I spent some time compiling pictures others had taken from our trip to Sumatra. Since I lost my camera and thus all my pictures, I had to rely on what everyone else had taken. I hope you enjoy this web album and it gives you a glimpse into all that our trip held. Words don't do it justice, but then again neither to pictures. But they do say a picture is worth a thousand words and I do think that is true.
http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyinbandung/SumatraJungleTrip
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Many Languages
And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. -Revelation 5:9
Today as I sat and listened to Matt, the other math teacher who I share a room with, talking with some of the students, it hit me once again that I am part of an international school. This includes an international community, with students from all over the world. But it also includes a plethora of languages. Matt was asking one of our Korean students to teach him Korean. They sat for a while and exchanged words, none of which I caught onto (Korean sounds like a difficult language to me). At one point the boy suggested he teach Matt some Korean cuss words, that way Matt would know when other Korean students were saying them. Matt passed him on that offer. This has been a problem at our school though. With a large Korean population some students have began bullying each other in Korean and none of the adults know what they are saying. Luckily we now have an assistant principle who speaks Korean. :) Each day during first period I sit in our shared classroom and get reminded of my own high school days as I listen to Matt teach Spanish I. It is kind of funny to me to hear an English Learner who speaks Korean at home learning Spanish. It is fun to hear Spanish spoken though... kind of feel like I am at home. I realize how much Spanish perhaps I did know when it is the only thing that will come out in certain circumstances living in a foreign country. And of course at the end of the day in staff meeting I sit next to our French teacher who has a thick French accent. Most of the day is spent in English though. All of our students are required to speak English during the school day. But then I try to talk to one of the school custodians or go to the cafeteria and get my lunch and I am reminded that I live in Indonesia. I'm still working on my own Indonesian... it's coming pretty slowly, but I've learned more than I think I ever expected I would.
Today as I sat and listened to Matt, the other math teacher who I share a room with, talking with some of the students, it hit me once again that I am part of an international school. This includes an international community, with students from all over the world. But it also includes a plethora of languages. Matt was asking one of our Korean students to teach him Korean. They sat for a while and exchanged words, none of which I caught onto (Korean sounds like a difficult language to me). At one point the boy suggested he teach Matt some Korean cuss words, that way Matt would know when other Korean students were saying them. Matt passed him on that offer. This has been a problem at our school though. With a large Korean population some students have began bullying each other in Korean and none of the adults know what they are saying. Luckily we now have an assistant principle who speaks Korean. :) Each day during first period I sit in our shared classroom and get reminded of my own high school days as I listen to Matt teach Spanish I. It is kind of funny to me to hear an English Learner who speaks Korean at home learning Spanish. It is fun to hear Spanish spoken though... kind of feel like I am at home. I realize how much Spanish perhaps I did know when it is the only thing that will come out in certain circumstances living in a foreign country. And of course at the end of the day in staff meeting I sit next to our French teacher who has a thick French accent. Most of the day is spent in English though. All of our students are required to speak English during the school day. But then I try to talk to one of the school custodians or go to the cafeteria and get my lunch and I am reminded that I live in Indonesia. I'm still working on my own Indonesian... it's coming pretty slowly, but I've learned more than I think I ever expected I would.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
One word to sum it up... intense
Life is pretty intense here... take for example our staff retreat.
