Don't cry for me, Indonesia!

So today was Indonesia Day in the middle and senior high schools. This meant everyone, 7-12 students and teachers and support staff, was all decked out in traditional costumes. There was a troupe of women from an area salon doing traditional hair and makeup, as well, and since they were set up in my room I decided I'd join in. Turns out I was the only white lady who got hair and makeup done today, and the ladies seemed to have fun playing dress-up with the bule. (Bule=gringo.)

My friend and fellow teacher Yuda also got dressed in a very fancy, very cool Balinese outfit, and her hairdo involved really long extensions, flowers and some sparkly, spiky gold things. The top of her outfit, from what I could tell, involved her getting wound up in a fancy wide ribbon, and that's about it. Yuda's gorgeous to begin with (most Indonesian women are) and she looked so very amazing in her Balinese getup.

My hair and makeup turned out cool enough, although Travis and I discovered once I was all dressed I kind of looked like a politician from the 1940s, some weird Evita-Indonesian hybrid. My Indonesian coworkers and students loved it, though. "Ma'am! You look like Barbie!" Yes, boys and girls, I'm Ethnic Confusion Barbie! The makeup was really thick-kind of like stage makeup, so while uncomfortable it wasn't unbearable. My hair was formed into a nice helmet, cemented into place with all manner of gel, hairspray and scary pins. They pinned a few plumeria (frangipani) flowers in it, too, and they smelled really good.

I spent most of the day mincing about the school in my costume. Those skirts are NOT made for walking. Or sitting. Or breathing. The whole experience overall was lots of fun. Mostly it was fun to see our students dressed up, as well as some of our coworkers. Like I said before, most Indonesian women are absolutely gorgeous, as well as dainty and tiny, so these dainty little costumes looked great on them.

Travis looked very nice, too. He was rather disappointed because he didn't get to carry a real knife (the shop was closed yesterday by the time he got there) but I think he had fun anyway. His drama kids presented their own version of the Ramayana, which was very cool as well.

The only truly strange part of the day came when I was sitting in a chair having makeup plastered onto my face. The woman doing my makeup managed to convey to me through hand gestures and what I like to call Englonesian that one eyebrow was slightly different from the other. She'd been applying some pretty heavy pencil to them, which worried me a bit, but I didn't think to panic when she came at me with what I assumed was a brow brush. No. It was a razor. This tiny, sweet little stranger took a razor and pretty much shaved off half of my left eyebrow. Luckily it was part of the outer half, but still!

Living in Indonesia, with all its ups and downs, at least almost always guarantees an interesting answer to, "So what have you been doing lately?"