Independence Day - Part II

I am at Super Wonderful Fast Internet Cafe with a spacebar that works! This means... pictures! Since I'm working on that, there will be a little less time for detailed blog posts.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

This morning, Marc and I headed into Yogya on the motorbike to check out an event we'd heard about at the Sultan's Palace. There's some kind of tradition in August, where a large, long "tree" (some kind of pole, I'm not clear if it's a stripped coconut tree, a bamboo pole, or what) is planted into the group. Prizes are hung from the top (bikes, money, clothes, etc.), and the tree is greased. Then the men from the town race up the tree, trying to snag the goodies.

We'd heard about this bizarre event and wanted to stage a tree for Sawit, which apparently hasn't had one for a few years. We just found a tree a few days ago, and will be holding the event next Sunday. Late last night, we heard that 45 of these trees would be raised at the Sultan's Palace on Monday, and so in the name of research, we set out. Turns out that the trees were literally being raised today, but the event won't be until tomorrow morning. (Tomorrow is a holiday.) Should be crazy and fun.

Marc and I split up, and I wandered around along for a while. It was good to get alone time, as the lack of privacy has started to get to me, and I feel that you experience a place differently when you're on your own, as opposed to with a group. (Especially when that group is a bunch of Hands On volunteers, half of whom are wearing the same t-shirt.) I stumbled upon a large prayer service on the north side of the palace, which I watched for a bit. Is Monday Mohammed's birthday? Everyone was dressed in white, and the prayers echoed from the loudspeakers over the plaza.

Then I headed towards Malioboro, where I'd read in my Rough Guide there's a restaurant that serves pancakes. (*Sidenote: Whoa! I've been here for 3+ hours, so I get a free softdrink. That's fun! I chose tea.) While there, I started chatting with the staff about their grassroots earthquake aid efforts, the tree-climbing tradition, and a fishing contest that was apparently going on today. Apparently the community around the Jagalan River, which runs through the city, hosts the event. In the morning, they throw a bunch of catfish and eel into a section of the river. Then, they throw in some food, so that the fish are harder to catch. The contest lasts all afternoon, and the winners received prizes and cash. I thought it sounded fun, so I caught a becak (rickshaw) over to the river.

Boys here can be fairly cheeky and flirty (at school, the students called me "beautiful" and the boys asked for my phone number, then laughed when I misunderstood and wrote my age on the board), and the guys running scooter parking were the same. Maybe they thought it was weird that I wanted to watch fishing, but they joked around with me, and tried to warn me off the others. Boy 1, motioning to Boy 2 and Boy 3: "He's a pickpocket. He's a liar." Me: "So you're the honest one?" Boy 1: "I'm a coward."

I walked around for a bit, and while the crowds, colorful flags, and sense of occasion were fun, fundamentally this was a fishing contest, which, let's be honest, can be slow. Only two fish were caught while I walked around, and neither surpassed the current leader. I took some photos and got an email address of one of the event staff, so that I can email them.

Then I met up with Marc again, and here we are, three and a half hours later, sipping our free sodas at the internet cafe. Life is fun.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

I taught school again this morning...by myself. That was interesting. Funny how kids can seem so cute and fun when they're running around on the street, yet once they put on a school uniform and sit together in class, they're intimidating as hell.

I missed the bricks a little bit this week, so I worked Saturday afternoon. We cleared a small rubble pile from an old man's house, and then moved on to Ayu's house (the girl who I went into the city with, to help teach English). Their plan is to move the rubble from their old house to their new house, where they are leveling out the front lot, so we got to load up and then ride in the bed of Ayu's father's truck. I think this was my first time riding in the back of a truck.

The sight of a bunch of bulehs (foreigners) rattling down the road in the truck was quite amusing to the townspeople, who all pointed and laughed as we rolled by. The best part was when we rolled past the rice paddies, where a group of kids were playing soccer. They all stopped in their tracks and started pointing and yelling. Another group of kids started to run behind the truck, trying to jump in. I've never been a big truck person, but when you actually use a truck to lug stuff around, it's kind of fun.

