this week has kind of been a blur... here are some highlights.
1. concentration camps. ok, so not really, but for some reason, that's what i keep calling the evacuee/refugee camps. i went to 4 different camps on saturday and sunday. one of them was a camp i went to the week before, and it did my heart good to see far fewer people there this time. after asking around, i learned that the first time i was there, about 500 refugees were living in this indoor badminton court. but several of them had already moved back home. sunday, there were only 120 people still living there. awesome! this means the volcano is quieting down and rebuilding is about to start. rebuilding homes and rebuilding lives. i met some pretty cool people in my time there, even one friend that i still keep in contact with. i also discovered that i am really, really overly sensitive to ash. i kinda learned that the hard way when merapi decided to erupt while i was INSIDE the evac zone. awesome. but hey, i have now seen a volcano erupt, so that's something. five days later, my lungs are still clearing themselves out. oh, and i also learned that when ash gets wet, it makes a kind of cement mixture. that day it erupted, it also rained... and we were outdoors. guess how long it took me to wash the ash/rain mixture out of my hair? ugh.
2. food poisoning. ya, that's right. third time in two years. i'm really not sure what i got in to as the day before i started erupting, i ate every single meal as part of a group and nobody else got sick. the nice thing was that tuesday was when it was just coming on, so it mostly only meant a panicked jog to the bathroom every 45 minutes or so. disruptive to class, but manageable. and we're not shy about things like that here, so "sorry guys, i've gotta run to the toilet. again" is an acceptable reason to dash out in the middle of class. it wasn't until that night that all hell broke loose, and then we had school off on wednesday, so i had plenty of time to rest and use my OWN toilet. i'm thinking it's a sign of growing up when you're thankful that you're sick on your day off so that you don't have to miss work... thursday i was feeling nauseous, but the worst was over, and today (friday) i'm back to 100% again!
3. the reason we had school off wednesday was because it was idul adha, the muslim day of sacrifice. tuesday night, i drove by the mosque down the street and noticed 2 live cows standing on the porch. weird sight. the next morning, i drove by the same mosque, and the same 2 cows were still there, but in much smaller pieces. idul adha is like a huge party where all the men gather at the mosque to slaughter the cows, sheep, and goats, then they share the meat with the poor, with their neighbors, and with their families. everyone eats heartily on this day. and the cool thing is that a LOT of the sacrificial animals were bought from the merapi area as a means of supporting those people. buy their cow so they have enough money to rebuild their home.
4. a pastor from kalimantan came to visit this week, and i got to spend some time with him. pretty neat guy. he went to the refugee camps with us. and he commented that this disaster in many ways has been good for indonesia, especially in that it has caused the people of this nation to pull together as one and take care of its own. not much help is coming from the government, though many promises have been made. it's neighbor taking care of neighbor. and that's been awesome to see.
5. while on the way to one refugee camp, we passed a big military truck. and clearly stencilled on the sides was "U.S. ARMY"... is our military here? or was this the indo army using an old US truck? hmm... it was cool to see though.
6. i got asked to the christmas party by a 10th grader. i said, "sure, if you bring me flowers." i thought he was joking. but now he's telling everyone i'm going with him. then at lunch, a 10th grade girl came to me, kinda upset, because SHE wanted to go with him. oops. gotta rectify this. though i secretly suspect he asked me so that she couldn't ask him first. oh, high school...
7. tomorrow i'm doing photography work for a really nice resort in town. they need shots for their future promos. i'm a little nervous. i was also invited to have dinner with the owner (an american, actually) and the investors afterwards. i declined. partly because that sounds horrific, but also partly because i'm hoping to finish early so i can go to semarang.
8. today at lunch, a junior came up to me and said, "i noticed you seem like something is wrong lately. is there anything i can pray for you for?" aaah... i love this community. and that wasn't even a student i teach this year! amazing.
9. ok. that's all for now. the final bell of friday's school day just rang. hello, weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment