Limboto in Pictures

The view from my living room

Take a few steps back and…

My cute little living room! The jars are full of cookies that people keep giving me.

Turn around and go left and you’re in the…

Kitchen - often home to many friends such as lizards, cockroaches and ants!

Take another left and you’re in my

My bathroom - it looks moderately clean from here, and there's a showerhead I couldn't fit in the picture. I often wake up to mice leaving presents for me on the floor, so I clean my bathroom often!

Turn around and you’re facing…

The other side of my kitchen - so grateful for my fridge, rice cooker, and water dispenser! Are you seeing a color theme yet? 🙂

Go through that door on the right and you’re in…

This is one of my favorite rooms (the study) - there's now a keyboard to the right of the desk and this room looks the most lived in because it's now messy!

Go out the door of the study and take a left and you’re in…

My bedroom - there's a TV on the left with local channels, and my awesome bedspread and mosquito net! Makes me feel like a princess.

Hope you enjoyed the tour! Here are some pictures from around school and at Saronde Island this past weekend!

Me and some of the male students at MAN Limboto - they're hilarious.

The kids at Insan Cendekia (Jolie's school) eating Indian food that Jolie made for us!

Shifa, Jolie and a friend get ready to go to Saronde Island!

Us on the boat ride over form the mainland!

PRETTY

I want to live here...

Needless to say, I was pretty stoked.

Kucing (that's what Jolie calls him) and Jolie arguing about whether the thing in the sky we were looking at was the moon or Mercury...

Me and Yunus keeping it real.

Jolie and I trying to jump at the same time for an action shot...

The only downside on this adventure was the mob that followed us everywhere asking for our picture...

There were at least a hundred people surrounding us while we ate lunch (these are just a sampling) and also blocking our view of the ocean...a little creepy, huh?

Despite our rather large fan base, we all had an awesome day!

Next post: My trip to a local school, my favorite phrase in Indonesian, my classes, and maybe some religion talk too!

Sampai Nanti Bandung!

I’ll write this in the past tense because that’s just the truth – I got behind, sorry!

I was getting really excited and nervous both for my counterpart to arrive and to travel to Limboto. I was also getting really attached to all the other ETAs I had come to know – I can think of one way, at least, that each person has made my day or helped me over the course of this orientation.

In the last few days of being in Bandung, I went from completely frustrated and overwhelmed to so happy and pumped for my trip to Limboto.  In some ways, my experience so far has consisted of adjusting my expectations and celebrating seemingly small victories.  The night before the counterparts came, I got to hang out with a bunch of ETAs for our last complete night alone.  The next night, the counterparts arrived.  I was so excited to meet mine and begin to form a really lasting friendship with someone for the next few months.  I also had a hundred questions and wanted to know as much as possible about my school, the students and my new home.

I went to the counterpart dinner and for the first hour, was one of three people whose counterpart was delayed due to travel.  I found myself in a sea of conversation that didn’t include me.  It was funny to listen to some people get ahead of themselves by asking questions of the counterpart before introducing themselves.  I talked with the counterpart of an ETA who couldn’t attend the dinner due to illness who was very nice and it made me feel more at ease.  Around one hour later, my counterpart and Jolie’s counterpart came through the door, and I was thrilled  to see them! Ibu Sumarni and Ibu Trisna (who will now not let me call her anything but Trisna) are both wonderful people.  I sat and talked with both of them for a while.  Over the course of the dinner, it became clear to me that my counterpart, while being very nice and sweet as pie, spoke English a little better than I speak Bahasa Indonesia.  I tried to find out how many students go to the school and how many classes I would be teaching, but I only got some confused looks and several different answers.  I tried to speak slowly and say my questions in different ways, but nothing really came of it except confusion.  I found out that my Ibu has two children, one girl and one boy, and that she has been an English teacher for a long time. Because they were tired and my Ibu was a little sick (sedikit sakit), they went to bed early. Most other ETAs still seemed to be happily chatting away with their counterparts, and some even went out with them after.

This was definitely the lowest point for me during my time in Indonesia so far.  For some reason, I was pretty disappointed and incredibly frustrated.  Why did it seem like everyone else’s counterparts spoke English pretty well? Why couldn’t I communicate with mine, no matter how hard I tried? I will admit that I was even frustrated with the fact that she was an English teacher who couldn’t seem to speak English, however simply. Honestly, I spent most of that night in my hotel room crying uncontrollably on the phone with my mother or e-mailing Sarah, the ETA who had been at MAN Limboto last year.  I had been so sure that I’d be able to find all the answers to my questions, and I had completely over-estimated the situation.  It also hit me that night that I was as far away from home as I could be and that I’d remain in that state for the next 9 months.  It also struck me that I graduated from college and I’d left Oberlin forever!