Friday, August 18, 2006

I spent an afternoon at the travel agent, and managed to get any of the changes I wanted to my itinerary. I want to extend my trip, venturing to Darwin, Australia for a visa run, then meeting up with my aunt in Bali, and then returning to Yogyakarta for a few more weeks of Hands On before continuing through Southeast Asia as previously planned. So many options! When will I be back in this side of the world? Probably not soon. So the logical plan is to max out this trip. Naturally.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Independence Day! We couldn't get a good sense of what was going on, so a group of volunteers headed into town for a relatively un-patriotic activity: swimming! First I had to find a swimsuit though (I'm stupid for not packing one, I know,) which was an adventure in itself. The malls of Malioboro were my best bet, and it's not so much that they sell swimsuits, rather than ice-skating outfits, what with the lycra that goes from the neck to the knees, with full sleeves and a skirt to boot. Feeling like a bit of a hussy, I bought basically the most scandalous swimsuit there, which is a regular bikini with boy shorts. With butt-writing. I hate butt-writing. But it really was my only option.

We went swimming at the Yogyakarta Plaza Hotel, where for the equivalent of $3 US, you get access to the pool, fitness facilities, a towel, a free juice drink, and The Best Shower I've Ever Taken In My Life. Nice hot water, with wonderful pressure, and reasonable volume too. Mmm.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Jay and I taught English at the primary school in our village this morning. Jay has been going almost every day for the past few weeks; I am accompanying her so that I can start to do that class a few times a week. The actual school building was damaged in the earthquake, so classes are conducted under a large, open air tent, with all grade levels sharing the same space. It's noisy and a bit cramped, organized chaos at best. The school teaches levels 1 through 6, which approximate the same grades in American school. Levels 5 and 6 get their own small tent, and this is where I was today.

The Hands On volunteers have been using an ESL technique for English instruction, where they only use English, no Indonesian at all. People much more experienced than me have set this up, so I'll trust them, it's just frustrating to spend an hour in class when the kids so obviously don't understand what's going on. Do any of you have any tips for teaching English, classroom management, ESL techniques, or a sequence of concepts to present in class?

After a half day of manual work, I showered and got dressed for the neighborhood Independence Day Eve gatherings. Each RT in Sawit has their own gathering, and we've been invited to sit in and attend them. It's like Halloween!

First I attended the RT 5 gathering, across the street from where we live. All of the married men from the RT sat in a large circle, with only the women who helped to prepare the evening's feast present. The men read a government-prepared speech and recited a long, long, long prayer in Arabic. Even though I didn't understand the words, the low, even chanting is enough to transport your mental state.

A large dinner was served communally, and then the official program was over, with the men lingering to smoke and play cards. I helped the women with the dishes, and then moved on to RT 1.

I chose RT 1 because several jobs that I've worked on have been here, and I know that the RT chief recognizes me and would welcome me at their gathering. Again, the gathering was almost all men, and married men at that, but I was struck by the sense of togetherness and community that these men exuded. The Hands On volunteers, including us women, were invited to participate in all aspects of the ceremony. Not even the women from the village were present and participating. While some of the older men did look a bit uncomfortable, everyone was very gracious and polite towards us. It was a surreal moment.

It was interesting to note the difference in structure of this ceremony, from that of RT 5. While the men seated in a circle, the speech, and the prayer were similar, there was an icebreaker-type activity, the men ate individual boxed meals, there was a patriotic centerpiece constructed out of fruit, and some sort of gift-giving ceremony, which I didn't understand, but was interesting nonetheless. Because I would here "American" or "relawan" ("volunteer") and either Jay or myself would have to react quickly and get up to either give or receive a gift. I blew it and forgot to shake the guy's hand after giving him a gift, but at least everyone laughed. We were giving and getting packages wrapped in brown paper, and we were quite curious as to what it was. As we walked home at midnight (the latest I've stayed up in weeks), I joked "I bet it's a box of ramen."

Guess what it was.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

I worked all day. Bricks bricks bricks.

Independence Day - Part I

Monday, August 14, 2006 - 9:27PM

I was excited to go to Carrefour this morning, only to find that they didn't open until 10AM (I left our house at 7:30AM), so I ended up going to the Ramai supermarket, in the Ramai mall on Malioboro. No fun shopping cart escalators :-( I've gotten the shopping routine down pretty well, and made pretty good time.

When I returned to the house, I was the only volunteer there. We had just gotten a fresh set of photo prints (we're doing a photo project where we take pictures of the villagers and print them, posting them on our walls for the taking and handing them out if we see the subjects. It's a big hit), so I was immediately swarmed with kids, looking for their photos. I sat down on our squashy couch and the kids climbed all over me. Childrens' hands can be quite small, so when they press their palms into your thighs as they climb on you, the pain can be quite acute. I thought about high heels and force over surface area for a moment as a half dozen palms pressed into me and photos were passed around.

