We completed our two Christian Countries for Christianity, Vatican City, and Brazil, and so we've moved on to our countries for the world's second most practiced religion: Islam.
Indonesia is the 4th most populous country in the world, and has the more Muslims than any other country.
The basics of Indonesia for you:
With over 18,000 islands, Indonesia is the largest archipelago (group of islands) country in the world. Some of the famous ones are Bali (known for it's beaches and a pretty impressive kite festival), Borneo (the very first Survivor was played on the 'wildest' island), Sumatra (the largest island), Sulawesi (the most mountainous), and Java (the most populous).
The number of islands even depend on the tide, as some disappear at high tide, and return at low tide. Obviously people don't live on the 'tidal islands', but it is a fun little tidbit.
To that point, only about 6,000 of the islands are inhabited, but about 240 million people live on those islands. The only countries with more people: China, India, and the USA. (And fun fact: Indonesia is on pace to overtake the US and become the 3rd most populous country by 2044.)
A country since 1602, the capital is Jakarta, and the official language is Indonesian. But, don't let that fool you, there are over 300 different ethnic groups on the islands, and they all have their own language, and customs (and food!)
The flag might look familiar if you know your world flags, it's pretty much exactly the same as Monaco. Some say the shade of red is slightly different. But, they are both half red, half white.
Indonesia is home to a fair share of volcanoes, and on August 27, 1883 at 10:02 AM the biggest eruption the planet had ever experienced occurred, when the Krakatoa volcano erupted. This eruption goes down in history as the world's loudest sound. It is said it ruptured eardrums of people 40 miles away. The sound of the eruption circled the earth four times, and could be heard clearly over 3,000 miles away. You could lit rally hear the eruption in New York City. Between the explosion and the ensuing tsunami, it killed over 36,000 people. Google it if you're interested, it's pretty crazy to read about it and it's effects on the world.
Anyway, our landmark isn't so much a landmark. We could have used the Borobudur Mahayana, it's the largest Buddhist Temple in the world, but we were doing Indonesia for Islam so I didn't want to confuse the boys. So, we used the endemic wildlife.
Known as the lost world of Asia, Indonesia has more unique species of mammals, birds, and butterflies than anywhere else in the world. Orangutans, man's smartest relatives, live on Sumatra and Borneo, and nowhere else in the world. And of course, the Komodo dragon, the planet's largest lizard (at 10 feet long), live only on a few small islands in the southeast.
The islands have so many quirky animals, they could make their own Pixar Movie. There's the fiesty dwarf buffalo, the timid tailless monkey, and the night life loving civet. Those civits (cat like animals), are also responsible for 'kopi luwak', the most expensive and rarest coffee in the world. The coffee beans are eaten by the civet, then pooped out and collected to turn into coffee. (I admittedly skipped my afternoon coffee after teaching the boys this one).
Like I said, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, but only about 87% of Indonesians are Muslim (There's seriously A LOT of people who live in Indonesia).
But Islam is the 2nd most practiced religion, with about 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. It's our second Abrahamic religion (there are three, but Judaism won't be for awhile yet), going back to Abraham and his descendants. The Quran mentions a lot of the same people we know from the Bible: Jesus, Moses, Noah, ect. It's just different how they are viewed.
Like I said it my last blog, we aren't religious here, and we aren't raising the boys in any religion. For us, religions aren't about one being 'right', it's just about what you choose to believe, and what is right for you. And we think the boys should choose what they believe as they become adults. I think ultimately at their core, religions are all pretty much the same (at least the one's were talking about in this unit). They all teach love and peace for one another, it's just what stories you root your faith in, with different practices and traditions. I think the world would do well to remember that.
In explaining this peaceful religion, in which you only use violence in your defense, we made sure to stress to Hayden that 'Islamic Extremists' aren't representative of Muslims at all (for the millionth time, we did just have 'Banned Countries week after all), rather just using the religion as an excuse. (Calib and Peyton have a better grasp about what's going on in the world, as they should as their age)
In all honesty, I don't know much about Islam, and I was really hoping we could go to the open house at the Mosque in Teampa that had been held the past few years at the end of February. But, sadly, this year, there is no open house. I sincerely hope that isn't a result of anything other than scheduling problems.
But I did do a little research. The boys can now tell you the five pillars of Islam, a very brief summary of Sunni's and Shiites; they know about praying towards Mecca and pilgrimages to the Ka'ba.
Since the Quaran is traditionally read in Arabic, we had some fun with some Arabic worksheets. The boys each picked one, and got to work. Asa picked the worksheet that looked the best (he wasn't there when we passed them out, so he didn't know which one was which kids), and we put a dollar in the winner's jar.
The boys made their postcards, and I voted for Calib based solely on his orangutan.
Indonesia dinner was Nasi Goreng: Indonesian Fried Rice, and Indonesian fried bananas.
This meal earned a big fat ZERO spoons up.
I knew it wouldn't be a hit when Asa started cooking it, and the boys complained about the smell.
But at dinner we heard things like:
"If you eat it really fast, you don't even notice how bad it is"
"Mom only doesn't mind it, because she can't smell"
"It tastes like you rolled the bananas in grass"
and at the end of dinner, my favorite
Which, admittedly was good to hear, as it's replaced the generic 'there's starving children in Africa'. The boys actually know there ARE people starving to death places, and appreciate even their bananas covered in grass as a result.
We didn't make all kinds of little islands, instead we just colored in some big ones, and called it a day. The boys decided we shouldn't do any other countries around there in the same color, as to not get confused.
27 countries down, 166 to go!
Next Up: Pakistan
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