Indonesia Part Satu (1) in Solo, Indonesia--November 12-25, 2012

 BATIK FACTORY
The production of batik fabric is a labor intensive production that requires six to eighteen months to produce a single 1 1/2 by 2 1/2 meter piece of decorated fabric. The seven step process begins with the tracing of the pattern onto the fabric. The tracing was done by men.

 The fabric is waxed and dyed six different times for three colors.. Initially the fabric is white. The worker applies the hot wax with an ink pen type tool to the area of the fabric that they don't want dyed. The fabric is dyed with a single color in a huge vat. Next, the wax is removed and a new  layer of wax is applied to the previously dyed areas. The fabric is dyed again. This process is repeated until all the colors they want in the pattern have been applied.  The applying of the wax in this process is all done by women.

Another method for applying wax is to use a stamp. The stamp is placed in wax and transferred to the fabric. The worker carefully lines up the pattern using his long thumb nail to help guide the stamp. The stamping process is all done by men. The temperature is hot and humid in the building. Air conditioning would cause the wax to set up too quickly. Here the man is applying the line design. The scallop design is covered with a stencil to protect it while the lines are applied.

 Special orders can be placed, as you see here, by a Harley-Davidson fan.

Very intricate designs can be made with a combination of stamping and stencils. 

 Motorcycles are used for everything. Here we took a picture of a portable kitchen. The driver can stop and immediately be in business selling his wares. The rule in Indonesia for motorcycles is 5 : 1. That is, it is strictly prohibited to have more than 5 passengers on 1 motorcycle. We saw a young couple with helmets carrying a young child with no protection on their motorcycle.

 You can haul almost anything on your motorcycle. This man was carrying pipes that were about 10 feet long on his head. He would periodically switch the position of his hands.

 These ladies have gathered twigs to use in the wood burning stoves to cook their families meals. That looks like a heavy load to me!! We saw other people carrying feed for their animals. They looked like bushes walking down the road.

 The little girl and her mother posed for us. She was buying one of the brightly colored (dyed) chicks at the market. The chicken cage was on the back of a motorcycle.

 Most of the farm labor is done by hand. Here a man is using a short handled tool to turn over the soil. We saw some of the workers wearing boots like this man. Some of the workers were in flip flops and others wore no shoes.

The farmers clear and terrace the land  before planting. Terracing allows for more land to be farmed. This picture is of a crop other than rice which must be planted in water on flat paddies. The produce from the farms was transported to the market in small trucks. We were amazed at the load that the small trucks could haul. We passed many of them on our way to Mt. Merapi, an active volcano. On our way home we passed the same trucks heading back up the mountain loaded with purchases from the city.

 We saw many of the workers wearing the typical round woven reed hat in the fields.

 This picture shows a man walking through the rice paddy. The fields had various sections with the rice at different staged of development. Here at the equator crops can be planted any day of the year thus allowing for a continuous supply of food.

The farmer is planting rice on November 20.




In between the time of missionary and leader training  on "To Turn the Hearts" and Family Tree we got to do the sight seeing we have talked about. We hope the family history training will help them as they work with their new converts and for the reactivation of members.

It was very humbling to be in Indonesia. There is a large amount of poverty everywhere. The workers in Jakarta were given a raise while we were there that would bring their monthly salary to $228 US a month.

While in Solo we had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament meeting in two of the wards. Of course we spoke on family history and the importance of that work. Tom based his talk on the talk given by Elder Richard G. Scott from conference and Garnalee based her talk on a talk given by President Eyring in 2005 entitled "Hearts Bound Together."

We also met a member of the church who showed us a pedigree chart that went back to Adam. It was from one of the Sultans. If the Indonesian people can tie their ancestry into the royal lines then they can go back at least 700 years and sometimes further. They still have sultans in Indonesia today. Some are just a figure head while others are functioning sultans.

Look for more Indonesian experiences next week.