The kids here all know my name. It makes me feel quite popular, when I'm coming home at the end of our work day, and I've barely rounded the corner and a chorus of "Stefanie, Stefanie!" begins. But it makes me feel a little guilty too, as I haven't quite gotten all of their names straight.

A couple quick comments about things that I've noticed here:

• some of the kids have pretty bad teeth. They also eat quite a lot of sugar. The bad teeth tends to be in the younger children, so I'm hoping once their permanent teeth come in, they take better care of them. Also, the children in the (rural) village have worse teeth than the kids in the city, which I guess can be expected. One volunteer brought 100 kids toothbrushes with her, donated from her dentist, which the children have been excited to receive.
• people here keep pigeons as pets. We all know how I am not a fan of birds (and there are chickens, ducks, baby birds, everything, just wandering around the village roads). Anyway, they'll put these knobby whistles on the small of the birds' backs, such that when they fly, they make a whistling sound. Interesting. I wonder if that annoys the bird though. "I'm flying as fast as I can to get away from this darn whistling sound, but it only gets louder!"
• a popular street cart food/snack item is various slushy ice/drink type things. They're served in plastic bags, rather than cups, and consumed through a straw. I guess it could appear weird, if you look down the street and see a bunch of kids drinking out of plastic bags, but I've gotten rather used to it. But I thought it was a street snack/something that was instantly consumed. This morning, I saw a woman, probably about my age, waiting for the mall to open. She had a small gray plastic bag, which is what small purchases are normally placed in. From the bag, she pulled out one of these drinks in a bag. Having a bag inside of a bag seems silly to me.
• people in the village burn their trash each night. Including plastic. It smells great, and by great, I mean awful. However, it has made me acutely aware of how much packaging and trash I produce, since wherever it goes, it won't be far from me.
• women carry their babies on their left side, slung up with a wide strip of cloth. The cloth is held up with a single twist, and I guess the friction of the fabric on itself holds it all together well. I'm actually quite enamored with the technique, as it is simple and effective. I kind of want to try holding a baby, except that 1) the baby would probably cry once I touch it and 2) I would probably be like, aw mans, baby, you're heavy...goodbye

I'm a bit disappointed; I found out today that Ayu's teacher said they don't need a native English speaker in class this week, so I won't be going to school on Thursday. What's interesting is that they do indeed still have school on Independence Day.

Sunday, August 13, 2006 - 2:00PM

This coming Thursday, August 17, is Indonesia's Independence Day. Colorful flags have been going up in the streets, and the festivities begin today, with games for the children in the village. They continue through the week with special performances, cook-offs, actvities, and a parade.

Some volunteers from the local university came to our street to help run games for the children. I thought I'd stick around and watch, and honestly, was a bit concerned with how sedate things started out: the kids sat under a tent and colored pictures of Dora the Explorer. But then things moved to the street, and I laughed so hard that I cried and my sides hurt.

A long bamboo pole was strung up across the street, and was the centerpiece for the games. The first game was an eating contest. Four kids lined up at a time under the pole, and large round shrimp chip crackers (about the size of a rice cake) were strung up at face-height for each child. As the group chanted "Setu, dua, tiga!" ("One, two, three!") the kids would run forward and try to finish their cracker without hands. The amount of coordination and technique that five to ten-year olds have is amusing enough in itself, add in face fun, and it is a total riot. Yuli, one girl who I see every day, won the first girl round. The best round was when Fandi, probably about five years old, was matched up against several much older boys. He couldn't quite get his lips to the cracker, instead pushing it around with his face, such that it kept rolling around to the back of his head. Finally, he reached up with his hand, and steadied the cracker as he ate it. The clincher was that he finally pulled the cracker down off the string, and stood off the side, happily eating the cracker with his hands. Even with the advantage of using his hands, Fandi still lost the round, and was spotted five minutes later still working on the cracker. The teenage boys, too cool to participate in the games themselves, were all doubled over with laughter at Fandi's antics.

