PFO- Days 5 and 6

The past two days have gone by really quickly here. Friday we had more sessions learning about communication styles, cultural values, and entry culture stress. Last night we went to a minor league baseball game in downtown Memphis. It was fun to finally get out and do something different. Today we got to sleep in (but only by half an hour) and even though it is Saturday had a full day of sessions. We got together in our school groups and I got to hear from the staff that has already been living in Indonesia. They are a wealth of knowledge and we only skimmed the surface of some of the basics of Indonesian, specifically Sundanese, culture. It was interesting but also a little overwhelming as it feels like a lot to remember. We also had sessions about learning to adapt in a new culture, culture clash, becoming a learner, and coping. I also met the director and principle of the school I will be working at today. He, his wife, and their 18 month old daughter flew in from Indonesia yesterday... so they were pretty jetlagged. We will get a change to get to know them more over the next few days though. I can't believe a week has already past here. It has been a blessing but also a challenge to be at PFO and learn tons! I never imagined there was so much to all of this!

PFO- Days 3 and 4

These past two days at PFO have been really emotionally draining ones. Yesterday the main focus was on Third Culture Kids (TCKs for short) which are the students that I am going to be teaching. TCKs are children who have spent part of their developmental years in a country different from their Passport country. They find themselves fitting in best with others who have had the same experience of living overseas and yet feeling at some level a stranger in this foreign country. However, when they return home to their Passport country it no longer feels like home because of the unique experiences they have had adjusting to another culture and living overseas. It was incredibly interesting yet also heartbreaking as we learned much of the hardship that comes along with being a TCK.

Today we spent most of the day hearing about transition, both what we are experiencing now as well as what it will be like once we get overseas. I don't think I realized that I had already begun this long and messy process of transition until today. I heard that the many things I have been feeling and experiencing are normal. The thing I heard over and over again was that grief is normal and will probably last a long time. We heard today that it takes about a year and a half until we step into the last phase of transition and where a person really feels at home in the new place they have moved to overseas. Lucky for us it only gets harder from here! :) After we land in the new country the next phase begins and today we were told that phase is called CHAOS. Many people who have already been living overseas agreed that this is exactly how they felt at some point in their transition experience.

PFO- Days 1 and 2

The organization that I am going to Indonesia through is called the Network of International Christian Schools (NICS). They put together a training for all of their teachers that they call Pre-Field Orientation (PFO). I got here to Mississippi yesterday after a very long day. My flight was suppose to take off from LAX at 7:10 am. After boarding us all onto the plane, they announced that they were having maintainace problems with their back up system. After getting a new part, installing it, and 7 hours later we were finally in the air headed for Memphis. I was picked up from the airport along with another girl who was on my flight and driven about 15 minutes to Southaven, Mississippi. I finally got to PFO around 8:30 pm last night.

Today has been a very long day filled with training sessions and meeting new people. This morning we had a devotional time and then heard the founder of NICS tell his story of going into cross cultural ministry and starting NICS. During our next session we had a speaker present an introduction to culture along with an interactive activity where in small groups we decided on cultural norms and then visited people with vastly different cultures than our own. This afternoon we had several sessions on personality types and understanding personality differences. We got the results of the personality test we had taken online. I'm a ISFP... pretty right on I would say. Tomorrow we will get into groups based on school and share the strengths and weaknesses that come along with our personality type.

It is such an experience being here with 150 new teachers and their spouses who will be going all over the world. I am rooming with three girls, one teaching in Accra, Ghana, one teaching in Nairobi, Kenya, and one teaching in Kumming, China. This morning I had breakfast with people going to Venezuela, Korea, Brazil, and Afghanistan. No one here has looked at me in shock after I tell them I'm going to be teaching in Indonesia. It doesn't seem out of the ordinary at all. There are also many here who have just graduated and will be spending their first year of teaching overseas. Today I met my roommate who I will be living with in Indonesia. She's fun and so far we've gotten along great! I'm excited for that and think it will be a really positive living environment. I have also met all of the new staff going to Indonesia and parts of their families as well. I've met some of the other staff who work at the school in Bandung as they are here serving as advisors. The director/principle of the school will be coming with his family on Friday. I've also already met two of my future students who are here as well. One is going to be in 8th grade and one is going into 9th. Pray for rest as days are filled here and it will be easy to get to the point of people overload. Also for continued development of relationships with the staff I will be working with in the coming year.

Graduation

(From left: Arijaan, Jaclyn, Emily, and Kristen)

My roommates and I at graduation from Cal Poly. It was very bittersweet as we had lived together for three years after meeting in the dorms.

Arijaan is going to be interning this upcoming year with Campus Crusade for Christ at Cal Poly SLO. Jaclyn is moving to Frances in September to teach English to elementary children in their public school system. And lastly, Kristen will be traveling to Africa through a missions agency called Adventures in Missions to experience what it is like to be a first year missionary. We will be covering 4 out of the 7 countinents this upcoming year!

Details

So many people have been asking... it's hard to keep the dates straight. I leave for two weeks of training in Mississippi this coming Monday, June 25 and return Saturday, July 7. I fly out of LAX for Indonesia at 1:40 am on August 2nd! It's coming soon!