Mum's big bath

On Friday the 7th of September mum did something very strange! She stripped to her underwear, wrapped herself in a sarong and was bathed in front of our house in full view of a big crowd of spectators!

This event is the Sundanese version of a baby shower called a tujuh bulanan (7 months celebration). Basically this is what happened. Our helpers, along with some of our neighbors, spent the whole day cooking and preparing food for the neighbors like fried chicken (ayam goreng) and yellow rice (nasi kuning) and a special food called rujak, which is a mixture of seven types of vegetables which are sweet, sour, hot, and salty in flavour.

The event started about 3:30 in the afternoon and was lead by a local lady who is called a praraji (a traditional midwife). Mum had to go into the bathroom and come out wrapped in a sarong, she tried to wear a t-shirt, but they sent her back in the toilet to take the t-shirt off. Mum also invited some teachers from language school who have experience in this type of thing. One of them gave a short talk from Psalm 139 and another prayed for mum, they seemed quite well received by all the people who are not believers. They also helped mum avoid some of the rituals which we were not too sure about. One involves a little mirror, a piece string, and a little knife all used to ward off evil spirits - mum didn't do that part.

We then went out the front of our house where mum sat on a little stool and a whole crowd of people surrounded our little house. She then had water poured on her seven times by seven different people, and the water had been collected from seven different wells in the area. Dad gave her the first washing, and then mum had to put on a new sarong. When she had a new sarong on, someone else washed her until she had been washed by 7 people and had changed the sarong 7 times. The water was mostly warm, until the last one where she was washed in cold water that contained 7 types of flowers of seven colours and the water also contained a fish! Dad was meant to catch the fish but he wasn't quick enough! The idea is that the birth will be something like a slimy fish - smooth!

After all the washings mum went inside to get dried up a bit and then dad had to chop a coconut with a machete. Dad had to draw a face of either a boy or a girl on the coconut and then chop in one go! After all this we sold the rujak to all the children and visitors, they loved it! After all that we ate dinner together. It was an amazing experience, I can't wait to meet my little adik (Indo term for younger sibling).