A Day in the Life: Scout Camp

March 14, 2016 by Mackenzie

What kind of school sponsored event results in 150 students being sick the following Monday? Scout camp of course! Scouts is big in Indonesia… it’s mandatory for all students from elementary-high school. My kids were shocked that I had never done scouts in America and when I said it’s popular mostly for elementary-aged boys they couldn’t believe me!

As an enthusiastic teacher and supporter of my students – I of course told my students I would watch them participate in scout camp – what I was not prepared for however, was participating in scout camp…

Saturday, February 27

I can hear the kids chanting and preparing at 7am but I have no intention of getting out of my bed just yet. It’s Saturday… my one day to sleep in, and I’m taking advantage of it. Especially because I know I will be getting very little sleep tonight.

I mosey around in the morning, finish my lesson plan for the upcoming week, and run out to pick up my laundry – clean jeans are clutch, seeing as I can only wear pants around my school which means I wear the same pair every single day after school and they are sweaty, dirty, and smelly. I have since made the quality investment of a second pair from the local department store – they aren’t quite long enough for me but I roll up the bottoms and I’m good to go.

Around noon, I head over to school to join the fun. What I see as I exit the asrama and enter the school grounds, is 30 tarp-tents, pitched on the only dry area of the field (which turns into a lake every time it rains). The kids see me and I suddenly have kids calling at me from all directions, “Miss! Come look at our tent!” “Miss! Come over here!” “Miss!” I tour the tents and end up settling down with my favorite 11th grade girls. All the kids are split into teams of 8 and it so happens that my favorite 8 girls are all on the same team… 100 selfies, and promises of sleeping in their tent with them tonight later, I meander over to the school to where the teachers are.

After lunch in the canteen, we assemble the students and march over to the challenge course. Now, I’ve done a lot of challenge courses in my years of summer camps and school outings, but I’ve never seen anything as intense as this. 7 obstacles have been created in the empty area behind some of the classrooms and these are your stereotypical challenges, but on steroids. The third challenge was by far the most intense – a 30 yard army mud crawl in the nastiest of mud ditches.

Team by team, the students began the challenge course. I laugh and cheer as I run from obstacle to obstacle screaming out every form of encouragement I could think of. After completing the mud crawl, many of the kids attempt to grab me and get me all muddy and I run away screaming. But after a few attempts, one of them finally catches me unaware, and gives me a big muddy hug. And from there, it was all over. Kid after kid would emerge from the mud and bear hug me, to shrieks of terror from the other teachers and shrieks of delight from the other students.

When another team of “my girls” finished the course, I jokingly join their military line and head off towards the dormitory with them, where I think we will be showering. But no… the course wasn’t over yet. One by one, the kids jump into the swamp that sits in the middle of the asrama and swim across to the other side. I have been told this swamp is home to the scorpions that invade my home – I am not enthused about jumping in the scorpion-infested swamp, but alas, in I go!

The girls go back to the dormitory to clean up and I return to the course to watch the other kids. I’m a tad less muddy now, after my swim, but it doesn’t last for long.

Finally, after 100 more bear hugs, and two more swims across the swamp I stumble back to my house, enter through the back gate, strip off my ruined clothes, creep through my house to the bak mandi (shower). My floor turns brown as I scrub myself clean and I pray that there is enough water in the water tank to get me clean again. Finally, I am better – certainly not clean, but no longer black. I make my way back to school where all the teachers laugh hysterically as they point to all the mud I didn’t see – my neck, the backs of my arms… (I don’t have a decent mirror in my house so I can never see what I look like). Ah well…

We eat dinner in the canteen and the students all begin to assemble around a massive pile of branches, which is soon to be our campfire. Darkness has set in but there are torches around the field and soon enough, the campfire is blazing. All 200 students or so are standing arm in arm in a gigantic circle – and I’m pleased to be invited to join them. We sing, chant, march, and dance before the circle dissolves and everyone gathers together to watch each team perform a song or dance.

It’s 9pm or so by this point, which is typically nearing my bedtime. But the night is far from over. The students are allowed to go back and rest in their tent for awhile and us teachers end up lying on the floor of the nurses room, where I promptly doze off.

At 11:30pm we all wake back up and the students assemble again. They are back in their scouting uniforms – girls in skirts and black mary jane shoes – I’m feeling bad for what they have to do next (they don’t know but I do…)

Team by team, they come to the front and the scout leader gives them their instructions. Exit the school, turn right, and continue walking until you find the first post. Off they march, single file, into the pitch black night (and I mean PITCH BLACK – there are no street lights on my rural road haha)

At 1am, after about half the teams have departed, I climb into the car with a few of the teachers and we set off. As we pass each team walking down the dark, empty road, I stick my head out the window and enthusiastically cheer them on. A few give a little wave, but most just nod and look straight ahead – military procedure. There are four posts spread between our school set on the outskirts of the city, and the city center – the bundaren besar or the big roundabout. The roundabout is 6km from our school and the students march into the night… completing physical and mental challenges at each post and walking and walking and walking. By 2:30am, most of the teams have arrived in the roundabout. They spread out in the grass, strip off their shoes and socks, and are told to meditate for awhile. I meanwhile, roll over and fall asleep on the concrete path. At 3:45am I am awakened by the sound of singing, I sit up and see that all 200 students are now sitting clumped together, holding candles, and singing. I’m exhausted but I can’t imagine what they are feeling right now.

