Glorious News (If it's True)

Two days ago, we had an earthquake. Initial speculation was that it was caused by the dormant volcano we live on and that it might be becoming active again. Yesterday, seismologists and volcanologists came together and said that the earthquake was not volcanic because volcanic earthquakes don't cause damage, and since 45 homes were damaged, that means the quake was tectonic. Also, the seismology equipment on the mountain didn't record anything, so maybe the earthquake never even happened at all. I'm no expert, but I call those explanations dubious at best.

To be clear, there has not been mass panic or any huge evacuation migration out of town. We are all just trying to stay aware and on top of the news. Well... All of us except for a few of my more dramatic friends who already have their bags packed and like to go around asking everyone they meet, "If it erupts tonight, where will you run to?"  

We may have one of the most corrupt governments in the world, but when it comes to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, I have faith in the government experts. They are extremely good at their jobs, and they really stay on top of things. In the six years that I have been here, many volcanoes have erupted throughout the country, but never once did the government fail to give them ample warning and provide evacuation assistance well ahead of the eruption. 

I trust them. But I feel like they have been blowing a lot of hot air the past few days. It seems like they are just trying to come up with really vague explanations to cover the fact that their equipment malfunctioned and they really have no idea what is going on. Honestly, that has made me a little bit nervous. If the experts don't know what is going on, then WHAT is going on??

This morning though, I finally read an article that makes an iota of sense. It seems like they have finally found some answers. Answers based on legitimate facts and not speculation. Answers that we want to hear.

The article (translated roughly by me) says this:

Liputan6.com, Semarang : A booming around Mount Merbabu, specifically in the Sumogawe village of Getasan district of Semarang regency in Central Java was followed by an earthquake with a strength of 2.7 on the Richter scale. Until now the source of the quake remains unknown. However, it has been confirmed that it was not caused by activity from Mount Merbabu. "What we know for sure is that it was a 2.7 quake on the Richter scale," said Warnadi, the vice regent of Semarang in Semarang, Central Java on Tuesday.

The government of Semarang has already coordinated with the local Regional Disaster Management Agency (RDMA). The total number of damaged homes has been recorded. "To help, we are taking inventory of exactly what the people need. As of the last report, 7 homes were severely damaged," said Warnadi.

The mysterious booming occurred on Monday, 17 February, yesterday, at around 6 AM. According to local residents, the earthquake was strong enough to cause some homes to fall and walls of homes to crack. Some citizens also saw light like lightning on Mount Merbabu.

According to Sarwa Pramana, the head of Central Java's RDMA, Mount Merbabu is still safe. It is suspected that the booming sound has no relation to the quake; it just sounded at the same time. "We still don't know the source of the booming, it may have been another noise that occurred at the same time as the quake, " said Sarwa.

According to Surono, head of the Geological Agency Center, this phenomenon is like a typical tectonic earthquake. The earthquake was a result of the eruption of Mount Kelud in Kediri, East Java. 

(You can read the original article at: http://news.liputan6.com/read/830570/gempa-saat-dentuman-misterius-gunung-merbabu-berkekuatan-27-sr )

Belated Valentine's Day

Since we had an ash day last Friday, we celebrated Valentine's day at school today! I got what is possibly the funniest note from a student ever. It is so sweet and cute and funny all at once.

It says:

Miss! Happy LATE Valentine's Day. :) Now... I will confess (?)... Sometimes, I get really scared because of your poker face (?). But I really like you! I really want to get close (?) with you and learn lots of things from you. It's just that I am really, I mean super shy that I can't reach out to you first. :(  But I really like you :) Anyways Happy Valentine's Day :) <3 nbsp="" p="">

Ya, it really has all those smiley/frowny faces and question marks in parentheses. Haha... What am I supposed to do with this?!?! Also, what is my poker face???

I LOVE IT.