For the second game, the kids were blindfolded, in sets of three. Three plastic bags of water (think of the thin film bags in the produce section, only flimsier even) were strung up just above the height of each child. After being spun, the kids set off towards their bags, and with hands behind their backs, tried to hop up and break the bag of water with their head. Most kids, dizzied by the spinning, barrelled off the sides of the road into the crowd. Those who did make it remotely under the bamboo pole were then charged with the task of blindly hopping up and down, trying to find and subsequently bop their bags of water. Picture kids of varying height, blindfolded, all going in different directions, hopping up and down. Oh mans. So funny. The crowd was very diplomatic, taking a turn chanting each child's name, and applauding enthusiastically for whoever emerged the winner.

I am totally using these games at the next kid's party I plan. Laser tag and go-kart racing? No, my party will be all about the rice cakes on a strings and plastic bags of water.

Now I'll head into the city with some other volunteers, to wander around the Sultan's palace, the water palace, the bird market, Malioboro, and whatever else we find.

One week down

Saturday, August 12, 2006 - 8:00PM (Sawit, Indonesia)

The time is flying by. I have already passed a week and a half in this place, and it continues to be new each day. Whenever I pause to reflect, I am struck by what a unique opportunity this is - to live, work, and have slipped in so readily to life in this moderately Muslim village, halfway around the world from what I call home.

Today was a half-day of work. We finished clearing the rubble from the home of a widow, and after the last wheelbarrow had been dumped, we lingered for another thirty minutes, taking photos with the woman, talking (understanding despite totally not understanding), and finishing up the snacks she had been setting out for us all morning. She has taken very good care of us, leaving multiple snacks in the mornings and afternoons. The fruit here is crazy delicious; yesterday I had the best papaya I have ever eaten in my entire life. I've also eaten so much pineapple that the corners of my mouth are starting to get a little bit raw. The watermelon is gorgeous as well. Still not a fan of the snakefruit though.

After lunch, a group of us headed into town, to scope out the shopping scene on Malioboro, one of the main shopping roads in Yogyakarta. We agreed on a meeting place and time, and of course, I lost everyone after a minute. I wasn't planning on buying much, since I have plently of time left here (and in fact will be back in the city tomorrow for my off day), but I did plenty of browsing. I saw lots of neat knick-knackery and cute clothing, and was much amused by the various random English that was slapped on shirts. One shirt had a cute bear, holding a balloon shaped like himself. "Don't smoke by me. I have gas," it read. Ok. "Thursday - We will stay up late and party like strawberry shortcake" read another. Part of me wanted to put together a really crazy ugly harujuku outfit, the other part of me couldn't be compelled to go through the effort of taking off my pants to try anything on.

Friday, August 11, 2006 - 8:37 PM

Tomorrow, Marc will be leaving for a well-deserved five-day break to Singapore. He's been here for two months, and will be here for another two months, so the break is a good thing. As a result of this, we had our weekly dinner out tonight (instead of Sunday), at Pyramid restaurant again.

We have an interesting group here right now. There are 15 people, from the U.S., England, Ireland, and France. At dinner, I sat next to our newest volunteer, the woman from France. Yay for getting to practice French!

I found out today that a flight to Bali, from Yogyakarta, starts at around $20. $20!! For twenty dollars, it seems a shame not to go. Maybe next weekend or the weekend after will be my Bali vacation-within-a-vacation.

I am definitely feeling that fresh unemployment high right now, where everything is interesting and new. Here I am, speaking French at dinner, studying Indonesian and Chinese during my down time, reading about the exciting places I could go, and feeling generally energized about everyting. Exciting? Yes. Sustainable? Probably not.

Thursday, August 10, 2006 - 3:15PM

Today I started my second project, teaching English at a school where one of our translators works. Ayu is a 20-year old university student who is studying to become an English teacher. She lives in our village, but works as a teaching assistant three times a week in a private school in the city. They were interested in having a native English speaker come assist with the class, so for the next few Thursdays, I will accompany Ayu to class.

I met Ayu at her house, and after a 20 minute motorbike ride, we arrived at her school. The traffic in this place still intimidates me; motorbikes thread their way between cars and trucks and nip at each others' heels, pushing to go faster. The dashed line that runs down the middle of the street isn't a divider so much as a suggestion - perhaps forward traffic can stick the left while oncoming occupies the left, but if you don't feel like it, that's cool, just careen on over and hang out for...as long as you want. I can't imagine what it's like in the rainy season. That said, I feel pretty comfortable on the back of a motorbike now. Look ma, no hands!

