Keluarga Besar

December 2, 2015 by Mackenzie

On our Christmas Parade banner, that we marched through the city streets in the annual Palangkaraya Christmas Parade, were the words, “Keluarga Besar – SMAN 5 Palangkaraya.” And I couldn’t agree more. This school is so special because we are one big family. And let me just tell you, it feels so good to be home and welcomed back into this big family.

After three months of hotel rooms in five different cities, I couldn’t be happier to be back in my mosquito/ant/cockroach/spider/SCORPION-infested house in Palangkaraya. Truly.

But actually… so happy to be back and to see clear sky!

Yeah, my legs are covered in mosquito bites… and yeah, I chased a big-ass spider through my house the other day, finally cornering it in the bathroom and spraying it to death, and YEAH, I came home to a huge scorpion in a corner of the room and went SPRINTING out of my house and straight to the boys’ dorm where I begged them to come rescue me (which they did – and now it’s the story of the dorm… “miss, how big was the scorpion?!” “Miss, the boys said you were so scared!”) – but, despite all my new roommates, it feels unbelievably good to unpack my clothes, move into my house, and finally meet my students.

Had to save this snapchat… This was at the height of the mosquitos versus Mack saga… Mack is currently winning

Mr Scorpion – just before he met his death at the hands of my students

Some of my wonderful students helped me clean my house after being gone for two months!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And let me just tell you, the students are absolutely the best part about being home. SMAN5 is a boarding school, so all the students live in dorms in the asrama (dorm area) and my house is right in the middle of it all 😀 It’s an incredibly unique experience for me to get to live here with them, to be apart of their lives 24/7 (quite literally – see below) and get to know them on a more personal level, something that would be impossible in the classroom when I have 200-some students.

10th graders Natalia, Meina, and Atika after shyly dropping by to hang out one night

Tisia’s homeroom class is XI-2, which means it’s essentially my homeroom class too. Irsa, Yumela, and Ella.

Ibu Ferra’s son Hardy. We hang out ALL THE TIME <3

My house is nestled next to the houses of two families – Pak Jon and his family and Ibu Ferra and her family. Pak Jon is like the dorm dad and Ibu Ferra is like the dorm mom. Which makes me the dorm big sister?? Really, I feel like some combination of a big sister, super cool RA, camp counselor, and celebrity… Which, I’ll be honest, is exhausting at times, but oh so worth it 😀 The other part I love about these students, and what truly makes it feel like family, is how they all call each other brother and sister. “My brother over there…” or “My sisters…” – at first, I thought everyone was somehow related but have since learned that they all just truly see themselves as one keluarga besar (big family)… and I love it.

And while they are one big, happy family, there is also a very distinct hierarchy between the 10 graders and the 11th and 12th graders. The 10th graders are extremely shy, have extra strict rules, and do the majority of the cleaning and chores. They are always the first ones called when something needs to be fixed or cleaned up. And they have to show deference to the older students by ducking their heads when passing by the older students. The younger students have shorter haircuts and stricter dress codes. They can’t have smartphones and can’t play sports with the older students. They eat in a separate dining room and must eat silently (which is a problem when I eat dinner with them and cause disruptions trying to talk to the girls at my table – ooops). When 11th and 12th graders have free time, the 10th graders are generally sweeping or cleaning up the asrama. The 11th and 12th graders were exposed to the ETA last year, Emily, and so they already feel more comfortable speaking to a native speaker like me. The 10th graders however, are generally terrified of me. We are very slowly overcoming this 🙂 In class, I’m trying extremely hard to learn all my students’ names. I see other teachers calling the students, “boy!” or “Girl!” and honestly, I find that pretty rude. I believe that one way I can give back to these students for welcoming me and taking care of me is at the very least learning their names. While you might think this a simple task, it becomes a little more difficult when you count up nine classes x 25-30 students (225 or so total – and then there are another 100 12th graders no less) and then consider the fact that this is a military school and ALL THE STUDENTS HAVE THE SAME HAIRCUT. I cannot tell you how difficult this is. But I’m trying. Really hard. I made charts of where everyone sits in the classroom and I continually ask the student’s their names. At this point (only a week’s worth of effort), I’ve got probably 50 or so students down… and a long way to go.

After the students finish classes, they generally have at least some portion of the afternoon and evening free to do homework and play soccer or hang out. In small groups, the students have discovered that my door is open to them (literally) and since I’ve been back, they’ve begun visiting me more and more frequently. Following what I see from my neighbors (Pak Jon and Ibu Ferra), I generally keep my door open whenever I’m home. I’ve told the students that if my door is open, they are more than welcome to stop by and say hi, hang out, practice English, work on their homework… and they do!! Some happen to be walking by and see me sitting outside and will wave and maybe stop to talk for a bit, others will shyly ask if I’m busy and whether they can look at the pictures on my walls, some bring me snacks, others bring their homework. It’s absolutely adorable. Some have better English than others… a few of the girls will ask for my phone and type things in to the translator… this one made my heart burst!

<3 <3 <3

Bananagrams on my porch with 12th graders Anggun, Lisa, and Simon

When it rains, it POURS. And turns the field into a lake…

As this is a military style boarding school, the students are much more rigorously scheduled than most 15 year olds. They wake up at 4am and go running – chanting all along the way. This past week, they were up and chanting by 3:30am. WHAT?! As my house is literally next to where they line up and chant, the students have become my alarm clock. I obviously don’t get up at 3:30 with them (although they have asked if I want to go running with them – I declined for now) but I definitely wake up every morning at 3:30 and lay there until they run out of the asrama – although a few times a week, they actually run in circles around the swamp in the middle of the asrama, and my house is right next to the path. Clomp, clomp, clomp… chant, chant, chant… Lol. What is my life?

I usually fall back asleep until they begin chanting again at 5:45am as they line up for breakfast. Then maybe around 6:00am I stumble out of bed as they march off to the classrooms. Classes are from 6:30-3:30, although the school district added two (I think) hours of class a day for a few weeks to make up for the seven lost weeks of class due to the smoke. During those few weeks, the students had class from 6:30am-5pm – with only a short break for lunch. Can you imagine that??!! 11 hours? WHAT?! But thankfully, we’re done with that now.

I teach the entire 10th and 11th grade – nine classes total. My classes are in the morning, ranging from 6:30am-1:00pm. I may run in the morning and then I will head to school a little before my first class, stop by the teacher’s lounge to say good morning and meet Tisia or Bu Juniar and then we’ll head to class. Classes are a blast and definitely the highlight of my day – I’ll share more in a later post. After class, I’ll either get lunch with some of the teachers, go to the small canteen/food stand across from the school or wait until 2pm when the students have lunch. After lunch, the students go back to class and I head home. I usually take a nap or chill in my AC bedroom – cooling down after the horribly hot, sticky morning. When the students finish around 3:30, I like to go sit outside on my porch and read and watch the boys play soccer. This is when a lot of the students walk by and I like to be outside to make my presence more comfortable for them. Plus, I want to hang out with them!

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Miss Mackenzie in her element! (And wearing a traditional sasirangan from Banjarmasin)

One of my 10th grade classes working in groups on an assignment

Miss Mackenzie is quite the distraction… particularly when she walks by the 10th grade PE class (and here I’m wearing a batik dress with a Bandung motif – I had a number of dresses, shirts, and skirts made with the material I’ve bought from different cities!)