I didn’t really stop crying until the next morning – I think the last time I cried that much was when I didn’t get the Watson Fellowship back in October. Eventually, by talking to other people who had had similar experiences (minus the unstoppable tears) with a lack of communication in English with counterparts. Many of my friends pointed out that because of the lack of English communication, my Bahasa Indonesia would improve immensely (which it has, already, in less than a week of being in Limboto).  At lunch, I communicated better with my counterpart, and she opened up to me a little bit as well.

The next few days were filled with a combination of orientation with counterparts, both costume-making and skit-performing in Indonesian class, hanging out with beloved ETAs, and packing. The night before we left was a huge cuddle-fest! We also said goodbye to our education and Indonesian teachers tearfully and promised to visit each other as much as possible.  Here are some pictures from the last two days in Bandung!

Ibu Itje, Ibu Grace, me and Ibu Ria!

The AMINEF Team: Astrid, Nadia and Nellie!

All the counterparts and ETAs.

Rachel, Paige, Judith, Judith's counterpart, and Sarah.

spooning on the last night haha!

At 5am the next day, most of us woke up to catch a bus to the airport in Jakarta for our long journey. We had a warm send-off from everyone – people sang Aerosmith’s “Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing”. Jolie and I waited in the airport with our Ibus for a while hunting for food and getting super hot.  We then took a very beautiful yet strange plane ride (we turned around about three times) to Makassar and then took the same plan to Gorontalo.  Tired and overwhelmed as we were, a ton of very nice and helpful people were waiting for us with a large personalized sign and many leis (I don’t know the Indonesian equivalent) of flowers. I said goodbye to Jolie for a few days and was whisked away to have food given to me at every turn, pictures being snapped non-stop, and people laughing at me and with me.  I ended up at the house of a very kind woman named Ibu Rose and her family.  Here is the story in pictures:

Polly, Kelsey, JT, Elena, Ben, Heather, Victor, Brian, Grace and little Yofel sing and say goodbye!

Ibu Sumarni and Ibu Trisna staying positive at Jakarta's airport.

Our beautiful plane ride!!!

Jolie and I in front of our awesome sign!

Jolie and I were tired but happy.

Next, I wake up in a totally new place and have new adventures!

A Little Bit of Everything

All in all, I’m really enjoying learning Indonesian. It’s so different from any language I’ve tried to learn (granted, outside of romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish) I’ve only dabbled in German) for several reasons. First, it is largely vocabulary-based.  There are no conjugated verbs, and therefore no past or future tenses for verbs (future or past is indicated by adding an adjective, such as “in the past”, “yesterday”, “tomorrow” or “in the future”.  Secondly, there are no gendered pronouns – pronouns relate to the type of object being discussed (for example, there’s a different pronoun for animals (seekor) then there is for humans (seorang)). Thirdly, there is no verb for “to be” (outside of the word for there is/there are (ada – it’s similar to hay in español).  Also, there are a few sort of quirky things about the language – to imply that a noun is plural, often you say it twice (for example: cucu-cucu (pronounced choo-choo choo-choo) means grandchildren – it’s one of my favorite words!) Also, there are two different ways to say “we”: one includes the person you’re addressing (kita) and the other excludes them from being in the “we” (kami).  There is also a different goodbye to say to someone when they are staying and you are going. Indonesians are always happy to practice with you and are very patient when you make mistakes. Another thing: there is a verb that means “to have a moustache” – it’s berkumis. It’s harder to learn than I thought, but I’m getting better. If you want to learn a phrase, selamat pagi means good morning! I’ll add some more phrases with each post.

The education classes have been really good for me too. I helped prepare a lesson the other day (I didn’t like the activity we were given), and yesterday I co-taught a lesson on adjectives. We had the kids list some adjectives on the board, and then had them write three adjectives to describe themselves.  We then had a discussion about which member of the class the adjectives described.  It was really fun! I tend to talk down to people in my tone, I and others have noticed, in that I tend to have a more motherly and overly kindergarten teacher like quality to my voice.  This was really good feedback – I need to speak more naturally when teaching and tend to be overly kind and enthusiastic.  Today, I taught a lesson on giving directions – I used a map of part of my town to help them use different vocabulary like left, right, straight, turn, and also to have them learn a little about me. Some of the feedback I got was that I explain simple things too much (like what a map is/directions are) and don’t explain the more complicated things (like what right and left are, or go over the names of my street).  I think next time, I’ll make a map of the village that I’m going to be living in so that I can explain less and my students can talk more! I’ll be teaching again on Monday. It’s so excited to be teaching though, and I really like it – much more than I thought I would. I feel relatively confident up there even though I make mistakes.