When the song is over, the teams set off again, to walk the 6km back to school. Once they have all departed, I climb back into the teacher’s car and we drive back to school. We get home at 4:30am, and I deliriously roll out of the car and cozy back onto the floor of the nurse’s room where I instantly fall asleep.

At 5:45am I am awakened by the sound of music blasting out of the shittest speakers you’ve ever heard. I groan but sit up and walk outside to find the teachers already scurrying around. Pretty soon, the students are reassembled, looking haggard but amazingly cheerful, and we begin doing exercise aerobics. I’m of course told to join, so I jump into the line and crack up as 250 people do exercise aerobics at 6am after no sleep. I’m terrible at it but my kids are pros and that makes me laugh even harder 😀

Us teachers eat breakfast in the canteen again and then I excuse myself to go home and take a quick shower. I’m thankful I live at school and I can walk home in about three minutes. At 9am, the students assemble again and someone plays “Timber” by Ke$sha and in my half-dazed state, I begin to dance. The students are standing at attention in their perfectly straight, military lines and I am 20 yards in front of them dancing to Pitbull. Their exhausted faces break into smiles and then into giggles and pretty soon everyone is giggling at me and some are breaking their rank and dancing along with me.

But the music stops, and it’s time for the ceremony. The Scout Leaders bring in large buckets of brown water with some little flowers on top. They look disgusting and I ask what’s in it… “oh, just coffee grounds, flour, dirt, some spices, and… you know what” WHAT?! Yes… shit. This was shit water and it was about to be poured on my poor student’s heads as their induction into scouts (I would classify this as hazing but who am I to judge?)

I make it through about 20 minutes of the ceremony (and about 5 heads doused in shit water) before I almost tip over from exhaustion and decide that it’s time I call it a day (or two). I wave to a few teachers and sneak out… walking quickly across the field and back into my cold air-conditioned bedroom. It’s 10:00am and I am so, so ready to go to bed. I sleep until 4:30pm when I am awakened by hunger pangs. I haven’t eaten anything since 6am… I venture out for some food, and just as I settle in to my nasi goreng and tempe, the power goes out. Mati lampu… of course. I sit in the dark for a stifling four hours before the power finally returns at 10pm and I slip back into a deep sleep.

I made a short, cheesy video combining all the snapchats I took that day if you want a peek at what it was really like!

A Day in the Life: Military School

March 13, 2016 by Mackenzie

When I was maybe 13 years old, I used to love to play the SIMs computer game – you remember the one where you direct the Sim’s life and build them a house, get them a job, etc? Well, I remember how if you didn’t take care of the children, then they would be shipped off to “Military School”… Well, 10 years later, I’ve been shipped off to military school too 🙂

My military school happens to be in Indonesia and it’s not for “bad” kids. In fact, it’s a highly regarded school for those who want to go into the police or the military (or was… supposedly the school was a top notch school five years ago and it’s been on the decline since. But nevermind that now). My Fulbright year is encapsulated by my experiences here at this military school – and it’s high time I gave you a picture of what life here is really like… so, here’s another “Day in the Life” but military school style.

Welcome to SMAN 5 Palangkaraya

Tuesday:

3:38am – chanting and stomping. Hundreds of students pounding outside my house as they run in a circle and spiritedly sing the school song. This used to make me laugh really hard when I woke up to this every Tuesday and Thursday morning, now I just pray that it rains on Tuesday and Thursday nights so they don’t run and I can sleep peacefully. However, this has led to more 3:45am snapchat videos than I have ever taken in my life. Six months into boarding school life, they definitely still wake me up but I’ve gotten a lot better about falling back asleep through their chanting.

5:45am – chanting again. This time as they line up for breakfast and march into the dining hall. I wake up, and promptly roll over and fall back to sleep.

Marching to school after breakfast – Also note the shaved heads for the boys and the short hair on the girls. They all look identical and I had a hard time learning their names but I’ve gotten a lot better at it 😀

8:00am – After a (refreshing?) nine hours of sleep (which pathetically never satisfies anymore… I think the heat just kills me here…), it’s time to actually wake up. I don’t have school until 10:30 on Tuesdays so I get to relax a little on Tuesday mornings and check a few things off my to do list – lesson planning, skyping with family, sweeping the previous night’s cockroach carcasses out of my house…

Around 10:15am: I head the short distance through the asrama (dormitory) to the school. I call “selamat siang” to the security guard, “good morning” to the 10^th grade students sweeping outside their classrooms, and wave merrily to the students across the field who are desperately trying to get my attention.

