Bill and Sue-On Hillman: A 50-Year Travel Odyssey

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HILLMAN INDONESIA ADVENTURE
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13. Village and Batuk House Visit

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Peeling and drying coffee beans. These are destined for local consumption.

Village water supply. Everyone collects water for drinking, washing from this tank.
These people were doing laundry

Our guide demonstrates the birthing position!
Birth is not allowed IN the house.
At the door, there are boards with handhold holes.
The woman sits at the step in front of the door, holds onto the boards to give birth.
She is surrounded by the midwife, other female members, and a special curtain.

Traditional buffalo head decorates the Batuk houses.
It has no jaw, nose, or gender.
It functions as a welcome as well as an indicator that the people will also fight an intruder.
A traditional Dokan Village sign.
Lizards are traditional decor outside.
When something dangerous tries to come into the house, it will eat the lizard instead.

Our guide invited us into the Batuk house where his grandparents live

Ceiling Storage Areas


Ventilation
Grandfather and Grandmother
100-year-old grandfather trying out a cigarette given to him by one of our group.
He did not like it as it is menthol.
Grandmother, +80 years, is the second wife after the first one died.
She prepares her tobacco chew


TYING THE HEADDRESS
Grandma demonstrates the forming of a traditional headdress.
She first ties her long scarf around her head, then gathers the long piece, rolls it around a newspaper.
This forms a flat carrier on her head, to carry everything easier.
Because she has no teeth, she then uses a special mortor and pestle to break down the beetle nut.

The family's sleeping quarters.
The area at the front is like a livingroom, with an area for cooking between "apartments"

The "Widow's Apt. This was one of the 8 apartments, each about 25 meters square.
Girls from age 14 - 16 sleep in this area with the widow.
In return, they fetch her water supply from the town centre, and do various chores.
She in turn keeps then safe. The boys sleep outside, often in a town square.
The woman bit off pieces from a betel nut, wrapped it in three betel leaves with some tobacco, then stuffed it into her mouth.
Momma and her baby. She's got a big wad of beetle leaf and beetle nut in her mouth.
Once a woman marries, she is EXPECTED to chew beetle nut. We haven't found out why yet, other than that the stained teeth are beautiful?
The kitchen between two "apartments."
All utensils and what-nots are stored in the shelves above the fire.

One of the women cooking something...

 

The high ceiling of the house
There are platforms for crop storage - corn, rice, tobacco, and firewood.
It provides entilation at the top for the smoke from the cook fires.


Our group in the guide's grandparents apartment


Leaving the village, our local guide, and the ice cream vendor



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Bill and Sue-On Hillman