Tanjung Lesung (Banten)

On the 14th of May I returned from a family trip to the area of Banten. My host ayah is a doctor, and right after he got his doctoral degree, he worked in a little village in Banten near Cigeulis. Twenty-some years after completing his services there, we went on a family road trip to see how the place has changed. It was a very long car ride, but mainly because the roads are in such disrepair. Though I felt like a popcorn kernel in a microwave as we ventured the chasmed roads, my parents kept exclaiming how much better the roads had gotten. As I bounced around the back seat, my Ibu shared how she used to have to make the trip on a jalopy mini-bus without air-conditioning and over even worse road-conditions...she also had to hold onto her very young infant. A particularly large rocky mound sent me shooting up and I impaled my skull on a metal bar hiding in the padding of the car ceiling; moments later we arrived at a large house on a hill. We got out and a kind-faced woman greeted my Ibu very warmly; she explained she used to be my ibu's neighbor. Back in the day, the village did not have electricity, so this woman would help my Ibu start a cooking fire out of firewood. My Ibu says that because she was one of the youngest children in her family when she was growing up, she never learned how to cook until she got to the village; the neighbor woman would help my Ibu cook by showing her what spices to use and how to prepare the dishes. Multiple times, my Ibu expressed her sincere gratitude to this kind neighbor. At the house were a whole crowd of my ayah's previous employees; over a traditional lunch in a bamboo gazebo, they reminisced about the past and remarked all the development that had happened in twenty-some years. The whole thing was quite a revelation for me; it was amazing to learn from first-hand witnesses just how much development had happened in twenty-some years. The village market used to be open once a week on Tuesday and only in the morning; when I was there in the afternoon on a Sunday, the market was open and very busy. The village used to be without electricity, and now I saw ricefields adorned with powerline towers. It gives me chills of pride and nostalgia to realize how fast Indonesia is growing. Over these past two months, my love for Indonesia has increased ten-fold--no doubt because of my new situation; my time here has instilled in me a deep desire to see Indonesia grow even more and hopefully I can help it develop in a responsible and sustainable manner!