Lunch at my favorite restaurant with some of the administration (Ibu Lusni on the right – I can’t remember the Pak on the left, oops)

Nasi pecel <3 <3 rice, spinach, chicken, and tempe smothered in peanut sauce... my favorite dish

Nasi pecel – my favorite Indonesian dish. Rice, sauteed (I think?) spinach and tempe smothered in peanut sauce, and topped with peanuty crackers. YUM

At 5:45pm they line up for dinner and I follow them over. I usually have a number of tables of students offering for me to eat with them. I jump around between the different buildings – some meals with the 10th graders, some with 11th or 12th graders in building 1, other nights with 11th or 12th graders in building 2… Whoever wants me, gets me… and I love it. After dinner, I leave my door open and some nights students will come over and bring their homework or just stay to chat. By 8:30pm, my door is closed and I’m getting ready for bed! I’ll read or chill until about 10 and then I’m sound asleep!

Dinner time in the 10th grade dining hall!

This was lunch in the dorm one day… a fish head. See his eye??

This was a lucky meal because we actually had vegetables with our mostly-bone meat…

A very typical meal in the dorms. Some kind of meat, a piece of eggplant, and a lot of rice

Spontaneous English Club last night... in my house :D I love that my house is big enough to do this!

Spontaneous English Club last night… in my house 😀 I love that my house is big enough to do this!

My sweet, sweet girls Saskia, Irsa, Dian, and Erline. I spend a lot of time with these 4 <3

This has become my routine in the last two weeks that I’ve been at school. It’s a wonderfully slow, comfortable pace. I’m reading more books then I’ve read in years (thanks to everyone who sent me recommendations! I’m working my way through them!! So far I’ve read: The Midwife’s Revolt, Ashley’s War, Station Eleven, Missoula, The Goldfinch, If You Follow Me, and Between the World and Me). I’m napping when I need to nap. I’m going for runs. I’m spending a lot of time with 15 year olds talking about crushes, dreams about going abroad, college scholarships… we make pancakes on Sundays and I went to the stadium to watch the boys play soccer one Saturday. I think we’re even having a sleepover at my house this weekend. Life is pretty perfect.

Pancake parties – 11th graders Dian and Irsa

I am anxious to get a motorcycle so I can finally leave school on my own. Right now, I’m confined to the school campus unless I go on a run or a walk. But there is nothing but tiny warungs (food stalls) within walking distance and I feel very cooped up. Hopefully that will change soon and then I can go to the store on my own, visit Carlie, go to the market, go to the coffee shop (and free wifi! yeah!), expand my meal options, and escape when it’s mati lampu (blackout) – which as I’m writing the very end of this right now, the power just turned off and we have been plunged into darkness. All of the students are at dinner (I skipped because I’m not hungry for more rice) and the yell from 300 students suddenly plunged into darkness was quite funny. But, besides the mati lampu, the scorpions, the never-ending rice, and the lack of transportation… I’m pretty darn content.

Oh! And I finally got my KITAS. So I’m actually legal now. Party on…

Tisia (my counterpart and the 11th grade English teacher) and Bu Juniar (the 10th grade English teacher). I spend most of my time at school with these lovely ladies.

Two weeks in Banjarmasin

November 15, 2015 by Mackenzie

Because I’m continually behind in everything… I wrote this post two weeks ago but forgot to post it! This is long overdue but here it is, nevertheless!

With the start to the grant that I’ve had so far, why would I ever expect things to stay the same?

The two weeks in Banjarmasin were wonderful. Yes, rocky, disorganized and frustrating at times. I’ve been thrown into situations and classrooms where I had no idea what was going on and flew by the seat of my pants… But ultimately, we became comfortable with our classes, were meeting wonderful students, and felt like we were finally settling in to a community.

And then… it all changed. Again. Although it is raining a little in Pky, and the air quality is starting to get better, AMINEF does not want to send us back until the air quality is GOOD. Like, actually good. And that could take awhile. Even two weeks after leaving Pky, I’m still feeling the effects of the smoke in my lungs and occasionally having difficulty breathing normally. AMINEF is aware of all of that – I’ve been to the hospital three times at their request – and they decided that it’s time to get us off of Kalimantan and into a place with good, clean air, a stable co-teaching situation, and some familiar faces 🙂

The Banjarmasin pulmonologist…

Thus, I’m taking a quick leave to Jakarta to see a pulmonologist and then, on Sunday, I’m headed to Manado! Manado is in North Sulawesi, about as far from Jakarta as you can get and still be in Indonesia. It’s essentially in the Philippines. Two of my favorite ETAs are placed in Manado, Sam and Shalina, and I absolutely cannot wait to see them and to be able to spend a few weeks (I think?) with them. Manado is famous for beautiful beaches and incredible diving – while I’m not sure diving is in my future considering the state of my lungs, I’m still pretty pumped to see the ocean!

Our dear coteachers in Banjarmasin! Ibu Elvina and Ibu Novita

Jenn Uhler, director of the Regional English Language Office (RELO) of the US Embassy dropped into Banjarmasin for a visit

While I’m truly disappointed to be leaving my students in Banjarmasin so soon, especially after promising all of them we would be here for a few more weeks and had made plans to hang out with them and have them show us around the city, I’m ecstatic for this next chapter in my Fulbright journey. While Carlie and I are great, great friends and have had so much fun together over the last few weeks, we’ve also been together 24/7, quite literally – in the same hotel room – for 2 months. That’s a long time. I think it will be really, really good for both of us to see some other ETAs, get a chance to regroup and mentally refresh, and become independent of each other. When I said goodbye to her this morning, I felt like I was leaving half of me at the hotel! Weaving through the airport, I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure she was behind me… it’s weird to be separated!

Our favorite students took us to lunch!

And the next day they dropped by our hotel to bring us traditional Banjarmasin treats!

A tearful goodbye!

And saying goodbye to the hotel staff… We’d stayed there for 23 nights!

I’m also relieved to finally be headed to clean air. While Banjarmasin was much, much better than Pky, I was still having breathing problems on the days when it was just a little smoky. My cough would return immediately, my throat would feel like its closing up, and my lungs felt constricted and like I couldn’t get enough air. It got better for a few days and I thought I was fine and then the smoke came back and the health issues came back with it. Ugh.

So now, I’m in Jakarta looking up the directions to the hospital tomorrow, making plans with friends here, and then repacking my bags to head to Manado on Sunday!

I had a full and wonderful day in Jakarta yesterday! It couldn’t have been a more perfect 48 hours. Well, except for the doctor diagnosing me with a respiratory infection and bronchitis.

This actually looked like a real hospital…

I checked in to the hospital yesterday to meet with a new pulmonologist. Thankfully she spoke English so this time was a lot easier. She looked at my CT scan from Banjarmasin and said immediately, “you have a respiratory infection!” Why did the first doctor not see this??!! Ha! I’ve never realized how important it is to get a second opinion! Then, after I told her I’ve been living in Palangkaraya, she was like, “OMG. You’re definitely not okay.” Great…

She listened to my lungs and said they aren’t clear and that my bronchial tubes are swollen (?) and all of that is making it hard to breathe. She diagnosed with me a respiratory infection and bronchitis. I’m now on antibiotics, have two inhalers, and a new cough medicine. Good god. She’s very happy that I’m going to Manado and to clean air and said I must stay for two weeks, darn 😉 Then, she wants to see me again in two weeks and she’ll do a few tests to determine if/when I can return to Palangkaraya. I’m crossing my fingers that it continues to rain and when I come back in two weeks I’ll be fully recovered and able to return to Palangkaraya.

