Where we’re at, where we’re going, and where we’ve been (Part XVII-XVIII)

September 26, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part XVII:

I can’t quite wrap my head around it. We’re still waiting for the official word from AMINEF but when I talked to Ceacealia this morning, it did not sound promising. Not that anyone has any choice in the matter. They want us to go back just as badly as we do. But they can’t risk our health, and what would we do there anyway? My school’s holiday was extended until Thursday but at this rate, it could be weeks until we go back. By Thursday, my poor students will have been out of school for three whole weeks. It’s unbelievable.

I was honest on the phone with Ceacealia this morning and told her how bored we are and how we have exhausted the possibilities here. That it’s difficult to go to Joel’s school because we’re a burden and a distraction, that we’ve been to the mall, and the markets, and spend most of our days sleeping and surfing the internet, blogging, or reading. I mean, it’s not bad, it’s just the idea of doing this for an indefinite period of time that is slightly terrifying. You all know I’m a busy body. I’ve never spent two weeks like I’ve spent the last two weeks here…

On a brighter note, I was able to have my first Bahasa skype class with my teacher from orientation this morning! That was definitely a highlight of my day. It was really fun to speak to him for an hour in Bahasa and learn another fifty or so new words and feel like I have a direction in my Bahasa studies. And maybe this direction will help put a little purpose in my days – now I have to study and practice!

Today’s goals

If we hear that we’re not leaving tomorrow:
- find a Laundromat
- depending on how long we are here, maybe find a tailor and get some of my batik sasiragans made into shirts
Memorize new Bahasa words
Finish my book (Missoula)
Go to a movie
Go to pizza hut 🙂

(We did go to a movie, and had pizza hut for dinner (it was almost like an actual pizza!), and yep, I finished my book = successful day)

Part XVIII:

Okay, slight change of plans. No we’re still not going back, but it doesn’t look like we’ll be staying in Banjarmasin for the next month (rainy season and the definite end to the smog is around November). When we heard back from aminef this afternoon, they had a different idea. This morning, they thought that whenever we finally returned to Ptown we would have to extend our 60-day visa for another 60 days (a “quick” process) before we could apply to convert our 60-day visa to the limited stay visa (a month long process, potentially). That way, we don’t risk getting deported. However, our counterparts in Ptown didn’t think that would be possible – the immigration official is strict and likely wouldn’t approve the extension. All that to say, we need to get back to Ptown asap to start the visa conversion.

But we can’t stay there. We know it’s dangerous, aminef knows its dangerous, our schools and counterparts know it’s dangerous, and the US Embassy is against the idea. So the current plan is to drive back to Ptown on Monday, submit our paperwork to the immigration office on Tuesday along with a letter of attorney stating that our counterparts can complete the visa conversion process, and then either fly out of Ptown or drive back to Banjarmasin and fly out of here, to… somewhere!!

They know our days have been slow and they know we are anxious to teach and interact with students, so on Monday they are going to investigate the possibility of putting us in a school somewhere in Indo that has an English Access Program, an afterschool program run by the US Embassy for talented 14-18 year olds. There are a couple Access programs in Jakarta and a few more scattered through Indonesia and hopefully… one of them would like our help for a week, or two, or three…

I’m pumped. Carlie and I have been pretty down the last few days as we’ve continued to stare at each other and at our computer screens with no idea when things will improve enough for us to return. But now, the beginning of a plan is in place, we’ve finally told the hotel what day we are checking out, and our counterparts know to expect our arrival on Monday afternoon. We’re headed on a quest tomorrow to find the N95 masks, the only face masks that actually work, and then we’re off.

So far, this Fulbright experience hasn’t exactly been how I’d pictured it 😉 I expected to be in the classroom by now. I’d expected to have lived in my house, not a hotel for three of the last five weeks. I thought I would have made new friends with my students, not met them once. But you know, that’s what this is all about. I always said this would be an adventure. I mean, I named this blog, the year of living audaciously! It’s not going to be a straightforward year. I’ll get back in the classroom eventually and still have months and months to teach. And I’m certainly not homesick. While sitting in my hotel room isn’t exactly where I’d like to be right now, I’d still rather be here than in America. I’m still having fantastic experiences, exploring new places, and having the craziest, coolest, most unique year of my life.

So with that, I give you photos of the memorable times here in Banjarmasin that I hadn’t gotten around to sharing yet.

Our hotel is right on the river and most nights we would walk across this bridge to some warungs (street food stalls) on the other side of the river

And then we’d cross this street… nbd right?

We took a lot of selfies with the students at Joel’s school (aka why we were a distraction)

And met an Italian exchange student – who barely speaks English, knows no Bahasa, and must be floundering in this new school. Also, I’m a giant.

