Blend of Different Cultures!!!

Trip to Tana Toraja - Blend of Different Cultures!!!

16 Mar - 5.30 PM we start our trip from Makassar to Tana Toraja.
10 people in the group - All from diffrent regions of the world, coming from the unique cultues in which they have grown and now joined hands as one team as one extended family to be in the place which they must have never thought, dreamt of and now are going for their first weekend trip to see a world famous tradition which cannot be seen anywhere.For sure, each one of the team member is different with the uniquness in its own way but there is some similarity and as said by Tom - Similarity of thinking somewhat similar coz we all are IBMers.
All set ready for the trip, packed with clothes, drinks, eatables, medicines and etcccc.........All taken care of by one or the other. We have our Tour Guide - Oola (Ulla) - name sounds to the famous song of The Dirty Picture - Ollaah Ollaah...Got our maps and an explanation from Oolah about the tradition of Tana Toraja.The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 650,000, of which 450,000 still live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja").Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors"). The word toraja comes from the Bugis language's to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.
Along with the description of the Tana Toraja from Oolah, our team was having KFC(liked by all, cant comment much, as I have no idea about it), drinks. As we move along with our jokes and pulling each others leg, the journey was getting more and more interesting. Vivek, Arun and myself explained to all about the different head movements of Indians:When asked the direct questions -->Up and Down movement of head generally indicates 'Yes' ; Side to side - 'NO' and most special one is for 'Ok', 'Yes', 'I understand' , 'I agree with you' or 'Acknowledgment' is usually the head 'rocking movement' or kind of slight movement of head with the tilted axis along with the eyes talking which is hard to explain. I understand. We gave some demonstrations of the same. Maybe by the end of the month all of us will be rotating our head in some way. By the way I had read about this Indian Head Movement and I used to laugh that why do people do like this and feel that I don't do it but actually realized that its common in India so nobody made me realize that I also do the same and now when I answer something and Sabine gets confused wether its yes or no, I got it that I am also one of the Indians rotating my head. But the session was good. Next was, we discussed about dances, drinks, some other gestures around the world. Cheryl slept in between, pics taken. Javier slept. then a Toilet Break where Jess took the pics and added to her list of 'Different Types of Toilets'. Dinner time. Good dinner and now a pet questions which me and my team has to ask when we sit to eat something 'Excuse Me - Is this Veg, I mean - No chicken, No fish, No meat, No birds, No bear, No crab, no prawn, No shrimps etccc...' and this is repeated and checked 2-3 times, if there is some veggie food for me. Thanks to my team who help me to check it out.
Sabine's birthday song at 12 in English n German.Back to bus, in between the toilet breaks, trying to sleep or just lie down, chatting about the crazy moments of life, pics of different poses while sleeping and finally reaching the hotel in Tana Toraja at 3.30.
Long drive, but was good.Hotel was good, room was also good and goodnight.. :)

