Here are a few photos of my day today. I spent it at the local university watching some Teachers' College students perform dances/songs/games from the area that they come from. It was very well done and I really enjoyed my time there.

This is Mrs. Mel (first names are used with 'Mrs'). She's one of the 4th grade teachers I went along with, is our neighbour 2 doors down, and is married to Abby's teacher (guru) Mr. Jonathon.
The lineup of young women is a dance from North Sumatra and below are dances from South Sumatra and West Sumatra. The young men with horses is a dance from Java (central).

You might recognize this pose; it's from Bali. Mom and dad will get to watch this kind of dancing first-hand when they come this Christmas. The tickets are booked!!This game, which I would call the 'bamboo game' but have really no idea what it's called, is from Nusatengara. Music is played and the bamboo is 'beaten' on the ground just like if you were playing a little child's clapping game. The players have to jump between the bamboo; I tried it and I think they were just being polite by not kicking me 'out' sooner.

I love the name of this place: Kalimantan. Kalimantan is a part of the island of Borneo. The independent sultanate of Brunei is just above. This couple is singing a worship song to a god (not sure which one...if it's my God or another). Her traditional costume is beautiful. For those of you who are not aware (I know there's a few of you), if you double click on a photo you can see it close up.

This is a very colourful dance from South Sulawesi, which is the island north of Java. One of the young women danced on the drum while it was being drummed. She had great balance.

The dancers in plaid come from Ambon and are dancing a Portuguese-influenced dance. I could see a bit of square dancing as well as spanish dancing in their movements. It was really interesting just how different all of the regions were from each other. Represented here were the incorporation of 4 (?) major religions into pre-existing beliefs; different parts of the islands definately represent different religions (Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism). By the way, Ambon is the name of the area that the kids at the orphanage I went to on Monday are from.

The final dance was from Papua and it was a hit because of the costumes. Pretty scary looking, heh? It was a very lively dance and the dancers were a bit tired at the end. I would have been exhausted! At the very end of the morning a bunch of guys from Java were showing me a foot game/dance so I took a photo of how they intertwined their feet. I think that they were supposed to jump on one foot and remain attached with the other.

That was how I spent my morning today. Days are quite long because we get up at 5 and are out of the house by 6:30 (at least the other 3 are...I am if I have plans). Even if events last for 3 hours I am still home by 10 am! In Canada I would have been just finishing my housework by then and starting something new, or just preparing to go out.

Thanks for reading!