I teach two classes on Tuesdays, both 10th grade. While I haven’t had the privilege of attending any classes of my fellow ETAs I know from their stories that military school makes my children seem like angels. If they aren’t in class by the time I walk in, I can lecture them once and it will never happen again. When I call for quiet, I get quiet. There’s no guitar playing, no side conversations, no disturbances (except for the one time a student had a 2 day old kitten hidden in her desk) – and I’m thankful to military discipline for that.

Unfortunately, military discipline hasn’t quite sunken in to my coteachers. They may or may not be at school when it’s time for class, and while we, as ETAs, aren’t supposed to enter the classroom without our coteachers, we would only have class once a month if I stuck to that rule…

The class periods are not nearly as regimented as I would like for military school. Classes are theoretically 90 minutes long, but who knows when the bell will ring to end class – it could ring 20 minutes into class and there goes your perfectly crafted 90-minute lesson plan… This happened to me twice last week. GRRR.

Starting off class with a fun game where they match US tourist destinations to the corresponding photos – to go along with our lesson on Descriptive Text and Tourist Destination

On this particular Tuesday, I start class, as usual, with a game, because after waking up at 3am my kids are pretty sleepy by 10am. If I can make them get out of their seats or make the game competitive, I know I can wake them up so they’ll be good to go for the rest of my class. Today we’re teaching about recount text and after the game, I pass out handouts with a short story of my own that I thought they would enjoy – titled Bule Falls in the Latrine. Their laughter when they receive their handout is better than any game I could have started the class with.

This game is running dictation – teams can only send one student up front at a time to read the text and then must memorize part of it and go back to their team to write it down.

1:30pm – After classes finish, the students march to the front of the school and line up in their rows, class by class. I walk back to the teachers lounge and usually watch the “announcement ceremony” until it’s finished and then follow the students as they march home. During these ceremonies, there are usually a number of announcements from the teachers and a lot of chanting and saluting. Occasionally however, there are punishments. Today, it is the 10^th grade. The other classes are dismissed, while two or three classes of the 10^th graders remain on the field. They all begin to stack their backpacks on the side and then the boys drop to the ground and start hammering out pushups. The girls go to one side and begin doing squats (in skirts! no thank you). This is military school style punishment. As I walk home behind the other classes, I chuckle, sneak a few pictures, and continue walking home. I have to awkwardly pass right next to the students and I give them a sympathetic smile and receive a cheery wave in return. These kids are awesome.

Two boys being punished by the teachers…

Everything is done military style… even their jogging during PE is done in perfect lines

The afternoon is filled with chores. Students (particularly the 10^th grade) do everything from refilling water gallons to sweeping the dirt. Here at military school we have a very strict hierarchy (much to my dismay), and the 10^th grade students are made to do every menial task – and also live in fear of the 11^th and 12^th grade students. The older students can enforce punishments on the younger ones – they can make them do pushups, squats, run, stand in a corner… What I most dislike, is the deference that the 10^th graders must give the 11^th and 12^th graders. If I have 10^th graders at my house studying with me or preparing for the WORDS competition, and a 11^th grade students comes over, then (despite my protests) the 10^th grade students will automatically leave and let the older students work with me. I find this ridiculous and wish that my house was a neutral zone where anyone felt comfortable working with anyone else inside… but in the six months that I’ve been here… I haven’t managed to break that hierarchy.

12th grade boys punishing the 10th grade boys in the asrama

5:50pm – Dinnertime is it’s own affair here at SMA 5. At 5:30pm or so, the 10^th grade boys start lining up outside their dormitory. They begin chanting at 5:40 when the 11^th grade boys begin to line up as well. (The 12^th grade can do whatever they want – it’s all about the hierarchy). My front porch looks right at the area where the boys congregate, while the girls’ dormitory is on the other side of my house, but they are doing the same routine. At 5:50pm they begin chanting and marching into the dining hall and I know it’s my cue to come as well. I run back into my kitchen, grab my fork and spoon, and head around the swamp. The boys are marching towards the dining hall and when they get there, they stop, resituate their lines, do some more chanting and do a fancy little military turn. It cracks me up every time. They head down the short hall, with me behind them, and grab a plate from the kitchen with a tiny piece of chicken on it and go back to one of the three dining rooms. One is for the 10^th grade, and the other two are for the 11^th and 12^th grades. I make my way back to RM1 (ruang makan satu = dining room one), scoop some rice onto my plate and join one of the tables of girls. Of course, the room is divided with boys occupying the tables to the right, and girls on the left.