I want to talk now about something that’s been troubling me a lot, something that my fellow ETAs and I are going to have to address and something that is going to make our jobs even harder and more important.  If you haven’t heard already, there’s been a lot of buzz in the news about opposition to building a mosque in New York City (note my accurate, if general, choice of words for the location). This heated argument has produced one of the most horrendous challenges to the intercultural harmony which is (hopefully) being constructed on our end, and has manifested in the planned burning of several copies of the Koran on September 11th. I can’t actually think of a more unpatriotic act at the moment. Even Petraeus is urging this group not to go through with the event because it will endanger the lives of our troops overseas (I agree with him). It’s incredibly frustrating when the same law is being twisted in two different ways: we should not have to weigh freedom of religion with freedom of speech. This news may be small potatoes over in the states (50 people are burning a book, big deal!) but over here, it’s huge.

Hate only breeds hate, and so I refuse to hate the people doing this (I also have never met them, so who am I to hate them) and fuel this huge inferno. I just hope they realize the implications of their actions. I also hope that Muslims around the world realize that if this event goes as planned and the Koran is burned, that it is not the fault of the US government that this event happens – stepping in and ending this event in the name of religious freedom would only undermine another American value, that of free speech. I hope that people realize that, like religious extremists everywhere, the people of Gainesville, Florida who decide to burn copies of the Koran are a miniscule minority that does not represent the views of religious or non-religious people and religious leaders as a whole, nor the views of the US government. Not in my name, nor the name of my country.

On another note, I’m getting very comfortable in Bandung, and it’s not just the bed at the hotel. It’s getting lost on an angkot four times (actually it was four different angkots) with two of my friends in the rain and laughing about it, unconcerned about getting back on time or where we’re even going.  It’s going with my friends on a walk to a waterfall and watching the rain fall from the shelter of a gazebo and spiders weave beautiful webs (yes, I used spiders and beautiful in the same sentence!) It’s crossing the street by myself (don’t laugh! it can be challenging and usually I tag along with a group of locals/other ETAs). It’s meeting people and speaking sedikit (a little) Bahasa and getting to know my Bahasa and education teachers and getting a feel for the way life operates around here.  It both makes me sad that I have to leave and comforted that I will be able to settle into my community once I get there!

I also want to talk about the call to prayer that happens five times a day. The other night, it was raining outside, and it was around 6:00pm. I was walking outside listening to the rain and the call to prayer sounded – from 4 different directions at once.  Each was a different melody, at different speeds and each finished at a different time.  It was so humbling to hear such devotion vocalized and performed in such beautiful symphony. The call to prayer is like a song, but simpler in its message. It brings a community together from a long day of more individual work. This experience reminded me of the moment I chose to apply to Oberlin early over all the other colleges I was looking at – I was walking down North Professor in the wee hours of the morning and on one side of the street, I head a violin. After a few seconds, a flute from the other side of the street joined in, playing its own melody, but echoing the same love of music. I knew I belonged there. And hearing the music of the calls to prayer, I feel like I could belong here too, for at least a little while.

Here are some pictures from my walk in the Dago Forest, as well as one of my favorite meals!

One of my favorite meals: barbecued chicken with sambal and rice and avocado juice!

Mary B walking down to the waterfall!

The river in Dago Forest.

Me and the waterfall.

Tomorrow, I’m fasting for the last full day of Ramadan with a bunch of other ETAs (I’m getting up around 3:40am to eat before the sun rises).  I won’t be eating or drinking anything until sunset. I also met an awesome woman named Asmi who works at the hotel and will be helping me with Indonesian – I’ll talk more about her later! On the next post: an Angklung performance (pictures and videos!), some Indonesian music videos, and a discussion of the intercultural education session we had this week.

To Bandung and Beyond!

The past few days have been so eventful that I will inevitably leave out some of the things I did.  I’m also trying to add pictures to my blog in order to make it more enjoyable, so bear with me!

My last two days in Jakarta was pretty awesome actually.  Some friends and I took a taxi to the Monas National Monument in Merdeka Square, the last monument/statue built by Sukarno when his people were starving in an effort to show a united front to his people and the rest of the world. It was started in 1961, but was not opened until 1975 by Suharto. We also went to Mesjid Istiqlal, Jakarta’s primary place for Muslim worship. It was huge and very beautiful. Like other mosques, it has a lot of Islamic symbolism involved in its architecture (it has five levels symbolizing the five pillars of Islam), but its dome is also 45 meters across, symbolizing the year of Indonesia’s independence in 1945. We also went to the Grand Indonesia Mall for some well needed AC. Unfortunately, since I wasn’t planning on going out on the town after getting my KITAS papers in order (the Indonesian equivalent of a state ID), but I got talked into it and was unprepared to properly document my day (as well as being in heels the whole day, ahh!)

