Bali, baby!

The blissfulness of Bali has come to an end, and I am back in the swing of things at school. It already feels like a dream that I was even there, but I just looked at pictures from my trip, so it must have happened. Sometimes I feel like the days fly by so quickly, but the hours go by slowly. Time is such a complicated thing. Even so, I can tell you about some of the highlights from my time in Bali.

Rebecca, Helena and I left in a rush after school on Tuesday. It started raining about a half hour before we left, and when it rains in Jakarta, it always slows down the traffic. Thankfully, we got there in time and could even enjoy a celebratory Christmas drink at Starbucks and meet up with Lindsey, Leanne, and Chaney. We arrived in Bali just after dinner and got settled into our quaint hotel.

One of my favourite parts of this holiday was the time I spent with these ladies. There never seemed to be a dull moment as we laughed and joked together each day. Some of these girls were especially good at striking up conversations with the locals, which always makes travelling so much more fun. After I come back from a trip, I am always motivated to put more effort into learning Bahasa Indonesia.

The second day of our 5-day weekend was spent on a bike tour of the cultural area of Ubud. We were first taken to a beautiful look-out for breakfast where we enjoyed the scenery of a volcano and a lake. After our breakfast, we got to stop by a cultural center and we got to see where things such as chocolate, pineapple, cinnamon, and coffee come from. We even got to see the animal that digests the coffee beans that make up the well-know and expensive coffee called Kopi Luwak. It was 15 dollars for about 4 cups worth of coffee, which is apparently a good price. We also got to taste test different teas and coffees. This all took place in a beautiful, rain forested valley. After this, we started our bike tour which took us on a ride through several villages and past rice paddies and forests. It was incredibly breath taking, and the culture was so fascinating. We passed tons of Hindu temples and got to see tons of the locals doing every day tasks.

The next day, Helena and I headed off on our own to Ahmed, on east Bali, where we got to do some scuba diving. We entered the dive right from the shore, rather than a boat, which was new for both of us. Upon entering, we explored an old shipwreck. On the first dive we swam around the ship, and on the second we got to see the interior parts. It was phenomenal to explore a ship under the sea! We got to see 2 huge humped parrot fish (which were at least a meter long, each) and a huge school of jackfish which we got swim in as they circled around us. Life under the sea is just so extremely beautiful and fascinating. It was a wonderful day of discovery.

The rest of our trip was spent hanging out on the beach, at the pool, and of course, shopping. I was introduced to a beautiful warehouse where I found a lot of beautiful tings for very low prices. I always love a good deal! (thanks mom for training me well) Every night we ate out at a different restaurant and enjoyed a magnum ice cream bar.

The last exciting thing about my trip was that I got to drive a motorcycle for the first time!! It was an automatic, so there were no gears to change, but I was still a little shaky at first. After a little practice, I had no problem burning around the city and weaving around the cars stuck in traffic. The six of us rented 3 bikes and took turns driving. It was great to have the freedom of transportation and the ability to explore the area. With every trip comes new adventures and experiences!! My next trip will not be new, but it will be exciting because I am going home for Christmas. In 4 more weeks I get to see my family again and experience a good Canadian Christmas. Now I just have to focus on getting all of my grading and planning done before then!

A Change in Perspective

Tuesday was a little different than normal because it was my homeroom's turn to complete their community and service hours for this quarter. Every student from grade 7-12 must complete a certain amount of hours helping serve others in the surrounding community. Because this is something new for 7th graders, all of the C&S's are arranged by the school and they do it as a class with their homeroom teachers. As they get older, the number of required hours increases and it becomes their responsibility to complete the necessary hours.

After 3rd period, we all piled into some vans and drove about an hour to an area outside of the city called Bintaro ( i think..?). The area we walked into was very much like a slum with many shacks for homes and garbage everywhere. Fortunately, these people do have running water and a toilet house. It was not my first time in an area like this, so it was interesting to watch the looks on the kids faces. Most of them were very uncomfortable. The purpose of the trip was for my 7th grade students to spend time teaching,interacting, and eating with children from that community. It took the SPH students a little while to feel comfortable with the whole situation, but I eventually saw some of them really engaging in the experience which was awesome to see. It is such a cultural shock for these students to see how most of Indonesia lives. Most of these students come from very rich families and enjoy luxuries such as blackberries and designer bags. They sat on a ratty tarp, on the hard ground face to face with children who would probably never experience the luxuries they had. It was hot, it smelled, and flies were swarming ever where, and the children were in their glory. Here were older kids who had come to their community to share coloring books, games, food, and love. Like the lady who planned this meeting said,"The children love it when SPH comes because they feel loved by the attention and the loving touches. The SPH students may not know it, but they are shining God's light in doing this simple activity." I am praying that this act of service will really speak to my students' hearts and make them grateful for the chance they had to see life from a different perspective.

An Eventful Life

I have been noticing lately that life at SPH/ in Lippo Village is very eventful. It seems like there is always something going on, which I love because it makes my time here that much more fun! Last week I described the Spiritual retreat I went on with the middle school kids, but my weekend did not stop there. Let me fill you all in!

