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.
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.
posted by Stefanie at 6:04 AM
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