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. 

Spiritual Retreat

Indonesia has been in a news a lot lately with it's various natural disasters.Thankfully, the earthquake/tsunmai, volcano eruption, and flooding are not close to where I live! The flooding in Jakarta, is relatively close, but it happens fairly regularly because certain parts of the city are below sea level. Even though I am living in Indonesia, I really don't feel the effects of these crazy things that are happening here. I only knew about the disasters because another teacher told me. Life just seems to keep going. So, if you were worried about me, (only two of my friends showed concern...?)I want you to know that I am doing just fine!

Now to get onto more recent happenings! I just returned from the 7th grade spiritual retreat in Carita, which is a beach area in West Java. We, being the 12 teachers and 96 students, left Wednesday morning and returned this afternoon. The purpose of the trip was to encourage and mentor the student's in their walk with God. There were also several fun games that the students participated in,a dance competition (which they have been preparing for weeks! See pics attached), as well as pool time, chill time, and good food. And, we ended our evening last night with a big bon fire and campfire songs which I got to lead. The kids loved learning the news songs! I almost felt like I was back at camp, which was awesome.

Overall, it was a great retreat, and a refreshing way to get to know the students in a different setting. On the way back today, we drove through some small towns and rural areas in the mountains. The rice paddies were beautiful. I tried to snap some shots as we drove along.

From grading...to reports...to parent-teacher conferences...and back to grading...

I have been thinking about writing another blog entry for a while now, but nothing really struck me as blog-worthy. Nevertheless, anything is better than nothing.

These past few weeks at school have been somewhat normal, but also very different. For example, I filled out mid-term reports and had my first parent=teacher conferences ever. There were several frusterations and overwhelming moments, but they are all a part of the learning experience I guess.

Not only have things been interesting with work, things have also been interesting with daily life. Two weeks ago at the athletics day, I pulled a muscle in my leg. It has still been bothering me so that has resulted in a few trips to the hospital for physio and an MRI to see if there is ligament damage. I will get the results on Monday and I am hoping they will show that the injury is only muscle related. I am kinda bumed about it because I have an outdoor games event today, a Middle school spiritual retreat next week, and a 5K race next weekend. Such bad timing!

I guess it is getting to that point of the semester where I feel like I am trying to focus on tons of little things at the same time and I don't feel like I am getting anywhere. Maybe, with time, I will be able to make some small accomplishments. One can only hope!

On your marks...get set...GO!

This week Friday was Athletics Day in the Senior school. Instead of having class, all of the students took part in Track and Field events. When a new student comes to SPH they are assigned to a house team. There are 4 different teams Kintamai (RED), Krakatua (YELLOW), Marapi (GREEN), and Bromo (BLUE). Each of these names are actually named after volcanoes here in Indonesia. The purpose of the teams is build school spirit and healthy competition among the student and staff body. I was assigned to Bromo when I arrived, which I like because I love blue.

All the students and teachers came to school on Friday decked out in their house team colors. The students had face paint, colored banners, hairspray and fun colored accents. I actually bought a Bromo wrist band to support my team. Although the teachers dressed up, we were all assigned jobs in different events while the students went around to participate. I was assigned to help out with the sprints. I was busy all day: writing down who was first, second, and third for every running event. I did find some time to pick up a delicious burger and frozen yogurt from the food area though.

Thankfully, the rain held out all day and we were able to keep things running on time. The last event was the teacher/parent 50X4 relay. I ran for my team. I was excited to run a race because it has been a while. Unfortunately, I did not warm up well enough and I ended up pulling a muscle in my right quad. It was incredibly painful and I was limping for a few days. It is still a little swollen now, but I am able to walk normally which is nice. I guess I learned my lesson; although, I did stretch a lot before I ran. It must have just been a bad start.

The day actually ended with period 7. I was not too excited about teaching after such a long day in the sun and noise. I made my 8th graders do a little bit of work because they have not been on the best behavior this past week; however, we ended the day watching some ridiculous videos from YouTube. All in all, it was a pretty fun day and a great way to end the week.

Now I am going to have a few crazy days of writing mid-term reports! Eek! Not fun, but necessary I suppose. I am often amazed at how quickly time passes. Before you know it, next weekend will be here and I will have more news to share.

Everyday Life

So, there have been some gentle reminders from people that I haven't updated my blog that often lately. (I won't mention any names) :) It's true, I have been neglecting it, but I am begining to really feel like life here is becoming so normal. However,regular days can be interesting too sometimes, so I will give you a bit-sized piece of my everyday life.