The art room in this school is pretty incredible

It’s been a mini cohort reunion!

Sunset from our hotel

The mall. UM YES. It’s beautiful. We’ve come here at least four times, maybe more. I’ve lost track. We are the only Bule here and get stares everywhere we go.

Selecting our sasirangans – material special to South Kalimantan that we’ll get tailored into shirts or dresses

One day we went to Martapura, the gem capitol of the world, at least that’s what they say (see the big diamond sculpture behind the T?)

Couldn’t resist. I’m now the proud owner of one of the teal ones

Avocado juice. The best thing in the whole wide world

Lime coconut juice

Speaks for itself

Monkeying around

So many street selfies. The girl right behind me gets me every time 😀

We ordered beer at our hotel and this is how they serve it (in this conservative Muslim community). Yes, it's literally served in a chilled mug and teapot to disguise the fact that it's beer. It's not even on the menu.

We ordered beer at our hotel and this is how they serve it. Yes, it’s literally served in a chilled mug and teapot to disguise the fact that it’s beer. It’s not even on the menu.

The sun has set on our week here with Joel!

So yes, we’ve had quite a fun week here. It’s been slow at times but I’m ever grateful for the opportunity to explore a new city, make new friends, and protect my health. We’re so grateful to aminef for always having our backs and being so willing and able to help us out. They are the best and while I’ve expressed some frustrations in my last few posts over the long, tedious days, it’s only frustration at the fires that keep burning and the rain that won’t come. We know there’s nothing else to be done but to hang in there and hope that the rainy season suddenly decides to show up a month early.

I have no idea where I’ll be in a few days but stay tuned – I’m certain it will lead to another fabulous installment of this already exciting adventure. Cheers!

Presidential Sightings & a Humbling Boat Ride (Part XV-XVI)

September 25, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part XV:

Thursday. Good news or bad news first?

Let’s go good. I saw the President of Indonesia this morning! We had heard he was in Benjarmasin to investigate the fire fighting efforts but it’s a large enough city that we didn’t ever think we would actually see him. But this morning, we decided to walk over to the mall, since it’s Eid Al Adha (huge Muslim holiday) and everything is closed, except apparently, the mall. It’s only a fifteen minute or so walk from our hotel and so we venture out – feeling like celebrities as we got stopped every two minutes to take pictures with people. It’s pretty hilarious and I don’t mind at all. If it makes them happy, sure they can have a picture with me 🙂 (I know there’s like 1000 things wrong with this. The impact of colonialism, beauty images, etc – I’ll address it in a later post, I promise. But nevertheless, I give in to the pictures). I usually don’t ask for a picture on my phone as well, I’d have hundreds already… but usually the kids love it if I take their picture so now I have quite a few pictures like this 🙂

Posers 😉 But absolutely adorable ones.

But all of a sudden we realized the street we happened to be on was a lot more empty than it should have been. Of cars. But there were hundreds of people beginning to line the street and tons of police. That could only mean one thing… Jokowi was about to come through here. A policeman waved us over and confirmed that yes, Jokowi was about to drive through, but could we first take a picture with him? Ha!25 pictures later, we took up our place on the street and waited for him to come by. Pretty soon, we saw police cars and the beginning of his motorcade. Then, there was his car! It had an Indonesian flag on the front and the license plate was “Indonesia 1” – I was lucky enough to snap a few pictures just as he drove by! And then the huge motorcade proceeded to pass through – so, so many cars, and police, and ambulances… it was crazy!

And as fast as it came, it was all over. The people started to disperse back down the side streets and after another dozen pictures, we too, were off again.

Of course, in that instant I ran out of data and pulsa on my phone. It’s kinda of a “pay as you go” plan here – you buy pulsa (for SMS and calls) and data (for internet, whatsapp, etc) and as I’m excitedly trying to post the picture to instagram, I realize that I’m out of both pulsa and data. Of course. The $15 I spent five weeks ago had lasted me this long and now I’m out. Just when I have the coolest picture to post. Classic.

We get to the mall and discover that it opens at 11am today because of the holiday. It’s only 10am but we have nowhere else to go so we settle on the steps and wait it out. 60 minutes and another dozen pictures later, the mall finally opens and we venture inside. We head for the Dunkin’ Donuts, for a little slice of home, and for the free wifi 🙂

It was quite a successful trip to the mall – I found contact solution (!!!!), a yoga mat (!!!!!) and got my phone loaded back up with pulsa and data. Phew! 😉

We meandered back home, showered, napped, and chilled. Again. The majority of our days here consist of napping and chilling. But I’m alright with that. As long as I’m in AC.

And that leads to the bad news… We were supposed to go home tomorrow (Friday) but the air pollution is still at record levels 1,990 (5x the top of the hazardous cap) and so we’re here another two days. Until Sunday now. We hope.

