Wow, what a day, what a days!!! So many impressions! I don’t even know where to start with! The schooldays can be very long, for a start. The seats are not very comfortable on the long run. Especially not when it is a whole day and you have had not much sleep. I don’t sleep a lot. Last night, I went to bed about two o’ clock and that is not an exception. It is so interesting to talk with people and exchange how things go in their country and in ours. It really makes me think about how things are in the Netherlands. I talked, for example, with someone about how we deal with family and with the elderly in the Netherlands He asked me if I thought the way we deal with that is alarming. This question has made me think.

Actually, it is like this: people seem to be too much busy with their independence and autonomy and forget about each other. It brings certain loneliness with it. It is the reversal of being “rich and free”, I think. However, we can ask ourselves how rich and free we really are but that is a different discussion. Therefore, I got another question about how it comes that the Netherlands deal with immigrants and Muslims the way we do. It forced me to think about it well, because you have to explain it right as well. The other way around; I asked questions about how Uganda look to the western and how it works with arranged marriage in India. We can ask each other thousand questions, and more! We live in such different worlds.

The 15^th of July we went for an excursion to Prambanan, a Hindu temple. It was very beautiful, even though there has been an earthquake that ruined a big part of it. The guide, who led us spoke, surprisingly, very good Dutch, like more Indonesians do. After a while, we thought he had run away, because we were too slow and didn’t stay together as a group. We assume we drove him crazy. After we saw the temple, we went for dinner in a very nice restaurant with a spectacular view at the temple, a fairytale atmosphere and good food.

Then, we went to the Ramayana ballet. Because my name is Ramaya, I felt like I have to write this part. It was amazing! The atmosphere was beautiful; we sat in an outdoor theatre and the lights, sounds, costumes and of course the dance gave a magical effect. An Indian participant gave us subtitled information and explained the parts we didn’t fully understand.

Finally, the best of today was, in my opinion, that the group has been brought closer together. We went out in the sun, saw beautiful things and it was less formal then sitting in a classroom. The mood was relaxed and friendly and we laughed a lot. We, or at least I, have had a very good day. What more can I say about it, except that I feel blessed being part of this whole experience. I’ve got the chance to see al this beautiful things, meet this beautiful people and learn about interesting subjects.

Ramaya Soe-Agnie
the Netherlands