17th March - Breakfast time - It was good. As usual - Bread Butter jam for me.Till others got ready, I had a photo session. Special Thanks to Marcelo for the photo sessions I had and I suppose Thanks to my whole team, as I like taking pics and everybody helps me in that with either iphone, cameras. Thanks all!! and I like it... :))
Now we get back to the bus, and reach the village to see the boat shape houses and the hanging graves. People here give lots n lots of value to death. After a person's death, the body is kept — often for several years — while money is saved to pay for the actual funeral ceremony, known as tomate. During the festival, which may last up to a week, ritual dances and buffalo fights are held, and buffaloes and pigs are slaughtered to ferry the soul of the deceased to the afterlife (puya). The deceased is then finally buried either in a small cave, often with a tau-tau effigy placed in front, inside a hollow tree or even left exposed to the elements in a bamboo frame hanging from a cliff. We actually went to a home, which had a dead body of his mother (old lady) who died 3 months back and her funeral will take place in July. I said to somebody that why do they keep the body for so long, doesnt it remind of that person and makes you feel more sad that he is not there any more. I suppose, we cannot smile or feel sad seeing all this. This was something wherein you cannot comment that what this feeling in actual as I say - No Comment Situation. We all saw Baby Graves as in the baby who dies before their teeth come out. They are just put in the tree and covered so that the mother earth takes back the child and takes care of him/her.
To talk about Tana Toraja --> It has unique culture set in stunning scenery. Globalisation and tourism may have impact, but if we venture away from the tarmac roads we will find soon a way of life that has not changed much in the last 100 years.
My personal perpecive --> Its very different and I understand, this is the culture, tradition which is still intact and alive and thats good but not sure, if I liked this way of living and dying or not but yep, got to see something different which I never heard of it. Did a bit of shopping. Cheryl loves shopping. Good Photo Sessions with the things from the shops. Armour of Jess, Masks and different other things worn by each one of us. We all had just one thing to say while returning back. It was a good trip and a memorable one to be remembered forever.Back to hotel and inspite of being tired all of us were on the pool. Some in the pool and some outside the pool. I feel sad that I dont know swimming and cant go inside but we had fun. We started with the Yoga. Tom, Marcelo, Jess, Vivek , Arun tried 2-3 steps of the yoga in the pool. Ruth, Sabine and myself were outside and doing the same. We did some of the asans - Suryanamskar, Pranyams, Omkar etcc...We all liked it. It was good to do Yoga beside the pool. Next was dances of each country. Sabine taught us Austrian dance and Marcelo said that after he goes to Brazil - he will go for Early Morning Jogging and will do the Austrian Dance.Then we had Boogy Woogy from Vivek, Snobs and something of Phillipines from Ruth, Samba and Cuppaware from Marcelo and finally the Chicken Dance with the advanced level. We still have to work out the strategy how to do the last step of the same. Body was aching but we all enjoyed and this can never be forgotten. And now, here comes the evening dinner - special for our Sabine - Happy bday sweetheart. She was looking like an angel. All smiles. Tom got her some special drink(sorry again - don't know the name). Her special cake. Thankgod we found one, I was really afraid, if we would be able to get one there. Her gift which Ruth got in Makassar. Cap - Candles , Live Song from the Hotel. This was a lovely birthday. We all just hoped that she enjoyed and far away from her home, wished that she did not missed anything. As she said, she loved everything. 24 hours of Happy bday.. :) God bless her with all the smiles.Its almost 9.30 PM. We all are tired but wait, its still not goodnight for us...We get back to the lounge. Some of us having the drinks and here its starts the 'Very Very Hot Seat' Program. Something from each one's life was shared. Inspite of coming from different cultures, different regions of the world, maybe different religions, but there is the similarity in all of us. Feelings are the same all over the world, craving to enjoy the life, to smile, to cry is the same whosoever you are, what so ever you are, where-ever you are. Life needs to be lived and enjoyed. I was thinking, we all are different and we need to be different as all can't be same, different perspective of life, situations, how to tackle the same and here we are together on this assignment to get the one output. Inspite of these differences, just wish that all of us become good friends forever and we will. Would love to be in touch with all even after this assignment gets over. I am sure, we all will change after this assignment - maybe in one way or the other as in way of our thinking, way of our doing things, way of our looking at the things, to do the things. Will change for sure and for good.
Amercians, Europeans, Mexicans, Brazilians, Asians - We all are One!!!
Finally back to room to sleep. Get up in the morning. Breakfast and finally the back home journey. We were tired but still could not stop our pranks and games. Songs, Dances, drinks, pics of sleeping poses, dressing up of Javier while he was asleep - (We had necklace, bangles, small guitar played for him, banana, cap, fan placed over him - Javier was looking cute), different discussions ( I had with Javier over India as he plans to come down for one of his trips - I hope he comes), toilet breaks, lunches, etcc.....Finally in the hotel at 6 PM. All dead tired. No idea, what happened after that, if anybody went out for dinner or something, I was sleeping. But, now saw the pics and posts. I suppose, all of us were back to our college days and maybe this whole month we are college students-trying to live back that life again.One week gone. 3 more weeks left. Not sure, if this is less or more. I am enjoying it. ' I Like it'.

Only word I have is 'Awesome Trip'.