We finally got our papers from the Indonesian government, which means we can start the process of converting our 60-day visa to a limited stay KITAS (work visa). But to do this, we have to go to the immigration office in Palangkaraya – in person. We’re not sure if this means we’ll need to go back on Sunday regardless of the smog level so that we can start the process and not get deported (28 days and counting) or if they’ll continue to keep us here. Carlie and I laughed this morning saying that if they plan to keep us here past Sunday, we’d like to know that now so we can mentally prepare for more long, uneventful days. But then again, they’ve been extending our exile in two days chunks, so only looking forward in two day increments has definitely been a coping mechanism 🙂 Along with coke floats, milkeshakes, uno, and some very well disguised beer 😉

Tea? No, this is how they serve beer in Borneo.

Part XVI:

Friday. I’m writing to you from a coffee shop in a fancy mall in BJM (benjarmasin). We ran out of things to do here three days ago… and we’re slowly beginning to lose our minds. We feel like we’re in exile. We can’t go home. We have limited places we can go here. We’re a complete distraction at Joel’s school so we haven’t gone in a few days (no school Wed/Thurs with the holiday and then we didn’t go this morning). It’s really f***ing hot. We have already worn our clothes three time through (so I finally conceded to give a few shirts to the hotel laundry even though its crazy expensive (for Indonesia…)). I finished off the stockpile of vitamins I had brought this morning… I’ve only got four more malaria pills left :/

When we left last Sunday, I didn’t think there was any way we would be gone this long. The smoke was bad, yes, but not bad enough that I thought we would be gone for a week. Plus, I thought for sure school would have started today (Friday) but alas, that is not the case. The smoke has only gotten worse since we left and we truly have no idea when we’ll be going home.

This morning we went to the floating market. It’s one of the main “tourist attractions” here so we were excited that the hotel was able to set it up for us to go. This particular market only happens earlyyyyy in the morning. Like 5 or 6 am until sunrise. This means we got up at 4:30, left the hotel at 5, piled into a river boat in the pitch black and took off down the river. Initially, it was beautiful and awesome. There’s just something about being in the middle of a river, in the dark, before most people are up and cruising through an unknown city. As we turned off the main river, started down a canal-type thing to the harbor, and the darkness started to lift, the reality of where we were really began to set in.

I’ve been lucky enough to have gone to a lot of places in my life. I’ve seen extreme poverty in places as diverse as Costa Rica, rural Madagascar and even St. Louis. But nothing quite compared to what we saw this morning. Under the cover of darkness, and therefore, not standing out quite as much, we saw some of the poorest people in BJM begin their day. Floating down the river in the dark felt like we had an inside look at their lives, and quite literally – through their back door. It was dead quiet when we first set out, but as we continued down the river, kitchen lights turned on and women emerged from dark bedrooms to the back steps of their homes built on stilts over the water. The river is the center of these people’s lives, but it’s also a shit hole. Literally. Every home had an outhouse that dumped right into the water, but next door, someone would be bathing, washing their clothes, drawing cooking water, or brushing their teeth. It was unfathomable.

Going down this river, in the cover of early morning, was an incredibly humbling experience. This is the way of life for thousands of people along this river – and I truly couldn’t think of anything worse than this. After an hour or so, (and after getting stuck under a bridge, I was actually terrified that our boat would break and we would fall into the shit filled water) we finally made it to the floating market. We bought a few souveniers from the sellers in their boats, and when the other tourists in our boat got soto banjar (rice porriage) from one of the boat sellers, we politely declined. I can’t imagine any of it was made with clean water, probably river water, aka shit water, and I’d like to stay as far from that as I can, primarily for my health but also for my mind.

Driving back was even more sobering. Light had come, and with it, the full extent of these people’s lives. The river was full of trash. In some sections, it was unbelievable. And the river smelled. I wore my smog mask just because I couldn’t take the smell without becoming nauseous. We sat in silence the whole ride back and when we got back to the hotel, I forced myself to eat something and then crashed in my bed. I felt like I wanted to wipe the last three hours from my mind. It was too much.

But here we are, eight hours later and I’m complaining about being bored. I’m complaining that I have to spend $2 to get my shirt washed for me. I’m complaining that all I have to do is sit on my laptop and surf the internet and read my books. I’m complaining from inside AC buildings, drinking iced lychee tea, that it’s hot outside. I’m horrified at myself.

Yes, I’m bored. Yes, I’m tired of sitting in my hotel room and wandering the streets to the mall. Yes I want to go back to Palangkaraya and begin teaching and exploring my own city and making more friends that will last me all year. But this morning was a reality check. And my community smothered in smog is a reality check. I’m a privileged bule and I need to shut up.