Yet Another Very Unexpected Day

I debated whether or not to write this post. A lot of people I know (ahem, mom and K, cough cough) can be worriers. And I don't want people to worry. But I do want people to be aware. And to pray. So I'm going to tell you what happened yesterday.

I was woken up at 6 AM sharp by an earthquake. This was quite strange, as we are at a high enough elevation, we generally don't feel earthquakes. And if we do feel them, they are usually just slight tremors - almost unnoticeable. And also if we do feel them, they mean that there has been a much larger earthquake somewhere else.

The earthquake yesterday was the strongest I've ever felt in my town here. Strong enough to jolt me out of my sleep to find my bed bouncing, my ceiling fan swaying, my doors and windows rattling, and all the doors and drawers of my wardrobe opening. I quickly realized what was happening and ran outside. Thankfully, the quake only lasted about 4 seconds and didn't cause any damage here. Only about half of the people I know even felt the quake - most slept through it.

About two weeks ago, we had a tremor that was caused by a 6.5 quake in a city on the south coast. I was sitting on my couch, and I felt it move ever so slightly. I knew right away it was a quake, and within minutes, Facebook, Twitter, and several news sites were full of information. That was not the case yesterday.

I spent the first 30 minutes after the quake trying to find information. My greatest fear was that if we could feel it SO strongly here, there must have been a hugely destructive quake somewhere else. I searched everywhere. But I could find nothing.

Our students had the day off yesterday, and teachers and staff reported for cleaning duty at 8. Our goal was to rid campus of as much ash as possible. We stayed and worked until about 4 PM. Every hour or so, I checked the news, but to no avail. It was like the earthquake never even happened. Nobody was reporting on it. None of the volcanology or seismography sites had any information about an earthquake, tectonic movement, or volcanic activity. It was almost eerie how little information there was.

But we knew there had been something. Some of us had heard weird booming sounds at 5 AM. Some of us had felt the earthquake at 6 AM.

Right before we went home, ONE article was finally published on a Jogjakarta news site. It was absolutely the last possible thing we wanted to hear. The quake was caused by Mount Merbabu. The dormant volcano we live on.

Merbabu hasn't erupted since 1797, but it is classified as a Class B volcano, which is the same as Mount Sinabung. You may have seen Mount Sinabung in the news recently. It's the volcano on Sumatra that was dormant for 400 years before erupting earlier this year, forcing thousands upon thousands of people to evacuate.

Some reporters finally caught wind of what happened yesterday morning and went up on the mountain to interview people in the villages. Apparently, the quake was significantly stronger farther up, and many residents said that when they ran out of their houses, they could see flashes of lightning around the peak of the mountain and there were several booms, like cannon fire. Seventeen homes were reportedly damaged - cracked walls, fallen roof tiles, shattered windows, etc.

There was no other information offered yesterday. But then this morning, there were several more articles. The number of damaged homes has been raised to forty-five. And the geological experts are stumped - nobody off the mountain felt the quake, so it was obviously quite localized. But the seismological instruments on Mount Merbabu recorded nothing. That national head of the Center for Geological Disaster Research and Technology Development was quoted in one paper as saying, "All we know for sure is that we didn't record anything so we don't know what happened."

Is Merbabu becoming active again? Was what happened yesterday just a one time event? Was it really even caused by Merbabu at all? Why did the instruments not record anything?

All we know for sure is that we know nothing.

A Quick Update

I think I am pretty notorious for writing about some disaster or terrible event happening and then never giving an update on it... So here I am, giving an ash update.

From the most recent reports I've heard, the eruption on Thursday didn't kill anyone. Unfortunately, 2 people were killed while waiting to be evacuated when the weight of the ash caused their house to collapse. I also heard that 18 people are still reported missing. It's still hard to tell what the exact numbers are as different media channels are giving different information.

Something they can ALL agree on though is that Mount Kelud ejected in one day the same amount of material that Mount Merapi (much more local) put out in 30 days the last time it erupted (in 2010). Craaaazy. I've also heard that we got off easy - other nearby cities got up to 5 cm of ash dumped on them. We only got about 1 cm.