Ayu's school is predominantly female, with a student body of girls about 14 to 16 years old. There are a couple boys (one or two in each class of 35 that I helped teach), but they are seriously outnumbered. I began my day in the teacher's lounge, waiting for my first class. Ayu handed me a copy of the lesson plan and went off to make copies. The Bahasa Indonesian teacher, Mr. Hari, was very interested to meet a native English speaker, and excited to practice his English as well. His line of questioning went something like "Are you married? Are you interested in finding a husband? I can find you nice Indonesian husband? Are you interested in learning Bahasa Indonesian? I am Indonesian teacher." Ayu hustled me away, and we went to class.

The lesson for the day was "Expressing Feelings." The material consisted of one handout, with a list of vocab (happy, sad, angry, frustrated, disappointed, confident, etc.) some matching exercises (which themselves were written in incorrect English), and a set of pictures depicting various emotions. Ayu basically handed over the class to me. Oof. For one activity, I assigned each student a word from the vocab list, and asked them to come up with a sentence that gave an example of that feeling. Then they each came up to the front of the room and read their sentence aloud. I gave the example, "I feel happy when I get a good score." Several sentences came back "I feel happy/proud/confident/good or sad/disappointed/angry/depressed when I get a good/bad score." Oof. One girl said "I feel angry when I get the menstruation." I was like, umm, that was very forthcoming...thank you.

The school is also starting an English language debate club. I'd be happy to help out, but in the interest of not over-exciting Mr. Hari, Ayu suggested that I send a boy. So Ben will be going to school tomorrow instead.

Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 9:05 PM

After a morning of banging bricks and the like, I set off my on second shopping trip, solo this time. Suparman dropped me off at Carrefour (the large French(?) supermarket chain which I've seen in China before), and I set off in search of bulk packages. The Carrefour in Yogyakarta is set in a large, shiny, and new shopping mall, which is very much comparable to a nice American shopping mall. The Carrefour itself is a two story, Walmart-eque superstore that encompasses both food and non-food items. I'm always curious about how shopping carts are handled in two-story shops, and the solution at this Carrefour was something I hadn't seen before. (I remember stores where there are two sets of escalators, one which hooks your cart and takes it, and one which people ride on.) Here, the escalator was an incline, rather than steps. The wheels on the cart had an extra piece such that they rolled unencumbered on the flat linoleum flooring, but once on the ridged surface of the escalator, the wheels locked into place and were smoothly, securely transported to the next floor. I totally went up and down and extra time, just to ride it.

At Carrefour, I stocked up on such revolutionary items as boxed skim milk (ding!), sliced sandwich bread (ding!), and peanut butter (ding!), all of which were harder to find at Progo, the supermarket we went to before. I also threw in a jar of chocolate spread (think Nutella), because, well, I'm the house shopper, and that is a perk of having the position. I rolled away with a load which included five loaves of bread, 9 boxes of cereal (including Corn Flakes - our staple, "Fruit & Fiber" - c'mon, fiber, people, do you even know me?, and 'Choco-Rillas" - because sugary cereals need no translation), five jars of peanut butter, and 9 boxes of milk.

On the way home, Suparman drove me by a batik factory and around the Sultan's palace. Shopping is a good job.

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 10:15PM

This evening, we had a dinner meeting/social with the chiefs from the village of Sawit. Sawit is divided into five regions, abbreviated as "RT's," and each one has its own chief; there is also a chief who presides over the entire village. We've been working with these chiefs to identify projects, gauge priority, and communicate with the citizens of each neighborhood. Some RTs, such as 5 (where we live) and 3 (where we have worked extensively) are more familiar, while some we have not really done anything in at all. David Campbell (founder of Hands On whom I had met on the plane), felt that with the recent influx of new volunteers, it would be a good time to bring everyone together for a dinner and social meeting. We wanted to use this opportunity to thank the chiefs for accepting us so readily into their village and to ask them to continue to allow us to work with them to assist the people of Sawit. Additionally, as we've been open to new experiences and have been eating Indonesian food every day for lunch and dinner, we served pizza (from Pizza Hut) and Coke, as our "American" meal.

Everyone sat salivating for pepperoni as we waited for the chiefs to arrive. (We've been eating a primarily vegetarian diet, with lots of tofu and tempeh in everything, and I hadn't really noticed the lack of meat until I realized how pumped everyone was for pepperoni.) After some brief speeches and translation, dinner began. The chiefs all seemed hesitant about the pizza, but they were good sports about it. I had my own "American" experience: I drank my first full glass of Coke ever.