After the hospital, I jumped in a taxi and raced off to my friend’s wedding! Puspa was one of the coteachers I taught with at the Access Program here in Jakarta a few weeks ago, and it just so happened that she got married yesterday! It was perfect timing and I was able to attend!! It was SO wonderful to see her and all my other friends there. I’ve been to one traditional Dayak wedding in Pky but this traditional Javanese wedding was far more extravagant. There were hundreds of people (at least that’s what it felt like!) and big, beautiful decorations. Puspa and her husband, Andy stood on the stage the whole time and greeted every guest – there was a constant line of guests and each person went up to greet them briefly. Weddings here are so different… The bride and groom stay up on the stage the whole time and after the guests greet them, the guests are free to eat and mingle and then leave. The whole thing can be a very short affair (for the guests!)!

After chatting with Gita and Arey (my other coteachers) for awhile, I jumped in line to see Puspa! She was so, so happy to see me and I couldn’t have been happier to see her too! She looked beautiful! We took a bunch of pictures and then I chatted with Gita, Arey and some of their friends for awhile before taking an uber back to the city with Arey and her friends. It was so, so good to see them all. I can’t tell you how much I needed that. Even though I only met them three weeks ago, we spent a lot of time together that week and we are so close in age that these girls have immediately become my close friends here. After all this chaos and transition, it filled my heart to see these friends again!

Puspa, Arey and I

Once I got back, I texted Frida and met her too! Again, she’s a dear friend (whom I met when I was in Jakarta two years ago) and it was so, so good to see her. She is my age and still works for Standard Chartered. I saw her when I was here three weeks ago too and then yesterday we spent several hours catching up over coffee and bingsu, and then wandering the mall. She’s wonderful and such a good friend! I love knowing that I can drop into Jakarta and immediately have all these friends to find!

Frida, me and our bingsu 😛

From there, Frida helped me navigate a few pharmacies to find the inhalers I needed (never found one of them – it was so strong that none of the pharmacies even had it!). Then, I went to Odi and Chesna’s house! I’m telling you, it was a busy day!!! Odi was having some friends over and invited me to join. I had met some of these friends a few weeks ago when we all went to a club one night… this was a much easier place to hang out and get to know each other though!! Odi (and the rest of us!) made siomay, steak, potatoes, a salad (!!!!!!), and pasta… WESTERN FOOD. I’m telling you, it was awesome. And great to again be in the company of friends my age! And all of them had studied in America so I definitely felt at home with them 😀

I left them around 10 as I had an early flight to catch the next morning. I got home and crashed after my busy day!!

Because I never got around to sharing these photos – here’s a whole assortment from my two weeks in Banjarmasin at Universitas Lambung Mankurat!

Speed dating on the tennis court because they couldn’t find an empty classroom for us

Carlie and her half of the class on one side of the tennis court

When you scroll through instagram that evening and see this <3

With Banjarmasin Access students learning about the Constitution - ugh

With Banjarmasin Access students learning about the Constitution – definitely not the most exciting subject!

Playing telephone tongue twister – BEST ESL GAME EVER

With some of the UNLAM English Department students

Banjarmasin Access girls

A mere 63 students in class today

The waiter at our restaurant dropped me this… lol

Banjarmasin Access Graduation Day!

REAL ITALIAN PIZZA!

SO MANY SELFIES…

So much fun with these students!

Bule Jatuh di Jamban

November 6, 2015 by Mackenzie

Bule Falls in the Latrine ~ title coined by my fabulous counterpart, Tisia

Once upon a time, there was a bule (foreigner) on an adventure in Indonesia. Some friends invited her on a wisata (excursion) and she happily accepted the invitation. As usual, she had no idea what the day would hold but when they parked the car and walked towards the river she excitedly realized they would be taking a river cruise.

She eagerly got on the kelotok (traditional boat) and settled in. Minutes later, her host asked if she could swim. “Yes…?” she responded. “Mau di atas?” (Do you want to go on top?) they asked. “YES!” and to their surprise she jumped up and crawled to the front of the boat where she quickly hopped up onto the roof. It’s quite common to see Indonesians sitting on top of the boat but her hosts were quite surprised at her eagerness to risk falling in the shit-filled waters in order to sit on the roof.

For an hour, up and then back down the river, she soaked in the sunshine, gulped in the fresh air, and shrieked when someone moved too much below and the boat began to tip violently. Before returning to the dock, her hosts wanted to stop at their extended family’s house and so they steered the boat towards a spot on the riverbank. Like most houses, this one had a rickety bridge over the water that led to a latrine, which emptied right into the river, hence the shit-filled water.

One by one, the hosts crawled to the front of the boat, climbed up the ladder onto the bridge, passed by the latrine, and then crossed over onto the land. The bule waited for last, in order to safely jump off the roof onto the deck of the boat. Her hosts helped her climb up the ladder and then they all proceeded to cross the short distance across the bridge. When climbing up the ladder, the bule had handed her tas (bag) to the host’s daughter and once safely on the bridge, everyone laughed with relief that the bule had successfully ridden Indonesian style on the kelotok. The bule took one step towards land and the girl with her tas, and then, with a splintering crack of rotted wood, her left leg plunged straight through the bridge and suddenly, she was dangling over the shit water, one leg on the bridge, and the left half of her body, up to her waist, dangling inches above the water.

The women screamed, the men yelled, and the bule started laughing. She was hauled up and out, and carefully directed across the rest of the bridge and onto dry land. Her heart was pounding but she was laughing at her luck – she made it off the roof of the boat but the damn bridge still had to have its say.

That hole was not there previously…

Terrified to cross back over

Obviously I am the bule in this story. I now have substantial battle wounds to prove it. From the land I was escorted into the house where, despite my protests that I was fine (I wasn’t, my leg was throbbing), the women hiked up my skirt and examined my leg. At first, it didn’t look that bad. A few scratches, some redness. To be expected. The women brought out some oils and one began to rub them into my leg. I then proceeded to insist that I was fine, it was just a little scrape (in fact it was throbbing terribly but I wasn’t going to admit that).

After a short rest, we took a jalan-jalan (journey) behind the house and into the orange garden beyond. Unfortunately, my evil spirit wasn’t done with me for the day – the window shutter was propped open and me, being the tallest in the group and not paying attention, ran smack into the wooden shutter. Yes. I have now embarrassed myself beyond words.

After an exceptionally long, but fun journey to the orange garden, to a jelly fruit stand, carefully across the bridge and onto the boat, back down the river, to a museum, to lunch, to a 500 year old King’s tomb, to another museum, to my hosts house, and then finally back to my hotel bed, I was finally able to examine my leg. It is ugly. It is swollen. It is purple. And I can’t stop laughing.

Orange garden

Shaved ice thing? No, those aren’t worms….

500 year old tomb

She is a masseuse and therefore everyone decided the best course of action was for her to massage my throbbing and terribly swollen leg. PAINFUL does not even come close to describing it.

Lovely progression of shades of red, purple, and yellow…

I learned two new Indonesian words that day: jatuh and jamban. Fall and latrine. Yes, the Bule jatuh di jamban.