Last weekend our entire (almost) staff went away for the weekend on a staff retreat. A church in the States sponsored it. They paid for everything and sent one of their pastors and a church member all the way over here to Indonesia to host the retreat. We drove about 45 minutes outside of Bandung up into the mountains (actually up the side of the volcano we live at the base of) to a retreat center. I drove with my friend Lindsey on the back of her motor bike. When we got there Joey our director told us where we'd be sleeping. I got put with most of the single ladies. There were 8 of us in one room sleeping on 4 mattresses on the floor. All together there were about 40 adults and 20 kids with only 5 bedrooms and a loft. They decided to put all of the kids in one room! It was madness... 20 kids from preschool to 9th grade all in one room. On top of that the walls were paper thin, so we could hear from one room to the next. One night a group stayed up playing the game apples to apples in the common room next to the bedrooms... let me tell you no one else was sleeping, we could hear everything until they finally called it a night and the rest of us got to sleep. It kind of felt like we were living on top of each other for the weekend. At least there was plenty of space to spread out outside. The retreat center had different places to take walks, to relax on the grass, and for the kids to play. And play they did, all weekend long. While the adults were busy, the kids were outside keeping themselves busy, making up games, finding giant sticks, watching out for each other like one big family. About half of the kids that came on the retreat are students of mine, so I got to spend some quality time with some of my students and they saw me in a much different setting. We ate mostly Indonesian food the whole weekend but they had brought some other snacks like soda, chips, and cookies for us to enjoy. They had various sessions planned for us where we sang, heard from our speakers, played games, had discussions, etc. Plus plenty of time to relax, have good, long conversations, and play. Saturday before lunch we spent some time playing ultimate frisbee. That afternoon I joined in on the two-hand touch American football game. We played for hours... mostly the men with a few of us females joining in. I was so sore the next day (ok... really the next few days). It got pretty intense at times. Charity, our 5th grade teacher, got her foot tangled in my legs (I know, happens all the time... :) ) and ended up twisting her ankle. We even had a campfire Saturday night at an outdoor pit at the retreat center. We roasted marshmallows and put them on something that resembled a gram cracker (but didn't quite compare). The weekend ended on Sunday with a pretty intense and vulnerable conversation about next school year and the big school move we will be facing. The one word I have for the weekend is intense. It was fun, somewhat relaxing (even though I left tired and sore), but also rejuvenating in some ways as I was reminded why I am here and that I do have an impact on the students I teach even when it doesn't seem like it.
Last weekend our entire (almost) staff went away for the weekend on a staff retreat. A church in the States sponsored it. They paid for everything and sent one of their pastors and a church member all the way over here to Indonesia to host the retreat. We drove about 45 minutes outside of Bandung up into the mountains (actually up the side of the volcano we live at the base of) to a retreat center. I drove with my friend Lindsey on the back of her motor bike. When we got there Joey our director told us where we'd be sleeping. I got put with most of the single ladies. There were 8 of us in one room sleeping on 4 mattresses on the floor. All together there were about 40 adults and 20 kids with only 5 bedrooms and a loft. They decided to put all of the kids in one room! It was madness... 20 kids from preschool to 9th grade all in one room. On top of that the walls were paper thin, so we could hear from one room to the next. One night a group stayed up playing the game apples to apples in the common room next to the bedrooms... let me tell you no one else was sleeping, we could hear everything until they finally called it a night and the rest of us got to sleep. It kind of felt like we were living on top of each other for the weekend. At least there was plenty of space to spread out outside. The retreat center had different places to take walks, to relax on the grass, and for the kids to play. And play they did, all weekend long. While the adults were busy, the kids were outside keeping themselves busy, making up games, finding giant sticks, watching out for each other like one big family. About half of the kids that came on the retreat are students of mine, so I got to spend some quality time with some of my students and they saw me in a much different setting. We ate mostly Indonesian food the whole weekend but they had brought some other snacks like soda, chips, and cookies for us to enjoy. They had various sessions planned for us where we sang, heard from our speakers, played games, had discussions, etc. Plus plenty of time to relax, have good, long conversations, and play. Saturday before lunch we spent some time playing ultimate frisbee. That afternoon I joined in on the two-hand touch American football game. We played for hours... mostly the men with a few of us females joining in. I was so sore the next day (ok... really the next few days). It got pretty intense at times. Charity, our 5th grade teacher, got her foot tangled in my legs (I know, happens all the time... :) ) and ended up twisting her ankle. We even had a campfire Saturday night at an outdoor pit at the retreat center. We roasted marshmallows and put them on something that resembled a gram cracker (but didn't quite compare). The weekend ended on Sunday with a pretty intense and vulnerable conversation about next school year and the big school move we will be facing. The one word I have for the weekend is intense. It was fun, somewhat relaxing (even though I left tired and sore), but also rejuvenating in some ways as I was reminded why I am here and that I do have an impact on the students I teach even when it doesn't seem like it.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Sumatran Jungle Adventure
This past weekend nine teachers from the school took off for a weekend adventure in the jungle. We had a long weekend due to Idul Fitri which is the celebration of the end of Ramadan. We have been planning this trip for months. We started out the weekend with over 12 hours of traveling. We drove from Bandung to Jakarta, flew from Jakarta to Medan, and took what our guides affectionately called the "jungle bus" from Medan to the small village of Bukit Lawang.