The next day we traveled to Bandung, but before that a group of us went to Obama’s school in Jakarta! Apparently he went there in 4th grade. There’s a little statue of him in the courtyard which we posed in front of:

Me posing with Polly’s Obama campaign sign

Polly, Brandon, Eric and Jack reaching for the future (we couldn’t get butterflies to land on their palms).

Our ride to Bandung was really scenic and was a nice break from the smog and dirt of Jakarta (these were taken from the bus):

Leaving Jakarta

Closer to Bandung

I thought this was really pretty – rice paddies and mountains.

Paige, Polly, Emily, Brandon, and Eric are happy about getting to Bandung.

Kelsey, Polly, Brandon and I get ready for our first Bahasa class.

Grace, Rachel and Erin see-sawing between AMINEF group photos.

Our hotel in Bandung is so beautiful, and also largely unnecessary. Apparently there are certain standards that are applied by the State Department when making arrangements for us to live during orientation, which are far beyond the standards any of us expected or need (ask me more about this later in person if you’d like).  I still feel largely unsettled because we keep moving and I won’t have a place to call home until mid-September, but I really like it here so far. Next: a trip organized by ETAs, volcanoes, and adventure!

Adventures in Jakarta

The past few days have been really awesome! Yesterday we had a wet but amazing adventure.  After orientation, we wanted to walk to Kota, an area influenced by the Dutch colonialists.  Almost as soon as we walked outside, it began to rain pretty heavily, but this did not deter us from our adventure.  While waiting in a mini-police station, we hailed what we thought was a cab, but turned out to be a sort of bus (like the tro-tros in Ghana) that we eventually overtook because there were 8 of us.  We asked to go to VOC Galangan, a nice restaurant where we could grab a drink, and after going to the marina which resulted in some absolutely insane traffic by accident, we finally arrived at the restaurant.  It was a really pretty setting: an inner grassy courtyard with pretty trees and a nice terrace.  We chatted and got some beer and water, and Nicole and I followed a worker there into the museum/gift shop, where they had GORGEOUS wood carvings and other pretty art.  The nice sculptures that Nicole and I would have considered buying weren’t for sale though 😦 Then we followed him to the back of the courtyard where there were men working on more wood carvings.  We tried to talk to the men as much as we could with our non-existent Bahasa and their minimal English, and found out that these guys have been working on woodcarvings since high school.  They were so beautiful!

We then ventured out into the street to find someplace to eat, eventually – in the meantime, we wandered through a market and talked to some people, looked at cheap and beautiful shoes, and asked people for directions.  Walking through Jakarta is enough to tire you out by itself – I get excited when there is a sidewalk! After being really indecisive about walking or getting a taxi, we were directed by some men on the street to this small place with food lined up in the windows.  It definitely wasn’t fresh or piping hot, but it was incredibly delicious – I ate just some rice at first, then ventured onto a hard boiled egg in delicious sauce, then onto a fried potato thing, and finally ate some INCREDIBLE spicy beef. I feel really fine right now, so I think I’ll try it again sometime 🙂

Today after orientation was also really fun – a whole group of us went to the pool in the hotel (which is huge and intricate and travels to several different parts of the hotel and has swans and horses outside as part of the architecture!) for a bit, then we got to talk to some ETAs who were in Indonesia last year and who got jobs in Jakarta.  They were helpful and told us more about the kind of culture we’d encounter in our villages.  It would have been really nice if one of them had been female – I really wanted some clarification on what to wear in a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) or more discussion on proper gender relations.  We also got cell phones! If you’d like my number, let me know – I’d be happy to give it to you.  It’s nice to be able to be in touch with all the other ETAs.

Then the best part of the night happened – we played soccer. Brian, one of the ETAs who is super awesome, organized the whole thing, and AMINEF (the Indonesian partner of the Fulbright/State Department overseeing Fulbright grants in Indonesia) paid for us to rent a soccer court at an indoor sports center nearby! We had three teams rotate and play each other.  It was really refreshing to play with people again (I used to play some sports in high school) and I actually scored a goal and played forward! We were all dripping with sweat and I was a little dizzy, so I bought some Pocari Sweat, which is like Gatorade in that it has electrolytes, but it’s not quite as good. Most of the ETA players are quite good.  The best of the best are playing the hotel soccer team tomorrow too, which is going to be so awesome! Then I got some “special” nasi goreng (fried rice with an egg on top) for the equivalent of $2.00 (a big Bintang beer is more expensive at around $2.60).  It’s been an awesome few days.  Tomorrow is our last full day in Jakarta, and none of us have gone to get our KITAS (state ID) from immigration yet, which we need to stay in the country and is the whole point of us being in Jakarta. Hopefully we’ll get them before we leave! Tomorrow, I want to go to Merdeka Square to see the monument that Sukarno built, as well as a huge mosque and the school where Obama went!