Since many friends in the States have had a string of snow days lately, I joked about us having an ash day, but there are some major differences between ash and snow. First of all, ash doesn't melt. In fact, if it gets wet, it kind of turns into cement. It doesn't stay outside - it comes inside and covers every flat surface in a layer of grit. And no matter how many times you clean it, the wind will always stir up more. When you go out in it, it gets in your hair, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and it can be very damaging to your health. It is also not recommended to use computers, vehicles, air conditioners, etc when there is a lot of ash in the air as the fans can be easily clogged.

Mount Kelud has not continued to erupt - a HUGE praise. (Remember that eruption in Iceland a couple of years back? It seemed like it would never end...) We haven't had any additional ash fall since Friday. But there is ash everywhere, and it has not yet rained hard enough to clean it all up. I mentioned earlier that when water mixes with ash, it turns into cement. However, a hard, steady rain lasting about 30 minutes or more is enough to totally douse the ash and wash it away.

In light of that, our students have been given tomorrow off. Campus will be closed to everyone except teachers and staff who will be reporting to cleaning detail at 8 AM. We will be cleaning literally everything - from the basketball courts to the desktops. School will then resume as normal on Tuesday.

Parts of town have had some good rains, so the streets are looking much clearer. I still wear a mask whenever I have to drive though because there are still some ash remnants that get stirred up by other vehicles.  If I don't wear a mask or a scarf over my face, my lungs start to burn and I'll cough for a little while afterwards. I also have to drive with my visor down (I don't normally because it makes it harder to see) to keep the ash from getting in my eyes.

All in all, we're doing OK here. Looking forward to getting back on schedule and praying that the all clear comes quickly for the 200,000 or so people who had to evacuate their homes.

I am now a 2 time veteran of volcanic eruptions! How many Americans can say that??

A Most Unexpected Day

It’s 11 AM as I write this post. But I’m not in class. In fact, I’m not even at school. I’m home! I’m not sick, and we obviously didn’t get a snow day. I mean, it’s the tropics. So what could have happened that would keep me cooped up at home on a school day?

IT’S AN ASH DAY!

That’s right. Sometime during the night, a small volcano 120 miles away erupted, sending plumes of ash and rock miles and miles into the air. And today it is all landing right here in my town. I woke up to an ashy gray wonderland. Although wonderland is most definitely an exaggeration.

It was raining ash for the first four hours after I woke up this morning. I think it has let up a bit now, but for awhile, it literally looked like snow falling gently through the air. I keep joking that it looks like a Louisiana blizzard out there… The ash is so fine, it doesn’t cover the ground much. But if it was snow in the deep south, I’m sure they’d cancel school.

And we did too.

One of the biggest dangers of ash (besides, you know, the erupting volcano from whence it came) is that it can do bad, bad things to your health if you inhale too much of it. When ash mixes with water, it basically turns into cement. So you can imagine what it would do your delicate respiratory system… Because of the amount of ash in the air and on the ground, the administration felt it best to ask families to stay safe inside today.

Naturally, that didn’t stop me from strapping on a mask (thank goodness I saved mine from when Merapi erupted in 2010) and walking around campus for awhile to take some pictures. I wanted to go out and see how the streets were looking, but after being outdoors for just 30 minutes, my eyes were burning pretty bad, my hair was feeling rather gritty, and I was starting to cough, so I thought it best to hunker down inside with the doors and windows closed for awhile.

You can’t see the ash rain clearly in any of the photos because it is so fine. But it kept getting all over my lens, which made it difficult to take quality pictures. Or at least, that’s my excuse. But here is an idea of what I woke up to today. A very gray world.

      

Did you notice how cloudy it is in all of the pictures above? Yeahhhhh… About that… It wasn’t cloudy this morning. But the sun WAS obscured – by all the ash in the air!