And so I’ll keep studying Bahasa so that every day I can have slightly more meaningful conversations with the people I interact with. I’ll keep reading books to educate and just to keep my brain going. I’ll investigate the teaching resources we have so that I am a better teacher when we finally get back. And I’ll do my best to stop commiserating about our exile and enjoy the time I get to spend relaxing, in AC, and with Carlie. I promise, life’s great and I still love it here – it’s just been one of those days that gets you down.

Thinking of our Friends (Part XIV)

September 23, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part XIV:

Day 4 of evacuation: We were supposed to be going home today, but instead of the smoke getting better in Palangkaraya, it’s only gotten worse since we left.

I’m feeling more and more transient as we tack on additional days to our stay in Benjarmasin. I’ve been in this country for almost five weeks now and haven’t been at my site for more than 6 consecutive days. I have a growing list of things I want/need to do at home – find a laundromat and actually get to wear clean clothes (I’m pretty certain swishing my clothes around in soapy water isn’t doing the job), take my batik to a tailor to have it made into clothes, start the immigration process to get my visa converted into a limited stay visa (at the moment, I’ll be deported in a month), hopefully buy a motorbike and learn to ride it (!!!!), and of course… start this whole teaching thing. I’m five weeks in and I have yet to actually do what I’m being paid to do…

But here I sit, yet again, in a comfortable hotel room. I’m loving the hot showers, the fact that the bottom of my feet aren’t black, the shopping I’ve been able to do here (I found shoes in my size!), and the fun times we’ve been able to have exploring this city and meeting new friends. It’s also exhausting. This is far from “home” – we’re constantly on edge for news of Palangkaraya from our friends still there, we’ve run through our clean clothes as we only thought we’d be here for a few days (sticky, smelly, sweaty clothes it is)… Joel’s teachers are wonderful but we are constantly being introduced to new people, taken to new places, eating way too much or people forgetting we never had lunch and then it’s 4:30 in the afternoon and I’m dehydrated and feel like I could faint but we’re at a market an hour away in a tiny little packed gem store and I’m not quite sure how to tell them I need something to eat and drink… It’s making me miss Palangkaraya and the comfort I feel there – even though I’ve hardly been there. But Palangkaraya is home. I’m comfortable around my wonderful counterpart Tisia, and my coteachers at the school. They take such good care of me – taking me places, helping me buy whatever I need, taking me to new places to eat, introducing me to new people, but they also give me my space, and my time to rest. They have become my close friends and second family here <3.

It’s so, so hard being here when everyone I know is living in extremely hazardous conditions back there… Yesterday, the air pollution index in Palangkaraya hit 1, 990 more than 5 times the cap of “hazardous” air on the scale (Straits Times). How is it possible that the government is doing so little?! 200,000 people live in this city and it has the worst air pollution index in the world right now! I hate knowing that it’s the color of my passport and the organization sponsoring me that makes my life so different from theirs. I didn’t have a choice whether I stayed in Palangkaraya or not, I don’t have a choice when I go back… I don’t even have to pay for this! I get a free “vacation,” or as one of my fellow ETAs termed it, “evacucation…”

But… there’s not much I can do to change the immediate situation. I can’t will rain to come or send more firefighters into the jungle, so for now, Carlie and I are guiltily enjoying our stay here. We’re happy to meet new people, let them show us around, introduce ourselves to 10th grade classes… we’re thankful for the hospitality and grateful to AMINEF for the opportunity to get out of the hazardous smog areas but we haven’t stopped thinking for a moment of our friends, students, and communities who have no choice but to breathe in the hazardous air and live in a place where visibility is reduced to 10 meters. 10 METERS!

Maybe we’ll get to go back on Friday. At least, that’s the current plan for now. But with the smog only getting worse and no respite in sight, it may be Saturday or even Sunday before we go back. Needless to say, I can’t wait.

Orientation (and Evacuation) Part XIII

September 19, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part XIII:

So then there was that time I was evacuated because the air pollution from the forest fires had reached “very unhealthy and hazardous levels.” Yep. I’ll catch you up on the smog and lack of exciting activities this week in another post (trust me, not much to tell except I’ve been reading a lot – finished Station Eleven and am half way through Missoula – books about the end of the world and sexual assault on college campuses… I think I need a happy book next – any suggestions?).

But I jumped ahead on the last post. Our seventeen hours of travel was due to the fact that we were coming back from two weeks of orientation with my fellow fulbrighters in Bandung!