SMOKE (And Evacuation Round 3) Part XXIII

October 17, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part XXIII:

This last week in Palangka Raya felt so right. I was living in my own house, teaching my own students, eating lunch at warungs in my own city, and struggling with internet, as usual in the middle of Kalimantan.

I jumped right in to teaching classes on Monday. Grade 11 was learning “Hopes and wishes” and grade 10 was on “Congratulations.” Although I hadn’t lesson planned with Bu Juniar or Bu Tisia, we were able to talk briefly before the class and divided it up so I could do the pronunciation and speaking activities. My students are just so, so sweet. They are very shy and nervous to be talking to me – but I tried hard to encourage everyone to speak loudly and clearly and when they were working in pairs I made a point to go check in with every pair to ask what their topic was and how they were doing on the task. Most were terrified to talk to me at first but after a lot of high-fives and “that’s perfect!” they seemed to feel more comfortable with me in the classroom. We’ve got work to do but it was a good start 🙂

Much of my week was spent at imigrasi. Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning, Tuesday afternoon, Thursday afternoon… But, on Thursday I picked up my passport and am now legal for another month! Woohoo! We also finally received the remaining document for the visa conversion so when I picked up my passport, we resubmitted everything right then and there to convert my visa from a 60 (now 90) day visa to a limited stay work visa. Hopefully, in a few weeks I’ll be good to go!

Wednesday was a holiday for the start of the Islamic New Year so some of my crew took me on an excursion! Bukit batu (Stone hill) is about 90 minutes north and is this national park-esque area with these massive rocks that you can climb and explore. It’s supposedly a very mystical place – with certain rocks giving you good luck, certain rocks driving away spirits, the water making you younger… at least, this is according to wikipedia. My crew doesn’t speak English and my Bahasa isn’t nearly advanced enough to be learning the history of mystical places. Despite the language barrier, we had a blast! Carlie and her counterpart, Bu Halimah (who does speak English so that helped quite a bit) came with us and we had a wonderful day exploring some of what Kalimantan has to offer 😉 Unfortunately, the smoke came back with a vengeance that day so the views weren’t quite as cool as they should have been. Bukit batu itself wasn’t too smokey, but the drive was pretty frightening…

I hate you smoke

photos at the mosque

Bu anny <3

its getting worse

Bukit batu!

Reminds me of the City Museum – a playground for adults 😀

“Miss! Can we take a picture with you?”

Bu Anny, me, Carlie, Bu Lusni, and Bu Halimah

Bu Lusni and I climbed the biggest one 😀

Doing some ritual with magic water to make myself more beautiful?

Just flames on the side of the road

Bukit karmel – a Christian meditation spot (I think?)

Would have been a cool view…

My gang <3

I’m getting so tired of wearing my glasses. I hate wearing my glasses. But the smoke is so bad that it’s impossible to wear my contacts without them clouding up and burning my eyes. But…this was a super fun adventure. I was so happy to be able to spend the day with my gang and to have Carlie and Bu Halimah come along with us. I can’t wait for more days like this.

Unfortunately, on Thursday the smoke continued to get worse. I taught two classes with Tisia and then we went off to imigrasi again. That evening, after dinner with my students, I realized I was really starting to feel the effects of the smoke. All day my throat had been feeling worse and worse, I felt like I had a really bad sore throat – except, I didn’t. It hurt from inhaling all the smoke 🙁 I was coughing some and although I allowed myself to just chill in my AC bedroom all night, I was coughing, my voice was hoarse and I definitely couldn’t breathe normally.

We’d been keeping aminef updated throughout the week and they knew we had finally received our visa extension. Rizqi had told us they’d been discussing our situation and would make a decision on what to do with us the next day. But although I had initially told Rizqi that part of me really wanted to stay to be able to continue teaching and settle in to my school, I realized that was pretty stupid as I was beginning to really feel the affects of the smoke. So… I texted Astrid, the head of our program and in a much longer message, essentially said, I can’t last here. 🙁 She called me soon after and we discussed our options. She decided that regardless of our long-term plan, which may need approval from Pak Allen (the exec. dir), we needed to leave first thing the next morning. An hour later (this was around 9pm…), the plan was in place – they’d check the air quality in Banjarmasin early the next morning and if it was okay, we’d go there in the morning. If it wasn’t… well, we’d discuss that in the morning.

I woke up Friday morning to a text from Carlie saying “OMG IT’S SO BAD TODAY!” I peeked out my window and literally gasped. This is what I saw:

Yeah. TERRIFYING. I began packing, despising every moment that I had to walk out of my AC bedroom and choke on all the smoke. A little while later Astrid said we’d be leaving at 11am for Banjarmasin and to let all my people know. I texted the headmaster, bu lusni, and Tisia and then quickly tried to finish packing, expecting one of them to be knocking on my door shortly… And in typical, wonderful Bu Lusni fashion, she and Bu Anny pulled up on their motobike a little bit later around 9. Neither of them speak English so laughing and smiling, we stumbled through some talk of the weather and my departure and then they told me we were going to eat. I snagged my N95 mask and jumped on the back of the neighbor’s bike and we rode the short distance to school.

Can you see the 400 students standing outside?!?!?!?!

For comparison purposes, this photo was taken my first week in Palangkaraya in August… same spot as the photo above. WHAT?!

So yeah, it’s just a little hazardous. At school, all 400 students were standing outside. OUTSIDE?! WHAT?! I learn later that the headmaster was announcing that school is closed until Monday (today is Friday, and yeah, we have school on Saturdays) because of the smoke. Seems a tad ironic that they are making this announcement OUTSIDE.

I climb in Bu Lusni’s car and we drive to her favorite (and mine!) nasi kuning warung (yellow rice with chicken and idk what else. It’s a very typical Indonesian breakfast). As it’s a warung, we eat outside and I try and only take small breaths in between bites. I have only two thoughts in my head: my bu’s are so sweet and I love them and aminef would be less than thrilled if they knew I was outside eating a meal in this…

View from the warung where we are sitting

I finish eating and put my mask back on. Bu Lusni walks me across the street to the Indomart and stocks me and Carlie up with snacks for the drive. Um, LOVE. Ps – most of the last hour has been silence and gestures. My Indonesian only gets me so far so I just continually say “makasih bu!” and give her side hugs.

We drive back to school and find the driver already there and ready to take me away (it’s 10am, he’s supposed to come at 11). I’m ready but I don’t know where Carlie is. She had gotten sick last night, either from bad food or the smoke, and when aminef learned that this morning, they asked her to go immediately to a doctor before we left. While I’m texting her and trying to figure out where she is, the whole administration crew rolls outside to see me off. The headmaster, Wanlo the security guy, Fajar, Bu Lusni’s assistant, and of course bu lusni and bu anny. After getting a hold of Carlie, I say goodbye to all of them, we load up my stuff and off we go…

We find Carlie at her house, say goodbye to her crew and head out of the city again. I’ve never seen anything like this. (Oh, and none of these photos are edited or have any filters. This is straight up what it looks like)

Again for comparison purposes, this was driving out of town a month ago, when we left on our first evacuation. And we thought that was bad…

The drive between Pky and Banjar was even worse. We literally sat in shock staring out the windows… The drive takes us through some of the worst of the fires – you can literally see flames for much of the drive.

