Fruit Party

One of our new staff is actually a student teacher named Molly who is spending the semester student teaching under our 5th grade teacher, Charity. We celebrated her birthday his past weekend with a fruit party. They bought all sorts of interesting fruit and we spent the afternoon sampling. Although you can see the pictures, it is too bad you can't taste and smell them because it was an experience.

The lovely and colorful spread!

Jennie explaining what everything is and how to eat it.

Star Fruit- you can get this in the States but I had never tasted it before.

Different types of mango and guava- the one on the bottom is called White Mango and is not ripe and pretty sour.

Soursop- looks like mush or perhaps raw seafood, not sure. It doesn't taste too bad but is kind of slimy.

Dragon Fruit- looks really unusual but tastes really good.

Durian- the infamous smelly fruit. Smells like garbage (or worse) and tastes like onions, perhaps garlic, or some say it tastes like it smells... trash.

Molly, the birthday girl, tastes the durian fruit. First reaction says it all.

Everyone hanging out

Nasi

This one's for Arijaan! Arijaan, they have nasi here. Actually the Indonesian word for cooked rice is nasi. One of the most popular and traditional dishes is called Nasi Goreng, which is their version of fried rice. Although they have peanut sauce here, they don't put it on the nasi goreng. They do put some fried egg on top most of the time. Other than that it pretty much looks the same as what you've made for me. I know they don't use a seasoning packet to make it, but I'm not sure what seasoning they add in. Thought you'd find that fun. A taste of home!

The Real Independence Day Celebration

The day after Independence Day the school and national staff hosted an Independence Day celebration for the local community. A few of the teachers showed up to see the traditional games that take place every year to celebrate Independence Day in Indonesia. They even talked us into participating in a few. :) A picture is worth a thousand words.

The front of the school decorated for Independence Day.

The neighborhood children came out for a day of fun.

Not sure what this game is called but this girl looks pretty good at it.

This game was the craziest one I've ever seen. These boys are trying to get a nail tied to the back of their pants into the bottles on the ground. And yes, we did have a teacher round and all got to try it. It was hard!

The goal: to be the first one done with your krupkuk.

I have to admit it wasn't all that good... like a dry rice cake.

Tug of War: female teachers versus the Ibus (all the female workers at the school). Unfortunately they dominated.

Now this was a sight! The goal was to climb to the top of this greased pole to get the prizes at the top.

They tried all afternoon and were not going to give up until they had dominated.

So close, but yet so far.

The only way they were able to finally get to the top was to degrease the pole. I didn't stick around to see it but I heard they made it to the top.

Indonesian Independence Day- August 17

This past Friday was a national holiday in Indonesia. August 17th is Independence Day. On Friday my roommate and I and some others went to the Kampung (translation: the neighborhood where the local people live). We visited our pembantu and some other people's helpers, who invited us into their homes and offered us something to eat. It was a world of difference to go and see where our pembantu lives and meet her family. Her name is Ibu Lilis. Her, her husband and two children share one small bedroom and have a living room that must only be 5 feet by 5 feet. It was very small to have all of us there visiting. But they were so happy that we came and gave us their best. Ibu Lilis made fresh, delicious cinnamon rolls and had fresh strawberries. These are definitely not things she would have had if we were not coming, but a special treat for the westerners.

From a different part of the city (up on a bridge) here is an aerial view of the kampung.

My roommate Emma and I with Ibu Lilis (our helper), visting her on Independence Day.

The Sung family (Jeannie the mom is the school's new Elementary Principle), hired Ibu Lilis's husband to be their driver. Along with the Sung family you can see Ibu Lilis, her husband, and their son Ramadan.

The view out from Ibu Lilis's unfinished second story/roof.

The view again, pretty incredible.

At the side of their house, Ibu Lilis and her family have a personal well so if (rather when) the city shuts off the water they have an endless supply.

It's pretty deep.

Our friend Aaron with his pembantu who we also visited.

My Pembantu

There are a lot of things that are hard about living here in Bandung. There is constant noise. The tops of our windows only have screens on them and thus any noise outside comes right on in. During the night I get awoken by roosters crowing and the Call to Prayer. There is a large construction project right outside our apartment (that I can see out my bedroom window) which they will still be working on when I leave here. The construction workers live in a little shack they built on site. They play the guitar, sing and laugh all night long. During the day, there is of course the constant sound of construction. The sound of street vendors going from house to house still is very strange to me. They each have a unique call to let you know what they are selling (of course they all sound the same right now to me). Because we live in an area with a lot of westerners many of them have dogs as pets. And so we hear lots of barking and howling. Cats here are like dogs in Mexico (if you've ever been to Mexico you know what I mean). Stray cats are everywhere and they all must be sick because they sound like they are dying and are loud.

