Fishing in the Swimming Pool

Some of you may remember that last year we turned the area that will eventually be our school's swimming pool into a rice field. This year our Indonesian workers turned it into a fishing pond. Last weekend they invited our staff out to join them. It's common here to see small ponds that locals stalk with fish and charge a small fee for people to go fishing in them. So our Indonesian staff blocked off an area of the field that used to be planted with rice and filled it with water. Then they bought a bunch of fish and dumped them in. I asked one of the guys in charge how many fish they had put in and he told me around 150. You would think with all that fish in such a small pond it would be no problem to catch something, but in the whole time with all of us there only 3 fish were caught! One of the Indonesian staff scaled a couple of the fish and barbecued them and insisted that we try. It was delicious. What a beautiful afternoon. It was so nice to be outside. I loved being with our Indonesian staff and letting them teach me how to fish their way, with their poles. Shortly after we finished it started pouring rain, one of the biggest rains I have ever seen.

I think they all spotted a fish... everyone's pointing

From BBC News

Search continues for Indonesian landslide survivors

Dozens of people are feared dead after being trapped under piles of mud when a landslide hit a village near the Indonesian city of Bandung.

Heavy rain forced rescue efforts to stop for the night but they resumed after lifting equipment arrived. At least 15 people are known to have died.

Karishma Vaswani reports.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8533729.stm

BAIS 2010

Each year our administrators from the school go back to the States for an administrators conference with NICS and recruiting new staff for next year. When the are there they show a video to update the rest of the group on our school. It's also used in recruiting, to show people a little bit of the school. The video for 2010 is kind of artsy. It was made with our theme for this year in mind- with a focus on the arts and specials areas. I thought I would try to post the video here. I've never done this before so I don't know if it will work. My internet is slow here so I am hoping it will work much better wherever you are... assuming you have faster internet than me :)

Kite Making

Indonesia is known for it's kites. Normally during dry season you can look up into the sky and see dozens of kites being flown in the sky. It's my favorite. You can also often see dozens of kites stuck in trees or on power lines as you drive around the city. If you have ever seen or read "The Kite Runner" you might have a picture in mind of kite fighting. That also takes place here in Indonesia. Given the rich culture of kites in Indonesia, I decided to incorporate them into my Geometry class. As we finished up our unit on Quadrilaterals in which we study kites and their properties, I decided to have my class try to make and fly kites. One of our Indonesian staff is known for his expertise in making traditional Indonesian kites. His name is Pak Oo. I invited him into my class to teach the kids about kites and help us make them. It was much harder than I imagined it would be. According to Pak Oo everything had to be just right, down to the detail of how we tied our knots and where we tied the bamboo together. It took us a couple of days to make the kites and then we finally got to fly them. That day was a beautiful day, sunny and windy, just right for kite flying. So, so fun. To view the whole gallery of photos (we took lots!) click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyinbandung/KiteMaking# Otherwise, here is a brief version:

The first step is to tie the two bamboo pieces together. Just to make sure we had it right Pak Oo marked for us where they should cross.

Getting closer for a better look at how to do the tying.

Pak Oo with the students.

A true international student.

Time for flying... good thing Steven's done this before so he could teach others.

A beautiful day.

Pak Oo made this giant snake kite and then gave it to me when we were done.

I now have it hanging up on the wall in my classroom.

Where did my kite go?

Sang Eun looks like he is having fun.

I think the students enjoyed it... I know I loved seeing them make and fly their kites.