The first fieldtrip of the course started early. At 8h the participants were ont heir way to Puton Village, where they were greeted with traditional singing and playing of instruments before they embarked on cycling tour, with typical Indonesians bikes known as “ontel”, around the village.
Puton was one of the villages which was most impacted by the 2006 earthquake. The water pond the students were in front of was the center of the earthquake, the cracks it left were filled by water. Because they had a limited early warning system, approximately 90% of houses were damaged.
The government gave the community 15 million rupiahs to rebuild houses that were destroyed and now, instead of being constructed with wood and bamboo they have iron and bricks. From all the houses that were damaged by the earthquake in 2006, only 5 still need to be rebuilt.
Every house in Puton is equipped with a conventional early warning system, known as kentongan, and it is used when the earthquake is happening by all the houses – this tool is made by the community for the community.
The group then made a cultural stop to learn how “tempe” – a popular Indonesian snack with fermented soy – are made and attempted to make one of their own, the results will be seen tomorrow.
Continuing the tour through the village, an old Javanese style house was visited. As a way to make them more resilient to earthquakes, the wood structure from the house “sways” preventing the house from crumbling down.
The participant then had a well-deserved break with some traditional Javanese music and delicious Indonesian snacks – with the tastier “bakwan jagung” I have ever tasted, some boiled peanuts and some “es tee”.
The head of the village then welcomed the students and very humbly apologized for any inconvenience to our program – there were none and everyone had a lovely visit.
The welcome speech was followed by an introduction from the students, telling them their names, where they were from and from which university they were coming from.
At 12h there was a lively discussion about the earthquake and its remaining effects, where we learned that before the earthquake, 150 households used to live under the poverty line. However, after the earthquake, with all the programs for building resilience for the community – like diversifying livelihoods, one of the measures we have seen in yesterday’s lectures – now only about 50 families are living with poverty, so the quality of life has actually improved for the families in the village.
The group then had a lunch break with some amazing typical food and desert. After some rest, a few of the students were invited to try and play some of the typical Javanese instruments – all I can say about this is: 6, 5, 2, 1 – I guess you had to be there to understand this one.
The student’s next stop was the Parangtritis Geomaritime Science Park (PGSP) Activity, in the Bantul region. The park was created to become a leading institute in research and development, training, consultancy, laboratory and special interest tours.
The group watched a short film explaining the different coastal features of the Bantul region, where, among its many interesting facts, it was explained that the origin for the black sand beaches are actually dust from the Merapi volcano.
After the video, the group continued the visit through the museum where there were some exhibitions of special technical machinery.
The visit ended with sand boarding for a few of the students who decided to try the sport on a sand dune inside the science park.
The organizing committee had a great treat for the students, Pantai Cemara! One of the jewels of Jogja, a stunning black sand beach that took the breath away of all the participants. There were games being played in commemoration of Indonesia’s independence day and a whole lot of sunset pictures. The students bonded over photo-shoots and typical games from their own home country. It was an amazing way to end the day and I’m sure it will be engraved in everyone’s memory as such.