JABAR (part 7) the beach

after visiting the graveyard, sharon and i crossed the street and made our way to the beach. the water there is absolutely beautiful. it’s hard to believe that just a few years ago, this very water crashed through the boundaries set for it and forever changed the lives of every person living in this small coastal town. it ripped away children. it swallowed buildings whole. nobody here was unaffected.

i mentioned in an earlier post that since there is nothing between this coast and antarctica to break up the force of the water, it is quite dangerous to swim along the southern coast of java. due to this, there are riptide and no swimming signs posted all over.

this no swimming sign is sponsored by one of the biggest cigarette companies in the country. that seems a little contradictory…

while walking in the surf, we saw some people using spoons to dig for something in the sand. i wondered about it aloud. and sharon, ever the extrovert, said, “let’s go ask them!” so we went and asked the matriarch of the group what they were looking for. she promptly pulled a kind of clam out of a small plastic bag she had with her and showed us. i asked if i could take her picture, and she gave a big smile (indonesians often don’t smile for photos with their teeth), but then looked away! too funny…

 

she taught us how they know where to dig. when a wave comes in and then goes back out, if you put your face down near the ground, you can see tiiiiiiiiny little depressions in the sand. that’s where the clams are! she explained to us that a lot of poor people do this to improve their nutrition. they can sell the clams or they can eat them to add to their diet of rice and veggies. also, this certain kind of clam has some kind of medicinal use. it was great to know that they recognize the need for improved nutrition here and that they are DOING something about it! excellent!

the older ladies who were digging did so in very specific places where they knew there would be clams hidden. this kid was just going to town though. give him a spoon and he’ll be halfway to the center of the earth by morning… when his dug up area was about 4 times this size, i remarked about how rajin (hardworking/industrious) he is. they all thought that was pretty funny. and i think it’s a good thing to be able to make people laugh. in a foreign language. : )

i really enjoy the multi-functional hat she is sporting… also, she has a pretty great smile. : )

a tiny crab hole in the sand. God made them such artistic and geometric little creatures! i love it!

JABAR (part 6)

we were hoping to get some pictures of schoolkids or other people hanging around town, but due to the rain, everybody had made themselves scarce. so we regrouped at the hotel then headed to lunch. we ended up at a small restaurant owned and run by a very kind lady and her husband.

after she cooked our noodles and vegetables for us, we invited her to come join us at our table. there was nobody else in the restaurant, so she sat and talked freely with us. she told us about her kids. neither of them live with her because they are making better lives for themselves. she talked to us about old times and how 10 years ago she and her husband were part of a night market. for four years, the lived out of tents, packing up and moving to a new city every 3 weeks. she told us how hard it was to be without her kids during that time. she talked about her life in west java (she’s from central java originally!). she also asked us lots of questions about our lives. a super nice lady. when we first asked for a picture, she declined, saying, “ibu jelek!” (i’m ugly!) but after talking, i again asked, and she let me.

i had heard of a nearby graveyard for victims of the 2006 tsunami (not the christmas eve one that hit aceh, thailand, and cambodia. just for the record.) that hit the area, and i really wanted to try and get some photos there. for some reason, i enjoy photographing graveyards. sharon indulged me, and we headed off down the street. after a bit of walking, we found it tucked away in a stand of coconut trees.

turns out, this was an established graveyard well before the tsunami hit. but sadly, the stone wall around it was destroyed, and then those stones, thrown around in the rushing water, ruined most of the graves there. because muslim headstones are set above the ground, many of them were even picked up and carried away. most people who have a loved one buried there no longer know where their plot is.

in muslim culture, a body can only be dead for 24 hours before it becomes unclean and has to be buried. so after the tsunami, friends and family had only 1 day to identify bodies. all those that weren’t identified in time were buried quickly along one edge of this cemetery.

the green pieces of wood all mark graves of unknown victims.

this grave was for an unknown little boy.

this victim was identified and given a proper headstone.

old graves that were ruined by the tsunami waters.

if you look at the unknown grave markers, you’ll see that each has two numbers labeled NK and NL. i was curious about what those designated, so i went to find someone. i found this man:

he didn’t know what the numbers meant, but he did teach me about something else…

… collecting sap from coconut trees to make gula merah (a kind of brown sugar)!!

twice a day, he climbs 40 coconut trees to collect and replace buckets to gather sap. he then takes it all home to his wife who boils it down into the sugar.

he shared with us his story of the day the tsunami hit. he was up in a tree at the time it happened. he heard people screaming and he looked out toward the ocean. he said all he could see was white. white everywhere. coming toward him. he didn’t know what was happening, but he knew he needed to get out of there. so he got out of the tree and ran. and he and his family were safe.

oh, by the way, i asked him if he’s ever fallen out of a tree in all his years of climbing. and he said, “praise be to allah, NO!”

JABAR (part 5) the market

after getting a wet becak ride back to our hotel and waiting for most of the rain to subside - over omelettes and toast - we decided to head to the local pasar, or market. i’ve never taken a camera to the pasar in salatiga because i hate being looked at as a tourist in my own city. but i’ve always wanted to. pasar is always so vibrant and full of colors and smells and sounds and motion and people selling things and people buying things. it kind of reminds me of going to a flea market back home. so i was excited to head there with my camera. of course, the rain started up again almost exactly at the same time that we arrived there. perfect. i did get a chance to snap a few pictures of the hustle and bustle though.

looking down one of the many crowded alleys at pasar. they had tarps up over everything to keep some of the rain out…

ok, i have to say, the salatiga pasar is way more graphic than this. they stack the guts in one pile, the feet in one pile, the bodies in one pile, and the heads in another. maybe we just use more of the parts here… also, here, if you ask for a kilo of white meat, they’ll take a knife and hack off the breasts, then dump the rest of the mangled chicken in another pile, presumably in anticipation of someone coming along asking for dark meat. all the chickens in this market looked like this. clean cut. if you can call a dead chunk of meat clean cut.

fresh veggies. and usually organic too!

tempe! one of my favorite indonesian foods! you cut it into slices, rub it with garlic and salt and fry it. it’s fermented, congealed soybeans. so appetizing! : ) but seriously, if you ever get a chance to try it – DO IT! and then tell me what you think.

a table of sweet snacks. the stuff wrapped up in the banana leaves is squished up rice mixed with coconut milk. sweet and tasty!!

a clothes store in the market! ok, i don’t know if i’ve lived here too long or if i just have some strange fashion tastes, but jilbabs are CLASSY! if i were a muslim woman, i think i’d own at least 30. as it stands, i currently only own 1. classic black. haha.

two women who own what we call a warung in the pasar. a warung is kind of a catch all place. need something? just go to a nearby warung! you can find them quite literally anywhere. they sell everything from packets of shampoo (hanging over their head) to wrapping paper (in the bucket on the right), from fresh eggs to flipflops!! we chatted with these 2 ladies for quite awhile while it rained. they were super sweet and were trying to think of who they could set me up with. but not until after they interrogated me about what i look for in a man.

we also met this guy, a carpenter. he was selling goods at the pasar with his wife and granddaughter. his granddaughter is 16 and has some kind of debilitating illness. the frail grandma was sitting on the dirty ground in a dress holding the granddaughter, who is both physically and mentally handicapped, in her lap. we went and bought them some food and brought it back for them. sharon told them in sundanese that Jesus loves them. that might be the first time in their lives they’ve heard those words. sadly, it might also be the last.

