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!

Orientation (and Evacuation) Part XIII

September 19, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part XIII:

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

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

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

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

Yes. This was breakfast everyday. It was amazing.

Yes. This was breakfast. It was amazing.

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

I obviously spent my break times sitting here

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

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

C Squad on our last day of class 🙁

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

Just a 7 story market…

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bandung batik that I’ll get tailored into clothes!

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

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

The landscape was absolutely breathtaking

Monkey selfies!

A jungle coffee shop!

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

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

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

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

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

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

The BEST Worst Day (Part XII)

September 16, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part XII:

Hour seven of, hopefully, eight:

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

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

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

Going a little crazy!

Hour eight of a now indefinite period:

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

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

Bahasa friend!

Hour nine:

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

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

More new friends!

Hour 10:

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

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

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

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

This earie, smoggy city at midnight

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

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

August 31, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part XI:

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Could you teach???!!!!!”

“Sure!!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is this not the sweetest instagram post?!

These students absolutely made my day and I was honored to be able to teach them. I cannot wait to get in to the classroom for real!

Breaking the Ice (Part X)

August 31, 2015 by Mackenzie

My absolutely adorable students

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

Part X:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I was in about 100 versions of this photo with some fellow teachers… it quite quickly became “throw the baby on Mackenzie’s lap and everyone take as many photos as they can with her”

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

Walking down my street

Came across this man… I was slightly terrified

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

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

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