Settled In

Just a couple quick things to start off with:

Apparently there have been volcano rumblings somewhere in Indonesia. They're not around here. I think it's a three-hour plane ride away or something. There have been a few small earthquakes since I've been here, but I didn't feel any until today, and even then, it was less than how much my office shook when a big truck drove by. Also, the volcano that is close to us, Merapi, is spewing ash, but it always does that.

Also: as always, please consider making a contribution to Hands On Disaster Relief. This organization is incredibly efficient at translating donations into tangible impact in this affected community. Plus, it's tax-deductible, and all of the info you need for that is right here.

Photos will take me a while; our internet place is incredibly slow. In the meantime, check out the Hands On flickr site here.

The spacebar still sucks.

Ok, now for fun Staf (mis)adventures!

Monday, August7, 2006 - 9:31 PM

Today I had a light day. I feel kind of bad, since I didn't need to pick up a shovel all day. I have two new projects to work on. The first is that I'll be doing our weekly supply shopping. This is kind of fun, because it's a half day, once a week or so, to get a taxi, go into the city, and pick up our staples. The group is bigger now than it has been before, so it'll take me one or two tries to figure out how much stuff to get, but I'm looking forward to it. (The second project is a school project, but I'll explain that more onThursday, when I actually do it.)

So today, I did a mini-shopping trip, and went with Suparman, the taxi driver we use a lot, and Kevin, another volunteer, to the supermarket, Progo. Between my spotty Bahasa and drawing pictures, I found everything I needed. Next, Kevin and I went to get cellphones. I'm glad that Suparman went with us, as I think I got a decent price for my phone. A note about Suparman - he's this cool Indonesian guy who can speak very good English, and has been working with Marc since Hands On started in this area. We sat down at the cellphone place, and he turns to me and asks, "do you want to bargain? I don't really know how to bargain. Parlez-vous francais?" He then starts rattling off numbers in French to me, and we speak in French for a minute and come out with a price I like. Suparman is awesome.

Sunday, August 6, 2006 - 10:00 PM

Sundays are our day off. I headed out with a group of volunteers to do some sightseeing. First was Borobudur, the famous Buddhist temple. While I am still totally enchanted by this place and its people, the realities of the heavy air pollution, fatigue, and ... my unhappy stomach had set in, and I spent most of my time there propping myself up against the numerous reliefs and stupas. Next was a stop by Merapi, the volcano that we can see from our house, to check out the ash. It's incredibly big and beautiful up close, but scary as well. I think two aid workers died there shortly after the earthquake, from an ash flow. After that, we quickly stopped by a silversmith place, where we saw workers making filigree jewelry. The part that I found the most intersting was the polishing. They use some kind of fruit, shaped like a cherry but a bit wrinklier. Once soaked in water and scrubbed with a brush, it produces a foam, which can be brushed on silver to polish it. Neato burrito. Lastly, we stopped by Prambanan, the Hindu temple. Prambanan sustained quite a hefty amount of damage in the May 27 earthquake, so we were not able to walk completely up to it, as we had at Borobudur.

On Sunday evenings, we have our weekly group dinner out at a restaurant. We went to a place called Pyramid, which is shaped like... a giant pyramid. Two new volunteers joined us during dinner, and three had come earlier in the day, so now we're up to 15 people or so. I gota ride back to the house on the back of Marc's (operations director) motorbike. (So many people ride them here. Traffic is crazy. I'm scurred to ride a bike here.) Anyway, I didn't fall off. So I was excited for that.

Saturday, August 5, 2006 - 11:00 PM

Tonight, I headed into the city of Yogyakarta with a group of the other volunteers for dinner and a Ramayana ballet performance. The dinner wasn't anything too exciting, and the dance performance (think Javanese/Hindi-type dance, not "ballet" in the French sense) was interesting. But the amusing thing was that a wedding was going on in the same restaurant/venue where we were. We were in an outside ampitheater, while the wedding was taking place in the garden of the restaurant we had dinner in. It was a huge, probably 750+ person affair, which was mix of traditional and modern Yogyakarta/Indonesian customs. At first I felt bad for intruding on their wedding, but people were really friendly, and even invited us to dance and take pictures. It was kind of funny. Apparently the groom used to be in a band, so he had a bunch of friends in bands. They took turns singing cover songs for the couple, and so we were treated to Bryan Adams "Everything I Do," "That Thing You Do" from that movie, some Beatles songs, and even that song by Eddie Vedder that's all blubbery. It was pretty entertaining. These guys were pretty good, withthe rockstar shimmying and funky hair down pat.

