The Broom Under my Pillow and Indonesian Showers

This posts is the first part one of an ongoing series called "Amusing Anecdotes from Indonesia." 

There's a broom under my pillow, and I slept with it there, because I didn't know what else to do. This morning I asked my instructor what the broom was for, and several other students chimed in that they'd encountered bedroom brooms as well. According to guru Mbak Nissa, Indonesians dust off their beds and smooth the sheet with a broom. Who knew?

I say "the sheet" because Indonesians don't use top sheets, and they mostly don't use blankets. On my bed, I found a fitted sheet and a thin striped blanket folded at the foot of my bed. They do use body pillows. I haven't figured out how, so I left my body pillow on the floor for the night. I hope that wasn't a major error.

In addition, there's a flag hanging on the wall above my bed. I'm pretty sure my host family thinks it's an American flag, but it isn't. My guess is New Zealand, maybe? 

The Ibu Attack

My first story occurred the afternoon of June 11th. Following a grueling first day of classes and painfully staggered conversations with my peer tutors, I landed in the home of a completely unfamiliar host family that spoke nearly no English. After hiding in my room for an hour, too nervous to try and talk to my family, I texted a few other students to ask if they'd like to go to the mall near campus. I needed to get supplies to make flashcards, since I'd acquired about two hundred words to memorize in class. I grabbed my bag, went downstairs, and told my Ibu I was meeting some friends to go to the mall. 

Of course that didn't work. My Ibu did not want me to leave the house alone. Even though I'd already told one friend I was on my way, Ibu insisted on walking me to the house where my other mall friend was staying. When we arrived, I discovered her Ibu had made her take a shower, so we sat on the couch for twenty minutes waiting for her to finish the mandi. Only then were we permitted to go to the mall, after Ibu's daughter walked us to find our third companion, who had nearly despaired of us ever showing up. He hadn't had a problem getting out of the house, but I suppose that's the benefit of being male in Indonesia...

Kamar Mandi (Bathroom)

Indonesian bathrooms generally include two fixtures: a squat toilet and a square, deep water basin. Some might have a sink, some a western toilet, and some an actual shower, but rarely will you find all three. How do these rooms work?You do whatever you need to, and you scoop water from the deep water basin, called the mandi, with an obliging utinisil about the size and shape of a four-cup glass measuring cup and pour the water on the floor or over yourself to clean up. Drains pockmark the floor, but nonetheless the puddles on the floor never seem to dry (other things that don't dry in Indonesia: my hair, goldfish crackers, paper, underwear hand-washed in the mandi, and socks I accidentally wore into the kamar mandi before I knew how this worked). 

Luckily, my mandi has a toilet, though toilet paper is not provided in the mandi. Cue confusion number one: do I clean up from the mandi? Confusion number two: Where do you spit when you brush your teeth? The drain on the floor? My American brain can't handle that. My first night, they gave me a cup of water when I went to bed, and I brushed my teeth in that, because I couldn't figure out where else to do it.

My first Indonesian shower was a pleasant experience. Though the water was cold, it didn't stay on me for very long, and it felt refreshing in the Indonesian heat. I also felt very environmentally responsible; I probably used only eight cups of water in the whole shower. Go me! But I still have this cup of toothpaste water in my room...What am I going to do about that?