We sit, turn to face the doorway and wait for the student leader to take his or her position. This student steps in front of the doorway and calls, “SIAP. BERDOA.” Ready, pray! And all heads bow in prayer. After about ten seconds, the students calls “BERDOA SELESAI. MAKANAN MULAI.” Prayer finished. Meal begins! The students give a little stomp of their feet and then we altogether call, “SELAMAT MAKAN!” (Happy eating? Not sure how to translate that.) Now, we are allowed to begin eating. But it’s rushed. We shovel food into our mouths in the general quiet (except for my table, where I always break the rules and make my table talk to me ~ teacher privileges) and about seven minutes after we began eating, the student leader makes a quick sweep of the tables and returns to their position. All forks and spoons are set down immediately and our backs are straight and upright in our chairs. The student leader calls “MAKANAN SELESAI. BERDOA MULAI.” Meal finished. Begin prayer. and we pray again. After another call from the leader, we all chant, “TERIMA KASIH!” Thank you (shouted to the ibus who cooked the meal sitting in the other room). Table by table, we get up, scoop the remaining food off our plate, stack the plates and cups in a large garbage bin, and wash our own spoons and forks in a bucket of soapy water. The students then march out of the dining hall and reform their lines, and after a few more chants and fancy turns, they march back to the dorm while I saunter home behind them.

9:00pm – Several times a week we have yet another “ceremony.” Sometimes it is separated by boys and girls, and sometimes the whole school gathers together. Oftentimes, this takes place about 20 yards from my house, and it is an hour’s long chanting, singing, marching, and stomping.(This is literally happening as I write this right now – it’s 9:01 on Sunday evening. Someone just “clanged” the flagpole and all the students are assembling and the chanting has begun again…) Occasionally however, it has happened literally at my doorstep – the dorm leader (a military soldier from the nearby base) lives in the house across from mine – and the students will all congregate between our two houses. This is not my preferred location as it feels like all 350 students are about to storm my house.

10pm – By ten o’clock the asrama is usually quiet. Unless of course, they are practicing for a scout competition and there are then 20 students chanting, singing, and playing instruments 20 yards from my house until midnight. But it’s the constant sound of students… of laughter, of singing, of chanting… that will be some of my strongest memories here. I am with my students 24/7 and while at times, it is exhausting, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

We even have a special military uniform. I think my kids look extra sharp in that uniform 😀

A Day in the Life: Field Trip

February 14, 2016 by Mackenzie

I want to give you more snapshots of my life. I think you might get a kick out of the things that are now biasa (normal) in my life, but quite entertaining for those watching from a distance (and let’s be real… for me too). I’m going to start a little series called, “A Day in the Life.” We’ll see if I can keep this up…

The particular day I’d like to share was this past Wednesday when I joined my school on a 22 hour field trip. Yes, 22 hours.

Let’s begin the story on Tuesday…

Somehow, despite not having class until 10:30am, I’m late to school. It’s 10:27 and I’m just leaving my house. What have I been doing all morning?! I even set my alarm early so I could go for a run! (Didn’t happen.) It’s a good thing I live about three minutes walking distance from school…

I walk through the asrama, say good morning to the security guard, and wave at the students outside their classrooms cheerily calling to me, “good morning, Miss!” I walk up the dirt path, pass the 12th grade classrooms, the administration office, and come upon the teachers lounge. Like usual, a group of teachers are sitting outside chatting away excitedly. Pak Elit calls out, “Selamat Pagi Miss! Apa Kabar?” “Grinning I call back, “Baik! Anda?” The other teachers all giggle excitedly as I say the most basic words ever in Bahasa. Then, Pak Elit says, “Miss, mau ikut ke Banjarmasin besok?” Me: “What? Umm… Tidak bisa!” (I’m not spending my precious vacation days on a trip to Banjarmasin with my school). Pak Elit: “But you have to!” Me: “Berapa hari?” Pak Elit: “One day!! Berangkat jam 5am dan kembali jam 24:00” Me (to myself): Good lord. “Oke! Bisa 😀 Saya mau ikut.” And ten teachers cheered.

And that’s how I was ambushed into a 22 hour field trip. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I love my students. I was excited to spend the day doing something different. But Banjarmasin is a solid four hours away. Probably five by bus and I quickly realized I had just agreed to a very, very, very long day.

Wednesday:

My alarm goes off at 4:15am. Ugh. Five more minutes, please? But alas, not knowing when exactly we will leave I best be ready by 4:30. I throw on my teacher batik, slacks, wash my face, brush my teeth, and am just grabbing my bag when my phone rings. It’s 4:35. Shit, am I late already?! It’s one of my students. “Mack, where are you?” “Um, at home. But I’m ready to go!” “Okay, I’ll come get you!”