Bukit Lawang is known for one thing- its orangutan preserve. After our long day of traveling we headed straight to bed. The next morning we got up and got ready for our day of trekking through the jungle. We ate breakfast at the hotel's restaurant, then crossed a small river to see the morning feeding of the orangutans. For some reason there was only one that came to be fed. She was a pregnant dominant female. They fed her lots of bananas and some sour milk drink. She kept eating the bananas, chewing them up, and then throwing them back up and eating them again... yummy. We then left the other tourists and started out on what turned out to be an 8 hour trek through the jungle. It was a blast, but exhausting and scary at times... lots of tumbling down the sides of mountains. We came across many other orangutans throughout the day as we hiked. At one point we were surrounded by three orangutans hanging out in the trees above us. God's creation is amazing and it was so crazy to be surrounded by it for a day. We finally made it out of the jungle when we arrived at the river we had been anticipating all day. We splashed around and cooled off, then we got onto rafts (which were really inter tubes that our guides had tied together) and white water rafted down the river back to our hotel. The river was so fun and it was amazing to see the jungle as we floated along.
That evening we had dinner at a local restaurant and then hung out and played Phase 10. The next morning we woke up and packed up. We headed back to Medan but not before stopping at the crocodile farm first. This was not all it was cracked up to be. The crocodile farm is basically just a bunch of crocodiles piled inside of cement cages... pretty sad. That night we hung out in the city of Medan... had dinner at a restaurant that serves dim sun. We finished the evening by playing a never ending game of Phase 10 that lasted until 1 am. But we did finish all 10 phases. The following morning we ate at the hotel breakfast buffet and went to the airport, only to hang out there for a couple of hours. When we got to Jakarta we stopped at one of the malls and got some lunch at CPK (it was fun to have some American food), then headed back to Bandung. It was quite the weekend... a ton of fun. The saddest part was that I lost my camera somewhere between the Jakarta airport and CPK and with it lost all my pictures from the weekend... I'm so bummed. If you know me at all you know how much I love pictures and I had taken a lot. Here are some pictures I got from friends to give you a glimpse into the weekend. Enjoy!
-Never wear batik pants while hiking through the jungle... while they look cool they are not sturdy enough to withhold jungle trekking.
-Always bring more water than you think you need... nothing is worst than being 3 hours into an 8 hour trek and being out of water.
-If your guide asks if you want to ride on the top of the car take the opportunity while you can... especially when it means getting out of being smashed in a car with 11 other people on a bumpy, windy road.
Bukit Lawang is known for one thing- its orangutan preserve. After our long day of traveling we headed straight to bed. The next morning we got up and got ready for our day of trekking through the jungle. We ate breakfast at the hotel's restaurant, then crossed a small river to see the morning feeding of the orangutans. For some reason there was only one that came to be fed. She was a pregnant dominant female. They fed her lots of bananas and some sour milk drink. She kept eating the bananas, chewing them up, and then throwing them back up and eating them again... yummy. We then left the other tourists and started out on what turned out to be an 8 hour trek through the jungle. It was a blast, but exhausting and scary at times... lots of tumbling down the sides of mountains. We came across many other orangutans throughout the day as we hiked. At one point we were surrounded by three orangutans hanging out in the trees above us. God's creation is amazing and it was so crazy to be surrounded by it for a day. We finally made it out of the jungle when we arrived at the river we had been anticipating all day. We splashed around and cooled off, then we got onto rafts (which were really inter tubes that our guides had tied together) and white water rafted down the river back to our hotel. The river was so fun and it was amazing to see the jungle as we floated along.
