A Day in the Life: Field Trip

February 14, 2016 by Mackenzie

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

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

Let’s begin the story on Tuesday…

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

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

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

Wednesday:

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

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

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

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

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

Squeaky clean and SHINY!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

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.

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!

Mackenzie

A Look Back