We walk around the swamp and into the dining hall, each of us grabbing a plate of rice, and sit down with the other 49 students who are coming along on the trip. We sleepily walk through the school to the buses where we wait for about an hour before climbing on and setting off. I’m lucky enough (truly) to get to ride on the “girls” bus, with 24 female students and another female teacher. I’m thankful I’m not stuck on the teacher bus and subjected to five hours of questioning and dangdut music. We pull out at 5:50am and set off. The girls are bubbling with excitement. This 10th grade class “won” this trip by having the cleanest classroom in the “clean and decorate your classroom competition.” Someone pulls out a selfie stick and we take a million selfies. They pull out cell phones and snacks. I’m impressed… 10th grade students aren’t allowed to have smart phones at our school (only brick phones), yet all of a sudden, they all pull their Androids and Samsungs out… Slowly the bus quiets as the girls begin to drift off to sleep. I pop my headphones in and attempt to doze off to sleep but the road between Palangkaraya and Banjarmasin is not meant for sleeping. It’s pot-holed and uneven and narrow and windy. I’m tossed up and down in my seat and resort to staring out the window for four hours.

At 11am, we pull into Martapura, a tourist trap and city I have come to hate. It’s supposed to be the diamond capital of the world and there is a market full of gemstones and diamonds. It doesn’t feel authentic in the slightest and it’s hard for me to believe that these gems and diamonds are real. Plus it’s small, with really only one “famous” store and a dozens of others with shopkeepers trying to win your attention before you walk into the “main” diamond store. This is my third time here. The first time I bought a simple $20 gemstone ring. The second time I was here (three weeks ago on another day trip with a teacher), said teacher’s sister-in-law bought a Rp 34,000,000 diamond ring. That’s $2,500. WHAT? People here don’t have anywhere near that kind of money.

Now we are back. I wander through the market with my kids taking selfies, and watching them splurge on Rp 5,000 keychains ($0.30). I spend $4 on two pretty bracelets, one for me and one for my best friend back home (lookin’ at you Martha). An hour and a half, 14 Magnum ice cream bars, and 55 packets of rujak (some fermented fruit thing) later, we board the bus. We then wait for an hour or so because two of the students are missing and it takes someone ages to find them in the small market. Our wait for the boys means we don’t have time for lunch before we are supposed to visit another school.

At 1:30 we finally leave and head directly to the school. We pull in at 2:30, 30 minutes after we were supposed to be there, and climb up a massive set of stairs and enter the most glorious Aula (auditorium) I have ever seen in Indo. EVER. And I’ve been to a LOT of schools (see Fulbright’s recent Instagram post). It’s huge, it’s shiny, it’s clean, it’s fully air-conditioned, it has recessed ceiling lights. There are huge, cushy couches for the teachers to sit in. I’m in shock. We then hear a presentation about their school, hear lots of speeches, sing our school song, and after two hours, my poor students are ready to faint from hunger (their last meal was at 4:30 this morning… 12 hours ago). We take a zillion photographs. Their English teacher asks me, “Are you that bule teacher who taught at UNLAM this fall? Everyone is talking about you!” HA. Yes, that’s me.

Squeaky clean and SHINY!!!

We quickly tour their school and then board the bus. We pull into a big restaurant where a buffet is waiting for us. My kids stuff themselves to the point that the restaurant runs out of food and the last 15 students in line didn’t get any food. We wait for them to cook more food. We change out of our batiks and uniforms in the bus. The headmaster then informs the students that we no longer have time to visit the waterfall (the point of this field trip) so instead, we go to the mall.

I’ve been to this mall at least 20 times. Carlie and I would go here almost every day when we were in Banjarmasin during the evacuations. It’s a small mall (but ten times what Palangkaraya has) and is really a place I’d hoped never to go back to. But alas, here we are. The students disperse with strict instructions to be back on the bus in two hours time. I wander off with the teachers to a fancy coffee shop where we order $5 coffees (mahal sekali! very expensive!) and take another set of selfies with our selfie stick. We wander around the mall for a bit, take some more pictures, and then meet the students at the bus.

It’s now 8pm. We go back to the same restaurant and eat again. This time there is plenty of food. My students ask me endless questions about America, the WORDS competition (more in a later post), and about scholarships to study in America. This is what I love. Informal, fun, away-from-school conversations with my students. They are shy but trying hard. I use a little Bahasa. They giggle with glee. 447 pictures later we climb back aboard the bus. This time, two more teachers have joined us and I have therefore lost my double seat (and to begin with these are not spacious luxury bus seats – but built for tiny Indonesians). I now have the aisle seat in the front row next to another teacher. I know that no sleep will come. By the time we get gas and wait for the kids at the mosque, it’s 9:30pm. This is my bedtime. I only stay up past 10pm if I’m waiting for it to be late enough in the morning to talk to mom (15 hour time differences are HARD). Oh, and did I mention I have class at 6:30am tomorrow?

We head out of town. The bus driver doesn’t know where to go but seeing as I have made this drive only about 8 different times, I know the way… I direct him “left” “right” “straight” until we are back on the single lane road. The teachers are impressed. I laugh and point out the restaurants and places that Carlie and I went to while we lived here.