Today I helped out with the track and field practice after school. Because I have had some experience with sprinting, I volunteered to offer my guidance while the students practiced their track and field events. To tell you the truth, I wasn't too excited about spending my precious after-school work time on the field, but I went on out anyways.

I did some stretching and tried to get some kids to practice their sprinting, but they seemed to be more interested in the jumping and javelin. So, I just chilled on the grass and waited for the kids to make their way over. Eventually, a few came over and I offered them some advice for their warm-up 50m. I was disappointed to see that they didn't really put much effort into the race. One of the PE teachers suggested that I race with them to give them some motivation. Whoever I beat would have to do 20 push ups. I was game and so were the kids. We lined up, me giving them a head start, and we ran down the field. Again, they weren't too motivated, so I headed back down to the start and waited for the next batch.

That quick little race reminded me of how much I love to sprint, bue also how tiring it can be! The next group of kids were more into it, so I took off down the field at the same time as them. They were older boys, so all but one boy beat me. By now, I was warmed up and ready to win. Ironically, the next group of kids were kids that I teach. They thought it was pretty funny that I was going to race them. So, we came up with a plan. If I beat them, they would do push ups, and if they beat me, i would do push ups. We went up to the line, got set, got ready, and we flew down the field. I beat all but one student! They laughed and congratulated the winner. I guess they didn't think I was that fast. :) So, I told them all to get down on the grass and i counted from 1-20 for us all, except the winner, as we did our push-ups.

The rest of the afternoon I hung out with the kids and helped where I could. It felt good to just get to know the kids outside of the classroom and show them that I am a normal person too. Somehow students always think that teachers don't do normal things. It kind of cracks me up actually because I used to think that too. Just a few weeks ago, some of my students were picking out some music for their homeroom dance and I grooved to the music a little, just for fun. One of my students saw me and was like "Ahh, that is so weird!" I was quite offended. Really? What is wrong with a teacher dropping a few moves?

I guess is is all about perspective, right?

From the rim of Rinjani to the ocean floor and back again

It has been some time since I have posted on new happenings in Indonesia. The last week before break was busy and nothing out of the ordinary was happening, so I figured I would wait until after my holiday to update my blog. I mean, why waste valuable blogging time on boring things when I can tell you about my latest adventure?

Before I get into the “plot” I will first introduce the “characters” of this splendid tale.
All of the adventurous women with whom I travelled to Lombok are employed by SPH. Helena, Rebecca, Sally, Allison and I are all working at the Lippo Karawaci Campus, Lindsey is from the Kemung Campus, and Leanne is from the Sentual Campus.

We Karawaci ladies left school at 3:30 on Tuesday afterschool and rushed to the Jakarta Airport. Since the Indo veterans (Helena, Sally and Rebecca) informed us that planes are never on time in Indo we took our time in the airport and stopped for some food, only to find that our plane was actually leaving on time! So we picked up our pace and made it on time to our flight.

We arrived in Lombok that night and were picked up by a travel guide that took us to a home stay (hostel-type place) for the next night. From there we loaded up on hiking snacks and winter gloves and headed out to the Volcano. It took a couple of hours to get to the base of the mountain, but we had loads of fun as we took in the rice paddies, monkeys, and village life, ate loads of fruit, and laughed like crazy. When we arrived in the village area that would be our starting point, we took a short hike to and swam in some gorgeous waterfalls, walked through an underground aqueduct, and made friends with a local Indonesian guide. After this warm-up hike, we headed to our second home stay that was run by some local Indonesians. We spent the eve of the big hike playing cards with some local kids and porters.

Our hike started at 7:00, but we were woken much before that thanks to the seemingly thousands of neighbourhood roosters. After packing up our stuff and filling our bellies with yummy banana pancakes, we started walking up hill. I tried not to think about how I would be walking up hill the rest of the day. A big mountain always seems smaller when you make small goals and take it one step at a time. The hike was very intense, but amazing. It was wonderful to watch the vegetation and temperature change as we climbed higher and higher. We passed through farms, jungle, dense cloud forest, grassland, and sparse forest. It rained most of our first day, which made it challenging. We had a long lunch break at the second post because our guide and porters had a hard time cooking in the rain. You are probably wondering who the porters are. Well, we had one guide and 3 porters who carried all of our camping supplies and cooking materials up the mountain. We carried our personal stuff on our backs. The porters provided all of our meals for us, which were good, but heavy. They even set up a little toilet tent for us on the rim of the volcano! (pictures to come)The porters climbed the volcano with flip-flops and heavy baskets balanced on beams across their shoulders. We could not believe that they did this on a regular basis! Crazy strength!