Two weeks ago, I met Carlie at the airport and we headed back to Jakarta. Once there, we found the rest of our cohort settled in to an airport restaurant and it felt like the happiest of reunions! We had each been deposited in varying types of places in every corner of this country. No one could speak Indonesian and none of us had fully understood that our new role is half teacher, half pest killer. Needless to say, that was one of the funnest moments of this whole journey so far – as we shared stories of our new normal and laughed with each other about all the people we accidently offended by forgetting to only use our right hand, and never our left, and sitting with the bottom of our feet pointed at someone (both signs of disrespect). It was also a delight to see Ceacealia and Thasia, and later the rest of AMINEF, again. We were back in safe hands.

Once everyone had arrived, we loaded up a big bus and began the 3-ish hour journey to Bandung. Bandung is a large city of 2.5 million people and it was fascinating to see something so entirely different from my week in Palangkaraya. Then, we pulled into the Sheraton and the differences multiplied exponentially. Um, we got to stay at a beautiful 5-star hotel for two whole weeks. The staff waited on us hands and feet, always at our beck and call, and providing us with more food than I’ve ever been offered in my life. Incredible breakfast and lunch buffets every day, with both Western and Indonesian food, and then… outside the rooms where we had our sessions and Bahasa class, there was always a huge table, piled with beautifully crafted snacks and desserts. It was heaven. I’m also pretty certain I gained five pounds in the first two days, when I then decided I had to have some self-control, none of this food was going anywhere… I was here for two weeks.

Yes. This was breakfast everyday. It was amazing.

Yes. This was breakfast. It was amazing.

They had these little pods by the pool and they were the perfect place to chill in the evenings

I obviously spent my break times sitting here

For two weeks, we had session after session, covering everything from Indonesian faux pas, to teaching strategies, and of course, Bahasa.* On our first full day, we had to take a placement exam and were then divided into four classes. As the majority of us knew no Indonesian, there were three beginner levels, and one “post-beginner.” AMINEF had hired four Bahasa teachers from a language school in Jogja to teach us for the whole two weeks. I was lucky enough to get Moko as my teacher, who in my completely biased opinion, is by far the best and most fun teacher. Every day, my class of 7 had about 3-4 hours of Bahasa class and moved at a quick, but comfortable pace through greetings, introductions, basic objects, colors, basic questions, numbers, time, activities, shopping, days/weeks/months, food, places, positions, directions, transportation, imperatives, and adjectives. Needless to say, it was a very thorough introduction to Indonesian in just two weeks! *(Bahasa = “language”; Bahasa Indonesian is the correct term but I’ll refer to the language here as both “Bahasa” and “Indonesian”… sorry)

Bahasa class was absolutely my favorite part of every day. Moko is an incredible teacher and gave us unique tasks to practice and the funnest of games to play. We got to know the hotel staff quite well as in the middle of class, Moko would send us out to use our latest vocabulary of “Anda bangun jam berapa?” “What time do you get up in the morning?” on our nearest (unlucky?) interview subjects. They were quite amused by us everyday 🙂

C Squad on our last day of class 🙁

We also got to spend a lot of time outside the classroom with Moko and the other teachers. They came to karaoke with us, took us to the market to practice using Bahasa to bargain, and enjoyed a few meals with us. I love that in Indonesia, the relational divide between students and teachers is small – it’s perfectly normal to be friends on facebook with your teacher, to text them, to go to dinner with them, and to drink a little too much in front of them. We had a blast.

Just a 7 story market…

Karaoke and beverages with C Squad – what we affectionately named our class. Jared, Moko, Me, and Stephen.

I’m planning on continuing taking anguage classes from Wisma Bahasa through their one-on-one skype classes. I could keep working with Moko as my teacher and would get to continue learning the language in a structured sense, in addition to the practice I’ll get just by living here. I finally have a modem so have a semi-reliable internet connection to use skype… Really excited about the possibility of improving my Indonesian to the point where I can maybe actually understand what is going on around me!

The US Ambassador to Indonesia came to visit us one day. That was pretty cool.

And we got to practice teaching at a real public high school in Bandung. We each had a partner and taught for 45 minutes! It was a blast and the students loved it.

One night, one of the returners organized a futsal match for us against the hotel staff. Futsal = soccer and in this context, it was an like a small indoor soccer field and you play with a heavier soccer ball. Although we were absolutely destroyed by the hotel staff, we had a blast. We played six on the field at a time and had three groups of six trading off every five minutes or so throughout the hour we played. I’m not sure if we were all completely out of shape or whether it was the altitude, smoke (pollution + cigarette smoke from the 20 or so observers), or some combination of all of it but man… each of our five minutes of playing was exhausting!

We also had plenty of time to explore the city of Bandung and enjoy ourselves. We learned the angkot system (public transportation – vans that are kind of like buses?), bought batik (special patterned fabric that you can tailor into clothes), explored the market, went to bars, sang karaoke several times (why is that not a thing in the US? It’s SO much fun), and overall, had a fabulous time together.

