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.
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