Making batik

We had another fun outing with some friends this week.  We went to make batik!  From wikipdia . . . batik "is a technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to whole cloth, or cloth made using this technique. Batik is made either by drawing dots and lines of the resist with a spouted tool called a canting (Javanese pronunciation: [ʈ͡ʂantiŋ], also spelled tjanting), or by printing the resist with a copper stamp called a cap (Javanese pronunciation: [ʈ͡ʂap], also spelled tjap). The applied wax resists dyes and therefore allows the artisan to colour selectively by soaking the cloth in one colour, removing the wax with boiling water, and repeating if multiple colours are desired."

So, we went to a store that makes batik and lets us ordinary people make it, too.

We started off by picking out some stamps.  We could have hand drawn the designs, but we chose the stamps.

The guys did the outline for the kids.

But they let the kids do their own center designs.  Now, by "let," I mean that the workers dipped it in the hot wax, put it on the cloth, but let the kids press it down.  Then the workers redid it.  Not much work from the kids, but they enjoyed picking out their stamps and watching.

I'm not exactly sure what happened in the next few steps.  This lady put the cloth in several different buckets and it came out a different color each time.  It went through orange, brown, and blue before it was finally finished.

So interesting!

The cloth then got dipped in some boiling water to get all the wax off.

We handed it off to another lady to iron (in order to dry it).   Somehow I lost the picture of the lady sewing up the edges for us.  She used an old timey sewing machine.  I'm not even sure it was electric.

Finished results.

Maundy Thursday and Easter

A Maundy Thrusday Seder dinner is one of my favorite nights of the year.  The kids really look forward to it, too.  This year, Paisley said, "I can't wait for that night when we get to drink juice, turn all the lights off, and God gives us all that food!"  Sweet girl!  I like it because it is a time to remember our past and our spiritual heritage.  Some of our students were a bit confused as to why we were celebrating a Jewish tradition, but it's a tradition that Jesus practiced.  It's a tradition that dates back to our spiritual forefathers.  It's a tradition for the Christian faith, too.  We need to remember how the Israelites fled from the Egyptians and how God provided for them.  So, in our house, we celebrate the Passover.

This year, our Seder dinner had a little Indonesian flair.  If you remember a post from a few weeks ago, I mentioned a meal that we had at a swim party for one of Paisley's friends.  The moms got together and put out the meal on banana leaves.  We all sat around and ate with our hands out of the communal "buffet."  That's what we did the Thursday of Holy Week at our house.  We placed the traditional Passover foods among a traditional Indonesian meal.  I have to say, it was just about perfect!

Lucky for me, several girls (and guys) arrived early and helped me set out the food.  Paisley enjoyed sitting right along side of them putting out the different parts of the dinner.

One of my favorite parts of the evening is washing the hands of those who come to eat with us.  As we wash each hand, I silently say a prayer for each one.

 Michael led the traditional readings and I read the "mother" role.  The kids had fun searching for the hidden bread with leaven in the house.

 It was a wonderful night!

 

Easter morning was a bit of a "mom fail."  The Easter Bunny didn't bring Easter treats and we didn't dye any Easter eggs.  I don't think the kids missed the Easter Bunny since he doesn't visit any of their friends' houses.  And I really did plan on dying Easter eggs, but I forgot to buy white eggs.  Most of the ones here are brown and I have to go to a different grocery store to buy white ones.  However, we did go to the Hyatt and attend a little Easter party there.  It was nice because we got to eat the buffet and the kids got to participate in some Easter activities.  

This is a picture of all of us at the Easter party.

After we ate, the kids went on an Easter egg hunt.  Woah!  This was one tough hunt.  As I mentioned above, the eggs here are brown.  So, they were searching for brown eggs, in the bushes, in the dirt, around a bunch of brown leaves.  Not so easy!  There were only 40 total eggs and about 20 kids.   

(disclaimer: they did have an egg hunt at their English Sunday School that morning and they both found lots of plastic eggs filled with candy)

This was the look on Truett's face when he realized he probably wasn't going to find any eggs.  There were just too many kids and not enough eggs! 

 

 Although we didn't get to dye eggs, the Hyatt took care of us and had the kids color eggs with markers.  I think they might have had more fun doing it this way, actually.  And, the next day, I had some good boiled eggs to make an egg salad.

 You can tell that he was more excited about coloring the eggs than hunting for the eggs.

What a sweetheart!  She was probably talking to that worker in Indonesian.  Both kids have really started using the Indonesian language a lot lately.  We're proud of them! 

 

Finally, you get your Easter pictures.  What a couple of cute kids!

 You have to do some silly pictures in order to get some good ones!

 We finished the day off at our international church.  The kids sang a special song for the congregation.  Afterwards, we had a potluck and Paisley played on the piano with one of her friends.

He is risen!

His is risen indeed!