My absolutely adorable students

(Warning: This post contains a number of hilarious videos – mostly 10 second videos saved from snap chat. I highly recommend you turn your sound on and watch them…:P)

Part X:

Friday morning. The call to prayer sounds at 4:15am and I groan. I want to keep sleeping. I get up and use the restroom in the dark (the light in my bathroom doesn’t work), then I crawl back in bed. I drift off back to sleep.

I awake to the sound of the “La Bamba” song blasting through the loudspeakers. Say what?? I roll over, check my phone, and yes… it’s exactly 4:45am. They can’t seriously be playing “La Bamba” at 4 in the morning in the middle of the rainforest in Borneo. Usually, it’s pretty quiet until 5:30 when the chanting begins but today… not so much. I start laughing when I realize that yes, it’s actually La Bamba playing. I grab my phone and snap a video, trying to catch the audio… I open the front door and confirm again, that yes, it’s definitely La Bamba, it’s definitely 5am and still dark, and no, this is not a joke.

I stumble back to my room, still laughing, and realize that, even at 5am, Indonesia will never cease to surprise me.

I have absolutely no idea what is expected of me today and therefore, how I will fill this day. In America, I absolutely dreaded that feeling. I hated knowing others were doing fun or productive things and I was not. But here… while I would like to be doing fun or more productive things, I’m also okay with the fact that I’m not. I know I can always curl onto my bed and read for hours in the air conditioning – something I haven’t had the privilege or time to do in years.

I decide today would be a great day to do laundry. So I grab my soap, my clothes and my bucket and get to work. A while later, with my clothes at least wet if not very clean, Tisia texts me that she has class at 9am. Great! I have something to do today!

Around 8, I see students playing soccer on the field at the school. I’m sure there are other students watching, so I grab my bag and head off to join the fun. I round the corner and see girls playing volleyball and another twenty or so girls watching. They all say “hi” shyly and I ask if I can watch with them. They scoot over to make room for me and the brave ones begin to pepper me with questions. “How old are you?” “Where are you from?” “Do you have any siblings?”

I smile because I know I can turn this into an amusing conversation. “Yes! I have a brother named Spencer. He’s 19. Do you want to see a photo of him?” “Yes!” they shriek. So I scroll through my phone and find a photo of him. I pass my phone around and all at once they start shrieking, “AHHHH! HE’S SO HANDSOME!” All twenty of them 😛

I laugh and ask them, “do you want to send him a video?” They gasp. “Really?!” “Yes!!” So I open snap chat and say satu, dua, tiga and they begin saying, “hi spencer!” “you soooooo handsome” and I’m hysterically laughing. They ask if he has a girlfriend and I say, “yes, he does…” and all at once they all groan, “nooooooooo.” One of the girls clutches her heart and says “my heart!! It’s broken!!” I’m dying of laughter.

I ask if they want Oleh Oleh from America and I pass out pennies – they are so excited and I have students leaving the volleyball game to come get a penny from me! I ask if they’ll teach me Bahasa… I pull out my notebook and start asking how to say the colors of their clothes. Then I ask how to say head, and shoulders, and knees, and toes… and I say, okay! “Samua (everyone), get up, let’s play a game!” they jump up and I get them in a circle and I start singing and acting the song. They LOVE it and so I make them do it faster and faster. We’re giggling and sweating and causing a ruckus… but I know that they, and I, are having a fabulous time.

I finally decide I’ve had enough of school and decide to venture off campus for a walk. I know there’s a small foodmart down the road and that they have ice cream bars. Walking out of the school and down the road, I feel like an escaped prisoner… For one, I feel like I’m breaking some rule (I’m not by any means) by leaving. I haven’t left campus by myself yet and it feels wrong to do so. Plus, everyone rides motorbikes so it’s odd to see someone walking on the side of this busy, rural road. Add to that the fact that I’m one of two bule (literally albino) in this town of 200,000 (Carlie, the other ETA being the other), and I’m constantly stared at like I’m a ghost. I don’t hear many people yelling “bule, bule” at me, like we had been taught to expect, instead, it’s just the heads turning that make me uncomfortable. I’ve got to figure out a better means of transportation. My coteachers have promised me a bicycle and I’m hoping that when I return from Bandung in a few weeks, that there will be one ready and waiting for me. Otherwise, I’m seriously going to consider buying a motorbike.

The foodmart ends up being much farther away than I had anticipated to go on this hot and humid Friday afternoon, but the thought of ice cream propels me all the way and I’m very happy in the end that I went.

On Sunday, I head to Bandung for orientation. I can’t wait to see the other ETAs and swap stories. Our one-liners to each other in the facebook group have been a highlight of my week – its nice to know I’m not the only one with ants in my house and sitting around for much of the day. And, I’m extremely excited to stay in a nice hotel and have a real bathroom and speak English with my fellow Fulbrighters.