Kampung inner city Jakarta

Innercity life.

Jakarta, March 2010.

Kampung power

One of the idyllic kampungs (neighborhood communities) in Jakarta. Loudspeakers are always there and work extremely well. If you have ever stayed close to an airport you may imagine the noise level. Differently to most Muslim countries the Indonesian imams are allowed to use loudspeakers not only for the five prayer calls but also for recitation, preaching and chanting sessions. For the less spiritual characters among us this easily translates into dozens of plane starts and landings or some kind of religious karaoke in public space.

Jakarta, July 2009.

Fools day relief

What a difference a few centimeters make! This can also be applied to houses of or for God(s) by comparing the photo above with an older picture.

It is April fools day (hurrah!!) today and it is a day to celebrate as the threatening loud(er)speakers had been adjusted.

It's still too noisy but at least we are not getting directly hit any more. Time to celebrate.

A toast to the boss of the musholla. Cheers and Alhamdolillah!

Avoid loudspeaker investments

There is so much noise pollution on Java already. The immediate need for getting another musholla or mosque—which never comes without big loudspeakers—is not convincing given that there is a mosque just behind the parking truck on the right of the picture. Better save your money and walk a few hundred meters if you can’t pray at home.

Photo somewhere close to Banten, West-Java of August 2008.

Ripe goldfish

Taxonomically goldfish can't be pregnant, they are egg layers, but can we call such ripe ones twit or twat, that is the question.

The photo above shows that eggs force scales apart which would make it even more difficult for fish to swim backwards.

Photo taken after eternal nightly intakes of drugs (ie Ramadan whistling, drumming, chanting, preaching and other holy things), Jakarta, September 2008.

Pray and eat at night and rest (and pray) during the day

This lucky fellow probably works and rests at the same time. For me that's impossible, a work day is a work day and nobody cares if the holy hords drum you out of sleep as early as 2:30AM in the morning.

The longer I am awake the more I think that the real Mecca is Jakarta.

Photo from Jakarta, September 2008.

Fast or food: How to shape yourself?

That Ramadan can be good for the gourmets was noticed earlier; but what about the health conscious, those Muslims who have also adopted fitness or body building as a lifestyle? Well, there is something for them in Ramadan, too.

Ade Rai, Indonesia’s most famous bodybuilder (see above video), an advocate of good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle, answers questions in the Jakarta Post of readers. Pak Musclemania's answer to a person who is concerned about himself of losing his fitness level during Ramadan offers an interesting insight about real problems in the holy month:

Assalamu'alaikum Ade Rai,

I am a Muslim who has also adopted fitness as a lifestyle. In regard to the fasting month, I am concerned I might risk losing the fitness level I have built up over the past year.

Are there any tips you can offer your Muslim readers, so that we can still fulfill our religious duties and maintain our fitness? Thank you in advance for your kind reply.

-- R. F. Hidayat

Wa'laikumsalam Mr.Hidayat,

Thank you for writing in. The fasting month of Ramadan is actually a great time for Muslims to lose some fat. Here are some things I recommend you do to minimize your worry and maximize your obligations during the holy month:

At sahur time, have a nutrient-rich meal that gives you enough slow-releasing energy to last throughout the day. High-fiber complex carbohydrates are essential to provide constant energy and blood sugar levels.

You also need to consume lean proteins to support muscle repair and prevent muscle breakdown. At this point in time, you also need a good dose of healthy fats from peanuts or olive oil. I recommend you finish your sahur meal with a handful of peanuts to help you hold off hunger longer during your day.

Do your cardio workout 30 minutes before breaking your fast. That would be around 5.30 p.m. Do light aerobics that bring your heart rate to 2 pulses per second, and maintain it for at least 20 minutes. This is to capitalize on the low-blood sugar levels in your body; an ideal condition for your body to utilize fat as its source of energy.

Break the fast with a few korma (dates), then a similar meal to that of sahur time. A multivitamin and mineral supplement after the meal is also recommended. I think it is quite risky to break the fast with sweet foods like kolak (banana stewed in coconut milk and brown sugar), sugary syrups or softdrinks as you will experience a quick rise and drop in blood-sugar and insulin levels, which will leave you sluggish and drowsy within a couple of hours after the meal.

After Tarawih prayers, you are primed for your workout. All the nutrients you took in when you broke your fast will have settled and absorbed by the body. This may be the best time to do your workout.