After I came back from the retreat I went straight home from school and started to prepare myself for a murder mystery dinner. One of my friends has wanted to host a murder mystery dinner for ages, and so she finally put one on, and we all had a hoot of a time! The dinner was Spanish themed and my character was Francesca, the gardener of the hotel that the story was based around. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare a costume, but that was no problem for me. I put some khaki cloths on, I messed up my hair, and rubbed dirt on my face, arms and legs. To top it all off, I grabbed leaves and branches from outside and strategically placed them all over me. I looked like I just climbed out of the jungle! You should have seen the looks on people's faces as I made my way to the party. Ha! It was a great time. We had so much fun trying to stay in character and question each other. Thankfully, I came out innocent in the end. I can't wait to do another one sometime!!

The next day (Saturday), I headed into Jakarta to the Four Seasons Hotel. Yup, you read that right. A bunch of us SPH teachers signed up to run a 5 K race along the major highway in the area, for Cancer research on Sunday morning. More than a thousand people came out to run/walk/bike the route, so the Four Seasons was a sponsor for the race and gave decent rates for hotel rooms, about 90 USD a night. Not bad right? We came in early on Saturday so that we could really get a full experience of the hotel. I went to TGP (a church service) that night and then went out to eat and socialize with some lady friends. The next morning we all went out to run the 5K. Although I was planning to run the 5K, I walked it because about a month ago I sprained a ligament and tendon in my leg and it is still healing. After the race, we all hung out and enjoyed the hotel’s services. After we came back to Lippo I went to a book study and dinner with some friends.

This week has been pretty normal except for a few things. One is that I hired a helper! It is customary here for people to higher maids, or helpers. This is something that took some getting used to and I put it off for a long time. But, I finally decided to do it for several reasons. One reason is because it is very affordable even for me as a Christian School teacher. Another is because it is a huge help to have someone take care of those little details so that I don’t have to worry about fitting them into my busy schedule. And, most importantly, I wanted to do this because it is a huge help to provide income for a family. My helper, Wati, is married with three children who are in school. Her and her husband did not have a steady income so I am happy to know that I can help support them. I also see this as an opportunity to practice my Bahasa Indonesia and hopefully be a witness to a Muslim family. I am excited about this new arrangement and I am praying that it all works out well.

The other exciting this week was the Bulan Bahasa celebration that the senior school presented on Friday. Bulan Bahasa literally means “language month” but it is basically a month dedicated to appreciating the cultural diversity in Indonesia. The Bahasa Indonesia language teachers prepared for this Bulan Bahasa for a long time. In fact, a few weeks ago I got an email that said they were looking for teachers to participate in the fashion show. I thought that it sounded like fun, so I signed up. I really didn’t know what to expect, so I was shocked to see how detailed my costume was and how great the ceremony was too. I think all of the major cultural areas in Indonesia were represented in the fashion show, with both male and female outfits. Another teacher and I represented the Sunda culture.

Before the show everyone got ready with the clothing, make-up, hair design, and accessories! It was crazy cool. My outfit even came with shoes to match, although they were a bit small. The head piece I wore was cool, but the metal dug into my forehead and left me with an indent after wearing it for 3 hours! I had to keep saying to my self “Beauty is Pain!” I think my favourite part of being in the fashion show was seeing the looks on my student’s faces. Many of them were in complete shock! I am interested to hear what they will say to me in class tomorrow. 

The show was hosted by some older students and included students from grades 7-12. There were several dances that the students excellently performed from areas in Indonesia, such as Malawi and Papua. There was special music, poetry, the fashion show, and a student-written drama to top it all off. Many of the teachers said that it was the best Bulan Bahasa ever! It truly was an amazing event to experience. I can’t wait until next year. Maybe I can be in the fashion show again!

The last event of this weekend was the wedding I went to yesterday. One of my Indonesian co-workers was married in the area. In Indonesia it is more common to be invited to the reception than the wedding ceremony. Luckily, I was invited to both. The ceremony was at a Church close by (which was surprising because there are not a lot of church buildings here) and was all in Indonesian. The bride looked like a princess! Weddings are a big deal here, so she was completely decked out! I didn’t realize how fancy it was until I got to the reception. The hall was beautifully decorated with tons of flowers, an ice sculpture, and a 5 tier cake (a fake one though  ). In addition to all of that, there were 7 camera/video guys running around and food everywhere. It was fun to socialize with my middle school coworkers and take in the atmosphere. I tried to take some good pictures, but I wasn’t too successful. There will probably be tons on Facebook though because people were going crazy with picture taking!

Even though it is fun to run around and take part in different events, I also appreciate days like today where I got to relax and have some down time. I even did some exercise after about a month of feeling like a slug because of my injury. The physiotherapist said I can be more mobile, but I need to be careful. Since my bike has been at school for the past month, I took it back home with me today after a swim at school. I couldn’t help but see some disappointment on the ojek drivers’ faces when they saw me bike by. Biking means no ojeking. I guess they were getting used to having me as a regular customer. O well, I am sure I will still occasionally catch an ojek to school. I just hope they don’t jack up their prices or something. 