Again for comparison purposes. The second photo was from our drive back to pky on September 28th. It's the exact same stretch of road as the previous picture. The government is trying to build canals to get more water here, hence the excavator. I have no idea if the excavator was still there - you couldn't see that far

Again for comparison purposes. This photo was from our drive back to pky on September 28th. It’s the exact same stretch of road as the previous picture. The government is trying to build canals to get more water here, hence the excavator. I have no idea if the excavator was still there – you couldn’t see that far

So yeah, terrifying. And tragic. And just plain unbelievable.

When we get to Banjarmasin, we are happy to be out of Palangkaraya but can tell immediately that the air isn’t as clear as it was the last two times we were evacuated to here. Usually, about two hours out of Pky, the air begins to clear substantially and then by Banjar, it’s totally clear. But this time, it was still very smokey until an hour outside banjar, and then even just outside the city you didn’t have full visibility… GRRRRRR.

Once here, we’d promised aminef and Carlie’s mom that we would both go see a doctor. Carlie still looked pretty terrible and although I could breathe a little easier, my throat and lungs still didn’t feel very good. We had no idea what a hospital visit would entail. Would anyone speak English? How could we convey our symptoms? How much would it cost? We almost didn’t go but Carlie still looked terrible so I said, alright get up, we’re going!

We found the hospital, checked in and were led to two beds. I explained in Indonesian that we live in pky and the air is obviously very bad. We just arrived here today and feel bad. That’s about all I could say in Indonesian so then I just pointed to my throat and my chest, mimicked coughing and pointed at Carlie’s head. Everyone was laughing… 😀

My nurse started to ask me questions and I could not follow her… Realizing this wasn’t one of those moments where I could just nod along and smile I grabbed my phone out of my bag and opened the translator. She laughed and started typing in words, “kesusahan” (trouble), “pernafasan” (breathing), “batuk” (cough) – yes, I nod vigorously! We laughed and she had me lie on the bed and checked my pulse and my blood pressure and that normal stuff. A few minutes later, the doctor comes in and in half English, half Indonesian I explain my symptoms. He listens to my breathing through his stethoscope and then orders the nurse to put me on oxygen. LOL. I don’t know why I found this so funny but picture this: I’m lying here on a hospital bed, with doctors and nurses who don’t speak my language, with a screaming baby in the bed next to me, and now tubes up my nose. Like… good god what have I gotten myself in to?! Meanwhile, I can hear Carlie’s voice on the other side of the room talking to the nurses and doctor but I have no idea what they are doing to her…

Since I had my phone next to me I snap a few selfies 😉 Please ignore the horribly bushy eyebrows. I don’t have time to pluck my eyebrows here.

Tisia is frantically texting me at this point and lucky for us, she had also decided to flee to Banjarmasin and had left a few hours after us. She arrived to Banjar right as we were in the hospital and I was amusingly texting her that I’m lying here hooked up to oxygen with no idea what in the world is going on. She says, “Mack. Hang on. I’m on my way.” Oh good, glorious, wonderful Tisia! She’s coming to our rescue <3

I can actually notice a difference in my breathing and my throat and lungs feel clearer. The doctor comes back after ten minutes or so and asks how I feel now… “lebih baik!” (better!) After another ten minutes the nurse takes the oxygen off, checks my pulse and whatever again and then they ask me to go sit at the table outside. Carlie is already sitting there and we wait while the doctor talks on the phone to a doctor in Jakarta or something (Carlie has ISOS so some doctor in Jakarta is now checking up on us…) Tisia arrives at this point and I’m so relieved to see her. She and the doctor talk for awhile and then he starts prescribing us medication. I’m not exactly sure what all he told her but something along the lines of, take it easy, don’t go out in the smoke, and if you still feel bad in three days come back.

Oh Tisia, thank you so much!

He prescribes Carlie something for her headache and an anti-inflammatory for my throat and lungs. We check out and pay the whopping fee of Rp 45,000, maybe $3.50 and then Tisia walks us over to the pharmacy where we get the medication. We part ways with Tisia and her husband and decide to reward ourselves with Pizza Hut for dinner. The doctor had said to eat “normal food” for the next week and we laughed, having no idea what that meant. He clearly meant more Western-type food but for us, Indonesian food is normal at this point!

After we left the hospital, I felt so much better. But slowly I begin to feel it coming back 🙁 Not nearly as bad, but I don’t feel quite as good as I had before. We head to bed soon after hoping sleep will do us both good!

This morning, we both felt better but not 100%. Astrid told us this morning to “please stay inside as much as possible” and we happily obliged. We have thus spent the majority of our day sitting in our beautiful air conditioned hotel room, curled up in our beds under big comforters, with unlimited wifi (you have no idea how amazing good free wifi is until you live someplace like this where you pay for a modem and simcard with 2GB of data – trust me, goes fast) . We ventured outside twice, to find lunch and dinner. In the afternoon, the air felt clear and good but this evening when we stepped outside, OMG. It’s like the smoke is back to haunt us. It was bad. Real bad. We cover our noses and decide to just run across the street to the Texas Chicken. We eat a salad and fried chicken (checks and balances right?) and then run home. UGH. DAMN SMOKE. GO AWAY.

Now it’s Saturday evening and I’ve had the most relaxing day ever. Tomorrow will likely be much of the same and then Monday we’ll check in with aminef again to see what is in store next. We’ll likely be attending an English conversation club at the local university Monday afternoon and potentially working with the ACCESS program here in Banjar if the situation is still bad in pky (with no rain in the forecast I cannot imagine it will get better anytime soon).

It’s been a wild ride so far! Who would have thought my first two months of Fulbright would look like this? But as ridiculous, and occasionally frustrating, as it’s been, I’m still having the time of my life. These evacuations have let me travel and see new places, spend literally almost every moment for a month with Carlie, and provided me with stories most Fulbrighters will never have. And… I’m becoming passionate about an issue I had never cared about much before. I’d always felt like environmental issues were a battle someone else should fight, I knew it was important but it wasn’t something I was all that interested in learning about. But now… holy shit, how can I not when I’m living in a situation like this and being evacuated but having to leave my friends and students behind to breathe in the hazardous air. Who knows the impact this adventure will have on my future?

It’s an exciting time my friends…

ACCESS Week in Jakarta (Part XXI)

October 16, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part XXI:

So… guess who is back in an airport?

After the BEST week in Jakarta, we are headed back to Palangka Raya… When we left eleven days ago, we had no idea where we were going or for how long. We’d thought we could be gone for two weeks or so because the damn smoke just wasn’t clearing… However, thanks to a little bit of rain and some more visa complications, we are Pky-bound.

But let’s go back to this week…

After a fabulous weekend, which I wrote about here, we headed to aminef’s office on Monday morning. Because all of our meetings so far with Aminef have been in hotel conference rooms, none of us had been to their offices before! It was so fun to see Astrid, Ceacealia, Rizqi, Thasia, and Mark again – and be able to see where all the magic gets done. They work so hard coordinating and taking care of all 34 ETAs, the 14 researchers, and the 15 or so seniors scholars… All of us have Visa problems, housing issues, school situations, and of course, smog issues – and this group is essentially on call 24/7. It was so great to see them and to see where they work and catch up after all this drama 🙂

The American team HQ

At this point, aminef had coordinated with RELO, the Regional English Language Office – an office of the US Embassy – to have us help with the English ACCESS programs in Jakarta. The details, however, were not nailed down yet so after chatting with everyone for a bit, Ceacealia, Carlie and I grabbed a taxi and headed to the ACCESS office in Menteng.