That evening we had dinner at a local restaurant and then hung out and played Phase 10. The next morning we woke up and packed up. We headed back to Medan but not before stopping at the crocodile farm first. This was not all it was cracked up to be. The crocodile farm is basically just a bunch of crocodiles piled inside of cement cages... pretty sad. That night we hung out in the city of Medan... had dinner at a restaurant that serves dim sun. We finished the evening by playing a never ending game of Phase 10 that lasted until 1 am. But we did finish all 10 phases. The following morning we ate at the hotel breakfast buffet and went to the airport, only to hang out there for a couple of hours. When we got to Jakarta we stopped at one of the malls and got some lunch at CPK (it was fun to have some American food), then headed back to Bandung. It was quite the weekend... a ton of fun. The saddest part was that I lost my camera somewhere between the Jakarta airport and CPK and with it lost all my pictures from the weekend... I'm so bummed. If you know me at all you know how much I love pictures and I had taken a lot. Here are some pictures I got from friends to give you a glimpse into the weekend. Enjoy!
All crammed in the "jungle bus"- nine of us plus 2 guides and our driver. I was stuck in the back. The end of the ride got pretty bumpy and windy. I took some motion sickness medicine that worked great and so I didn't get nauseous at all... amazing! I can't say the same for the rest of our group.
After traveling for almost 12 hours the final leg of our journey included a 20 minute walk from the end of the road where we left the "jungle bus" through the village to our hotel. This picture was taken the day we were leaving... that first night we walked it in the pitch dark. It was really scary to be led through the dark into the jungle by two guides who we had just met, not really sure where they were taking us.
We finally arrive at our destination- the Jungle Inn... truly in the heart of the jungle.
I felt like I had walked onto the set of the Swiss Family Robinson. This was by no means a five star hotel. They only have electricity at night when they turn the generator on. There was no hot water and each room included mosquito nets. They did have the coolest rooms- ours had a water fall out the back porch with a hammock.
The hotel at the restaurant.
So cool... pictures just don't capture it.
The small village of Bukit Lawang.
A local mosque. We tried to go see their Idul Fitri celebration but it had been moved to another mosque further away that held more people. Idul Fitri is like Christmas here. People go to the mosque and then go around visiting neighbors, asking for forgiveness from everyone for all the things they have done wrong in the past year. Children get gifts and everyone celebrates by eating as they break the month long fast. It was neat to drive from Bukit Lawang to Medan on this day and see everyone out, visiting others and celebrating. It gave me the feel of Christmas for some reason.
In order to get across the river to the orangutan preserve and the beginning of our jungle trek we had to take this boat from one side to the other. This guy uses a pulley system to maneuver the boat across... might as well do it in purple underwear. :)
Up close and personal with an orangutan... lovely pose. I had a picture of me standing right in front of it... but sadly it's gone.
Some of us standing in awe of what we see around us in the jungle. It was so hot and humid... hard to breath because the air was so thick. We were also told by our school nurse to wear long pants and long sleeves and she put us all on malaria medicine.
Finally arriving at the river... glorious. We couldn't wait to get in and had fun white water rafting down it back to the hotel. Our guides navigated our rafts with long sticks.
At the crocodile farm... what a sad life these crocs live.
Things I learned from our crazy weekend in the jungle:
After traveling for almost 12 hours the final leg of our journey included a 20 minute walk from the end of the road where we left the "jungle bus" through the village to our hotel. This picture was taken the day we were leaving... that first night we walked it in the pitch dark. It was really scary to be led through the dark into the jungle by two guides who we had just met, not really sure where they were taking us.
We finally arrive at our destination- the Jungle Inn... truly in the heart of the jungle.
I felt like I had walked onto the set of the Swiss Family Robinson. This was by no means a five star hotel. They only have electricity at night when they turn the generator on. There was no hot water and each room included mosquito nets. They did have the coolest rooms- ours had a water fall out the back porch with a hammock.
The hotel at the restaurant.
So cool... pictures just don't capture it.