Time to clean my camera now…

OH! And in case you forgot (like I almost did), today is Valentine’s Day!!

So Happy Valentine’s Day! I got you this flower.

Ninth Grade Weirdos

I've found that the group of 9th graders I have this year like to give compliments. But in the weirdest ways possible. Today, it went like this.

Student: Do you work out?
Me: Basically never.
Student: Then how do you have such a fabulous body?
Me: Uh...
Student: I mean, I would basically call that (waves her hand in my general direction) bikini ready.
Me: Uh... Thank you?

A few weeks ago it sounded something like this...

Student: Is this the answer?
Me: Do you think that is the answer?
Student: I am asking you. WAIT. Don't answer. Let me just study your face. I study your face so much I can tell when the answer is yes and when the answer is no without you even telling me.
Me: You study my face? You think you know my face?
Student: Yes. Your face is nice to look at.

And then there is this one who is just super thankful for everything I do. Including giving them tests. After the last test, she said, "Thank you for making and grading this test for us. In fact, I bet you put more total work into each test than we do taking it! I appreciate that."

I mean, I'm certainly not complaining. I really value their appreciation... I just wish that sometimes they could be a little less awkward about it!

Get Your Foot Out of Your Mouth

Guard: You look tired. Like REALLY tired.
Me: Hey, thank you.
Guard: No, I mean... Um... You look.... Nice. But.... maybe you should rest more?
Me: Yeah, I feel like I've been a little sick the past few days. Maybe a really mild fever.
Guard: It's the weather. The wind makes everyone sick. You should straighten your hair.
Me: Straighten my hair?
Guard: To make you healthy.
Me: I'm sick because I have curly hair?!
Guard: Yes. I mean.... No. I mean.... My daughter has hair like yours. It's kind of straight on top but more curly on bottom. It looks funny.
Me: My hair looks funny?!
Guard: NO! I mean... You should straighten it.
Me: I should just shave it all off so it's not so hot.
Guard: No, don't do that. Just straighten it so that it's pretty.
Me: IT'S NOT PRETTY NOW?!
Guard: STOP IT!

Two E-Mails

In the past 24 hours, I have received two e-mails from our school superintendent. Neither one was bearing good news.

The first came last night and announced the resignation of our elementary principal who has only been here for 7 months. The tone of the e-mail made it sound as if he was asked to resign. The elementary staff probably has a better grasp on what is going on, but those of us in the secondary are feeling a bit shocked at what came to us as a sudden announcement. We knew that the elementary was struggling with typical change-of-leadership challenges - we went through the very same thing just a year ago - but I don't think many of us knew it was enough to warrant this severe of an action.

The second e-mail came today and explains that there are three different viruses making the rounds at school and reminding parents to please not send their child to school sick (many still will). The three viruses are (copied from the e-mail):
  

1.  Chikungunya:  fever and muscle or joint pain.  You can prevent this by wearing mosquito repellant (even in the house), especially if there is already a sick person in your household.  It is transferred by mosquitos.  You can read more at http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/chikungunya

2.  Stomach Flu:  primarily a stomach bug that involves throwing up repeatedly for about 24-36 hours and then it is over.

3.  Influenza:  sore throat, sore joints, fever; then, a cough and upper respiratory symptoms on day 3 or so. For more information, you can read at http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/influenza-seasonal-zoonotic-and-pandemic

Historically, I have been one of the first to get whatever is going around. My immune system must be toughening up though - I haven't had any of the three. And I even had a girl throw up in my class last week! Several students have been out sick lately. So there's still a chance I could get one (or, God forbid, ALL) of the three. But I'm proud of myself for making it this far!

We would appreciate prayers for health and healing! And also for transition as we say goodbye to our elementary principal and search for a new one.

Some Sayings

Student: If I die today, you have to carry on my legacy. Find that one Indian kid and tell him to be me.
Me: That one Indian kid? Which one Indian kid?
Student: You must find him...