Bandung batik that I’ll get tailored into clothes!

Dinner out in Bandung! Duck and rice and corn fritters and who knows what else!

Oh, and we climbed a mountain. Sunday was our free day and we had met an Indonesian couple who invited us to go hiking with them. A group of us left with them at 6am and we hiked 7.5 miles roundtrip – up a steeppppppp dirt road to the top of a mountain overlooking the valley and the city of Bandung. It was stunning. Then back down through the jungle and through a cave!!! It was a man-made cave from about 100 years ago, that the Dutch colonizers forced their native Indonesian slaves to build to hide from rebelling Indonesian forces. It had all these passageways and rooms and the remains of a wire tap communication system. And bats. It was 100% epic.

The landscape was absolutely breathtaking

Monkey selfies!

A jungle coffee shop!

Some of the sessions got a bit long and boring… and Chris decided to teach me how to do a Rubik’s cube. In two days, learning step by step, I mastered it! Then, came the fun of trying to do it as fast as I could! I got it down to 1 minute 59 seconds… I even found a (shitty) Rubik’s cube at the local hypermart (~mini walmart) so I can keep practicing. I could be a Rubik’s cube whiz by the end of this year with how much time I have on my hands.

The not so fun part of orientation came when I got sick 🙁 About a week into orientation, someone caught a cold and considering our close quarters, it passed around pretty quickly and by Monday of the second week, about half our group was feeling less than ideal. Luckily though, no one was too sick from stomach issues, which is what we had all expected to be dealing with – not to say no one had diahhrea. I’m quite certain we all did at one point or another, it just wasn’t too terrible.

For whatever reason, when I caught the cold, I caught the flu version of it. All day Monday and Tuesday I felt worse and worse, half the day sweating and hot, half the day freezing and shivering. By the last session on Tuesday I must have looked quite awful, for Ceacealia (one of the AMINEF staff, aka our mother/protecter) comes over to me and says, “Mackenzie, are you okay?!” I was not, clearly, and she offered to call a doctor, which, in my feverish state, I (foolishly?) declined on the premise that if I was worse tomorrow, she could call a doctor. I pushed through the end of the session before heading straight to bed. I slept fitfully from 6pm-6am and woke up having gained some stomach issues but lost the fever. I’ll chalk it up as a win.

It took most of the next day and on the advice of Ceacealia, lots of tea, orange slices, and watermelon, before I finally felt like myself again. By the end of orientation I felt fully recovered and glad that if I had to be sick, it happened in a five-star hotel with all my friends and under the watchful eye of aminef, and not by myself in the middle of Kalimantan. Knock on wood.

And now, I’m back in Palangkaraya. I’ve spent the entire week doing pretty much nothing. School was canceled from September 10th through the 17th and then extended again until the 25th because the smog is so terrible. This means I’m beem pretty much confined to my house with no means of transportation and hazardous levels of smoke outside (although my house is open air, so it’s not like staying inside is any better). Midway through my first morning back, I couldn’t believe how black my feet had gotten in just a few hours and so I figured I should sweep out my house. Well, that’s when I realized that a lovely dusting of ash descended on absolutely every inch of my house. The more I swept, the whiter my tile floors became but also the larger and blacker my dust pile became. Reality check.

And now, after a week of sitting here, we received a call from aminef today informing us that they are “temporarily evacuating” us to Benjarmasin until the level of air pollution recedes to less toxic levels. YAY! Because the airports are closed we are being driven to Benjarmasin, about 5 hours away in South Kalimantan. It’s supposed to be a large, bustling city and although it has some smog, it’s not nearly at the level that we have here. It’s also the home to Joel, a fellow ETA! We’ll be staying in a hotel during our Benjarmasin stay but we’ll get to hang out with Joel and his coteachers at his school. Pretty pumped about this extra vacation and the respite from the smog and its accompanying dreary, boring days.

The BEST Worst Day (Part XII)

September 16, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part XII:

Hour seven of, hopefully, eight:

In twos and threes, fellow members of our cohort have departed for their sites throughout the day, and now, it’s just Carlie and I left… with only another hour to wait, if we’re lucky. We were on the road before 7am this morning, driving the three or so hours from Bandung to Jakarta, and now, ten hours after leaving the hotel, we’re SO close to being on our way home.