Saturday, August 5, 2006 - 1:06 PM

I now have the basic routine down. We get up by 6:30AM, get ready to go (usually this means pulling on yesterday's pre-dusted work clothes), and have breakfast. Then it's off the work site, between 7:30 and 8:00AM.

We load up our Hands On wheelbarrows with all of our gloves, tools, and water, and walk through town to get to our site. Along the way, we say "hello" or "selemat pagi" (good morning) to basically everyone along the side of the road. Sometimes, we don't even see anyone, and we hear a child's "Hallo!" ring out from behind some trees and bamboo, and we'll see a pocket of children waving frantically to us. Responses are me with smiles and giggles. Everyone smiles a lot. :-) Ding!

Once on the site, it's usually some sort of cleanup/rubble removal/deconstruction. Projects are often clearning away rubble, dismantling roofs and salvaging tiles, and pulling down unsound homes. The homes here are built with bricks, mortar, and cement, so it's backbreaking work under the searing sun. The bricks are rather cheap clay, and so in the process of trying to salvage them, a lot of them end up crumbling. Curiously, the mortar is amazingly strong, often outlasting the brick. People use a ton of the stuff here too. So, we hoe and we shovel and we wheelbarrow away until I want to punch myself in the face, but my muscles are so tired that they can't really lift my arms to do so. So I retire to the shade and guzzle water instead.

The people from the neighborhoods where we work often bring us fruit and snacks in the middle of the morning, and again in the afternoon. This may consist of bananas, oranges, watermelon, pineapple, and various fried-snacly-something-or-others. Once, they even brought us longans, which I was all over (I think they can be expensive in the states), but the other volunteers not so much (too much work to peel).

I interrupt this post to announce that I'm hearing Keane's "Is it Any Wonder" on the radio in the internet shack. Second time I've heard it today. Makes me happy. Back to the post.

Yesterday, I also tried my first snakefruit. Which will probably be my last snakefruit. It was really neat to look at, but kind of dry inside and light on flavor.

Anyway, we head back for lunch around 11:00 or 11:30AM, and take a break until 2:00PM. Some people nap, some read, some wander around town. We work in the afternoon from 2:00PM until about 5:00PM. We'll head home, shower, and have dinner all together, then have free time in the evenings. People are usually in bed by 9:00PM. It's a pretty tiring routine.

People here love the camera. Especially the kids. They're all ridiculously photogenic here. With super cute haircuts. One baby girl had her headscarf on in the evening, and she looked like a stuffed animal. I wanted to stuff her in my backpack.

There's a number of 20-something guys here, and they are quite popular with all of the girls and women. Yesterday, Jeremy rounded the bend with a wheelbarrow, having just dumped a load. "I love you!" someone yelled out. "I love you too!" he yelled back, over his shoulder. At the end of the day, we took some photos, and one of the women sidled up next to Jeremy for a picture. She smiled really big, and looked over at her friends. "Wooooooohooooooo!" she whooped. He has also reported getting butt pats.

Friday, August 4, 2006 - 12:55 PM

Midday break. I went for a brief walk around the neighborhood, and stopped by our cornerstore to buy some Milo. These two guys here were talking about it, so I was curious to try it. It tastes chocolate malt-y and creamy to me, but that could just be the UHT milk that we have, which is...full cream.

Also at lunch today, I stopped by a cart selling food on the side of the road. It looked like they had these little fried banana things (not pisang goreng, or what "fried banana" usually is). It's a tasty little bite of banana, wrapped up in generous strip of some egg pastry dough, which is then fried. (People drop food and snacks off at the job sites in the morning and afternoon, and I remembered these as being particularly tasty.) I only wanted five, and tried to ask for as much, but apparently I asked for 5000 rupiah worth, because the guy kept loading them into a bag. After there were about a dozen in there, I got worried. It ended up being about two dozen. That's ok, it's only about 50 cents. And I had a big bag of tastiness to bring back to the house to share.