The bus is flying through the dark. The students all nod off to sleep but I’m trying to stay in my seat and not picture the image of a crashed bus in the dark in the middle of the jungle. We’re whipping around corners. We’re passing cars and trucks like no one’s business and barely making it back into our lane as an oncoming car zooms past. We’re driving in the middle of the road to avoid the pot holes in our lane. We go over so many bumps that my fingers are white from being clenched to the bar in front of me trying to stay in my seat. I try to close my eyes, try to fall asleep, but I keep being bounced up and down. Finally, I relax my hand on the bar, put my head back and close my eyes. And am subsequently thrown out of my seat when we hit a bump and literally fly into the air, arms flailing, and land on the floor of the bus. The teachers gasp and the bus driver grins. I scramble up and back into my seat. No more attempting to sleep.

Oh, and the floor of the bus is literally burning. It’s metal and the the engine must be underneath and its literally so hot it’s burning my feet through my shoes. I’m trying to move my feet to different places, stacking my shoes on top of each other, putting my feet on my bag – anything to relieve the burning. Five hours of this people. Five hours.

We ended up spending a total of 13 hours in the bus this day

I’m taking hourly snapchats just to pass the time. It’s so late now, that many of my state-side friends are awake and I text with people I haven’t talked to in months. At 2am we pull back into the school. I pick up my bag expecting to see holes burned into it but no, it’s just so hot I can’t even touch it. I stumble after the students back to the asrama. I dig out my keys, open my door, set my alarm for 5:45am, and crash into bed.

Jalan-Jalan

February 9, 2016 by Mackenzie

In December and January I was able to do a little jalan-jalan (travel) around Indonesia and Southeast Asia, and let me tell you – it was very much needed!

Due to the smoke, my school didn’t have a proper winter holiday – instead, we only got December 24 and 25 off and December 31 and January 1. Luckily, those lined up with weekends so I had two four-day weekends. I didn’t want to sit in an empty asrama (dorm) on Christmas, so I decided to join my friend and fellow ETA, Shalina, in Jogja for the Christmas break!

Jogja is… wow. I’m so very jealous of the ETAs who are placed there. Jogja is a bustling city in Java known for being the cultural heart of Indonesia.

Malioboro – the famous market street

Shalina and I spent our short vacation exploring all that Jogja has to offer – we went to the Keraton, or Sultan’s Palace:

We went to Taman Sari, the Water Castle:

The Palace of the Prince of Solo:

And of course… Borobudur and Prambanan. Borobudur is a 9th century Buddhist temple, and is the largest Buddhist temple in the world… it’s truly indescribable… but let me try. It’s enormous. There are nine levels that you can walk all the way around and each level has reliefs depicting Buddha’s life. In total, there are 2,672 relief panels, 504 buddha statues, and 72 stupas with buddhas sitting inside. It’s estimated that it took 75 YEARS to build. Imagine… an entire lifetime. And, most impressively of all (to me at least) is that they used no glue/cement/other binding material. It’s all interlocking stones. And it’s now lasted some 1300 years. Holy shit.

Parts of it are destroyed… note the headless Budha

Prambanan Temple is a 9th century Hindu temple and is again, one of the largest temples in the world.

The compound is composed of several large temples and you can climb up each one and see the statues to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Gah, it’s just so, so cool. And SO OLD.

I call this… “sassy mack”

Oh, and we also ate a bunch of Western food 😀 😀 This was our Christmas Eve dinner – new tradition I think! (also, omg my mouth is watering just looking at this!)

The pizza was at this adorable Italian restaurant with the prettiest patio. I was in love.

Okay, so after Jogja, I came home and had a very quiet New Year’s. I went down to the roundabout and joined in the festivities with a friend – but other than that, I spent almost the whole weekend at home. I was pretty bored so I decided to read Harry Potter – haven’t read that in years! I read book 1 on New Year’s Eve. Book 2 on New Year’s Day. And eventually finished all 7 books in the month of January. LOL. #junglelife

The third week of January, I headed off to Jakarta for our Mid-Year Enrichment Conference. I hadn’t seen most of my fellow ETAs since our orientation in September so it was a BLAST to be back together again. We all have so many hilarious stories and it’s so good to talk to other people who understand the cockroach struggles…

The group of ETAs and coteachers at the US Embassy Chief of Mission’s Residence

Our coteachers came along with us so we could do some teacher training all together – I chose to bring Tisia and we had a blast 😀 We even had matching dresses made…

The ACCESS coteachers who I worked with during the evacuations in Jakarta were helping out with the teacher training. It was SO wonderful to see them again and I was just a very, very happy girl that week.

We also put on a little show at the @America center in Jakarta. It was a pretty amusing show with each region contributing a 15 minute something… My group, the Kalimantan group, did a puppet show. Yep. It was awesome.

Then… I went home to Palangkaraya for about 16 hours and then jetted off to Thailand! My students had their semester exams so I was free to jalan-jalan. We only get a certain amount of international vacation days and domestic vacation days so I really wanted to use my international days while I had the chance. So… off to Thailand I went! I’ve been wanting to get my scuba diving certification for awhile now and decided this solo vacation would be the perfect time to do it!