Student 1: Geometry is the worst torture ever. If the Nazis had made the Jews do Geometry in the concentration camps then.... Um.... Never mind.
Student 2: Then the Jews would really have had to CONCENTRATE in the concentration camps!
Student 1: No. They would have all died of Geometry.


Student: Hey Miss, do you wanna come to my sleepover this weekend? We're gonna paint our nails crazy colors and listen to One Direction all night and talk about boys!


Korean Student: Hey. Do you like my outfit?
Me: Yes, you look nice.
Student: My mom says I look like the Yakuza today.
Me: Your mom thinks you look like the Japanese mafia?
Student: That's what she told me.


(PS - I was super proud of myself for even knowing what the Yakuza is...)

Elementary Children

When I am around large groups of elementary aged children, I get a bad taste in my mouth. One-on-one, they are OK. In large groups, they are mildly repulsive. I don't know why, but it is obvious to me that I can never be a an elementary teacher. And this makes me all the more thankful for those who can.

Currently, there is a group of four children in my front yard "stick hunting" as they keep repeatedly screaming. I woke up from a cozy Sunday afternoon nap on the couch to the sound of them violently killing a giant (harmless) golden garden spider just a few meters away.

In the meantime, I have spent the past few days trying to keep a gecko with an injured foot alive. I've gone so far as to sprinkle sugar around him (he's used to me by now and will even let me touch him) in order to bring the ants to him. IN MY HOUSE.

Last night, I let a slug sleep under my couch. Because it was cold outside.

And I have a very large toad that lives in front of my house that I greet on a near daily basis.

It is lucky for these kids that I understand that I live in a community space. If they came around my own home making such a ruckus, they would be in for a real treat.

Someday, I am going to be that cranky old lady that small children fear.

And I'm OK with that.

Neck Smells

I wear scarves to school a lot. Because it is rainy season. And it is chilly. And I am a wimp. Especially when it comes to being cold.

One day this week, a particular (male) student asked if he could borrow my scarf. It was afternoon and warm-ish and I wasn't actually wearing it at that point. Said student asked because he had a cold and was feeling, well... cold. So I said it was fine if he borrowed it.

It is really a lovely scarf. Someone gifted it to me, and at first I thought it was a throw blanket. Basically it is the softest thing ever and I often spread it over my pillow at night so that I can feel like I am sleeping on a luscious cloud. It is THAT good.

I didn't tell that to my student.

But naturally, once he put the scarf on, he declared how soft and comfy and nice it was. And of course, then every other student HAD to try it on. They all wanted a piece of that scarf. Understandable.

So my scarf was passed around the room as just about every student tried it on for a few minutes. It got to one particular (male) student who for some reason sniffed the scarf then loudly asked, "So THIS is what your neck smells like?"

Uhhhh.... talk about uncomfortable moments as a teacher.

I pretended like I didn't hear (though I know that the ENTIRE class DID hear), and the scarf eventually got passed back to the first boy who wore it nicely until the end of class when he graciously returned it to me.

I think that is enough scarf borrowing for.... um... ever.

Death At A Funeral

Today was an interesting chain of events. Yesterday while I was out celebrating the Lunar New Year with a bunch of Singaporeans (hooray for learning new traditions, BTW), Pak Kur's oldest brother died. So the family would call him pakde-ku (my uncle). He lives in the same village as Pak Kur, but I don't think I've even ever met him. I know his wife though. She is a very sweet, toothless lady who gives me snacks.

Anyways, I left my house a little before 11 this morning to head out to the village and found myself traveling behind two grown men on a motorbike - with their Golden Retriever sandwiched on the seat between them. Um... OK.

I made it to the very edge of Pak Kur's village, but there were two men standing there directing traffic, and they told me I had to stop and wait because someone had died. I told them, "I know, that's where I'm going." I don't know if they couldn't understand me or if they just didn't believe me, but they wouldn't let me through. I could literally SEE the funeral-goers. Finally someone at the funeral saw me sitting there and called my name, and the two men were like, "Oh, you're going to THAT funeral!" Um. Yes. I do not see any other funeral around here.

