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I felt so beat today. I saw some cool stuff but I'll save that for another time. I think the 15 miles of walking every day is finally catching up to me. And I might not be getting the best nutrients - I keep forgetting to take my vitamins! :(
But there was a puppet show tonight, with traditional Indonesian puppets depicting folk stories, accompanied by the Indonesian instrument group called "gamelan". Even though I was so tired, I took a powernap and hurried on my way because I've always wanted to see a real gamelan concert, and also always wanted to play a part in one.
Instead of walking 40 minutes, the tired Jenny approached an ojek and haggled for a good price. We agreed on 25,000 and headed toward the Sonobuyo museum, where the show was held. When we got there, I handed the driver a 50,000 bill, but he said that since I was his first customer, he didn't have change. I had nothing smaller, so I suggested that he could keep all 50,000 if he could come back at the end and pick me up.
He was very surprised, and assured me that he was an "honest man and promise to be here", and even told me to keep the money until then. I trusted him though, the locals are really an honest bunch.
So anyway, I sat excitedly in the front. Here are sone pictures, the show was AWESOME. The gamelan group and puppet master sit behind the lit-up screen, and show "shadow puppets" tell the story. Here are some photos from the back and front:
So anyway, I was fascinated by the music and went back to stare at the players and instruments. When one guy looked up and I smiled, he waved me over. I had to looked around 3 times to make sure he wasn't waving at anyone else. I still couldn't belive it so I pointed at myself, and he nodded and patted the space on the ground beside him.
That's how I got to play the gamelan at a real puppet show. It was pretty damn hard to follow! Good thing I understood numbered music notation, and good thing I had asked Keiran just 20 minutes before to give me a crash course on gamelan basics (basically there's a complicated pattern that's repeated in rounds, as far as I understand).
I was up there for about an hour! Probably ruined the show, but I was having one of the best experiences of my life. So when the ojek driver reliably came to pick me up, I was still giddy and the first thing I said was "THEY LET ME PLAY!"
What happened after, I still can't believe:
He (Suzulo is his name) told me he had seen me play while he was waiting, and was very very happy because he, too, plays the gamelan. We then went on to talk about his music group, and how they perform at village weddings and such. We talked about all the other instruments he could play: keyboard, guitar, you name it. So naturally, I joked that hey, we could play together!
Suzulo got even more excited! He invited me to go to his house, and said he would teach me gamelan, and that I could meet his family who are all in town because of the Eid national holiday. I was worried that we would crash because he was so absorbed in the conversation and looking at me instead of the road. He told me about his family - his wife is a gamelan singer, his two daughters are both older than me, and he has 3 (soon to be 4) grandchildren. I totally thought he was 40 before this. He told me again that he's an honest man, and that he had only gone to elementary school. He said that's okay, because he worked hard and paid for his daughters to go to college. Now his older daughter is a teacher, and younger daughter just graduated from the top university in the country to become a marine biologist, and is 7 months pregnant with her first child! She's one year older than I am! What a happy, kind, proud man with a beautiful spirit!
He kept saying that he was so happy for me too go to his home, but I'm pretty sure I'm the happier one!
When we got back to my hostel, he showed me videos of his music group, and pictures of his grandkids playing on his ojek, and jamming on toy guitars.
I had planned to go to the temple and train station tomorrow, but now the only plan I have is to meet with Suzulo's family, and jam out!
I was too excited not to write all this down. Thanks for reading :) I probably should sleep now so I can be awake to learn tomorrow. Also I'm starting to feel sick so hopefully sleep will change that!
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