We are in Yogyakarta!!!!!!!!

Hello citizens of USA and further! As you know, I am currently across the world in Asia. We are on the island of Java in the city of Yogyakarta, which is pronounced Jojakarta. We did our first traditional thing in Java! We made Batiks at a school in a little village called Kotagede! Batik is a traditional fabric that doesn't hurt the environment because it uses all natural dyes and wax. I'll teach how make a batik as you read along.

Step One: Design

Get a piece of white fabric and draw out the pattern you want with a pencil. For me I did a Japanese garden inspired pattern using stencils for koi fish, lily pads, lotus flowers, and turtles. The simpler the better. Once you have the pattern you want, you are ready for the next step.

Step Two: Waxing

First you need a small pot filled half way with boiling wax. You will also need a scooper thing like the one I am holding. Then you put a small piece of cardboard under the part you want to wax. then you drop the wax onto the fabric following your designs! This will take a while when you are done it's time to color and wash!

Step Three: Color and Wash

Next we put our fabrics into a bucket of water with a little bit of chemical in it to help the fabric hold onto the dye. Then we put the fabric into the bucket of dye. The longer the fabric stayed in the dye the darker it became. Our fabrics got really dark pink. Then you put the fabric into a pot of boiling water to melt off the wax! It's like when you put tape on a wall and paint over the tape and then take off the tape.

Then you dunk it into a bucket of lukewarm water like I am doing in this photo, and finally you dunk it into a bucket of cold water.

Making batik was really fun. It reminded me of the tie-dye kit Meli got us for Christmas! We also played a game that looked just like the game Mancala that we play at home. Except here it is called Dakon and they play it with nuts instead of pebbles.

We met a lot of the students at the school too. The girls were so nice. They were in high school and loved talking to me and my siblings in English. They were all wearing hijabs, which I thought was really pretty and reminded me of my friend Fromi.

Today we went on a tour of Yogyakarta. We took tuk-tuks to see the sultan's palace. The sultan is like the king of Yogyakarta. He has a lot of servants that work at the palace.

Then we went to see how Indonesian shadow puppets are made and we even got to put on a puppet show! The puppets were fun. You could move their arms around. They are made out of buffalo skin!

Then we walked to the BIGGEST temple in all of Indonesia. It is called the Prambanan Temple. It was so hot. I thought I might get heatstroke.

One of the temples is built for the Hindu god called Ganesha, who looks like an elephant. He is the god of wisdom. This is the same kind of statute we saw at the elementary school back in Bali.

I was so excited to see our first temple! It was so pretty. I wasn't expecting it to be like that because we don't have buildings like that at home. I really liked visiting the temple even though it was hot. Tomorrow we get to make chocolate! I can't wait!!

Signing off for now!!!!!!!!!!! Love Ginny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!