For some unknown reason our hot water stopped working. It worked the first few days we were here but for the last week and a half we've only had cold water. So we take cold showers or find a friend who will take us in and let us get clean. Actually, over the weekend our water shut off completely for almost 2 days. We asked the school to call our landlord to get it fixed. The person at the school said the landlord came by and said it worked fine. Strange... not sure how that can be.

One of the nicest things about living here is my pembantu (translation: helper). My roommate Emma and I hired her just a few days after arriving. She comes around 7am and leaves around 2pm. She does all of the cooking and cleaning. I come home after school and my bed is made, she's washed all our dishes, and gone grocery shopping. She does all of the laundry, which is quite a process here, because it includes everything being ironed. She makes us dinner and even makes bagels from scratch for breakfast. And, since school has started she will make us lunch and bring it to us at school. She cleans the bathroom, sweeps, and mops almost everyday. I love a clean house and it is so nice to have someone else take care of it all, especially since most things are more difficult and take longer here. I hate to admit it but until just a few days ago I didn't even know how to turn on our oven. I'm constantly surprised by how cheap things are here, but to me one of the cheapest things is labor. We pay our pembantu $50 a month.

First Day

I got through my first day of school. What a long and tiring day it was. I made mistakes, forgot to say things, repeated myself unknowingly, and all sorts of other things. Somehow through it all I started off the new school year on the other side: no longer a student, now the teacher. What an adventure this will bring. I'm still trying to learn names as I have over 75 students. Please pray that I would learn them quickly and be able to connect with them all in meaningful ways. I asked each of my students to fill out an information sheet about themselves on the first day. One question I asked was where they were born. I got quite the myriad of responses: lots of United States, lots of Indonesia, lots of Korea, Canada, Thailand, Chile, Australia, India, Finland, and England.

Here's my classroom the morning of the first day.

School Starts Tomorrow

Please pray for me! School starts tomorrow and I am pretty nervous. Being a new teacher I don't feel fully prepared for starting off a new school year and setting up new routines. I will be teaching 5 classes: 6th grade math, 7th grade pre-algebra, 8th grade algebra I, 9th grade geometry, and 10th grade algebra II. Pray that I would be able to quickly learn all my students' names, for peace as I am nervous and fearful, and that I would be able to clearly communicate my classroom expectations to my students. This is a picture of what my classroom looked like just 4 days ago. I will try to take another tomorrow so that you can see the final product. It has been a crazy transition to try and get adjusted to a new culture and a new job at the same time. Who knows what tomorrow will bring but I will get through it. I appreciate your prayers... I'll let you know how it goes.

Ice Cream

Although most Indonesians don't really eat or drink dairy you can still get it here. I was afraid that I'd be dying for some ice cream but the third day here we ate at a restaurant called the Gelato Bar. They had really delicious sandwiches and then we split some gelato for dessert. It was yummy. You can also buy different types of ice cream at the international grocery store (called Setiabudi). I've also seen a 31 Flavors but haven't tried it yet. Milk is quite different here. It comes in a non-refrigerated box. And unfortunately cheese is really expensive.

Charity, Molly, and I enjoy some chocolate and lemon gelato at the Gelato Bar.

Creatures

What's a foreign country without some foreign creatures!

Cicaks (geckos or house lizards) are everywhere here. They crawl all around both inside and outside of our house. I really don't mind them as long as they don't get too close. They eat the bugs like mosquitoes but I would rather they stayed on the walls and ceiling.



This rather large spider has built a huge web between several large trees right outside our apartment complex.

Call to Prayer

One of the most striking things about life here in Indonesia is the Call to Prayer. Muslims are required to pray 5 times a day: before dawn (normally around 4am), noon, around 3pm, right before sunset, and at night (normally around 7pm). Right now I am sitting in my classroom listening to the Call to Prayer from the closest Mosque as the sun is about to set. Pretty much no matter where you are in the city you are close enough to hear it from one or more Mosques who play it from loud speakers for all to hear. During the day it is less noticable because of the hustle and bustle of the city. However, especially when I first got here, it would jolt me awake in the quiet of the night around 4am. I was able to hear not just the speaker closest to my apartment but Mosques off in the distance who start at all different times. Not all Mosques play at the same time and so it is usually 15-20 minutes long by the time they have all finished. I've been trying to find the words to describe what is sounds like. I guess the right word would be chanting but it sounds much more like wailing or some sort of weird singing except you don't know what they are saying. To add to the eerie-ness, none of them are in sync with the others and so it all gets jumbled together. When I first arrived I didn't think it would be possible to sleep through the night without waking up to the Call to Prayer. Somehow you just get tired enough that you learn to tune it out. But still on different days and at different times I find it more striking and almost invasive to my life.