Thursday, August 3, 2006 - 12:39 PM

My first day of work! No jet lag! Everyone seems to wake up by 6 or 7AM, and we're out on the job site by 7:30AM. I slept pretty well, but I was woken up by the prayer call at 4:30AM, followed by a perpetual rooster, and then a screaming kid. But it's ok. There are also small geckos everywhere; I watched one scurry up a wall into a detached electrical socket. A few minutes later, I noticed another one (surely not the same?) on the wall across the room.

We have a flush toilet and a shower (a cold one, but a shower nonetheless). I feel so spoiled.

Massiveclumpofupdates

This space bar doesn't work well. Just to warn you all. I'll be putting dates and times as appropriate on various segments of my post.

Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 9:25PM (Sawit, Indonesia)

I arrived! Not muchtime to actually update about the town, our house, the people, and what I'll be doing, but I arrived safe and sound and feeling good. Tomorrow will be exciting.

Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 4:22PM (still in Jakarta)

Selamat sore! Good afternoon.

My flight to Yogyakarta wasdelayed by40 minutes, but something kind of fun happened, so I don't mind.

I was sitting in the waiting area, and saw a caucasianguy who looked familiar. I was pretty sure I had seen him in Hands On photos before, and that I'd met him briefly at the Hands On happy hour in SanFrancisco, back in April. I wasn't sure though, so I sat, read, and occasionally glanced over. I noticedhim tucking his laptop back into his bag, I saw it, a Hands On USA sticker, with the trademark blue handprint. My heart suddenly swelled. It was Dave Campbell, founder of Hands On.

Even though I don't really know him, he's still a familiar face, which is much appreciated when you're halfway around the world. I introduced myself when we boarded the plane, and we chatted briefly. I hadn't even reached my destination yet, and already I'd run into someone I knew. That put me in a good mood. Plus, the flight attendant gave me candy. (Actually, she gave everyone candy, and really, I had to reach into a basket and take it for myself.) That's pretty much all it takes to make me happy.

Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 2:21PM (Jakarta, Indonesia)

Location: food court in Jakarta International Airport
Eating: nasi goreng (basically, Indonesian fried rice. I got it because I was proud of myself that I recognized the words.)

On my last flight, from Taipei to Jakarta, the plane had the interesting feature of showing a camera feed, from the vantage point of somewhere around the nose of the plane, angled towards the ground. It was interesting to watch this during takeoff (yay, our pilot can drive straight on the painted yellow line) and landing (um, are we veering diagonally across the runway?) During the actual flight, this was turned off, although it would have been interesting to see.

Reaching my 23rd hour of travel, I was all too happy to get off the plane once we landed. The flight had been a little bumpy; my insides felt as if they'd been scoopedout, dumped in a paper bag, shaken vigorously, and then been placed back inside me. The "month of volunteering" was beginning to feel like a "month of getting on and off planes."

Once at Jakarta International, I found my way through customs and immigration pretty easily. I also found an ATM, and not really knowing the conversion rate, I got 300,000 rupiah. It sounded like a good number - I now realize that's about $30. Good job.

There are a lot of Dunkin' Donuts in this airport.

Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 6:06AM (Taipei, Taiwan)

I landed in Taipei at about 4:45AM, local time. Four hours until my next flight. I took the automated tram from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 (where I'd be leaving from), and I noticed two fun signs. One was a label for something, like, "window door cock." I don't remember exactly. While the translation was literal and silly, ultimately it did make sense. I'm just particularly mature, so I thought "cock, hee." The other was a sign regarding the hanging handholds along the ceiling of the tram. "Beware of hanging strap." How silly, I thought, duh, there's a strap there, don't walk into it! The doors to the tram opened up with a light DING and I proceeded to walk directly into a hanging strap. Beware indeed.

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 11:05AM (San Francisco, CA)

On the plane. Rebooking went fairly smoothly. The movie on the plane is Curious George. It's fun to watch the old people around me watch it. I'd watch it too, but I'm tired and my eyes don't want to focus. Sleep it is!

Monday, July 31, 2006 - 10:17AM (Pleasanton, CA)

I misread my itinerary, and missed my flight. I feel a little bit sick. Now I sit on BART, with an hour for my brain to idle away. The columns on my overall itinerary printout were slightly misaligned, so I read the meal service time as the flight time. Oy. Not only have I missed my flight, but I missed it by about 12 hours. I jut got on BART, and now I feel like I'm rolling to the airport, with very little purpose.

What a stupid mistake to make.

It's ok. People miss flights all the time, but they all get to where they're going. I will be one of those people!