We met Astrid there and had a great meeting with two of the coordinators of the ACCESS programs. ACCESS, funded by the US State Department, is a two year English program for underprivileged high school students. Classes range from 10-20 and students meet twice a week for two hours. Students selected for the program typically have extremely low English skills and because of their socioeconomic status, are unlikely to have an opportunity to improve their English.

There are around 10 ACCESS programs in different cities throughout Indonesia – in Jakarta, there are two sites – one at Menteng, in Central Jakarta and one in Rawamangun, in East Jakarta. We decided that we would each work at one of the sites – Carlie at Menteng and me at Rawamangun. The classes meet after school, one class from 4-6 and another from 6:45-8:45 – meaning super long days for the students! Students go twice a week so, at Rawamangun, there are five classes that each meet twice a week for a total of ten classes Mon-Sat. The program lasts for two years, and the students at Carlie’s school are at the beginning of the cycle, while the students at my school are at the end – they only have a few weeks left! By the end of two years, these student’s English skills improve tremendously!!

After learning more about the program at that meeting and how we can help, we all headed back to the office where we had lunch in the building cafeteria with the whole aminef crew, met with Ceacealia and Astrid to nail down a few more of the logistics, and then eventually headed back to Menteng to go to the class!

It was SO MUCH FUN. I mean, I can certainly attribute a lot of that to the fact that we have been out of the classroom for six weeks and it was just so good to be around students again. But there’s also something different about these students – their English is WAY better than my students in Palangkaraya, they are extremely motivated (the ACCESS program is a big commitment!), and they are grateful and excited for this opportunity to attend this English class. In short, they are AWESOME.

The first day in Menteng the students were learning about “unusual foods.” So after introducing ourselves and fielding questions, Miss Arey asked if we wanted to begin the lesson! We knew the topic but had no idea what we were supposed to be doing… so in typical Mackenzie fashion, I happily took the marker and began to wing it!

By “unusual foods” the textbook meant bugs and such, but I also knew that most American food is considered quite unusual to Indonesian students! So I asked them what they knew about food in America, what do we eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner… What do we put in a sandwich? What do we put on pizza? It got them speaking and laughing and listening to Carlie and I pronounce the words. Then, I asked them to work with their partner to come up with three differences between Indonesian and American food – and they had such great ones! Not eating rice for every meal; breakfast, lunch, and dinner all three distinct “types” of food (in Indo, you eat the same thing for breakfast as you do for lunch as you for dinner and that’s totally normal); ketchup in Indo is essentially soy sauce but our idea of ketchup is called tomato sauce (makes a lot more sense!), etc. After that, we passed it back to Miss Arey and helped during the rest of the class. It was such a great start to the week!

Chatting and showing pictures of my life in America

After teaching two classes, we finally headed back to the hotel at 9pm. Starving and exhausted (our last meal had been at noon and we’d left the hotel at 8:30 that morning), we found food and happily discussed the exciting prospect of getting to work with these students, and actually be doing something while we are evacuated from our site!

On Tuesday, we settled in to Starbucks for the morning before heading to our separate sites for that afternoon. Carlie went to Menteng and I went out to Rawamangun, about 45-1 hour from the center of the city (very grateful to aminef for covering these taxi rides!) I found the building, walked in, and was immediately greeted by three very enthusiastic, sweet as can be teachers, Puspa, Gita and Aan. I had arrived pretty early, unsure how long it would take to get there with the crazy Jakarta traffic, so we had about an hour and a half to chat. And omg, these girls are the best. They are all young – between 26-28 and absolutely full of life (quite literally – two are getting married within the next month and one is pregnant!) We talked and talked, about me and my program, the ACCESS program, their backgrounds, their lives, the students… Gosh, it was great to talk to girls around my age, who speak fantastic English, and are just so much fun!

Gita and Puspa <3

A little later, we headed upstairs to class and I helped out in both of that evening’s classes. I introduced myself, answered questions, and then helped with pronunciation and giving background to the textbook (the topic was “learning” and types of learning, styles, and college – aka, something I can speak to quite well!) It was so much fun!

Exhausted and happy, I headed home that night so thrilled to be helpful and inspired by these incredible students. Two years into this program, my students are SO ADVANCED. I was shocked at their level of conversation and how they answered my questions. I could have been teaching this lesson about learning styles in America, to high school students (and native English speakers!), and get the same answers! I kept having to remind myself that two years ago, these students could hardly speak English! Yet here they were, describing different ways of learning in the classroom, discussing the positives and negatives of different forms… it was fantastic!

Wednesday morning we headed back to Aminef. Each of us only had one class that evening so rather than sit around all day, Mark put us to work 🙂 He asked us each to write lesson plans based on upcoming events, that our fellow ETAs could use in their classes. Knowing my academic background and as today (October 11^th) is International Day of the Girl, Mark asked if I could write a lesson plan based around that, which I was obviously thrilled to do! That afternoon, I showed Gita and Puspa what I had written and they were super excited about it and wanted me to teach it to the classes on Friday and Saturday. I was thrilled!

We worked on the lesson plans all morning, had lunch with Rizqi, Thasia, and Mark, and that afternoon, I headed back to Rawamangun. It was another great class – this time, Puspa had promised her students they would work on pronunciation and conveniently, I was there to assist! We ended up spending most of the two hours flipping through dictionaries, pulling out specific words and practicing how to differentiate between that word and similar words. For example, bag, beg, bed, bad, back, bake… like, when you stop to think about it, how confusing is that! They sound so similar if you don’t pronounce the final consonant clearly! Or, sins, since, cents, scent, sent, sense, scene, seen… Um, so hard. We laughed and laughed and had a wonderful time!

Thursday, we did some more listening practice from the textbook – they were learning, “should have,” “could have,” and “would have” and the textbook also had them learning the more informal version, “should’ve,” “could’ve,” and “would’ve” – we had a hilarious time trying to say these phrases fast! The students loved it and it was so perfect that I was there to explain it, give examples and help them say it right and practice! We also talked a lot about college (per the lesson) and my life in America – I drew a (terrible) map of the US on the board to show where I grew up, where I went to school, where my brother goes to school, where Harvard, Yale etc are… Then drew a line of the route Martha and I drove driving home this summer – it was really fun to share and answer all of their questions.

Friday, I met Chesna, Dyah, and Yoyok from Standard Chartered for lunch! I was so happy to get to see them 😀 These friends from two years ago feel like family to me here now! I went back to Aminef to print out materials for my class that afternoon and was able to meet one of the Fulbright student researchers who had just arrived in Indonesia and was getting her initial briefing from aminef. Susie is staying in the same hotel as us and when Astrid brought me in to the conference room, she goes “Oh, you’re Mackenzie!” Um.. yeah? We all started laughing and she said that the hotel receptionist told her all about me last night (we’d chatted with them for awhile that afternoon when we had to extend our hotel reservation) – all bules know each other right? Ha! Well, it was pretty funny but great to get to meet her! I offered that she could hang out with Carlie and I the next day and explore Jakarta with us, which she did and it was a blast!