JABAR (part 4) the sunrise

sharon and i woke up in the 4s on thursday morning to see sunrise. morning prayers are at 4:30, so things start hopping pretty shortly after that. it was really overcast and still dark when we quietly slipped out of our hotel. we walked quite ways down the street before finding a becak driver to take us to the coast on the opposite side to see the sunrise. (our hotel was on the sunset side of a peninsula. we needed to get to the opposite side. about a 5 minute becak ride.) when we got there, the morning looked like this:

we wondered if there would be much of a sunrise at all. but that quickly turned into this:

ok, that ALMOST makes getting up before 5 worth it. by the way, the land that you see stretched out along the horizon is mainland java. remember, we’re on a small peninsula jutting out into the south sea. in fact, there is absolutely nothing in the water between this coast and antarctica. because of this, the water here is QUITE dangerous. many people, indonesians and tourists alike, have lost their lives to the power of the south sea.

not too long after we got out there, the place became action packed. lots of indonesian tourists from other places were there on holiday and turned out to see the sunrise. people on their way to market were making their way down the beach. kids were out trying to catch crabs on the rocky shore. but what caught my eye were the fishermen.

i watched several people on shore load this boat up with nets and send it out into the water. sharon went and talked to the men after they came back to shore while i wandered around snapping more photos because by now, sunrise had turned into this:

amazing! i meandered over and listened in on some of sharon’s conversation with the fishermen. most of them have been doing this for years. four times a day, they send the boats out. they drop the nets in deeper waters, then they pull the nets in from shore. sure enough, shortly thereafter, the real work began!

(the ocean is just beyond that wall)

six people hook themselves on to two ropes (3 people on each rope), both of which are connected to either side of a vast net that is somewhere out at sea where the boat dropped it.  and they begin pulling it in, slowly but surely. each guy uses a small rope tied around his waist to hook onto the rope, backs up until he’s all the way across the street, unhooks, goes back up to the front, rehooks himself back onto the rope, and backs up again. it was amusing to see them scurry out of the way when bigger vehicles like buses came rumbling down the road!

this guy offered to marry me! how romantic… the white thing just in front of his right hand is what keeps his rope (tied around his waist) hooked onto the bigger rope (which is connected to the net).

unfortunately, the clouds came back, and after about an hour of watching the fishermen pull their net in, it began to rain. we found shelter beneath the tarp of a beachside vendor.

it wasn’t too long after that, though, that the net finally made it to shore! someone lent me an umbrella, so i ventured down to take some closer pictures.

the final catch wasn’t quite what i expected… not a lot of fish. no big fish. and LOTS of garbage! unfortunately, they pick the garbage out and throw it along the shore where it gets washed out with the tide to be caught again with tomorrow’s catch!

this lady was possibly my favorite. she didn’t talk to us. in fact, i never heard her say a word to anybody. and she didn’t help pull the nets in either. but she did do just about everything else. she kept all the ropes coiled so that cars didn’t run over them on the muddy road. she quietly sat and sorted all the garbage out of the basket of fish. she coiled the nets up neatly so that they could all fit in the boat, untangled, for the next run. and she seemed to be the one in charge of selling the catch to all the buyers who came. she was always there. a constant in the background of all the motion.

the sorted catch. oh, and look what else they caught!

JABAR (part 3) a short adventure

i met up with sharon at the bus terminal shortly after leaving my becak friends. her teenage son was also with her to help carry bags and ward off any unfriendly overfriendly men. we crammed into a bus that already had people hanging out the doors. but the hustler (this is my name for the guy that takes people’s money and also hangs out the door screaming the destination of the bus to try to get people beside the road to jump on) made some guys move so we could sit down. i think we had 349863aidfh84382 people crammed in a bus meant for 20. yeah. it was tight. and hot. welcome to indonesia. the hustler was quite a player too, calling all the girls on the bus “neng gelis” (which became the first sunda words i learned), miss pretty.

anyways, about halfway to our coastal destination, we decided to get off the bus in a little town called banjarsari. there was a little fair thing going on that we thought we might get some nice pictures of. they must not get very many white people there, because people began following us, whispering and pointing and giggling.  it was still early, so there wasn’t much going on at the fair. instead, we made our way to a kaki lima (little cart that people sell food and drinks out of – kaki lima means 5 legs. the cart has 3 and the person pushing it has 2!) and ordered some refreshing drinks from the lady working there. there were also some kids hanging around and we chatted with them. as it turns out, we were the first foreigners this lady had EVER served at her stand, and she was quite honored! she even asked to have her picture taken with us!

(sharon and the lady who made our drinks for us)

(looking at a picture they had just taken of me using someone’s cell phone. those are mostly all the children of the kaki lima lady.)

(her youngest child. a perpetually worried looking little boy.)

(some neighborhood boys hanging out, sharing a drink)

(a friend)

after chatting with them for half an hour or so, we went to catch another bus to our destination – pangandaran!

much to my surprise, we were staying ON THE BEACH! and in a REAL HOTEL! (as opposed to a hole in the wall dump like i seem to end up in all too often) and… i had my OWN ROOM! it even had a real toilet. and a shower. with hot water. and AC! these people know how to treat a guest ;) haha… i just read back over that. you can tell you’ve lived in a third world country for too long when you get SUPER excited about things like flushing toilets.

after arriving, settling in, showering, and getting dinner, we decided to call it a night. we wanted to be up in enough time the next morning to see the sunrise – this meant being up before 5! NOT my forte…

JABAR (part 2)

so there i was. podunk little train station. middle of nowhere. security guard asleep at his post and not much else going on. i sat on a bench by the tracks and watched some beggars go by hunting for any useful garbage that might have been thrown out of the train. the people i was supposed to meet there were taking a bus from about 8 hours away. and they had smsed me to say they would be at least an hour more. so i wandered to the front of the train station where i found 2 weathered becak drivers sitting in the shade.

they invited me to join them on their bench, so i did. then the questions began. but these were not all normal everyday questions that a white girl gets asked by an indonesian. of course we started out with the basic, “where did you come from?” and “why are you here?” generalities. but then they asked me what my gaji (salary) is in a month. this is kind of a common question in this culture, so i answered honestly. as usual, they marveled about how rich i am. but then the oldest of the group asked me something i’ve never been asked before, “but how much would you be making if you were in america?” so i thought about it and gave him that number as well. they quickly did the math. five times as much. i've never even sat down and calculated that! so they started contemplating amongst themselves about what the heck i’m doing here when i could be making so much more money in my home country. they discussed it at length. then after a moment of contemplative silence, one of them finally declared, “well, she’s here for the experience then, not the salary.” i’m not even sure that most americans would understand that… the fact that these men, who feed their families on just a couple dollars a day, got it all on their own brought such a big smile to my face…

after that discussion, they asked me if i speak any sunda (the language of west java). i told them no, since i live in central java (where javanese is spoken). so they asked me if i speak javanese, which then led to a discussion about how many languages and tribes there are in indonesia and how it’s still one united country in spite of that. then they asked me how many tribes there are in america. again, a new question for me! tribes? hmmm… i thought about it (sometimes the answers to these questions are based on my language ability and exactly how much i am capable of explaining) and ended up saying that all americans are one tribe but that we come from all around the world. so then they asked how many languages our one tribe has. geez guys, make it hard for me… i said that we only have one language, english, but that in places where many french people live, they will speak french with each other. and places where many mexicans live, they will speak mexican with each other, (yes, i really did say mexican. but i caught myself and changed it to spanish. haha.) and so on. THEN they asked if everybody in america speaks the same english (or “american” as they put it, which made me feel better about saying mexican). then there i was, sitting in front of a train station in the middle of nowhere, with about 5 guys by now sitting around me, hanging on to my every word, as i tried to explain the difference between “hello” and “hey ya’ll”. i’m not sure if they got it. but i tried.

some other favorite questions i got from them are: do many people in america work in rice fields? (no, we don’t have rice fields in america) so then what do you eat? (meat and potatoes) what jobs do americans have? are there many muslims in america? do you have to get put on a special list before you’re allowed to have kids? (umm... WHAT?! maybe people SHOULD...) is mexico still under america? (i have no clue what they  meant by this… do they think mexico can just up and move north??)

