A family Christmas party

We also managed to sneak into a family Christmas party. Retno's extended - and when I say extended I mean extended - family had a Christmas bash. This is the grandchildren creating havoc. Gloriously, hilariously, wildly, unforgettably good fun. Philip had long thought that the Fountains had no competition for noise levels and hilarity at Christmas time - he was proved decidedly wrong for the first time on this night. This family knew how to party and we were delighted and honoured to share in it.

A wedding in Salatiga

We managed to sneak in to a wedding in Salatiga, for an ethnographic experience. We even snapped a few photos before getting spotted. However, that didn't stop us from attending the reception later...

Philip's birthday

Philip browses through some of his birthday haul (a couple of books from the olds) in front of the traditional flowers-around-the-plate birthday breakfast. It pays to bring some traditions with you when you travel. This one continues to be ours.

Flooding in Solo

On the 26th December heavy rains combined with an exceptionally high tide to produce severe flood all over Java. Jakarta was badly hit (and always seems to be), Semarang and the Kudus-Pati area were flooded, as was the city of Solo. We joined in on a trip down to Solo a few days after to see what was going on. Remarkably one person's disaster is another kid's playground. Despite still high water lines and all that the flood entailed, many folks took the opportunity to swim and play and sit around the edges of the water chatting. Here's a few pics.

The market comes to your house

Need to buy some supplies? Wouldn't it be nice not to have to go to the supermarket? In this instance the supermarket came to us, complete with fresh fish and veges.

Enjoying the desa

While based in Pati for Christmas we also jumped in a trip to visit some of our friends' relatives in the desa (village) nearby. Here's a few pics of our travels. Loads of fun. The padi fields were amazingly green. While trying to catch the frog pictured, Philip also managed to fall over and get his trousers all muddy. Shucks, dang! Iris can't take that lad anywhere without him making a mess of things.

Wisata kulinar "culinary tourism"

Our time in Pati was notable for among other things our consumption of Pati's culinary delights. Our friends knew how to keep our bellies more than satisfied. Here's a couple of the occassions when we remembered to take a photo.

Church deco

These are a few pics from inside the GKMI (Gereja Kristen Muria Indonesia or the Muria Christian Church of Indonesia) Pati church building. An altogether remarkable building. Our minds during the service were definitely not on the sermon. As we gazed around the room we were captivated by a veritable plethora of colours, sights, symbols, and icons. Many had a distinctly Javanese tone to them - such as the Wayang Yesus or the angel with stylised Javanese facial features. Some had a distinctly Mennonite vibe too - such as the famous picture of Dirk Willems saving his pursuer from drowning in 1569. The front of the church though - with more symbols then you could shake a stick at - simply was a phenomena. High memorable.

On the way to Pati

A few days before Christmas we joined our good friends Jimmy, Evie and their son Timo for their trip home to Pati for Christmas. This is a photo taken along the way as we stopped for a quick snack and Timo had a chance to enjoy a ride. Along the way we had three breakdowns including a very memorable one in the middle of the busiest street of the city of Semarang. Pushing that van through the traffic will remain one of Philip's all time favourite memories.

Our Christmas table

Every year we try to plant a Christmas tree. After all there aren't enough trees in this world. Some years we are decidedly more successful than others. Here's our Christmas bush which is yet to be released into the wild. It made for a nice little focal point though to center our Christmas on the things that give life.

Historic Peace Churches Conference

The Historic Peace Churches conference for the Asian region took place in December. This conference saw members of Quakers, Mennonites and others from all over Asia gather together to talk about peace in this region and what these denominations could offer. We both joined in on parts of this. One of the fieldtrips conference attendees enjoyed was a visit to the keraton in Solo to learn about tradtional Javanese culture and interfaith relationships. Here's a few photos of the keraton in Solo including the planting of a tree to commemorate the event in the keraton's grounds.

Two weeks in Solo for Philip

Philip spent two weeks in Solo staying with an Indonesian family. In amongst other things, he taught English games to a bunch of neighbourhood youngsters, played games with neighbourhood youngsters, attended the farewell of the calon haji (hajj candidate) at the neighbourhood mosque, taught english at an Islamic primary school, did a bit of shopping in a book and antique market and admired the current price of anthuriums (US$2500 is the price tag on the plants in the photo!). The photos here are a few of those he took.

Iris' birthday!

Iris' parents visited in early November - here we are at Candi Gedung Songo...

...Prambanan...

...the Yogya Kraton (palace)...

... and the famous Borobudur.

A church opening and commissioning service in Solo

A little melihat burung

The great and memorable Dieng Plateau roadtrip