The one thing that stands in our way, however, is the lovely smog that has descended on Palangkaraya at state of emergency levels. It’s all over the news: flights have been canceled, school has been canceled… it’s terrible. The smoke comes from the illegal slash and burn deforestation to create room for palm oil fields – aka another example of Western capitalism destroying the environment and upending people’s lives. Here’s my favorite video illustrating this:

It’s one thing to read about it, another thing to see it in a funny awareness video, and a FAR different thing to be living it. It’s similar to when I was in Madagascar learning about forest conservation and how poverty is driving the local people to cut down the forests. But here, it’s the demand for palm oil (in everything from cooking oils to laundry detergent) that is driving the local people (hired by large corporations) to burn the forests to make way for palm oil fields. I’m still learning about all of this – but my understanding is that it’s either “burn the forests” time or it’s just made worse because it’s dry season. Either way, the smog has descended on Palangkaraya (and much of the islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra) and we are stuck in the airport because the planes can’t land (which, knowing Indonesia’s air travel record (abysmal), I’m perfectly content being grounded for as long as need be!)

Going a little crazy!

Hour eight of a now indefinite period:

It’s 6:30pm and we were supposed to board at 6:15. They have stopped making announcements in English, the bilingual announcer must have gone home, so I’m trying desperately to pick apart the Indonesian announcement and listen for “enam, tujuh, delapan” (678, our flight number) or for “palangkaraya”. So far no word. I ask the flight agent in my broken bahasa, and she responds in broken English, “something wrong with the weather. We do not know.” Awesome. Oh, and they already canceled the previous flight to Palangkaraya… so our hopes of this one leaving are slim.

However, this last hour has been the most enjoyable hour yet of our airport stay. I had been flipping through my notes from the last two weeks of Bahasa class when the guy sitting next to me sees the Bahasa words and asks if I speak Indonesian. “Sedikit” (a little), I respond. We start chatting (in English at this point) about where we are from, that Carlie and I are teachers in Palangkaraya, etc… He invites us to his wedding in Bandung in a few weeks (damn the travel policy). Later, he asks me to practice my Indonesian with him. I jump on the opportunity. I absolutely loved my Bahasa classes in Bandung and feel like I learned so much – definitely enough to have a basic conversation, and here’s someone new I can practice with! He takes my notes, flips through them, and starts quizzing me on words. I nail every single one (thanks quizlet). By now, there’s about 15 people near us watching, laughing, and pointing at us. They, and my new friend Adi, are absolutely delighted. We break away from the notes and a natural conversation flows – I’m having a blast and I CAN ACTUALLY DO THIS!

Bahasa friend!

Hour nine:

After exchanging numbers, taking photos, and him helping us learn that yes, our flight has been delayed indefinitely, Adi has boarded his flight to Benjarmasin and we are back to entertaining ourselves. However, by now, a number of people have witnessed our “amazing” (in their words) Bahasa skills and two more people start to talk with us. Unlike Adi, they speak ZERO English. However, they are from Palangkaraya so we have “much” in common. I thought the guy said he went to SMA 5 (my school) but later learned, that it was the woman’s daughter who actually went to SMA 5. We discovered this after the woman throws her phone at Carlie excitedly and says, “talk! My son!” Ummm, okay?

Carlie chats with her (quickly realized she meant daughter, not son), and then passes the phone to me. She has very good English and explains that she is currently in University in East Java but graduated from SMA 5 a few years ago! We chat excitedly and exchange contact information so we can meet up when she is home on holiday. How fun! Who would have thought that would have come out of randomly talking to a stranger with no English in the airport!

More new friends!

Hour 10:

It’s 8pm now (flight was supposed to leave at 6:45pm), and there is sudden movement around us. Our new friends say, “time, it time!” and we jump up excitedly. Finally! We are however, slightly concerned by the decision as it’s now pitch black, we’re certain the smoke is still there, and we’re flying on one of the less than ideal airlines. (We later learn – after arriving in Palangkaraya – that Garuda Airlines, the best one, canceled all their flights but Lion air will “take the risk” so that they don’t have to pay for people to stay in a hotel. Oh, Indonesia…)

But I’m happy to be on my way again so we board the plane and settle in for the short 1 ½ flight. Then, I get lucky again. The guy next to me asks what I’m doing in Palangkaraya, and I tell him I’m a teacher at SMA 5. He says he graduated from there in 2001! We continue chatting and he learns that I know a little Indonesian. So he decides that he’ll speak only in English, so he can practice that, and I’ll speak only in Bahasa, so I can practice that. We have an absolutely delightful conversation for the entire plane ride, sharing life stories, drawing maps of what the school looked like then, and now, and all the while, writing new words for each other in our respective notebooks. It was so.much.fun. I used the basic words I know to have a full, and fruitful conversation – it was amazing! I had no idea I could say all that I did in Indonesian!