i realize this is quite long already, but there are 2 other things worth mentioning… west java is sunda territory. and the sundanese are considered one of the largest unreached people groups. there are millions of them. and they are 99% muslim. so after they asked me if there are many muslims in america, i asked them what percent of their town is muslim. it’s right on the border between west and central java, so i was curious.  the answer i got was, “90% are muslim, but only 50% live like it.” i have NEVER heard someone admit to that before about ANY religion. so much of indonesian/muslim culture is about looking good, saving face, and avoiding shame. to have a muslim man tell me that only about half the people in his town truly honor their religion is a big deal…

the last thing to mention is that after an hour of talking to them, i got an sms from sharon, the lady i was to meet. she asked me if i could meet her at the bus terminal. so i asked my new friends where that was. they told me that it was quite far, and then one of them offered to drive me there in his becak for $2. all the other guys began exclaiming… when i asked why, they told me it was because he gave me the indonesian price (the lowest price) the first time, not the tourist price. see? – it’s all about knowing the right people.

the next episode will come to you complete with pictures. :)

jawa (java) + barat (west) = JABAR! (part 1)

so i left you last time with a lot of uncertainties. in fact, i left salatiga on wednesday morning with a lot of uncertainties too. still, the only thing i knew was "get off the train in banjar". so i packed my laptop, 2 cameras, some food, and 3 days worth of clothes appropriate for traveling in muslim territory into one bag and began my 1 km hike to the bus stop at 5:45 am. the trip kind of started on the wrong foot when i realized almost immediately that i had boarded the wrong bus.

and when i say "wrong bus" i don't mean "a bus going in the completely opposite direction". but rather, i mean "a deathtrap on wheels due to a driver who obviously needed to switch to decaf". i saved 35 cents by taking the non AC bus. you get what you pay for. as i was sitting there contemplating my life and the possibility of it ending (ok, so i'm being a LITTLE dramatic. i really do feel pretty safe even with the most insane of bus driver. they've been doing this for years), i began to realize that there was a comraderie among the passengers on the bus and the driver himself. in fact, it felt somewhat equivalent to being the only rational person in a car full of 16 year old boys, one of whom has his license. every time the driver nearly nailed a motorbike or missed a head on collision with a semi by mere inches, all the men on the bus would cheer! loudly! and egg him on further! oh, brother...

long story short, we finally made it to the bus terminal in solo. i didn't know where to go from there, so i asked someone. they said to pay rp5.000 to take a becak (bicycle rickshaw) to the train station. the becak driver tried to charge me 4 times that. i argued him down to twice that. and then when i paid, he tried to make it more again. grrr... the nerve. that's one of the worst things about being white in a foreign country. even a blind and deaf public transportation driver could smell your white skin coming from a kilometer away. of course, i don't recommend getting in a vehicle with a blind and deaf driver. at least not in this traffic. i've learned that one of the most helpful things you can do when traveling in a foreign country is to ask someone beforehand, "and how much will that cost?" you'll almost always end up paying more than that, but at least you've got a ballpark to work with. and honestly, if i'm told that the going rate is 30 cents, i really don't mind paying 50. i know i can afford it. and i know they need it.

so anyways, my train was waiting for me when i got to the station. i hopped on and we took off. there were 2 screaming children sitting in front of me, naturally, so the ipod went on and i passed out pretty quickly. until we got to jogja and my car filled up. (there had been about 6 people previously) a really friendly guy sat next to me and we talked for about the next 3 hours. btw, he was fluent in english! so we switched back and forth between languages. he currently lives in jogja, one year away from earning his masters at a university there, but he's from sumatra. in fact, he was in padang when the earthquake struck last year. his house was destroyed, but only one person in his family was killed. i love meeting people who have lived through things like that. it's probably partly a morbid fascination... but it's also partly that i love to hear people's stories, and natural disasters always make a story more interesting. in the end, though, what this always does for me is remind me how blessed i am...

speaking of blessed, it was an act of God that caused me to get off the train at the right station. they weren't announcing ANY of the stops on the train PA, and i had actually fallen asleep about an hour before we arrived there. i woke up and we were just sitting somewhere with no signs. so i asked the guy next to me where we were. he said, "banjar". WAH! panic... i didn't know how long we had been there already, and the stops are only 7 minutes. so i quickly grabbed my bag, shook hands and said goodbye to my new friend, and walked through about 3 cars before i found someone who actually worked on the train to confirm that this was, in fact, banjar. because it would be a terrible thing to jump off the train at the wrong stop and have to sit there for hours waiting for the next train to come.

as it turns out, i ended up sitting and waiting for hours at the right stop... but i'll save that story for later.

spontaneity

saturday evening the parent of a student of mine called me up and said her org needed my help. every year they try to make a calendar or informative booklet about the area where they serve to send out to supporters around the world. they're down to the wire this year, and they need someone to come take pictures for them. before 20 june. i asked if i could get back to her.

sunday i called to let her know i could come for a few days, but it has to be almost immediately because i have so many other obligations/trips planned this summer.

monday she called me with details on where i need to go.

today i bought a train ticket.

tomorrow i'm going to west java to do a "photo blitz" as she calls it. until friday.

i had a conversation with a friend about the trip last night. it pretty much sums up the situation.

him: so where are you going?
me: west java.
him: but what city?
me: i don't really know. i'm getting off the train in banjar.
him: who will you be with?
me: i don't know. the lady will meet me at the train station, but she has a conference to go to for the rest of the week. i might be alone.
him: what are you taking pictures of?
me: i don't really know. the theme was spiritual bondage. but we thought that might be a little difficult. i don't know what the new one is yet.
him: so what are the pictures for?
me: i don't know. maybe a calendar or book or a series of screensavers or something.
him: where are you staying?
me: i don't know. maybe on the street? i hope not.
him: what org is it for?
me: i don't know that either. hmmm...

so yup. those three little words basically sum it up. I DON'T KNOW. i don't know if i'll get on the right bus. i don't know where to get off the bus. i don't know how to get from there to the train station. i DO know my train leaves at 8:30 tomorrow morning. i DO know i get off in banjar. and i DO know that this parent will be there waiting for me. i don't know what the climate is like there. i DO know it's 99% muslim. i don't know what that means for me in terms of dress. i don't know where i'm staying. i don't know who i'll be with. i don't know how i'm getting back. wow. oh, but one plus is that i DO know this org is paying for all my travel expenses. i also do know that i better get a move on if i'm planning to wake up at 5:30 tomorrow morning... siiggggh. a long few days ahead of me. prayers appreciated!

answered questions

me: what the heck am i gonna read this summer? i can’t afford books in english. they’re like $20 each.

