WORDS Competition: SMAN 5

March 27, 2016 by Mackenzie

As ETAs, most of our work is done at our schools, independent of the rest of our cohort. However, there is one event that all of us ETAs are required to do at our schools – the WORDS competition. Every year, each ETA hosts an English speaking competition at their respective schools and then the winner from each school gets to travel to Jakarta with their ETA for a national competition against all of the other ETAs’ students. It’s an incredible opportunity for our students – many of whom have never been to Jakarta, or maybe even left their island. The competition occurs towards the end of the school year so it’s a great chance for ETAs and their students to put all their hard work into practice… writing and delivering a speech.

Our “Superlative” Winners – best costume, talent, speech, dancer, singer etc

My kids started preparing a month ago for the competition. After announcing the competition in every class, I made a poster board and hung it in my house. For any student who signed up to participate, I would write their name on the poster. I had no idea how much this would mean to the kids… The first day, a few kids came over to work on homework and when they saw the poster and told me they wanted to participate, the look on their faces was one of shock and disbelief when I stood up and wrote their name on the poster. “Really?! You’re going to write my name on there?!” “Of course!!” “WOW, Miss! Thank you!” And it continued… every time someone came over, they saw the poster and were motivated to participate.

The theme this year is “Three Wishes: If you could change something in the world, in your city, in yourself… what would you change?” In addition to their two minute speech, students are encouraged to perform a talent – it can be anything from singing to dancing to telling riddles… And in total, each student should take no more than 5 minutes (I didn’t stick to that rule in my local competition… oops)

The week of the competition was a flurry of preparation. Tisia and I were busy printing banners, a photobooth backdrop, name tags, participant numbers, and scoring rubrics. Meanwhile, my students were finishing their speeches and working to memorize them. Every evening a handful would drop by my house for last minute corrections or pronunciation help… this is why I LOVE living at school.

Our best costumes!

The night before the competition I was as nervous as my students. I drempt I slept through the competition, I drempt the aula (auditorium) flooded (not an idle threat – it had flooded the day before, we spent the whole previous afternoon cleaning it, and then that night it started to pour again)… but Saturday morning I awoke thrilled and excited. I raced around setting up, answering last minute questions, driving in to town to pick up Carlie and print the nametags that we had forgotten to do before…

Awesome photobooth

And then… my kids stole the show! We had 19 participants and every single one was so so good. I was so proud of them. We had crazy costumes, and modern dance. Traditional costumes and singing. It was one of my happiest days at SMAN 5!

The crew! Minus a few who couldn’t stay for the whole three hours 😀

Our top three!

In the end, the judges’ decision came down to three students – each were exceptional in their own way but they had to choose one. They eventually chose Telsy as the winner because her pronunciation was the clearest and you could easily understand her speech – in addition to her speech being entertaining and inspiring, and her talent (singing and dancing to traditional music) was beautiful! I cannot wait to bring her to Jakarta with me in a few weeks!

Theresia doing story telling as her talent

Escool’s pantomime was incredible!

Instead of giving an oversized check to my winner – I found this $$ pillow case at a tiny store in Palangkaraya! It was a hit!

Thanks to the judges and English teachers for helping us!!

A favorite moment 🙂

Congratulations!!

Coming Back for Round 2!

March 20, 2016 by Mackenzie

Drum roll please…!!

It’s official – I accepted the offer this week… I’ll be returning to Indonesia next year as a second year Fulbrighter!

I’ve been contemplating for awhile now what I want to do next year and I knew I wasn’t ready to leave Indonesia. A year ago, when I first started this journey, I met the three returning Fulbrighters who would be joining our cohort as Returning ETAs and our mentors. I knew pretty early on that I would want to apply for a second year, particularly after having had such a bizarre start to my grant this year (see this, and this, and this, and this).

I want a second chance. I want to experience a “normal” nine months at one school, to improve my teaching skills, to build on the lesson plans I’ve already created, and make them better for next year. I want to explore a new part of Indonesia (TBD!), to continue learning Bahasa Indonesia, to experience more of this culture, and perhaps most importantly, to mentor the incoming cohort. I’ve always been a leader and a mentor and not having a formal leadership role this year has been somewhat odd… I feel like something is missing and I know that’s what it is. A substantial part of my role next year, in addition to my teaching and school responsibilities, will be assisting and mentoring the incoming cohort, as they adjust to life in Indonesia. I couldn’t be more excited to meet the incoming group and go on this journey for a second time.

A few logistics you must be thinking to yourself…
– Will she come home?! Yes, of course! I’ll come home to Seattle June 4th and plan to travel a bit (hoping for St. Louis, DC, Spokane, and LA – let me know if you’re there!) and then I’ll leave mid-August.
– How long is this grant? 9 months plus two weeks at the beginning where the Returners will come early to help plan orientation
– Same city? Nope! New! I don’t yet know where I’ll be placed but somewhere new! I’m desperately hoping to be near water and absolutely refuse to be anywhere near smoke.
– Can I come visit her? OF COURSE! Now that I’ve got a year under my belt I have a much better idea of good times to visit and places we can travel to 😀 So please hop across the ocean and come visit the land of 17,000 islands! I’m sure we can find you one that will suit your fancy 😀

There’s a few things that sealed the deal for me to come back. It’s crazy days getting bear-hugged by my mud covered kids… It’s living in the midst of a military school where my kids come over at every odd hour for every odd reason (I had four girls come over about 10 minutes ago to stash chicken in my freezer…). It’s spending the day at a waterpark with a few of my students and holding their hand as they go down the big slide for the first time… And it’s watching them give speeches in English in front of 100 of their classmates and absolutely knocking it out of the ballpark, that make me absolutely have to come back.

A Day in the Life: Scout Camp

March 14, 2016 by Mackenzie

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

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

Saturday, February 27

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Day in the Life: Military School

March 13, 2016 by Mackenzie

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

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

Welcome to SMAN 5 Palangkaraya

Tuesday:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two boys being punished by the teachers…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jalan-Jalan

February 9, 2016 by Mackenzie

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

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

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

Malioboro – the famous market street

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

We went to Taman Sari, the Water Castle:

The Palace of the Prince of Solo:

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

Parts of it are destroyed… note the headless Budha

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

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

I call this… “sassy mack”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I knew I was in for a great week.

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

And sunset night #1

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

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

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

Oceanside brunch

Hiking

Stunning view of the island

The other view from the hike… WOW

Sunrise on the ferry home…

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

Pure, Raw Heartbreak

January 12, 2016 by Mackenzie

Written January 7th:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ice cream outings with my buddy

Playing in the smoke…

Too cute for words

Digging the oleh oleh

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

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