{"id":6848,"date":"2019-12-23T04:06:38","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T04:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=6848"},"modified":"2019-12-23T05:13:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T05:13:36","slug":"selamat-hari-natal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=6848","title":{"rendered":"Selamat Hari Natal!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Happy Christmas from Indonesia!  It\u2019s going to be a new and different experience for us this year, and despite not being able to have the company of our loved ones we\u2019re determined to make the most of it and embrace our new experience of a Raja Ampat Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We make a trip to the nearby island of Arborek to see how the locals celebrate. Whilst Sorong and Waisai are definitely multi-cultural and multi-faith, the majority of local Papuans who live on the islands of Raja Ampat are devoutly Christian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The island of Arborek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The juxtaposition of new technology and traditional village life<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Toucan and Jams at anchor off Arborek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Traditional Papuan carving <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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They like visitors here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The shrine to the early evangelical missionaries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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local kids at play<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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But how do you celebrate Christmas on a tropical island? With ingenuity of course, and some clever recycling ideas.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How’s this for a clever use of plastic bottles?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Without a ready supply of Christmas trees, the traditional Papuan christmas decoration is a nativity manger, built by each household in their front yard.  They come in all shapes and styles, from the humble to the truly ostentatious and there\u2019s obviously a significant competitive element, much like the Christmas light displays back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There’s your traditional thatched manger…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The basic but sturdy..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The colourful..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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the funky complete with boombox…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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going up in the world..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Surely this one needs a building permit.. we could almost live here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And if you can\u2019t get christmas lights? Well, just make your own out of recycled plastic cups!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s a pretty island with well-swept paths and fences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The main Street of Arborek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The jetty – good snorkelling and diving under here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve also been hearing traditional drumming emanating from the local village across the water on Gam Island. It starts about 8pm and finishes around midnight, every night.  That\u2019s a lot of drumming! I\u2019ve yet to find a local who can tell me the significance and whether it\u2019s part of the Christmas festivities, but hopefully the mystery will be revealed soon. We\u2019re not complaining mind you, it all adds to the atmosphere of a tropical, exotic Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re now anchored at Frewin Island where we can get some internet to call home on Christmas day – and hopefully watch the start of the Sydney-Hobart on Boxing Day.  There\u2019s a few other cruising boats here, so it\u2019s a safe bet that there\u2019ll be a gathering or two on the beach over the next couple of days!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re truly blessed to have so many friends and family scattered around the world, and we\u2019re so glad to be able to share our adventures with you via this blog. Thank you for reading, and from Toucan to you, we send you all our very best wishes for a merry and peaceful Christmas and a truly spectacular 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Toucan’s in the festive spirit – but will Santa find us??!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Christmas from Indonesia!  It\u2019s going to be a new and different experience for us this year, and despite not being able to have the company of our loved ones we\u2019re determined to make the most of it and embrace our new experience of a Raja Ampat Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-svtoucan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6B46t-1Ms","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6848"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6879,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6848\/revisions\/6879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}