God:

(in case this isn’t clear to anyone, i was given a buttload of books and magazines this week. summer reading list? check.)

bensin

usually i loathe going to buy gas. all gas stations in indonesia are full service. all you have to do is pull your bike up, pop open the seat (because the tank is under it), take off the cap, tell them how much you want, and they fill you up. unfortunately, the pump attendants always seem to be young men of the leering type. and buying gas turns into the inquisition. i almost always get asked questions like why are you here? where are you from? how old are you? are you single? how long have you lived here? how long are you planning to live here? do you speak indonesian? (even though the entire interrogation up to this point has, in fact, been conducted in indonesian) sometimes they sprinkle a few other comments, just to spice things up. one of the best things i've heard to date was the guy from the next pump over from me who made it VERY clear that his dream is to have a baby with a white woman. um... good luck?

the other gas buying option is to purchase it from any number of people along the street. it seems that every 100 m or so there is someone selling it out of a stand in their front yard. kind of like a lemonade stand. they go buy it from the gas station, put it in 1 liter glass bottles, jack the price up a nickel, and they're good to go. in light of the information presented in the paragraph above, i often opt to buy my gas from the sweet old lady down the street. i'm pretty sure she mixes some water in with her gas, but she doesn't come on to me, so it's still the more convenient option.

yesterday i was on my way out the gate when the guard asked where i was going (normal conversation). i happened to look down at my gas guage and quickly declared, "to buy gas!" i was BELOW the red zone, beneath E. so i headed to the old lady on the corner. and just my luck, she was closed. so with a resigned sigh and a roll of the eyes in anticipation of what was inevitably to come, i headed to the gas station.

i pulled up in line behind 3 other bikes. but as i did so, a smallish javanese man poked his head around from behind the pump and waved me over. politely, i went. and there were no bikes waiting on his side! (rare) so i happily pushed my bike up to the pump. the man smiled at me, missing a few teeth here and there. he was about 30, btw. i braced myself, smiled back, and knocked the kickstand down with my foot. our conversation went a little something like this:

him: halo! (*toothless grin*)
me: halo...
him: berapa? (how much do you want)
me: oh, sebentar... (just a sec.... *i rummage around in my pocket to see exactly how much i have wadded up in the bottom*)
him: oke. permisi... saya buka. (excuse me, i'll open it. *he gently tugs my keys out of my hand and unlocks and opens the seat for me!)
me: uhhh... ada tigabelas. (i've got 13. *meaning, give me rp13,000 worth. about 3 liters. enough to fill my bike.)
him: oke! kalo bahasa inggris gimana? tigabelas ribu. (how do you say that in english? thirteen thousand.)
me: thirteen thousand.
him: dirteen tousan.
me: betul! (right. *thumbs up*)
him: bisa bahasa jawa? (can you speak javanese?)
me: durung (not yet (in javanese). *much more polite than flat out saying NO*)
him: *big laugh over me using javanese to say i don't speak javanese* pintar! (smart!)
me: haha... makasih. (thanks)
him: kalo mau beli bensin, tumbas. (if you want to buy gas, tombas.)
me: tumbas?
him: ya! pintar sekali! (yes. so smart!)
me: uhh... tumbas. itu bahasa jowo, ya? (that's javanese, right?)
him: iya! (yeah)

by this time, he had finished filling my tank and someone had pulled up and was waiting behind me. so i thanked him, got my keys back, and pushed my bike forward to screw the cap back on and start the bike up. we said our goodbyes and i headed out.

that guy made my day. he was all smiles. he wasn't leering at me. he didn't interrogate me. he didn't try to come on to me. he let me teach him something. and he taught me something in return! now the only question is: what did he teach me, exactly? what does tumbas mean? it has to do with buying gas... but it's not the word for gas. gas in javanese is bensin, same as in indonesian. hmm... i have a new mystery...

things that go bump in the night

while i was soundly sleeping last night (so basically anytime between 3 and 11 am), something fell through my ceiling! this is what i woke up to…

a nice hole in my ceiling! but now the mystery is… WHAT fell through my ceiling during the night? my cats sleep up there, but if they fell through, there is no way for them to get back out. the ceilings are about 12 feet high and the walls are cement. and both cats were outside when i woke up. i can’t fathom another animal sleeping up there, because my 2 ferocious cats already occupy the area. and i’ve NEVER heard a rat or any other rodent up there. (this is basically the number 1 reason i have cats in the first place) so what fell through?? could there be a massive rat hiding somewhere in my house? *shivers*

also, how did i sleep through this?!?

a little too downward on the dog

a few friends and i had a picnic today on the soccer field by my house. after we finished eating and simultaneously spilling grease all over my sheets and blankets that i hauled out there for us to sit on, a couple of the guys went to kick around the old soccer ball. the rest of us who are soccer illiterate decided to do yoga in the grass. it was my first try. it was... interesting. we had a few laughs and groans and grunts, but all was going well. until we got to downward dog. and navita, who had had enough of being stretched by this point, actually went and jumped on top of sani, which caused them both to fall in a heap on the ground. which caused the rest of us to collapse in the grass laughing so hard we could barely breathe. which effectively ended my first yoga experience.

after that, we decided to play some footsal. 5 on 5. i was goalie. and possibly the worst goalie in the world. i blocked 2 shots but let 3 pass. mostly because yohanes kept dribbling the ball RIGHT UP TO ME and the kicking it into the goal. there was no way i could stop him. thanks, team.

then we played billiards. or rather, i watched my friends play billiards. usually when i play, eyes get poked out, ceiling tiles get pushed out of place, light bulbs get shattered, and balls end up on the floor. my friends tried to convince me to play. but i told them that they'd already seen me play soccer and that i'm at least 10 times worse at billiards. that shut them up. "kalo ada bola, aku pasti gak bisa."

THEN we found a pingpong table. something i can actually DO and am semi good at. jamal and jefri played the first game. and broke the only ball. irreparably. story of my life.

nicknames

i never really had any nicknames before i moved to indonesia. here is a comprehensive list of names i now answer to without a second thought:

1. bu guru gaul
2. BIE!
3. mbak kriwul
4. londo
5. ms pee
6. ms norris
7. parji
8. shasha
9. ebi
10. nona
11. habis
12. abs
13. bu sombong
14. udang kering
15. hutabarat

for my american friends, translations.

1. it means mrs. cool teacher. from my papuan friend, sylva.
2. this is just the last 3 letters of my name. pronounced BEE. it is almost always yelled for some reason. mega started it, and now just about everyone indonesian who i hang out with regularly calls me that.
3. ms curly. it's my javanese name from yohanes.
4. it's kind of a minor racial slur for a white person. in javanese. i get called this on the street a lot.
5. the elongated version of ms p. a couple of the seniors think it's funny to call me this. elselyn started it.
6. i once told the sophomores that i AM chuck norris. so jordan started calling me ms norris in class. regularly.
7. this is a javanese redneck girl's name (like bertha or billie jean). charles and marie lovingly call me this.
8. sammy (18 months old) insists on calling me this. he has for awhile now. he CAN say my name - it's one of the first words he learned - he just chooses not to. the wonderful thing is that this week, they got a dog named sasha. so now we both have the same name according to sam.
9. this is how my name is usually pronounced by indonesians. it is also the name of a dried shrimp dish. ebi.
10. this is just a VERY respectful way of calling someone miss. my house helper calls me this. and sometimes cashiers or waiters.
11. habis means empty. seti, a neighbor of mine thinks this is my name for some reason. so when i drive by, he stands in his front yard and yells "HABIS!" and waves. nice guy.
12. abs. self explanatory.
13. sombong is the indonesian word for my last name.
14. this means dried shrimp. (see #9) indonesians think it's the greatest thing when i joke about this.
15. when i'm on sumatra, this is my name. many batak (people group of sumatra) family names start with huta-. my friend turbo gave me his last name. hutabarat.

2 conversations in as many days

last night i was with some friends at the night cafe, which is actually a guy with a folding table on the sidewalk selling a bunch of "food" downtown until late at night. (i use the term food loosely. deep fried chicken legs were involved.) i was sitting between yohanes (major small town boy) and liz (big city girl from jakarta). for the record, i love them both dearly. while we were eating, i saw a young couple walk by on the street wearing strikingly similar red and black plaid shirts.

me: look! they match! haha!
yohanes: awwww...
me: really? are you serious?
yohanes: what?
me: you think that's sweet??
yohanes: yeah. they like each other so much they want to match.
me: that is lame. why would you want to be with someone who looks just like you?
yohanes: well, i think it's cool that they match. and romantic.
me: i can't believe it. in america, only old people think it's cool to match. and the young people make fun of them for it.
yohanes: liz. look at them. aren't they cute?
liz: *turns to spot them walking by* awwww! so cute! they are matching!
me: yohanes. i hope it's ok with you if we never wear matching clothes.
yohanes: that's fine. you're not my girlfriend.
me: ok. but even if i was, i wouldn't match you.
yohanes: it's your life.

