A Walk in Cilacap

Beached boat

Landon and I try to keep a semblance of a schedule wherever we go, but it is very loose. Here in Cilacap, there is not much to do, so we walk/run in the morning for exercise. As I go I am scoping out interesting things to see and places for Landon to play trucks in the dirt- but less trashy dirt. Here are some recent gems taken along the way... 

Mini bat and tennis ball on the ground= modified golf

On my way to the west side of the island I found a soccer field with shady spots! I let Landon out to play, and then noticed that there were school kids doing PE on the other end of the field. Several ran over to our side of the field to play with Landon, and Landon ended up stealing and playing with most of the equipment they had. I always feel bad disrupting school classes, but it seems that these soccer fields are the only open, relatively clean places to play in the whole city, so I think it is only fair that we share them. It isn't my fault that my baby is blond and everyone wants to touch him! 

The school kids went crazy when I got out my phone. I'm always hesitant to randomly take pictures of people without asking, so I was just taking pictures of Landon playing with the mini bat. Then they asked to be in the pictures, and then everyone mobbed Landon and was squishing in to be in the picture. All the pictures ended up good- capturing the wonder that occurs when a white, blond toddler comes to town

These sweet girls made sure the boys didn't play too rough

Group shot. The teacher has the green cap on. The boy front and center was the one that initiated contact with us. 

The PE teacher spoke some English and asked where we were from and what we were doing in Cilacap. Two really good questions. He translated for the kids, and the kids spoke some English with me, mostly "Hello, Mister!" and things of that sort. All kids/teenagers here get giggly around me and everything is so funny- especially English. What I don't know is if they are just making fun of us in Indonesian. Oh well. This class/school seemed to be a religious school, but I'm not sure about that. I know that is was very hot outside and there they were trying to play with long sleeves and pants on. And those girls in their head wear! I feel for them, but admire them for their religious convictions and faith.

Pop-up wedding

On this particular day, I wanted to go west towards the side of Cilacap that faces an island that is separated from mainland Java by a river. I just wanted to see the river and whatever else was on that side of the city. As we got further west, there were less and less commercial businesses and more houses. I was stopped several times by people asking where I was going. They were surprised to hear that I was just walking for the fun of it to see the river. Anyway, about halfway there, I came upon a tent in the middle of the road. I had seen these around quite a bit, but this time I took a picture of it. There are very few indoor venues for weddings and those spaces are expensive for people to rent out, so many wedding celebrations occur in these tents. They just put up signs telling people to drive on the other side of the street, and have their party right in the middle of the road!

I'm not sure what this building used to be, but it was a cool looking building with all the banana trees out front. There is kind of a sense of decay here where older buildings are just abandoned and left to crumble. In fact I have seen many buildings that are just rubble heaps all around town.