Welcome Home

After traveling for over 24 hours I arrived to my new apartment with this welcome basket waiting. The school here has been amazing to take care of all the new staff and their families, especially within the first few days of arriving. They have fed us most meals within the first week and even took us to some nice restaurants (although things here are so much less expensive- I got steak at one for about $3). They have also driven us around shopping to get everything we could possibly need to set up our new home. It's a blessing to be cared for!

Indonesian

The language that they speak here in Indonesia is Indonesian (as so many were asking before I came). Actually right now my blog page has switched into Indonesian and I can't figure out how to change it, so all directions and labels on my screen I have to just guess at. :) The language is pretty simple and will be easy to learn even though I'm not one gifted at languages. I know once school starts, however, I won't have much time to devote to language study but I still think I'll be able to pick up enough to get by. At least that is what I am hoping because right now it's a little frustrating to not be able to communicate with people. Yes is ya which is nice because it comes very naturally. No is tidak, a little more difficult to remember. Indonesian doesn't have any verb conjugation so if you want to say something all you have to do is state the person and then the verb. No need to change it depending on the person or whether it is past, present or future. The hardest part might just be sitting down and memorizing words. Mostly right now I'm just getting by with pointing or acting it out. Lots of hand motions and nonverbal communication can get you pretty far.

Earthquake

In case you've already heard there was an earthquake in Indonesia. I've been told it is on American TV so I wanted to let you know that we are all okay here. I awoke in the middle of the night to feel my bed shaking. The earthquake lasted a long time (about a minute) but didn't feel that strong so I just stayed in bed. We've been told that it the epicenter was 60 miles off the coast of Jakarta and about a 7.5. But really no damage to our house or the school. For many of the staff here it was the first time they had ever been in an earthquake but nobody is really shook up at all.

I've Arrived

After much traveling I arrived in Bandung, Indonesia last Friday night. I left LAX really early on Thursday morning and flew to Taipei, Taiwan. That was the longest flight (about 14 hours) but luckily I was able to sleep on and off for almost 8 hours or maybe even more so it didn't feel that long. They served us dinner at 3:00am and breakfast right before we landed. Then I had a lay over in Taiwan for just an hour. They sent us off the plane, out of the terminal, around the corner to go through security, up some stairs, around the corner to tell someone our name, down some stairs just to end up right back in the same terminal we started in (just one big circle). The next flight was from Taiwan to Malaysia. It took about 4 hours and they served us lunch. The airport in Malaysia was beautiful with lots and lots of windows and glass walls everywhere letting you see out to lush green scenery. After about an hour and a half lay over we boarded a plane for Jakarta. This last plane was smaller but they still served us lunch (again). It only took about 2 hours to fly from Malaysia to Jakarta. Once in Jakarta a friend and I navigated the airport to pick up our bags, exchange money, clear through the passport/visa station, and get through customs. Luckily we got through without any problems and even saw a familiar face on the other side as we left the airport to get picked up. Jennie, a science teacher here at BAIS, is someone I met at my Pre-Field Orientation. She was there and rode the school van with us from the airport in Jakarta to the school in Bandung. This was especially nice because she is almost fluent in the language here and was able to help us along the way. We were able to stop at a Starbucks and A&W. However, this might have been my first culture shock as the only bathrooms there were squat pots which you had to pay to use and had no toilet paper. Along with that right next to the bathrooms was a small mosque that looked like just another enterance to the bathrooms. Unfortunately we got stuck in traffic and it took us over 5 hours to get to Bandung. They took us to our apartments and we basically went to bed. That is my recap of the journey. There is lots more to tell but I'm going to try and do it gradually. Keep checking here for more fun stories and tidbits about life here. (Sorry it took me awhile to initially get a chance to update here.) I love you all and thank you for your many prayers of safe travels. Continue to pray for health and rest.

In the Malaysia Airport after many hours of travel