(note: this is an aspect of culture that i've always noticed, but one that has never really clicked before. i see couples matching all the time, especially at weddings or formal events. a couple will often get outfits made from the same fabric. so the wife will have a dress or cute top that totally matches her husband's sports coat or dress shirt. i even saw a couple once with matching mullets. how... precious? i never really realized it IS to them!)

and tonight, yohanes (a different one from the night before) is staying in one of the school dorms to guard it while the dorm parents are out of town. so a bunch of us hung out there and cooked some food. all but yohanes, jefri, and i had gone home by 11, when indra showed up after work.

me: hey, how was work, honey?
indra: it was great... baby?
me: haha.... are you hungry?
indra: yeah.
me: there's noodles in the fridge.
him: what?
me: there's noodles in the fridge.
him: what?
me: there's noodles in the fridge.
him: what?
me: ADA MIE GORENG DI DALAM KULKAS!!
him: hmph.
*he walks over, opens the freezer, and stares into it for a really long time. he eventually closes it and starts walking aimlessly around the room.*
me: did you see the noodles?
him: it's there.
me: no. it's in the fridge. you were looking in the... oh, never mind.... do you want some noodles?
him: very much.
me: ok. they're in the kulkas. right there. *pointing* you can get some.
him: yeah................................ *stares off into space* ..... but they're cold.
me: OBVIOUSLY! oh, my gosh. do you want to eat them? i can memanaskan them for you.
him: ok. sure.
*the noodles were in the fridge in their original pot, so i just threw the whole thing on the stove and started heating it up. as they were nearing finished, 5 minutes later, indra walks over.*
him: why you are doing that?
me: aren't you hungry?
him: yes.
me: and you want these noodles?
him: yes. i have to eat them all? *there were quite a lot left*
me: yes.
him: oooooohhh.
me: i'm just kidding.
him: mmhmm. so why are you doing that, bie?
me: doing WHAT?!
him: cooking.
me: YOU SAID YOU WANT THE DANG NOODLES!
him: yes. i can cook it.
me: i don't think i trust you near the fire right now...
him: ok. thank you.

judge or jury

remember that english camp i was supposed to speak at? well, i ended up not having to do that (whew). but i was asked to be a judge for the math competition instead. that seemed easy enough. and it's summer vacation. so i've got all the time in the world, right?

ibu maria told me it started at 1, would last 1 hour, and that it would be really easy. i assumed all three were less than the truth, so i showed up 15 minutes late, armed with a pencil, paper, and calculator. and do i know indonesia or what? the competition started at 2. it lasted 2 hours. and i needed the pencil and paper.

there were about 300 students at english camp, 12 of which were from our school. they had been having a variety of competitions all day, and i was only a judge (along with 3 other teachers) for the final round, involving 3 teams from 3 different indonesian schools. a team from our school had competed earlier in the morning, but was knocked out after the first round. unfortunately for them, kids from the indonesian schools were badmouthing them, saying they couldn't believe our students had lost the competition even though they are native speakers. it was kind of discouraging for our kids. and that DOES seem a little strange... or so i thought until i saw the questions that i was judging for the final 3 teams.

keep in mind that all these questions were read out loud to the teams by a non-native speaker (who FREQUENTLY mispronounced words), they could not see the questions, and they only had 2 minutes to answer. the questions covered the subjects of math, biology, chemistry, and physics. some actual questions from the quiz are:

1. the curve y = x^2 - 3x + 3 has a gradient of -1 at a certain point on it. Find the coordinates of this point. (BTW, this is calculus, which none of our kids there have had yet.)

2. the unit of universal gravitation constant G in SI is blah blah blah. (yes, the reader ACTUALLY said "blah blah blah")

3. to make solution with pH = 12, x gram of NaOH is poured by water until the solution volume reaches 500 ml. how many gram is the x value?

4. if the radius of earth is R, at what height above the ground is the gravitational acceleration equal to g per 4?

5. a molecule has sp^3d^2 hybridization. the geometric shape of that molecule is blah blah blah.

6. a bullet is shot with an angle of 30 degrees and initial velocity of 40 m/s. what is the maximum height?

7. bacteria that capture energy from sunlight are called blah blah blah.

8. human being have the ability to button and unbutton their shirts with their eyes closed. what is this called?

ok. i'll stop there. for the record, i could only answer one of the above questions. ROUGH. good thing we were given the answers. which the reader also had copies of. which leads me to believe that the 4 white "judges" were only there for looks. as usual. siiggghhhh. we got our picture taken about 43 times. fancy.

on the way home, i stopped to watch some guys playing a soccer game. they needed a ref, so they asked me. i told them i was there to play. they said i could be goalie. but i'm 99% sure they were joking. i was wearing a skirt.

well, does it?

tonight, i agreed to babysit an 18 month old for 4 days straight while both parents are out of town. in exchange for this:

does that mean i’m easy?

fun with language

in the past week, two indonesian people have said things to me that later, when i actually thought about the literal translation, made me chuckle. to myself, of course. here they are.

1. i finished showering one day, and my helper was sweeping off the sidewalk in front of my house. i walked out the front door, and she came up to me and said, "ibu suka melihat rambut nona."

translation: Mrs. likes to see the hair of Ms.

2. just tonight, my tennis teacher, pak budi, was telling me about a time when he spent the night in kopeng, the town on top of the mountain, and how cold it was. there were two factors. first, he had no blanket, and second, "jendela lupa ditutup."

translation: the window forgot to be closed.

weddings and other assorted adventures

well. sunday was an adventure. first, i have to confess that i didn't go to church. for mostly a good reason. see, some indonesian friends were over until 10 the night before. and then i was spending time with students until about 12:30. and if i had gone to church, i would have had to wake up at 6:30. and then ride a motorbike to semarang at 10, a task which already makes me incredibly tired. but on so little sleep and on roads where the bus drivers care so little for the welfare of others, my fate would have surely been sealed.

so it came down to this:
a) go to church
or
b)live

i chose the latter.

anyways, to recap my last post, i went to semarang in order to be able to say goodbye to my pseudo-siblings, kelsey and clayton, who flew home to america. there was no room in the car though, so i drove down with yohanes, who had to go to his aunt's wedding in the same city anyways.

so. sunday morning. 10 am. it's cloudy. and we're about to drive 1.5 hours on a motorbike in crazy asian traffic. in nice clothes. to a wedding. i prayed so hard for no rain. God heard me. :) the clouds stayed (which was NICE... otherwise you burn on the road), but the rain never came. the wedding was in a part of town where they obviously don't get many bule (white people). you can always tell by the expressions on people's faces when you ride/walk by.

oh, so i should explain that this was only the wedding reception. a muslim one. to have one of these, the family closes down the entire street, puts up canopies all down the road to serve food under, and sets up chairs and more canopies in the lawns of like 10 houses. (keep in mind that here, being the most densely populated island in the world, when i say "lawn", i actually mean a patch of land that is about 6 ft x 8 ft. if that. and it is usually cemented over to park motorbikes on. and all the houses touch each other.)

anyways, i greeted the bride and groom, and was promptly asked to pose for wedding photos with them and eventually with a variety of other people who all wanted pictures with the white girl.

then we went to the neighbor's cement lawn and sat down. we were asked to eat about 3957ty245 times, so even though we just had, we ate anyways. chicken and shrimp and rice and vegetables! yum. oh, and watermelon ice cream. that was delish. because the sun was blazing hot by now. the poor lady sitting next to me had sweated through her pink jilbab already.