After collecting my materials from Mark, handing over all my taxi receipts, and thanking aminef profusely for everything over the last few weeks – I headed back to Rawamangun… my happy place in Jakarta 😀

I was able to teach three classes about the International Day of the Girl 😀 I started by introducing the concept of role models and asking who their role model is and why… After each student shared, I told them that my role model was Malala. None of them knew who she was so I explained her story and then showed a video profiling her. We discussed her life and the importance of education for girls. Then, I handed out short narratives of four young female heroes – Malala, Yuna (Malaysian pop star), Kartini (Indonesian education activist), and Evi (Indonesian entrepreneur). In small groups, they read and discussed the narratives and then switched groups so that each new group had one expert on each girl. They all shared about these girls’ lives and then as a large group, we discussed the issues that these girls care about and why it’s important to talk about them on International Day of the Girl! Finally, each student wrote a short essay on an issue that girls face that they care about, and then everyone got to share their topic with the class.

Let me just tell you… WOW. First, these students are NOT native speakers, and two short years ago they could hardly speak English, yet we had full and substantial and inspiring conversations! I kept forgetting that I was using the activity as a way to practice English and not talking with native speakers about the the importance of investing in girls. Damn, these kids impressed me. Teaching a lesson like this was something I never thought I’d be doing. It’s obviously a topic a care deeply about and could talk about forever… and here I was, offered the opportunity to teach three classes about it. One of the coteachers commented afterwards that when I brought the group back together again to discuss the four girls, my eyes lit up and it was quite evident that I’m very passionate about this!

Watching the video about Malala

Discussing in small groups

On Saturday after my class, Carlie and I met up with Susie, the Fulbright researcher to explore Kota Tua (Old Town Jakarta). We wandered the square, answered interview questions by eager high school students, and got extremely lost wandering a shipyard/marina. Always an adventure! 😀

We were trying to go to this hotel/restaurant/marina but got a bittttt lost 😉 When we finally found it we realized we were stuck on the wrong side of the wall! NOOOOO

Peeking through the wall at where we had tried to go… lol

But at least we found beautiful water!

It was a great week in Jakarta! But unfortunately, Sunday we had to head back to Palangkaraya… Initially, we were excited to go back. It had rained a little and the air pollution levels had gone down. I was excited to get back to school and settle in. Plus, we still hadn’t received one of the documents for our visa conversion so we had to go back in order to ask for an extension on our 60-day visa (which was expiring in 12 days…). More on that in the next post!

Evacuation Round 2: From the smoggy jungle to the big city (Parts XIX-XX)

October 5, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part XIX:

Saturday.

I’m in Jakarta. I can go outside and take a deep breathe of reasonably clean air. There are skyscrapers surrounding me and a Starbucks a few blocks away. I’m a five minute walk from Standard Chartered Bank, the office I worked in two years ago. I’m going to see my friends Chesna and Odi tonight. I’m so, so happy.

When I last wrote, I was heading back to Palangkaraya after a week’s evacuation in Banjarmasin. I was thrilled to be heading back – mostly because I desperately needed to do laundry, but also because I was looking forward to being reunited with my friends and students. After the four hour drive on Monday, we rolled in around noon and I had barely brought my bags inside when Tisia called me and told me to come to school to join them for lunch. It was wonderful to see them all again – I haven’t been around all the teachers since my first week in Palangkaraya, a month ago. After a quick lunch, bu Tisia, bu Juniar (my co-teachers), and I piled into bu Lusni’s car and headed off to imigrasi. I was so happy to be back with them – we laughed and talked and caught up after almost a week and a half apart.

We got our N95 masks and are ready to go back to Pky!

This should be forest. But now, it’s burnt, smoldering peatland – miles and miles of it. Somewhere between Banjar and Pky. The President ordered the military to dig canals to get water in – that is what the excavator is supposed to be doing…

My adorable neighbors happy I’m back!

At imigrasi Tisia handed over all of my paperwork and spoke with the immigration official in rapid-fire Indonesian. I followed a little bit of it and soon learned that we were missing one document. After talking on the phone a few times to Rizqi and Ceacealia from aminef, we all went back downstairs and sat in the lobby where Tisia explained everything to me: except for the missing document (a letter from another agency in Jakarta), everything was set for her to be able to complete the visa conversion process for me. The official accepted my Letter of Attorney, Tisia would become my legal representative, and I was free to be evacuated again.

Tisia rocking the imigrasi paperwork

That evening, Carlie invited me to join her for dinner at her co-teacher’s house. After spending a solid 8 days together, we were happy to be reunited again so soon and I had a wonderful time with all of her people!

I’ve never seen so many plates for one meal

On Tuesday, my headmaster wanted me to come to their teacher workshop and formally introduce myself to everyone. When I arrived, I was ushered straight to the front of the room and seated next to the Headmaster and the head of the PTA (I think). Yosef, the 12^th grade English teacher and my other counterpart moved a chair up to the front to sit next to me and translate what was going on. I was very appreciative 🙂 The headmaster gave a short introductory speech in Bahasa, and then pointed to me – my turn for a speech! Ha! I gave a very rudimentary introduction of myself in Bahasa to the 50-some teachers in the room. I messed up many times but they loved it and all seem quite excited to help me practice my Indonesian!

Yosef, me, the PTA head, and the Headmaster

Miss Mack giving her speech 😀

After my speech, I moved to a seat next to Tisia and listened (aka filled out imigrasi paperwork and played on my phone), sweated, and breathed in hazardous air for the next 3 hours of the workshop. Then we ate lunch and the workshop was over! I ran home to grab my five batik fabrics that I had collected over the last month and met Tisia back at school and off we went to the tailor! I handed him the pieces, told him what I wanted and hopefully, when we get back to Palangkaraya, I’ll have five new batik outfits! Pretty excited!

Tisia and I braving the air to head to the tailor

At this point, I’d been back in Palangkaraya for about 24 hours. The smoke was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Visibility was better than the day we had left for Banjar, but the air was so thick that you could feel it. It coated your mouth and your nose in seconds and there was no way I could wear my contacts – I could hardly keep my eyes from clouding up with my glasses on. When I was in my AC bedroom, sitting in front of my fan in the house, or sitting under several fans in a classroom – I was okay. But when I left those spaces, either to travel in between buildings, or in the morning when the air in my house was still thick with smoke, I coughed and my eyes smarted, and I constantly had a dull headache. I couldn’t believe how people were living there day in and day out… having to go about their daily routines, open their shops, ride their motorbikes across town… just live in all that smog.

The photo is this grainy from the smog!

At this point, we were waiting for word from aminef on the next steps. They had told us they were meeting with people from RELO (Regional English Language Office), a program of the US Embassy, on Tuesday to discuss whether we could join a program somewhere else in Indo until the smoke cleared up and it was safe for us to be in Palangkaraya. On Tuesday evening, they said they still weren’t quite sure and we’d have to wait until Wednesday to hear. We waited all of Wednesday before hearing from them that evening, that they were still figuring some of the details out so – “hang in there.”

And I was hanging in there. But I was dreadfully bored. From about 2pm on Tuesday until Thursday morning, I was alone in my house, pretty much confined to my AC bedroom and staring at my phone waiting for it to ring with our next plan. It doesn’t sound so bad when I’m typing it but imagine this… Tuesday 2pm-10pm – sit around, read a little, sweep your house, shower, read some more, the power goes out for 2 hours so you sit on your bed in the pitch black and watch a movie on your laptop until it dies and then you are stuck, power comes back on and you read some more, and more, and finally, it’s an acceptable time to go to bed. Wake up Wednesday with no plan for the day at 7:30am. Shower, sweep the ash up from the house, swish some clothes around in a bucket of soapy water, read, read, read… I love to read, but when it’s 10:30am and you’ve already read for two hours and you’ve done your laundry and have literally nothing else to do all day – you can’t even leave your house and go for a walk, reading begins to lose its charm. So somehow, I passed Tuesday and Wednesday and then Wednesday evening, we were told we’d have to wait until Thursday for word. At this point though, Carlie had had a migraine for a day and was done with the smoke and called aminef and asked if it was at least possible to get us back to Banjarmasin. The palangkaraya airport was closed so if we were going anywhere, we’d have to at least get to Banjar.

