Aerobics

This week I was invited to do aerobics with a group of female teachers from the autism school.  I met them after school hours on campus, we all changed into our exercise clothes, rearranged some furniture in a classroom, an aerobics instructor arrived and we sweated it out for the afternoon.  While the actual aerobics were just okay (I'd take yoga or a walk over aerobics any day) but the whole experience was a total treat for me and I'll tell you why.

The women all wear jilbabs during the work day, as well as their school uniform which consists of very modest button down shirts, slacks, and sensible shoes.  Jilbabs, as controversial as they have been here and abroad, for the most part have struck me as sensible attire in Indonesia.  They prevent your hair from getting all messed up from constantly taking your motorcycle helmet on and off.  While they are hot in the day time, they provide a light layer of warmth in the evening.  And wearing a jilbab definitely signals: I am here as a responsible adult woman, I mean business and I want to be treated with respect.  Which perhaps is to say that it seems quite formal to me.  Formal, modest, and slightly self-effacing (on the whole, although there is this new trend here in fancy jilbabs complete with sparkles and and whole flowers attached to the side, etc.).

So I have only seen these women, who are so friendly and kind, in this formal way.  But seeing them in their aerobics clothes was a whole different story.  We  crowded into another one of the classrooms, giggling and changing, and while they all started in their formal blue school uniforms with hair and ears covered, they emerged into a rainbow of work out gear and hair styles.  I was surprised--Bu Erfie has short hair!  Bu Novie looks totally different in a ponytail!--and delighted by the outfits.  There were plunging necklines.  There were crop tops. There were skintight stretch pants decorated with little bows. Ibu Anis had a unitard with hot neon pink and black stripes and geometric shapes with a built in sports bra.

It felt like a privilege to be invited into this women's realm and see a more relaxed and intimate side to them.... Plus I hadn't done the grapevine in a while!