some musicians were playing traditional javanese instruments on a stage they had set up in front of someone else's house. a few different singers got up and sang. then one of the singers came over and asked yohanes if i speak indonesian. (people often do this. right in front of me.) he said yes. so the guy proceeded to ask me to get up and sing. i laughed a lot and politely declined. he asked again. i said that my voice isn't very good. he told me it doesn't matter because i'm white. (i'm really starting to hate it when people say that.) he kept insisting, but i was finally off the hook when another guy walked over and asked me if i'm from holland. i said america, and he proceeded (in perfect english) to tell me about the 20 years he lived there. still not too clear on where or why... but his english was really good!

shortly after that, a possibly tone deaf aunt got up and sang and we left. not sure of those two are related or not...

we were supposed to meet the linegars at a new mall in town at about 2:00. it was 12:30. so we decided to go to the new mall and hang out in the AC as opposed to the blazing hot sun. 1:00 came. 2:00 came. we bought cheetos and stalked a bench until its occupants left. then we sat and ate. 3:00 came. there really is only so much you can do in a mall with no money. we bought a donut at a shop so that we could go in and sit down. 4:00 came. i fell asleep in the donut shop while yo played games on my cell phone. 4:30 came and linegars finally smsed to say they were in semarang, but were at a restaurant on the other side of the city. (btw, semarang is actually bigger than singapore, or so i've heard.) and neither of us knew where the restaurant was.

so indonesian culture lesson #55. indonesians really hate to say "i don't know". it's all about saving face. so if you ask someone for directions to x place, they will give you a comprehensive set of directions. whether or not those directions are, in fact, truth is pretty hit or miss. we asked directions 7 times. it started to rain. we drove through alleys, partway up a mountain, by the coast, and through the countryside. we asked directions one more time. we finally got to the restaurant. the family had to leave to go to the airport within 10 minutes of our arrival. no time to order food. and the airport is on the side of town we had just come from, 45 minutes away. so we made the hard choice to say our goodbyes there and stay and eat after the family left. i would be lying if i said there weren't some tears right there in the restaurant. and our waiter was watching. while the rest of the waiters stood in the foyer and practiced chanting italian phrases all together (it's an italian restaurant). aaawwwkward.

by now it was also thundering and lightning. so we decided to stay in the restaurant and wait for the family to come back, newly childless, load my bike in the back, and all drive home in the car rather than drive home on the crazy road in the dark in the pouring rain.

but after about 5 minutes of waiting, and realizing that it would be at least another hour, we scrapped that plan. it was still lightning, but only sprinking lightly, so we decided to brave it. i prayed the whole way home that God would hold all the rain in those black clouds in His hands. and He did. a few sprinkles here and there, but not even much need for a rain jacket the whole way home! by the time we made it home, the family was still not back to the restaurant, so we were very glad for our decision.

my face, hands, ankles, and feet were all black. so a quick shower and off to bed... to the sound of torrential rain hitting my roof. and that was the end of my sunday adventure!

whirlwind...

well, it's officially SUMMER! graduation was last thursday, and we finished teacher meetings up today. the next 2.5 months are all mine!

here's a quick(ish) recap of the past week.

monday - wednesday were insane for students but really laid back for teachers (well, at least for me) with finals. besides monday, i only gave one final a day, which means i spent about 2 hours a day asleep on the floor of my classroom. if i were more laid back than that, i'd be dead.

after finals, things picked up a little bit. wednesday evening was a senior dinner to honor seniors and their families. i sat at a table with some people i didn't really know - extended family of one of the seniors. after we finished eating (btw, you've never been to a potluck til you've been to one at an international school - my plate was heaped high with baked beans, indian curry, indonesian kebabs, korean kimbab, and many other foods!), an the older gentleman sitting across the table from me said, "i have something i think you could use." and he proceeded to hand me a graphing calculator WITH a manual! this man had been in indonesia for 30 hours, i don't know his name, where he got the calculator, or how he knew i'd need it... but a little known fact about me is that i've NEVER owned one. they're too expensive, so all through 4 years of a college math education, i taught myself how to do everything by hand. but next year, i'll be teaching trig/precal, a class that requires a graphing calculator. and our school doesn't have a single one. they're really hard and even more expensive to get here. what a blessing!!

thursday morning was commencement. it was possibly the best graduation i've ever been to. though this is the biggest graduating class our school has ever seen (30 seniors), it's still small enough that the ceremony was very personal. the speaker (a departing teacher) spent most of her address talking about barbies, which is totally an inside joke within our community. it was hysterical, well thought out, and VERY memorable! afterwards, we had a great time of fellowship and saying goodbyes to many of the seniors who are leaving.

thursday night, i stayed up until midnight with the 10th graders. and friday morning, i woke up at 6:30 to find 2 of them at my house... in tears! one of the 10th grade girls had boarded a plane to move away at 5 am that morning, and they had stayed up all night with her. so i was nearly late for teacher meetings as i sat on my couch and talked and cried with them.

saturday morning, i was woken up around 8 with one of the seniors in my house, her luggage exploding everywhere. (she claimed she was "repacking") i cooked breakfast and we spent a couple hours just talking and spending time together. and then we loaded ALL her stuff on my motorbike (no small feat), and i drove her to the bus stop and waited until one came for her. it was hard to watch the bus take her away...

shortly after i got back from dropping her off, i remembered that my brother was leaving for boot camp. so i got to skype with him at 4 am (his time) right before he left for the airport. i haven't seen the kid in 2 years, and he's only gonna be gone for a month, but something about all the combined emotion of the week and seeing him in full uniform for the first time ever finally made me cry a bit...

i spent saturday night with my adopted family, the linegars, saying goodbye to the kids. clayton and kelsey left for america on sunday. don't know when/if i'll see them again. they have really become my family here. another small blessing though - i've been wondering what i'll wear while working on sumatra this summer. the work there really calls for jeans, but i only have one pair of old jeans. i have 2 pairs of nice ones. and due to how ridiculously difficult it is to find jeans that fit me here, i'm not willing to sacrifice any of the nice ones. but kelsey had a whole garbage bag of old clothes she was getting rid of, so i looked through it and found THREE pairs of jeans that fit me! yohanes and i both wanted to go to the airport with them the next day to see them off, but there wasn't room in the car with all their luggage, so we devised a plan....

yohanes had to go to his aunt's wedding in semarang (the same city where the airport is) in the morning. so we decided to take my motorbike there in the morning, go to the wedding, then meet up with the family later in the day for dinner and airport.

well, that day turned into an adventure all its own... i'll write a new post about that one. this is getting long! ;)

you know you live in indonesia when...

...you find a stone in your rice and you spit it out on the floor.

hari minggu

i'm sick today. not major sick. mostly ew sick. i couldn't fall asleep last night until 2 am. then had bad dreams. then woke up with a pounding headache and diarrhea and possibly a mild fever. siiiigh. finals start tomorrow... and that means 3 more days of school!

i didn't get to go to church today, but 3 friends came over after and hung out for awhile. so i got to practice indonesian without ever leaving the house! i also got quite a bit of reading, nap taking, and movie watching in today. sometimes i really don't mind the low grade sickness!

i found some gecko eggs in my house. i put them in a bowl and i'm trying to hatch them. they were stuck to the back of my clock. i found them when i finally got around to changing the battery that had been dead for a week. it's actually 2 eggs stuck together. kind of like 2 small white chicken eggs fused together at the ends. siamese eggs. one friend told me that is very rare. another said they usually come like that. hmm... who to believe?

i got a facebook message today from one of the girls in the college class i spoke with on friday night. it reads as follows:
Hi...
Did u still remember me?I am the one who interview u in stiba ystrday..Hehe..
i just wanna share something. did u know,when i did interview u that time,my heart was beating fastly,hehe...Bcs that was my 1st experience,also 1st time i sit near and chat with a foreigner.Hehe..
And i was so happy also that time.Bcs i know that u r kind heart person,right?And u know on last saturday,after we did interview,i wanna tk pict with u and me,but i was shy u know.Hehehe...