After your workout, have a simple carbohydrate drink to replenish your body, a few dates, a good electrolyte drink and a protein shake. Then, 15 minutes after that, have a regular meal with a nutrient content similar to that at sahur time. About one hour after that is the most ideal time to get a good night's sleep.

Allow me to take this opportunity to say "Happy Holy Ramadan".

I always thought that religious life is too formalized and regulated already, but putting body 'fitness' onto it would make life even more faithful. Anyway, have a ‘good night’s sleep’ as Pak Ade wishes but note that during Ramadan the faithful hordes (at least in this part of the Java) start drumming at 2:30AM to get you out of your dreams. As Ade said, Happy Holy Ramadan.

Fast or food, what comes first?

Fasting during Ramadan is about developing compassion for the poor and needy who feel hungry every day. As a spiritually and physically cleansing experience, it is also about separating oneself from the things of this world, concentrating on God, coming closer to Him, building self-discipline, and becoming a better person.

In theory, at least. Or maybe so it was thousand years ago in the desert…

In present day Indonesia, Ramadan seems very often to be associated with… food.

What food for buka puasa (breaking the fast), where to break the fast, the price of food, the variety of food, the abundance of food, the richness of food.

Markets and supermarkets are full of korma (dates), timun suri (a type of cucumber), and blewah (a type of melon), popular fruits for the traditional breaking of the fast with a sweet snack.

Newspapers advertise buffets, a way of breaking the fast together with colleges, friends or family. Ramadan time in Jakarta is chef exchange time for the big hotels. Chefs are flown in from Cairo, Amman, Beirut and Lahore to present their creations; Jakartans are invited to try Arabic, Turkish, Lebanese or Pakistani specialties in 1001 Arabian nights charm.

Since most of these events are celebrated in Jakarta’s four or five star hotels (the ones where you get intoxicants), we need to emphasize that a good Turkish or Lebanese dish deserves a raki or wine respectively. Cheers!!

Photo from Jakarta, September 2008.

Drumming your way into Ramadan

[Picture of a drummer will follow, was too sleepy to get up 'in time' (see below)]

Ramadan in most Indonesian cities started early in the morning of September 1st. The fast began in the morning just before sunrise (imsak), and will be broken at maghrib, just after sunset (17:55PM precisely for Sep l).

In our neighborhood, young boys walked around at about 2:30AM, beating on drums to awaken the faithful (but also us...) who are fasting so that they would have ample time for a meal before sunrise. The whole late night (or was it early morning?) the faithful were singing and praying, only to be interrupted by the morning prayer at 4:45AM.

Very tired on my way to work at 8AM I listened to Roger Water's 'What God wants, God gets...'

Kampung Islam

September 1st marks the first day of the holy month of Ramadan in 2009. After having witnessed Ramadan in various countries such as Algeria, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Pakistan we (Gü joins in) will now give some impressions on Ramadan in Indonesia. As mentioned in earlier blogs, Islam in Indonesia has some unique features, most notably the extensive use of loudspeakers not only for mosques but also for prayer halls (mushollas), and not only for the calls to prayer.

Since our house is only some 100 meters away from such a (well hidden and very active) musholla, there will be no escape from any Ramadan activities. So we will share them…

In non-Ramadan times, our day starts at 4:45AM with the first call to prayer (2/3 minutes). Sometimes, chanting starts at 4AM to warm people up for the coming prayer call but it usually happens after the first call to prayer and mostly stops before 6:30AM. During ordinary days, musholla activities are reduced to the prayer calls (last one at around 7PM).

During the week the busiest days are Thursday and Saturday when the musholla transmits the entire preaching and chanting between 6:30PM and 9PM, with a short interruption of approximately half an hour. Saturdays is usually a bit less active and recitations could be finished by 8PM.

However, we often experience exceptions to the ‘rules’; last Saturday for instance, chanting started at 7:30AM all the way to 9:30AM.

Diversity is also guaranteed, the muezzin is not always the same, and we are offered quite a bandwidth of voices from melodic, inflammatory to calm.

We call this series Kampung Islam since it is mainly about mushollas which often are quite ordinary houses within the kampung (= neighborhood) with a big hall, a non distinguishable roof apart from the loudspeakers on top as shown in the above picture.

Whether our Kampung musholla belongs to Muhammadiyah or Nahdlatul Ulama (Indonesia’s main Sunni organizations) will become clear upon counting the cycles of the traweh prayers … (another quite unique feature of Islam in Indonesia).