Tuesday, October 24 – Selamat Hari Raya!

Our boys spent most of the afternoon tumbling around in their baju melayus. (I'm not really sure if that's the right way to pluralize that!)
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12:20pm

It's almost time for the families to pick me up for Hari Raya visiting. I'm so nervous!! What if everyone only speaks Bahasa? What if there's no healthy food? What if they think my baju is ugly?? Aaaaahhhh!!!

12:24pm

A stitch holding together the pleats at the bottom of my baju just broke! Where's the safety pins?? Aaaaahhhh!!!

Auntie, Ummi, and I pose in our baju kurungs. Notice the green curtains in the background!
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5:40pm

Well, I found out that the stitch that broke wasn't supposed to stay in! I guess they just put it there to hold the pleats before it gets sold. I'm really glad, too, because it's hard to walk when the bottom of the skirt is that narrow!

And the visiting actually went fine too...once we finally got there! We drove for over an hour, half of which was spent driving through the kampongs – the villages – looking for the auntie's house we were visiting.

It's so narrow through some of those areas! I don't know how they manage sometimes. Some people actually own trucks and SUVs there!

Here, Ummi serves green apple soda. I've been told it tastes a little bit like bubble gum. :-)
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We saw a lot of people walking house to house in their baju kurungs and baju melayus, most likely on their way to visit with friends and relatives. Their outfits were so brightly colored! Then there were the chickens pecking around along the sides of the road and the kids from the orphanage all in matching green baju melayus...

It turns out that green is a favorite color of Islam, which I noticed at the house – green curtains, green tablerunner, green floormat, green soda...

The Hindus will buy these flower necklaces for their gods. I suppose they sell more of them around Deepavali, which was this past Saturday.
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According to Wikipedia, "The color green has been associated with Islam for many centuries. It is not clear why this is so. Some say green was Muhammad’s favorite color and that he wore a green cloak and turban. Others believe that it symbolizes nature and life, hence the physical manifestation of God. In the Qur'an {Surah 18:31), it is said that the inhabitants of paradise will wear green garments of fine silk." How 'bout that!

When we arrived, we took off our shoes at the door, which is customary here, and greeted each other, first clasping hands and then touching our hands to our hearts. The younger ones in our group touched their foreheads to the older's hands first, as a sign of respect, I assume.

We all sat on the floor in the TV room – there were no chairs in that room – and drank juice and talked and watched some silly Malaysian movie that was on TV.

After a while, Auntie brought out all kinds of food she had prepared – curried chicken, beef rendang, fried chicken, rice, fruit, and some kind of jello dessert that had green angel food cake on the bottom, a layer of custard above that, and fruited jello (probably agar agar) on top.

It was all good, though the meat was a little tough and fatty. But that's really normal here! As we started eating, one of the moms had to remind me to eat with just my right hand – oops! Even after having spent months here, I still commit cultural faux pas...

We stayed a long time, sitting and talking and snacking on little treats, and then it started raining! Suddenly, someone remembered...all our shoes were outside! Oh no!! Fortunately, we got them in before too much damage was done. But our shoes did get a quick bath. :-)

10-ish pm

I hear the fireworks going off again. They're visible from my front porch, and they're really pretty! I've heard so many fireworks going off over the last month. I think they set off fireworks for every festival here, and with so many festivals lately – Hari Raya, Deepavali, Lantern Festival, Mooncake Festival – it never stops! I should invest in firework stock!!