We arrived at the rim of the volcano in time to see the beautiful sunset and scenery. It was breathtaking and completely rewarding to stand at our destination and take in the beauty. Our tents were set up on the rim of the volcano where we had a caldera on one side and the mountain slope on the other, not to mention the wild dogs, monkeys, and wild boar in the vicinity. I can honestly say I have never slept in that atmosphere before! Actually, we didn’t really sleep the entire trek because of small sleeping space, hard ground, and jungle noise. Even so, it was all worth it.

Our second day was just as exciting as the first because we got to trek down into the caldera of the volcano where there is a “baby volcano” and a beautiful blue lake. We took a dip in the water, hung out with some other trekkers, and then headed to the steamy hot springs where we spent our afternoon. The water was hot and sulphuric, but it felt so good on our sore muscles. Climbing out of the caldera was a challenge because we had to grab onto rocks and roots at times, but we got back to the rim faster than we expected to. Instead of camping on the rim a second night, we headed down into the jungle to avoid the danger of heavy rains on the rim. After passing several occupied posts, we finally found a space to set up camp. Going down, that first chunk was almost as challenging as going up because of the steep incline and loose volcanic ground.

We awoke that third day to sore bodies, monkeys, and the desire to see the bottom of the mountain. It took several more hours to return to our home stay. We kept thinking it would come sooner, but it didn’t. Finally, a few of us eager ones and one of our goofy porters ran the final leg past the chickens, cows, and villagers along the way. We cheered and high-fived as we sat down and had a nice cold drink of water. We had done it! We had climbed to the rim of Mount Rinjani (3726m). It felt pretty good to look back at the mountain and see what we had accomplished.

After everyone came down the mountain, we got a ride back to Mataram (the main city on Lombok) and stayed the night at a nice hotel where we got massages and soaked by the pool. Then, Helena and I split off from the group and headed out to the Gili Islands which are just off the coast of West Lombok. I took my PADI Open Water Diver certificate, and Helena did her Advanced Open Water. It was a three-day course, so we ended up staying 4 nights on the Island to do the dives we needed. I did all of the course work for the open water course online so that I could complete the practical stuff when I arrived. We stayed in a cute little bungalow that was close to the Blue Marlin dive center. The Island atmosphere on Gili Air ( air pronounced eye-air) was wonderful. There are no motorized vehicles so everyone walks, bikes, or takes a horse chart to get around the island. There were a bunch of tourists on the Island, but also plenty of locals who were very friendly. It was especially helpful to have Helena along because she speaks Bahasa Indonesia quite well. Two of our favourite restaurants on the Island were an Italian place and a place that served wonderful Thai food. I have never had such good Ravioli in my life!

As good as all of these things are, the best part of our island experience was, of course, the scuba diving. I will admit, I was a little nervous going into the scuba course, but once I got into the water and adjusted to the feel of everything, I was in love with scuba!! It especially wonderful because I pretty much had an instructor to myself the entire time. She was very experienced and I moved quickly through all of my skills. It was amazing to see all of the ocean life right in front of me. Helena described it as swimming in the aquarium. I got to see sea turtles, a sting ray, octopi, clown fish, barracuda, star fish, moray eels, a banded sea snake, angle fish, lion fish, and so many other beautiful things. The dives went so quickly! When we came to the surface I just wanted to go down again! We even did our last dive at shark point, but we didn’t see any. Too bad, it would have been so cool! And don’t worry, these ones don’t eat people.  I am already thinking about when I can go scuba diving again.

After our wonderful dive experience Helena and I headed down to Gili Nangu, where our friends were waiting for us. The journey down there was hectic and frustrating, but when we saw the small, quite island with neat straw-hut bungalows and few tourists, we were ready to just relax and enjoy the sun and fellowship. I even tried snorkelling on Gili Nangu, but once you scuba you can’t go back to snorkel…it just isn’t as good. 

Our final day was spent hanging out on a beach near the main land and catching bargains at the local market. Because of the sudden rain storm and some flooding, our departure from the tourist area was rushed and a bit stressful. We were running past stopped traffic and walking through dirty water to ensure that we could make it back to Jakarta. Thankfully, we arrived at the airport on time, and found our flight…delayed.  We and the Lombok pottery that we bought made it back to Jakarta in one piece. We had a fabulous time on our adventure-filled vacation. We are already searching the guide book for our next destination. What will it be? Komodo Island…Malaysia…Sumatra….West Timor…? I guess we will have to wait and see!!