Week 1

September 24, 2016 by Mackenzie

After living in hotels for five out of the last six weeks, it feels so good to unpack my suitcases and settle in to my new home. I’ve been at site now for a full seven days. I’ve already experienced a number of mati lampus (blackouts), been to hypermart (~Walmart) three times, sweated my way through a zillion classes, and found myself being interviewed on tv. What a week.

While I was in Bandung for orientation, I had asked my school to fix up some of the things in my house… namely, the AC. They ended up putting plastic over the open space above the partition so the cold air stays inside my bedrooms but the light still comes in. It’s definitely made a difference and it’s comfortable now. It’s not super cold, and I often wish I was back in my room in Pky because the AC there was incredible. But it works, and I bought a mini fan that helps too. While I was gone they also fixed the outlets, closed the hole in the ceiling, and bought me a refrigerator! I’m very happy to have that and am now loaded up with fruit and snacks. I also bought a blender and LOVED being able to make smoothies in the morning! That is… until it stopped working this morning ?TBD I’ll keep you posted.

Bought a mosquito net in Bandung and my coteacher recruited some of my students to help put it up

Yay!! Sleeping very peacefully now!

School has been great this week and I’m excited to be back in the classroom! I really want to learn my student’s names this year (all 300+ of them!) so the first thing I did with every class this week was to pass out sticky notes and have them write 1) their full name 2) their nickname (everyone goes by a nickname that may or may not be close to their real name) and 3) their hobbies. I then took pictures of all the students holding their sticky note so now I can match names to faces! I didn’t do this last year and regretted it the whole year! I also made little seating charts of where they sit in the classroom (usually they always sit in the same place every day) so I can refer to that as well.

In one of my classes we brainstormed words describing personality from A-Z. We made a huge list on the board and then the students used those words to create acrostic poems of their names… Mine looked like:

(M)ischevious

(A)dventurous

(C)lever

(K)ind

(E)ergetic

(N)eat

(Z)any

(I)ntelligent

(E)nthusiastic

I had the kids make a table tent name card with the front just their nickname and the acrostic poem on the back – it was super cute!

We also began the visa conversion process this week. It’s really difficult to get work visas in Indonesia and AMINEF can’t get them in time for when we arrive in August. So instead they bring us in on Socio-cultural visas and then we convert them once we have all the paperwork. It’s still a 8-step project even then but at least we’ll be legal in a month or two? Anyways, the first of many visits to immigration occurred on Monday and then the immigration officials showed up at my school to “check” on things and to see my housing…

Kate and I ended the week with dinner here:

It was a great way to celebrate the end of a long, first week!

It’s great being back and being back for the long term. Last year, at this point was when we were evacuated for the first time. It’s crazy to look back at that now and think how long that lasted, when initially we thought it was only going to be for a few days! It’s weird to me to think I’ll be here for several months before I travel again. Last year was so much movement and travel I was rarely at site for more than a month at a time. But this year, I’m in it for good! I’m looking forward to next week and lesson planning with my teachers, continuing to develop routines, and exploring with Kate and Shelby!

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.

An Indonesian Birthday (Parts VIII-IX)

August 31, 2015 by Mackenzie

Part VIII:

Right on schedule, the girls arrived at my door.

“Hello Miss!” “Good morning miss!”

I had set my alarm for 5am but at 4:15, the call to prayer went off and I awoke. I nodded off to sleep until 5 and then decided I should get up – if they come this morning I want to be ready!

I check my phone and see a number of notifications but one stands out, from my momma – a Happy Birthday text and a picture 🙂 I smile, scroll through facebook and decide that the first thing I’m doing on my birthday is making coffee.

2 year old Mackenzie on her birthday!

I make coffee and turn on the fan to air the living space of the haze that seems to descend inside my house every night. I realize its 5:15am and not knowing when I may have morning visitors, I race to get ready. I decide a hot pink v-neck shirt is birthday appropriate, although I don’t know if it is school appropriate. But it’s my birthday so I’m wearing what I want. I pull on a long blue and white strip skirt and smile, today will be great whatever it may bring!

I finish getting ready and decide to sweep the carcasses of the bugs I killed last night out the door. As I’m sweeping, the girls arrive and off we go to breakfast!

The other students are lining up in their military style rows but we walk past them and get to the dining hall first. I laugh and ask whether they get to skip the line by coming to get me J They say “yes! We escape” and giggle.

Breakfast consists of a small slice of cooked eggplant, a fried egg, and rice. I’m getting the hang of the dining hall and I think the girls are impressed. The girls ask me my major and I tell them “international studies and women’s studies”. I wonder what door I’ve cracked open now…

“Women’s studies? What is that?”

“Well, in America men are often higher than women but many people think women and men should be equal. So I study how to make women more equal.”

“Ahhh! Yes! Equal to men! What you do with that? Teacher?”

“Maybe! Or go to government and help change laws (they struggle to understand “laws” so we settle on “government rules” instead). In America, men and women not paid the same for the same job. Men get $1 and women get $.75.”

“Ahhhh” (I think that went over their heads).

“How old are you Miss?”

I smile, “23! Today… today is my birthday!”

Gasps all around. “Today?!” “Miss, sorry we didn’t know!” “Happy birthday!!”