When we finally land, scarily, as we land WAY to fast because I’m pretty certain they couldn’t see the ground through all the smoke (jk, I know they have instruments for that, but actually it was terrifying), I exchange contact information with him and make plans to see him again soon. He’s a journalist for one of the newspapers here and wants to interview me for a story about Fulbright and teaching here 🙂 We walk onto the tarmac and holy shit, I’ve never experienced anything like it. You know the super foggy mornings, when buildings are hidden and the rays of light look huge through the fog? Imagine that, but it’s not fog, it’s SMOG. Everywhere. It’s this thick haze that has descended everywhere and you can’t take a deep breathe without inhaling a mouthful of smoke, and can hardly see 100 yards ahead.

We step into the small airport, push through the crowd to get our bags, and emerge to find our counterparts and co-teachers ready and waiting to welcome us home!

This earie, smoggy city at midnight

We stop for a midnight snack of grilled banana topped with honey and cheese (interesting combo) and grilled spicy corn and then, finally, 17 hours after leaving Bandung, I open the door to my house (which actually was already standing open, sketch?) and collapse onto my bed. I’m home <3

And then they asked me to teach… (Part XI)

August 31, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part XI:

Saturday morning. The students still have school, sheesh they work hard. Saturdays are pramuka day or scout day. They do their chanting in their boy and girl scout uniforms and two young 10^th grade students shyly break rank from the military exercise and ask if I want to come to breakfast with them. Of course I do!

Breakfast is an adorable affair. This is my first time eating with the 10^th graders and they are so shy. But adorable and ask me a few questions. They seem mesmerized by the fact that I chose to sit and eat with them today 😀

I know Ibu Tisia teaches at 10 but I figure I’m bored, so I may as well walk over to the school and see if any one is around. There are a few teachers in the teachers lounge and they look surprised to see me but I figure, what the heck. I’m bored so I’m going to sit here too! They introduce me to the headmaster, who for whatever reason hasn’t been around all week. Then I realize I should really give him Oleh Oleh to win him over but I forgot it at home. I slip out of the teachers lounge, run home (5 minute walk), and come back, my bag bursting with candy, keychains, bubbles, and pennies.

I give the headmaster his Oleh Oleh and then pass out more candy to the rest of the teachers. That seems to have done the trick. They were super friendly with me before but now… we’re tight. One of them comes over and says, “do you want the wifi password?” (I have my computer out). Um YES. He types it in and I’m quite pleased with the outcome of my accidental bribe.

Ibu Tisia comes a little bit later and at 10 – she says, “Mac. I’m double booked! The headmaster gave me the 11^th and 12^th grade to teach at 10am. I can’t be in two places at once!”

Knowing where this is going, I smile and say, “okay… I could…”

“Could you teach???!!!!!”

“Sure!!”

She walks me to the room and tells the twenty 12^th grade students that I’m going to be their teacher today. They are thrilled and I’m stoked to get a chance to finally teach and hang out with the kids. The downside is that I’ve only known I was doing this for about thirty seconds so I have absolutely no idea how I am going to fill a 90 minute class session.

Ibu Tisia leaves and the kids look at me expectantly. I have a hundred ideas racing through my head but most require some of the games/teaching supplies/mac adapter for my laptop that I have at home… So… I improvise! I grab the white board eraser and tell everyone to stand up and get in a circle. From what I can tell, they don’t do many activities in class so they are super excited when I get them up from their desks. They shove desks out of the way making a ruckus and I was certain someone in the room next door was going to come in and yell at me for making so much noise. But I get them in a circle and explain that they are going to toss the eraser across the circle and the person who catches it has to introduce themselves to the class. They love it and I get to learn a little bit more about them, and they are practicing their speaking skills!

Then, I ask them to get out a piece of paper and ask them to write answers to 1) Why do you want to learn English? 2) What is your dream job? 3) What is the hardest part about English for you?

Obviously, those were well-pointed questions to help me get to know my students’ abilities and goals – a couple of them asked to share their answers in front of the class and I was so proud of their initiative! Most of these students want to go into the military or police force (hence the fact that it’s a semi-military school) but it was good for me to hear their goals from them.

After that, I let them ask me questions! They had a million things they wanted to ask, ranging from everything like “where are you from?” (drew a pretty terrible map on the board and pointed out Seattle and St. Louis) and “why did you go to school so far away from your family?” to “do you have instagram? And can I follow you?” Ha! They all pulled out their phones and followed me, and clearly shared my profile with all of their classmates because I now have 200 new followers 🙂

Finally, I told them we were going to do a role play. I asked them to write a dialogue between a student from Palangkaraya and a bule (white person) who is visiting. After they wrote the scripts, I asked them to do it in front of the class. They were hesitant at first but then I said I had American candy in my bag for the first group to volunteer to go… and all of the sudden everyone was jumping out of their seats 😀 One by one they went, and in the end, everyone got a tootsie roll 🙂