The small village of Bukit Lawang.
A local mosque. We tried to go see their Idul Fitri celebration but it had been moved to another mosque further away that held more people. Idul Fitri is like Christmas here. People go to the mosque and then go around visiting neighbors, asking for forgiveness from everyone for all the things they have done wrong in the past year. Children get gifts and everyone celebrates by eating as they break the month long fast. It was neat to drive from Bukit Lawang to Medan on this day and see everyone out, visiting others and celebrating. It gave me the feel of Christmas for some reason.
In order to get across the river to the orangutan preserve and the beginning of our jungle trek we had to take this boat from one side to the other. This guy uses a pulley system to maneuver the boat across... might as well do it in purple underwear. :)
Up close and personal with an orangutan... lovely pose. I had a picture of me standing right in front of it... but sadly it's gone.
Some of us standing in awe of what we see around us in the jungle. It was so hot and humid... hard to breath because the air was so thick. We were also told by our school nurse to wear long pants and long sleeves and she put us all on malaria medicine.
Finally arriving at the river... glorious. We couldn't wait to get in and had fun white water rafting down it back to the hotel. Our guides navigated our rafts with long sticks.
At the crocodile farm... what a sad life these crocs live.-Never wear batik pants while hiking through the jungle... while they look cool they are not sturdy enough to withhold jungle trekking.
-Always bring more water than you think you need... nothing is worst than being 3 hours into an 8 hour trek and being out of water.
-If your guide asks if you want to ride on the top of the car take the opportunity while you can... especially when it means getting out of being smashed in a car with 11 other people on a bumpy, windy road.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Random Musings
Well, another week has past. We are heading into the 8th week of school. I can't believe how fast it is going. Our first quarter ends in two weeks. There seems to be a lot going on... with the end of the quarter coming, grades need to be done, there are tests to be given and I am having my first observation by my principle. It was a hard week for me... a lot is going on within our school. A lot of changes happening... I've realized lately how public blogging can be so I'm leaving out the specifics but I'd appreciate your prayers for me and for our school. This coming week is a short week for us. Thursday we have a half day and Friday there is no school. Saturday ends the fasting month and is celebrated with a national holiday. A group of nine of us are heading to the island of Sumatra to see the orangutans for the long weekend. More details and pictures will have to follow on that. It is going to be quite the adventure. On another note, I've put some more pictures up online. They are mostly just random ones of different weekend outings. For those who've been asking what we do for fun on weekends, perhaps this will answer your question... give you a little taste of life here. Click on the following link to view them:
http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyinbandung/OutOnTheTown
http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyinbandung/OutOnTheTown
Kites
It's kite flying season here in Indonesia. Probably because it is also dry season and very conducive to getting a kite to fly. The locals are incredibly skilled at this. They have these paper kites with really long strings that they fly. Without even running or moving, just steering it with their hands, they are able to get the kite up. But not just up, the kites soar so high you can barely see them sometimes. It's amazing how high they can get them. All over you see kites that have gotten tangled in trees and abandoned. Sometimes they even have kite wars and attach metal hooks or razors to the strings and try to tear down the other kits flying nearby. One sad thing is that girls can't fly kites here. When you look around you will only ever see the little boys flying kites... part of the culture. So I will never learn or get a chance to try. But I love looking up and admiring the sky or the sunset and seeing the kites flying overhead.
Can you spot the kite?
A high flying kite in perspective of a tree
The beautiful sky
A lovely sunset
Can you spot the kite?
A high flying kite in perspective of a tree
The beautiful sky
A lovely sunsetMonday, October 1, 2007
A Day of Music
The international church that meets on the campus of BAIS had a big fall kickoff with a lunch and games after church one sunday. This was a few weeks ago now, but I wanted to post these pictures to let you see. As part of this bash they brought in people to teach us how to play the angklung, a traditional Indonesian instrument. Here you can see me and others each with our own angklung. The instrument is meant to be played with others as different people had different notes. Below is a picture of the leader and sheet music that directed us on when to play our note. It created a very unique sound that I really enjoyed.
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