One of them starts singing happy birthday quietly (the students mostly eat in silence so we are by far the loudest table). They giggle and laugh and struggle to pronounce “twenty third birthday”. But they aren’t shy in trying and asking me questions and I love it!

The meal is almost over and the girls start speaking excitedly in Indonesian.

“Jalan” “ulang tahun” I hear. I know those words, walk (kind of like go) and birthday. I have an idea of what they may be planning…

The head student stands up to end the meal. Keke walks up to him and whispers to him. It’s unusual for a student to interrupt him so I know now what they are up to. He nods and she whispers to a few of the other tables. Then, Keke says whatever it is that ends the meal. And then says in English, “And today we celebrate Miss Mackenzie’s 23^rd birthday!” and all the students clap and smile at me.

I laugh and say thank you. The meal ends and we go to wash our spoons. Other students come up to me and say happy birthday – they are so shy but so cute. I tell them I will see them at school later and they head one direction and I walk back to my house.

The boys are lining up and a few say, “good morning miss!”

I smile back, “good morning!”

“Good Morning” they all chant back to me.

With a huge smile on my face, I unlock my door, set me bag down, and think, gosh, it’s only 6:15 and this is already a great day.

Part IX:

After my birthday breakfast, I wait for Ibu Tisia (the 11^th grade English teacher) to come pick me up. She arrives 25 minutes late, 15 minutes after class had officially started but I wasn’t worried… I’m operating on Indonesian time. I jump on the back of her motor bike and ride the short distance through the asrama (dorms) to the classrooms. She checks in with the teachers and we walk to her class.

As I don’t have my official work visa yet, I can’t technically teach – and apparently if I do, and the immigration official finds out, then he might not give me my limited stay work visa :/ So in this first week, we’re here to settle in and observe classes.

I’ll be working with both Ibu Tisia (10^th grade) and Ibu Juniar (11^th grade). Each grade is divided into 4 or 5 classes (11-1, 11-2, etc) and each class has about 25-30 students in it. Each class is assigned a classroom and the teachers move from room to room, rather than the students. From what I can tell, teachers see the students once a week – at least that’s how the English classes go. So on Monday, 11-1 meets with Ibu Tisia at 9 am and 11-2 at 11am. Then 11-3 on Wednesday and 11-4 on Friday (or something like that… trust me, I’m confused about most everything still). I think I’ll have around nine classes between grades 10 and 11 that each meet once a week. Then, I’ll run the English club for two hours a week to round out my 20/hr/week limit.

Enough about the details… Tisia and I walk into class on Thursday morning (20 minutes late by now) and all the students stop chattering and stare (at me) intently. I smile, and not knowing what I’m supposed to do yet, follow Tisia to the teacher’s desk at the front of the room. She introduces me to the students and asks me to say a few things about myself. I tell them my name, that I’m from Seattle and that I’m so excited to be their teacher this year. They all smile hugely at me and clap excitedly.

One of the students gets a chair for me and I sit in the corner and watch. I quickly realize that this is Tisia’s first time with this class (although school started a few weeks ago? Still not sure about that one). I smile as I watch her explain her expectations and her rules for the classroom – it wasn’t that long ago that I was in their position, listening to a prof explain her expectations! Even on the other side of the world, education looks remarkably similar 😀

Tisia then begins her lesson on “Suggestions and offers.” It’s different from what I expected… more advanced, but also taught very quick. There is a projector in the classroom so she has a powerpoint but I know half of the students don’t understand what she is talking. Most can read the words on the screen, but do they understand?

Sitting in my corner, I’m remembering the brief teaching lessons we had at our pre-departure orientation in DC. At least five activities come to mind immediately, of ways to practice and help make sense of the concepts she is teaching. I’m excited to begin helping and to see what I can do with these students.

Later, I observe Ibu Juniar’s 10^th grade class. This class is taught far differently. There is no projector in the 10^th grade classrooms so all we have is the whiteboard. Ibu Juniar has the students write on the board the answers to their homework about the main ideas and details of an example Pen Pal letter. The letter is long and their answers are long as well. We spend the whole two hours rewriting the homework they had previously done. It’s not the most productive use of class time but its enlightening and I’m looking forward to working with Ibu Juniar and coming up with lots of activities for class.

After class, the teachers excitedly tell me that we’re going to lunch at 2pm to celebrate my birthday 🙂 Class ended at 11:30 so all the teachers disperse with the plan to meet at school at 2, once school is over. I go home and without quite meaning to, collapse on my bed and fall fast asleep.

I wake up at 1:30 and get ready to leave. They pick me up and drive me across town to a restaurant on the river. I’ve heard a lot about this place, it’s one of their favorite “hangout spots”. We sit by the river, take selfies, and eat delicious fish with our hands. It was certainly a memorable celebration 😛

Birthday lunch! My coteachers are on either side of me (Ibu Tisia – counterpart and 11th grade co-teacher) on the left and Ibu Juniar (10th grade coteacher) on the right.

We ate out there… it was beautiful – right on the river.

I spend the rest of the afternoon reading. I eat dinner with my students in the dining hall and then go back to my house. I’ve got a lot of alone time at the moment, especially since I’m too dependent on others to leave the school. I spent a quiet evening in my house, chatted with my mom before she went to work, and then drifted off to sleep 🙂

Mackenzie

A Look Back