Tunjuk

One of our Master teachers invited us to his home village, Tunjuk, to see a performance and meet his family. It wasn't too long of a drive but I felt motion sick all the time. When we arrived, we went to the village's pondok and we had delicious snacks!! The men played about 5 pieces, that our master composed, and they were contemporary pieces that reflected traditional sounds that also blended what he'd collected on his journey around the world. They were really incredible.
After the performances, he lead us to his family compound, which was huge and was shared by 15 families! Who all lived there not because they couldn't afford their own place, but because they wanted to be close to each other. Even more amazing was the lunch that the women of the family prepared for us. I was in heaven. The family was incredibly generous and we couldn't thank them enough.
After lunch, we headed over to the rice fields for a walk. It was truly incredible. I think that was one of the main highlights of trip. It really makes you appreciate and eat every grain of rice in your bowl when you know the work that went into harvesting it.
The hike was very long as the rice fields were expansive, but we eventually made our way to the town's temple that was nestled into a patch of the forest. The temple was beautiful and had this magical air to it. We were blessed and said a prayer in the temple. Unfortunately I got into a little altercation with another group member and that dampened the day a bit. Some people have no brought-upsy. Any way, after prayer we walked over to a slightly open area where some of the family and gamelan members were waiting for us, playing music and preparing fresh coconut for us. We watched a cock fight (no animals were hurt, its ok) and drank and ate our coconut :). One of the little girls even danced for us, it was adorable. I was really surprised how underexposed alot of the group members were, since most of them had never had fresh coconut before. I'm always greatful for my up bringing; it comes in handy even in southeast asia, which i honestly think was alot like Jamaica anyway.