awwwwwwwwwwwwwww! so sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! i love it!

also, i need to give a shoutout to my friend, the guard. there is this certain guard who works for our school. he knows the sound of my motorbike coming down the road. and he is almost always opening up the gates to campus before i even pull up. usually i have to sit outside and wait for the guard to walk over, unlock everything, and swing the giant door open. sometimes they don't hear my motor, so i have to honk the horn or bang on the gate to get the guard's attention. but not with this one. he knows when i am coming, and he is standing there with a smile, ready to let me in even before i get there. i wish i could express to him how much i love that. because every time it happens, i really feel like i am coming home.

days go by

yesterday was ascension day. the muslim schools got the day off. but did we? no. much to the astonishment of all my indonesian friends.

i just got home from speaking to a cross-cultural studies class at a nearby college. that was interesting. they asked me some really good questions. atypical questions. questions that made me think. i feel confident about how i answered, which is a good feeling. i don't normally feel that way after speaking to a group.

and speaking of speaking... there is an english camp coming up soon for indonesian high school students learning english as well as for english teachers. they will be having a retreat up the mountain near the end of this month. today i got asked to speak at the retreat. i have to preface this by saying that i'm scared of the lady who asked me. i have heard horror stories from people who have done these little "projects" with her. for example, 2 of my friends (also teachers) were recently asked by her to practice english with some local teachers for an hour or so. yeah... they got there and found out that it was actually a formal meeting with the minister of education that lasted hours. (if an indonesian says 1 hour, they really mean something between 3 hours and all day long)

so my conversation with this lady went something like this:
her: so you will help with english camp? (wink, wink)
me: uhh... yeah.... about that....
her: (wink)
me: are you winking at me?
her: you are so cantik (beautiful) today. (wink)
me: STOP WINKING AT ME! YOU ARE TRYING TO SEDUCE ME!
her: HAHA! (wink, wink) so you will help?
me: well. would i use bahasa indonesia or english?
her: english. speak english. *which actually means it will probably be in indo*
me: how long would i have to talk for?
her: maybe.... satu jam.
me: ONE HOUR?!? *see above*
her: or you can leave time for questions.
me: well, here's the thing. i don't know what i could say that would benefit them. i'm not a language teacher. i can't help them with that. i'm a math teacher...
her: but you are bule! (slang for white person) to them, you are so perfect! it does not matter what you say.
me: oh. well, that doesn't seem quite right....
her: ok, ok, ok. thank you. *she walks away*

soooo... i'm not really sure if i'm speaking or not? dear God, i hope not...

oh, one other thing. i've gone to church now two weeks in a row! that is impressive, given that i haven't gone to church regularly for about 6 months now, since my church closed. it's an indonesian church. but one where i am happy and comfortable. i'd gone to this church before, but after being out of church for awhile, it was hard to make myself want to get out of bed at 6 on sunday morning (indonesian church is dang early!). but now that i am, i see how worth it it is. and i'm excited to be part of the body of that church.

lefthand

els: look at this. this is as small as i can possibly write. but this is how small josh NORMALLY writes.
william: and he does it with his left hand, no less.
me: uhh... he's left handed.
william: yeah, but do you know how HARD it is to write with your left hand?!

*long pause*

abby: dude. he thinks it's hard to write with his RIGHT hand.
william: psshhhh....


and these kids are GRADUATING in six days!?!

it’s the strangest thing…

i just drove home from bible study. it’s been raining pretty steadily for about 4 hours now. as i got closer to my place, i noticed it seemed really dark. and when it’s dark on the most densely populated island in the world, that can only mean one thing – electricity is out.

but as i drove, i noticed that only about half the electricity was out… some places had lights on. others didn’t. streetlights on one side of the street were on; the ones on the other side were off. when i pulled up to the gate of campus, i noticed that all the lights in the guard shack were off. when the guard opened the gate for me though, i saw some other lights on campus on. some flickering. some really dim. so i asked the guard if there was electricity. and he said, “ada, tapi belum kuat”, meaning that there is electricity but it’s not strong yet. he said it has been off for 2 hours now.

as i parked my bike, i noticed lights at the language school next door flickering on and off. one of my neighbors has her lights on, but they are reaaaaaallly dim. the other neighbor’s place is completely dark.

so i came into my apartment. i keep a lightbulb in my closet/wardrobe thing to keep my clothes from molding. that was on. i could see it shining. i could see the lights flashing on my modem and router. the digital clock on the dvd player was shining. but when i tried turning the light switch to “on”, nothing happened. i tried turning the ceiling fan on. nothing. i went into my bedroom and turned my desk lamp on. that worked…

so i lit some candles to give me light. i’m gonna watch a movie on my tv, which works. but even though my internet is up, i can’t connect, probably due to a disturbance somewhere down the line. so i’ll have to post this later.

this night will go down in history as the night that the electricity was out – but only halfway.

and for my next trick...

i talked to the principal yesterday. it seems that my schedule next year will involve the following:
- algebra 2
- geometry
- trig/pre-cal
- yearbook
- devotions (once a week)
- study hall?

i am verrrrry happy with that schedule. yearbook is a little odd... but why not add to my resume, right? i'll be coteaching it with the same person who is teaching it this year. and i'm hoping to learn photoshop in the process... finally!

also, we can add to my summer plans house/poodle sitting for my boss for a week at the beginning of may. how did that happen? and not even one, but TWO poodles. WHITE ones! hmm...

oh, AND news of the week - plane ticket to korea is FINALLY sitting on my kitchen table. in fact, it was there 4 hours before i even paid for it! i love how trusting indonesians are. remember how stressed i was about trying to buy one the last few weeks? well, mega (our school secretary and my friend) found one for only $50 more than the one i was stressing about. i was so frustrated by that point that without really thinking about it, i just said, "BUY IT!" then i started thinking... was it so cheap because it has a 14 hour layover in some awful airport?? will i arrive in korea at 2 in the morning and be stuck there until daylight? am i even allowed to bring luggage? hmmm.... but when i got my ticket and looked at it, i realized that God (once again) came through for me... it's a nonstop flight there and back! and the schedule is great! nothing too awful... and since the ticket was sold to me in US dollars and the dollar is so weak, it ended up costing WAY less rupiah than i had planned on! AND the travel agent i used has the same indonesian bank as me. so instead of having to get a buttload of money out and drive it across town to pay them, i just had to go to the atm and do an auto transfer... no mess. no hassle. except for having to drive there in a monsoon. so thank you, Jesus. i'm going to korea!

texas? really?

so i have this necklace of an outline of africa that i wear around my neck. one day my (korean) TA asked me if i was from texas. i said no and asked why. he said he thought i was because i always wear a necklace of texas.

now, he’s certainly not an ignorant kid. he’s well traveled, fluent in english, and smart in just about everything. so he was kind of insulted when i laughed at him. and he insisted that texas looks JUST LIKE africa.

that was weeks ago. but he still can’t let it rest. so usually whenever we’re around someone else and he notices my necklace, he will ask said person, “hey, does her necklace look like texas?” he has yet to get an affirmative reponse.

my favorite response, however, came today. jai (my TA) asked a 9th grade korean boy, “does her necklace look like texas?” the student said, “WHAT?! no way!!” i got a smug grin on my face, which turned to a forehead palm slap as the 9th grader went on to say, “texas is SO MUCH BIGGER than that!”

maybe i'm reading too much into it...