I threw this trip together the day before I left for Jakarta. It involved three flights and a five hour ferry. When we finally pulled up to the dock to get on the ferry, my jaw dropped. This is what I saw:

I knew I was in for a great week.

There are several islands/destinations in Southern Thailand and I’m not sure how I randomly picked the most beautiful and remote island ever but when the boat docked (after a five hour ferry ride!) my jaw dropped for a second time that day. This is what I saw:

And sunset night #1

Most of my six days there were spent diving. The PADI course is several hour of classroom work/movies and then one confined water dive (pool) and four ocean water dives! Omg I was terrified at first. I almost quit. I was in a class with three other macho guys. Like army, not scared of anything guys. And then there’s me. The adventurous but never life-on-the-line adventurous kind of girl. But hey. I had to prove that girls can do this too. I am proud that I beat two of the guys in the 200 meter swim and while while I was terrified for parts of the diving – once I got over it, it was AWESOME. I 100% loved it. And now I’m a certified scuba diver!

(For anyone else who randomly wants to visit Koh Tao, Thailand and learn to dive – I can’t recommend Master Divers enough. Lemme know if you want more details…)

This trip is best told in photos so I’ll just share the rest of them… 😀

Oceanside brunch

Hiking

Stunning view of the island

The other view from the hike… WOW

Sunrise on the ferry home…

And then… I had to say goodbye to painted skies and endless oceans, and come home to Palangkaraya. Yup, think Flint’s water is bad??

Pure, Raw Heartbreak

January 12, 2016 by Mackenzie

Written January 7th:

I witnessed something tonight that I haven’t seen in a long, long time… pure, raw heartbreak. And not just that of one person, but 18 emotionally charged 16-year-old girls crying their eyes out at a loss that they cannot fathom.

Three days ago, we all learned of dramatic changes coming to SMAN5. While I don’t understand it all yet, what I do know for certain, is that my dear neighbors have been fired from their jobs as the dorm “parents” (and replaced by three unfriendly, uncaring, not-suited-to-be-dorm-mothers young women). It’s heartbreaking. For the students, for me, for the previous dorm parents… And right now, it’s hard to understand.

My students have been grappling with the news for a few days now. There has been a lot of whispering in my front room (the three new girls are living with me in my house until the previous families leave…), equal terror and anger, and tonight… pure, raw heartbreak.

I came out my front door this evening and saw a number of my girls at my neighbor’s house (the old dorm “mom”). They frantically called me over and when I saw 18 pairs of shoes outside the door I realized exactly what was going on. I stepped inside to see 19 tear streaked faces (Ibu Vera as well) and when they saw me, they all burst out crying again. I instantly reached for the girls closest to me and wrapped them in a huge hug. There were surprised… but then they collapsed into my arms. I held them for awhile while they sobbed, then moved on to the next pair… I eased over to the couch and one of the girls who I had had dinner with not an hour before, who had been so strong and positive, reached for me, pulled me into a huge hug and started sobbing into my shoulder. I looked at Ibu Vera with tears in my own eyes and saw exactly how much these girls meant to her. And she to them. And she was being unfairly wrenched from them and they from her. These girls are 16. Some of them live hundreds of miles from their parents. They are emotionally charged teenagers… and they need a mom. They need someone to talk to when their friends are mean to them. Then need someone to be their advocate to the administration. They need someone to care for them when they are sick… And now, they have none of that.

Girls sobbing and comforting each other during Ibu Vera and Ibu Riana’s last Night “Ceremony” (evening rollcall)

I, too, am heartbroken to be losing my neighbors. Ibu Riana, Ibu Vera, and Pak Jon – while not people I’ve conversed much with, as they only speak Bahasa – are still some of my favorite people here in Palangkaraya. They’re the people I live with. The faces I see when I sweep my front porch in the morning. The people I wave at as I head off to school. Ibu Vera and Ibu Riana are the mothers of my favorite little children. Ryan, Hardy, and Monique are 10, 6, and 2 and they are my shadows and my playmates. They come bursting into my house at all hours of the day, shouting, “Miss Kenzie! Miss Kenzie! Can we play Uno?” “What you doing Miss Kenzie?” “Can we play Miss Kenzie?” I love these kids. They are my constant companions and my everpresent friends. And I’m really not exaggerating in the slightest… I had told myself that after Christmas I needed to set some boundaries with them – they can’t just come bursting into my house all day. But today, on our first day back… they’re leaving. I won’t have them running past my house everyday. I won’t have them around to play Uno with every afternoon. I won’t have them around to teach me more Bahasa Indonesia and me to teach them English.

My neighbors are the people I counted on to stay here long past when I would be here… but instead, I’m the one standing on my front porch waving goodbye to them…

Ice cream outings with my buddy

Playing in the smoke…

Too cute for words

Digging the oleh oleh

Goodbye kiddos!! I’m gonna miss you! Xoxoxoxo

December is busy no matter where you are!

