This morning the owner of the house we live in died. Hugo often went to his house, as it is very near ours, to talk with him and get his homework answers. Recently Hugo found out that Pak Sandroto was a Christian and had previously been a teacher at a local Christian school. A while ago he had already suffered a stroke and was wheel chair bound. This prevented him from getting out much so he was always sitting in his chair out on his balcony and he loved it when Hugo came by to chat. Last night at 2:00 he passed on. This morning Hugo and I went to their house to give our condolences and of course, an envelope with money in it. They had the body lying on a mattress in their guest room; the room you first enter into when entering the house. When we entered, the body was completely covered but they asked if we wanted to see him. So Hugo said okay and they pulled the blanket over his face down. He looked very peaceful. This was my first time seeing the body of a recently deceased person. It was strange to look at a person and not see their chest rise and fall.
When you greet or say good-bye to people here of the Sundanese culture you put your hands together and bring them towards the other person. They will do the same and one of their hands will briefly go in between your two. You also slightly bow your head down. We did this when we arrived at the house and when we left. Tomorrow is the funeral service and we plan to attend if possible. We don’t have school this week. This morning we had our evaluation and we have both passed onto unit 5 and we both had positive evaluations.