saturday evening i found myself in an old dutch hospital that i didn't even know existed here in town. don't worry, i wasn't the patient. my friend sani's mom was. i was told that she had high blood. i'm not sure if they mean high blood pressure or high blood sugar. either way, it caused her to pass out, so she was in the hospital on an IV and resting comfortably. about 12 friends showed up to keep san company, and we spent almost 3 hours there sitting on benches outside the hospital, within eyeshot of her mom as long as the door was open. fun fact - indonesian hospitals are set up kind of like motels, and many of the rooms have doors that open to the outside! i kind of like it that way.

i spent about half the time we were there talking to hotjaga. it was getting kind of late for me to have anything resembling an intelligent conversation in a foreign language. so pak hot (his real name is jamal, by the way) mostly told me stories, and i interjected with thoughtful noises where appropriate. he told me stories from when he was a boy and how whenever he broke a bone or fell out of a tree, his parents would bring him to this same hospital. he told me about someone he knew who drank too much during ramahdan once and how he had to hunt for a coconut to help him detox (did anyone know that coconuts can do that?!). he told me cool scar stories. he talked about his family and asked about mine. we talked about my plans for the future. he informed me about the current market value of several new and secondhand motorbikes, and he affirmed that i bought a good one because its resale value tends to be high.

what i remember most though is what he said about ghosts. he started by talking about several places around town that are haunted. and then he mentioned our school. i've heard lots of ghost stories from guards and other people who work here. it's not really a secret that we have our share of the spiritually dark. and understand that when i say ghosts, i am actually talking about demons. the indonesians use the word hantu to talk about it though, which directly translates to ghost.

i asked jamal if there are a lot of ghosts around here. and he told me that when he started working here almost five years ago, there were more. i told him that they used to be in my house. he was incredulous and asked, "they came in YOUR house?!" bewildered, i slowly responded, "yeeeesssss...." after a second, he added to his previous thought. "there used to be more here. until you moved in."

he went on to tell me some legitimately terrifying experiences he's had with ghosts while working the overnight shift guarding our campus. but my mind was still on what he had said. there were ghosts here. until i came.

now obviously, no human can take credit for this. and if anyone could, that would be my previous neighbor, laurel. we moved here within a week of each other, and we lived for a year on opposite ends of the same small 3 apartment building. she felt the oppression, and i tell you what - that woman is the greatest prayer warrior i have ever met in my life. in fact, just last night, while talking about something completely unrelated, the current tenant, amanda, told me that her first impression of the place when she moved in was that this building had the blood of Jesus prayed over it. and she is so right.

it's an overwhelming feeling to know that the power of the living God surrounds my house (and me!) so strongly that the spirits of darkness have no choice but to leave. and the fact that a strongly muslim friend sees that speaks volumes...

berhasil

i went to prayer meeting last night with a group of indonesian, american, and german friends. events with this group are usually conducted in a mix of indonesian and english. everybody understands both languages for the most part, but not everybody is comfortable speaking both. and when it comes to prayer, i think it's important to talk to God in your heart language.

there was an indonesian friend who prayed last night. and his prayer started out, "selamat malam Tuhan. terima kasih atas hari ini...." and a few minutes later, it ended with, "and i pray these things in Jesus' name, amen."

and the point of the story is that i never even noticed when he switched languages. somewhere in the middle. and that makes me kind of happy. because in my mind, i understood every word. language didn't matter. and because there was never a point where i didn't understand what was being said, there was also never a point when i realized that the language was different.

i really love little moments like that.

it's the final countdown

after the completion of this week, we have ONE MORE WEEK of classes. the following week, we have finals monday - wednesday followed by graduation on thursday. friday and monday are teacher meetings... and that's it. school year over. just like that.

it's a strange feeling. i haven't had time to think much about it (see below), but i can say with all certainty that while i am eager for summer adventures to begin (again, see below), i'm not at all ready for all the goodbyes that the next month will bring. i'd go so far as to say that i'm in a mild state of denial. i have yet to have a discussion with ANY of my many leaving friends about their imminent departure. and anytime it gets brought up, i'm quick to change the subject. i just don't want to think about it. it's a joy to see where God is taking them - many to other areas of ministry where they are very much needed - but i'm selfish, and i want them here with me. just like old times.

that being said, my current schedule allows for very little reflection, which is good, or i'd probably spiral into a deep pit of self pity and i'd eat chitatos (indonesian chicken or beef flavored chips) all day and get fat and greasy. take yesterday and today as an example of the hecticness of my life...

tuesday....
6:49 - wake up.
7:10 - 3 - school
3:15 - 4 - teacher's meetings
while walking home, i realized i never paid my house helper on the 30th...
4:15 - 4:30 - drive to the atm in the rain. almost drive motorbike into a huge gutter hole in the road NOT covered by a manhole or grate of any kind. (closest call yet)
4:30 - write a long letter of apology to my helper, change, watch an episode of castle (ron put 50G of shows on my laptop before he left for aceh monday!)
6 - 9 - dinner and bible study with the girls
9 - 10 - walk/run/exercise (!!)
10 - quick shower, clean the house
10:30 - read a chapter of john in indonesian! go to bed.

wednesday....
6:49 - wake up
7:05 - 3 - school
3 - 4:30 - tutoring
4:30 - 5:30 - chase cats out of house. run to the grocery to get butter and sugar. bake as many mexican cookies as possible in a short amount of time.
5:30 - ? - celebrating cinco de mayo with the boys dorm!
7 - 8 - american idol night with marie (due to my schedule, this is now the only night i get to see her and the kids... so sad....)
8 - 10 - worship practice for tomorrow's fellowship - drive across town, guitar in hand! don't forget to get gas after... bike is almost empty.
10:30 - another chapter of john and off to bed

i love being busy. and i love having meaningful things to do. and yes, celebrating cinco de mayo and watching american idol ARE meaningful things to me - they are encouraging times with great friends, many of whom are on the list of those leaving after this year. i am looking forward to this summer's change of pace though. here's how it looks so far...

end of school - mid june: work my butt off to get ready for next school year!

18 - 20 june: BEACH! with a group of 13 javanese friends, muslim and christian alike. maybe someday i'll have time to write out the story of my being invited to go with them (they've all been friends for 10+ years)... but suffice it to say that it's kind of a big deal and an honor to be invited as the only white person on the trip.

shortly thereafter - 18 july - i'm returning to sumatra to do ministry work for a month! poooooooooork!

18 july - 23 july - back to salatiga to prepare for a new teacher coming 20 july. meet her at the airport, take her home, get her settled in, go shopping with her, make sure she has everything she needs, introduce her, show her around town, teach her some language basics, etc.

23 july - 2 august - KOREA! i am looking forward to this SO much. this spring finally brought me some culture shock. and it was not nice about it... and i tell you what, having culture shock after 2 years - when you think you have it all figured out and the past 2 years have been a breeze - is WAY worse than if you just have it in the first place. the rug was pulled out from under me in a lot of ways. march and april were very hard months. i spent a couple weeks hardly ever leaving campus/home because i didn't even want to be around anyone indonesian. i'm back up on my knees... but my eyes are finding it easier to see the bad more than the good, and it's hard not to let it stick to me and eat at me. i'm getting there, but i'd appreciate prayers. i realized just recently that while i've taken many trips and had many incredible adventures recently, i haven't actually left the country or the culture for 2 years. (that's the longest i've stayed in one place since i was like 16...) so the prospect of going to korea is a veryveryvery exciting one for me! i'm still trying to work out finances and get everything arranged and tickets bought. the way that this worked out was just such a God thing and i'm trying to trust that He'll see it through. but after 2 weeks spent just trying to buy a stupid ticket, i'm having some doubt...

anyways, i just talked way longer than i intended... i need to write a math test! love you.

change is in the wind

i realized that every time i read my own blog, my eyes burned terribly. so i changed it. sorry if that bothers anybody.