Ash people. I sweep up this much ASH every day in my house.

People, this is ash. I sweep up this much ASH every day in my house.

The smog got even worse the day we left

A little while later (this is 8 or 9pm – we’re such a burden to aminef. They’ve been working around the clock for us for days), they had contacted a driver and arranged for us to leave in the morning. I packed my things – this time plenty of clothes as I had no idea how long we would be gone and this time I wanted to go prepared – and Thursday morning, we set off for Banjar again.

We went back to the same hotel we’d stayed at just three days previously, and the hotel staff greeted us with laughter and smiles. We went for a walk to get dinner at the river warungs and we were so pleased to be able to walk outside again! It was definitely smoky there still, but nothing like Pky. That evening, Mark and Ceacealia informed us that we would be heading to Jakarta the following day to spend however long this evacuation lasted working at one of the RELO English Access Programs in Jakarta.

I cannot describe to you the pure joy I felt in learning this. Jakarta is a city of 10 million people. It has Western food, Starbucks, beautiful malls, and most importantly, friends. Dyah, Chesna, Odi, Frida – all friends from my time at Standard Chartered. And Mark and the whole aminef team… I was thrilled to get to see familiar faces after the long and lonely last couple of weeks. I know my small town of Palangkaraya will be great once school starts and I have students and teachers around me and can go for walks and visit Carlie and see things and go places… but since coming back from Bandung, the time in palangkaraya, confined to my bedroom, has been lonely as hell.

Friday afternoon we headed to the airport and after a short delay, we were off to the big city! When we stepped off the plane and onto the stairs that led down to the tarmac, I took a big gulp of air and squealed like a little girl upon taking in a breathe of air with no smoke! We were beyond thrilled.

We grabbed our bags, found a taxi, and headed into the city. The airport is about 30-40 minutes outside of the city with no traffic, and we were trying to go into the city at 6pm… not ideal. But I couldn’t have been happier in that 90 minute taxi ride. As we entered the city, I began to recognize landmarks – malls, buildings, hotels… Then we got nearer to the heart of the city and I really began to recognize everything. Tom’s apartment and office had been right in the center of the city and in a hilarious twist of fate, our hotel is quite literally a five minute walk from the Standard Chartered Bank office. I know these buildings, I know this area, I know a few good restaurants, and where the closest Starbucks is. It’s amazing!

Later, settled into our room, I couldn’t stop staring out the window at the bright lights of this big city and the fact that the SCB logo on the side of the building was just visible from my bed – it was so comforting to see that. I’m in a foreign country, evacuated from my site, disappointed that I’ve been here for six weeks and still have yet to spend a day teaching in my school, and yet, in a city of ten million I’m smack down right where I’m comfortable.

The SCB building is the one with the blue and green squiggle on the top, just behind the white building!

Part XX:

Sunday evening.

Can every day be like yesterday and today?

The only words I can think of to describe how I feel is pure joy.

After a full morning exploring our neighborhood, Starbucks, wandering one of the malls, Gado-Gado lunch, and some downtime in the hotel, we met Chesna and Odi for dinner at Plaza Senayan (one of the huge malls). It was so, so, so fun to see them!! I had seen Chesna on the first day I arrived in Indonesia, but it has been almost a year since I’d seen her son Odi. Odi moved to America for college, Northeastern, and graduated this May like me. But he spent his junior fall interning at Amazon in Seattle, so he (and Chesna) came to my house for Thanksgiving dinner last year.

First starbucks in six weeks <3

Hello Standard Chartered Bank!

Gado-Gado = vegetables smothered in peanut sauce <3

Catching up with them was wonderful. After six (crazy) weeks here in Indonesia, we had plenty to share and we are also eager to learn more about Indonesia and Jakarta. We ended up all going to a movie later and I felt so relieved and happy to be back with familiar faces, speaking “normal” English, and in a place where I’m not pointed at constantly for being a bule. My heart was full and happy!

Then, this morning we headed out onto Sudirman (the main road) to participate in Car Free Day. Every Sunday, from 6-11am this main road is closed to traffic and thousands of people take to the street to run, walk and bike. Street venders set up small stands and offer food, drinks, clothes, and souvenirs. There are carnival rides, music, dancing, animals, farmer’s markets… it’s unbelievable. Carlie and I jogged the mile or so down to the roundabout and the center of the city, and met up with Rizqi, one of the main aminef staff who has been helping us out. We chatted and laughed and shared stories of the crazy last few weeks we have all had, as Carlie and I have bounced from Bandung to Palangkaraya, to Banjarmasin, to Palankgaraya, back to Banjarmasin, and now to Jakarta – and the wonderful Rizqi and co. has been on the other side orchestrating all of it. We ended up walking a huge section of Sudirman – by the time we got back to the hotel we’d walked more than five miles. It was fantastic to be outside, breathing clean air, surrounded by thousands of excited people, and chatting with yet another familiar face.

Running. Outside. Breathing non-toxic air. Magical.

Car Free Day!

Pky girls and Rizqi!

Organic farmer’s market

The building on the right is the Shangri La where I lived last time! In the pent house 😀

We showered and decided to head back to the center of the city to the Grand Indonesia, the massive (and I mean MASSIVE) mall to find some lunch and kill the afternoon. When we got inside, it felt like dejavu, Tom and I had come here many times to go to the grocery store (as Whole Foods-ish as you can get here) and come to eat at the restaurants here. I led us up to the restaurant floor (the mall is 8 stories) and stumbled upon a café I remember eating at with a big group from the bank. They had Western food and I eagerly ordered a chicken sandwich and Carlie, spaghetti bolognese. We couldn’t stop grinning.

LOOK AT THIS FRUIT! <3

Afterwards, we wandered through some stores (Gap, H&M, Fossil… – yes, so excited) and then headed over to a coffee shop near our hotel where we were meeting some more of my friends from SCB. Frida was part of a cohort that was just hired for a two year rotational program when I came in 2013. Tom had connected us then, knowing we were similar ages, and I’d gone out to dinner with her and some of the others in her cohort a few times. She’s a blast and we’ve stayed in touch through social media over the last two years. So when we came back to Jkt, I reached out to her immediately. Two years later, she has graduated from the rotational program and is now working permanently in the bank. For five hours, Frida, Rosalia (another friend from that cohort), Carlie, and I chatted over lattes and then dinner as we caught up on the last two years, talked all about our time here so far, laughed about different customs between the US and Indo, and learned more about the nuances of the Bahasa Indonesian language. I can’t describe to you how fun it was to just sit and talk with girlfriends my own age…

Frida, Rosalia, me and Carlie

And now, after two full days in Jakarta we are exhausted but so happy. Tomorrow, we’ll head to the aminef office in the morning and, after texting nearly every day for the last three weeks, it will be great to reconnect in person. We’ll learn more about the English Access Program and hopefully get to go to the program tomorrow afternoon!

After three slow, smokey weeks, this was one fabulous weekend.

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Mackenzie

A Look Back