from where volcanic soil is sold.
I am staying in Ternate with a good friend of our family, Ibu Esty, her husband, Bapak Rustam Hamzah, and 6 of their 7 children. I have been given the guest room which takes up over a quarter of the upstairs space and includes an ensuite bathroom of gigantic proportions. I have yet to work out how everyone else fits into the remaining 2 bedrooms, but they assure me the guest room is solely for guests! I certainly hope so as I feel incredibly guilty sleeping in a monster sized bed as well as using the adjoining bathroom all by myself! Ibu Esty, though, is the perfect hostess and adores having not just a tamu (guest) but a western member of their family to stay which is super special. My father visited Ternate almost 20 years ago to attend Ibu Esty & Bapak’s wedding and in their eyes that makes my father a member of their family. They were so honored that he made the trip to Ternate for their wedding, that I, by association, am family now too.

However instead of attending a wedding while here, I am incredibly privileged to be here in Ternate during the last week of the Muslim Puasa (Islam fasting month) and will then join the family for Lebaran.
The origin of the word Lebaran (or Idul Fitri) is:

“Idul Fitri” is the Indonesian spelling of the Arabic “Eid al-Fitr”. “Lebaran” is the local name for this festive occasion, derived from the Javanese and Sundanese word ‘lebar’
which means “abundance” or “many” to describe the abundance of foods and delicacies served to visiting guests; family, relatives, neighbors and friends during this festive occasion.

source Wikipedia

An explanation of ‘Eid al-Fitr (Lebaran) from Wikipedia is as follows:

Eid al-Fitr is also called the Feast of the Breaking the Fast, the Sugar Feast, the Sweet Festival and the Lesser Eid. It is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting (sawm). The religious Eid is a single day and Muslims are not permitted to fast that day. The holiday celebrates the conclusion of the 29 or 30 days of dawn-to-sunset fasting during the entire month of Ramadan

I have never experienced Lebaran with a muslim family before. The 2 calendar dates for the Lebaran holiday are the 8th & 9th of August and the family plan to gather on Tidore (pronounced tea-door-aye), one of the many nearby islands here. Ibu Esty is one of 7 children and her mother proudly told me last night that all 32 of her grandchildren will be joining us for Lebaran on Tidore.
While the calendars all state that Lebaran is over these 2 days, the government has yet to officially inform the people exactly when the puasa finishes. An announcement will be made soon and it is looking likely that the last day of fasting will be the 8th. The official date is lunar based and will also be based on the advice of muslim clerics from other Muslim countries. All muslim dates here in Indonesia seem to be highly controversial as Indonesia being partly in the southern hemisphere has a slightly different lunar calendar. The fanatics seem to be always arguing over technical details while the majority of Indonesian muslims are happy to go with the flow.
One of the challenges of visiting a muslim family during the fasting month is the issue of food. Everyone in this house is muslim and all to some degree are fasting. The young children fast for a part of the day and the length of time they choose is entirely a personal decision. Whatever they manage is celebrated by their parents. Of course their 18 month old son is not fasting and Ibu Esty claims not be fasting but I get the distinct impression this is purely to put me at ease and to accompany me while I eat between sunrise and sunset. Even as I type this, one of the pembantu’s (maids) is in the kitchen cooking my lunch!

Ibu Iba cooking tempeh

This is the rest of the lunch and in the background you can see the table we will eat it! The smell of the delicious food is making me so hungry! It must be so difficult to fast in Indonesia where the smell of food is everywhere.
Time for lunch, so will finish this blog and free up the table for the delicious food I am about to be served.