I made it just as they were carrying the casket to the graveyard, which is a little ways outside the village, kind of in the jungle by the edge of the rice fields. So I jumped off my bike and onto Pak Kur's bike (after parking carefully on someone's front porch. Naturally.) and headed to the kuburan (graveyard). Pakde's grave was the faaaarthest back, basically IN the jungle. And the whole time we were there, I just had this feeling that there were going to be snakes. That is a weird feeling for me, because I'm not particularly scared of snakes or paranoid about their possible presence. But today I was. So every time the pastor prayed, I didn't close my eyes. I just looked down. I think God is OK with that. I didn't even understand 90% of what was being said anyways - it was in high Javanese.

So anyways, my feeling was totally RIGHT. As we were praying - or in my case, looking at the ground with my eyes half closed - I saw a fat black snake slither out from behind a tree to my left and head towards a group of men all praying with their eyes closed - obviously they are much more holy than I am.

I started elbowing the poor guy next to me and whispering furiously, "Hey, hey, hey, snake, hey, snake, hey, hey, look, look." Right as he realized what I was saying, the snake slithered over the foot of one of the praying men. I watched in horror and said my own prayer that he wouldn't get bit as he twitched his foot to knock off whatever was on it. I breathed a sigh of relief as the man didn't even open his eyes. Did he think it was just a big ant or something?

My feeling of relief was a bit premature though... The instant I felt it, the man ended up opening his eyes and having what appeared to be some sort of seizure/rain dance as he attempted to kill the snake by stomping on its head. Unfortunately, it has rained a lot lately, and the ground is extremely soft. The snake freaked out and started slithering all around, over other people's feet, who in turn joined the stomp fest. No matter how hard they stomped though, the snake WOULD. NOT. DIE. The soft ground protected it from the blows! One of the grave diggers finally opened his eyes and ran over with a hoe and tried to chop the snake in half. Still no such luck.

Meanwhile, the pastor was still very solemnly praying.

Finally, the hero of the day was a very old man who had watched all this happen and eventually pulled a machete out of somewhere (his pants??) and in one fluid motion flipped the snake over the blade of the machete, onto another grave's headstone, and chopped the snake's head off.

I didn't know if I should be horrified or laugh or cry or feel relieved or what.

Finally the pastor said "Amen" (the only word of the entire prayer that I understood). The whole snake debacle had taken only about 30 seconds, and only about a dozen people had witnessed it. I don't think the pastor had even noticed. He seemed really into that prayer.

I'm thankful nobody died at the funeral. Though that would have been handy. Like getting sick in a hospital.

After the funeral, I went to visit some friends in another part of town. Instead of returning home first, I went straight there from Pak Kur's house and ended up on some cool back roads that I rarely ever travel on. I should more often though, because in a matter of 10 minutes, I had driven through a rubber tree forest, a bamboo forest, some jungle, two villages, near some mountains, past a giant magic rock and an old train station, and through several rice fields. I had to wait for some goats to cross the road at one point and I had to hold my breath several times as I drove past some durian vendors. I live in such a beautiful place... Well, minus the durian.

The rest of the day involved falling asleep on a friend's couch while watching World War Z with their son, helping people out by doing the math for a building project, getting SOAKING wet in a freak rainstorm while driving on my motorbike (my shoes turned into swimming pools for my feet), accidentally walking in on some people while they were doing their prayers (uh... don't mind me, the awkward white person smiling like a crazy person while backing slowly back OUT of the room), eating BEEF stew for dinner (a rare treat), making new friends and hanging out with old ones until late at night, and teaching quite a bit of English to a 2 year old.

This is my life. My everyday life. Sometimes I forget how crazy and fun and wonderful it is. It really is.