December 30, 2015 by Mackenzie

So I realize it’s been almost a month since I’ve last written. I’ve meant to blog so many times… but things have been all over the map here – the last month has held some of my lowest points in Indonesia (see Not Gonna Sugarcoat It), as well as some of my favorite memories. It also held a little bit of travel as I went to Jogja for Christmas. In addition to the travel and the emotional highs and lows, I’ve suddenly become extremely busy. I’m teaching, tutoring, being tutored, running English clubs, hosting informal hangouts with my students, and also trying to be an adult and keep my house clean, eat something besides instant noodles (haven’t achieved this yet), and exercise here and there. Oh, and internet is always a struggle so uploading pictures and posting a blog post is not nearly as easy as it sounds.

However, it’s Wednesday afternoon, December 30th and school finished early today for the holiday and I’m now nestled into a comfy booth in the corner of a cafe that I just found. With an avocado juice and free wifi, I’m a happy girl.

Which means, an update. So much has happened in the last month and I have no idea where to start…

I just posted today something that I wrote several weeks ago but never had the chance to post. It was my most difficult time yet in Indonesia and everything seemed to be going wrong. I didn’t have internet to post it then, and quickly afterwards things got better and I forgot about it. But today, I saw that unposted post and realized I should probably post it… it’s important to know this isn’t all sugarplums and fairies. So go read that first: Not Gonna Sugarcoat It and then come back and read this and see how things got better 😀

But back to the good… On December 1st, the Christian students and teachers and I all participated in a huge Christmas Parade through the streets of Palangkaraya. It was a blast. I drove over to it with one of the teachers and a bunch of the 10th grade girls. The 10th graders are by far the shyest with me but they loosened up pretty quickly 😀

With the 10th grade girls

Who knew Palangkaraya even had this many people?!

Trying to hi-five every little kid on the sidewalk 😀

I looked like an idiot sprinting through the streets but everyone loved it

On December 2 and 3rd the local tv station came to our school and filmed all of our extra-curriculars for two days. One after another, student groups performed traditional dances, showed off their pantomime skills, did martial arts, etc, and of course showed off their English skills! They filmed my English club – I led the students through a few games while the cameramen went from table to table filming the students and me. Afterwards, they wanted to interview me! I wasn’t nervous at all, but then everyone started telling me how big of a deal this was and then I got really nervous! ha!! But it went well and was super fun! Apparently this will air as an hour-long segment or something? I’m not sure but I’m excited to see whatever it turns out to be!

Microphones and everything!

The tv anchor on the left, me, my student, and the two English teachers

On the second day of filming, about 100 students did a traditional Dayak dance. Of course, they wanted me to participate so into the middle I went! It was hilarious and the tv cameras LOVED it. At one point they had the camera right in my face and I was so bad at the dance but it was hilarious anyways 😀

My school also apparently does the “penguin dance” on fridays so we had to highlight this for the tv station. I’d never done it before (they do it at 6am and I don’t have to come to school that early so I’ve never seen it.) But again, I was placed smack in the front and literally danced in circles with my hands at my sides like a penguin. It was the funniest five minutes…

Chilling with the teachers watching the kids perform

After the craziness of those few days, things settled down a little. I taught classses, began tutoring some girls for the TOEFL exam, started my Bahasa Indonesia tutoring sessions, and spent a lot of time hanging out with the kids. December meant a lot of snowflake making and tree decorating. They LOVED it! I showed a few girls how to make snowflakes and the next night, more girls came over and asked how to make them… for five nights in a row I had kids coming over to make snowflakes! It’s been so fun. And mom sent me a tree making kit – I snagged a few of the girls after dinner and together we made it! I can’t describe to you how cute and excited they were!

Mom sent a Christmas package – I was so, so happy 😀 I didn’t ask for any of it but it was everything I needed or could have wanted!

I also added some decorations to my house… this is my favorite.

The pancake parties have expanded. We now make pancakes and play UNO all the time. We even bought out Hypermart (~Target) of their pancake mix. So… I bought flour and sugar and we’ll try making some from scratch!

They’ve also taken me to the local swimming pool a few times… its so fun! But so many of the kids can’t swim!! They go anyways and I make sure to keep my eye on all of them to make sure no one is drowning! (Of course there are no lifeguards)

Then, the weekend before Christmas, we had a huge Christmas party at school. The students prepared for WEEKS! Which was irritating for me as a teacher, because they kept skipping class to prepare for the show. However, it was very fun (all six hours!) and we took tons of pictures, sang Christmas songs, and received presents. I got two more batik shirts from the school! I have so many now! Oh, and the teachers sang a song… in the traditional Dayak language. Of course, that meant I participated too. All the students were delighted when they saw me on stage singing in Bahasa Dayak!

The teachers practicing for our debut 😉

Tisia and I

On the 25th, I headed to Jogja for my short Christmas vacation! I have so much to share from that trip so I’ll save it for another post 😀 Which I promise is coming soon!

« Previous Page

Mackenzie

A Look Back