Every year the 11th grade students at my school take a trip about 3 hours from Serpong (where our school is located) to a rural village. The village is surrounded by mountains and breathtaking rice fields. The temperature is much cooler here than where our school is. This was the first time I was cold in Indonesia--at night I wore a sweater!
119 students and 17 teachers went on the homestay for 3 days and 2 nights. This homestay is part of our school's community outreach. Our school doctor and nurse came with us and offered a free health clinic to the villagers of Tajur. All day long, the villagers came and were checked out by the nurse and doctor and received any medication or vitamins they need. While this was occurring, the students organized bags of food and snacks to give to the villagers. They also collected clothes from students at school and sold them to the people for low prices.
This village is amazingly beautiful and the people are so nice and friendly. This is considered to be a more traditional village where traditional food and drink are made on a daily basis. All the food that is cooked takes a lot of time and preparation. It was all really delicious!
Enjoy the photos!
Four coach buses took us all to the village. We drove through Jakarta which was filled with traffic (as usual) then made our way to the village. Once we got closer to the village the roads got smaller and smaller and it was a little nerve-wracking squeezing past motorbikes, cars, and other buses on such narrow roads.
Ohh the lovely Jakarta traffic. 
We passed another bus full of students on the highway and we wrote notes back and forth to each other.. and in English!
My bus full of girls so thrilled to be going off campus for a few days! 
Our buses could only take us so far. The buses dropped us off at a school and we walked up many hills to get to the village.Below are some students and women from the village making the traditional call of the village. The wooden poles are pounded into a hollowed out wooden trough, and different tempos and beats are played for announcements.
Below are some houses in the village. 
Below are some saungs--they are used for leisure time napping, as well as doing crafts.
Below you can see some mountains in the background!
Below is the garden in the yard of the head of the village's house (who is a woman--she was elected)
The students are being welcomed by the head of the village.
Below is a picture of the food and drinks welcoming us to the village (we stayed at the head of the village's house!)
Below is one of the bedrooms.
This is the main room where we ate all of our delicious meals.
The security guard smoking a cigarette. 
The start of a hike through the rice fields and mountains : )
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