A small task made BESAR (big)!

Oh man! Sometimes the simplest things in Indonesia leaves one pulling out her hair! Take buying tickets for my flight from Medan, Sumatra to Lake Toba. I'm leaving in 4 weeks for my Medan-Lake Toba-Bukit Lawang National Park-Singapore 2 week adventure!!! WOOOOOOO!

This is the world's scariest small plane I will fly in in 4 weeks. Am I freaking out already? Yes. Woud Mom die if she had to get on this plane? Yes. Might I die from fright...yes. I may ask Dr. L for some sedatives just in case!!! But the perk is that we're flying through/above mountains that are guaranteed beautiful, if not the most scary and stressful $75 round trip of my life. 

Little task made larger problem #1:

So I wanted to buy these world's scariest plane (only according to me and probably mom) tickets like a month ago. The first time I tried, the internet wasn't working. The second time, couldn't pay because my bank thought someone was stealing my money. The third time I tried, the lady from the place booked for me, but then I was informed after the fact that I had to pay within 24 hours at the bank, and I didn't make it because I read the email 12 hours later and then missed the cut because I was teaching. Frustrating.

So today was the day it was gonna happen! I had already withdrawn 1,500,000 Rp (150 USD) for my ticket and Britteney's. I didn't have to teach until 10:15. I woke up at 6. I booked the tickets by 6:30. I called the company to confirm that I had to pay at my local bank, not a ticket counter in a big city (this was done in Bahasa Indonesia, success!!). And then I saw it. The cut off time this time was two hours instead of 24 horus. FOR GOSH SAKES, SUSI AIR! Throw me a bone! (Julia Zwak, I expect a good lie about where that phrase came from, please!)

So with my cut off time 8:30 AM, I planned to leave at 7:30 to get to the bank at 8 because it doesn't even open til 8, so really Susi Air was giving me a half hour time frame! 7:15 rolls around and crap! I still gotta make a worksheet before I go so I can photo copy it! 7:45 AM OMG! I run downstairs and breeze pass my host mom. I have 45 minutes to bike 4 km (2 miles, but a bumpy road, so usually about 25-30 minutes) and then wait for my number to be called at the bank. I made it to the bank in 20 minutes flat and ran in. Alas, sweaty and puffing I passed the security guard that I thought was cute. (But then I got a better look and he's probably like 35 and that's a little old!) I have 15 minutes to make this transaction happen. But I look around and see that is not gonna happen. Who knew the bank in my little town would be so hopping at 8 AM. Well, I guess these people have been up since like 4:30 for morning prayer, so...

Incapable of figuring out how to take a number for waiting in line, the bank lady helps me. Then I pick up the phone again to call and plead with Susi Air to extend my time frame. The man on the other end of the phone was like, lady, just text me your confirmation number and I pleaded, let me try once more! Almost 10 minutes later and me trying again and again to correctly pronounce my confirmation number (Y like "ya," W like "watermelon," Z like, well, Z...), I get my time extended. The Indonesian speaking man was rattling off "Alpha" "Beta" "Yankee" code names for the letters, but I was not that fluent in secret military speak.

Get off the phone, handsome but too-old-for-me security guard knows that I'm flustered and confused. Fills out my transfer money sheet for me. SUCCESS!

Off to get my bike handlebars adjusted. Done in 7 minutes flat. MIRACLE.

Little task made larger problem #2:

Now to copy my worksheet. I go to the toko to copy it. Can't do it ibu (ma'am) (darn it, do I look like a ma'am??). You have to go to the warnet (internet cafe) first to print a copy of the worksheet from your flashdrive. So I go to the warnet 100 meters away (at least it's close). Print. Return to the copy place and get my copies.

Visit the local little (shady) hospital to try to meet the dentist so I can get my teeth cleaned. But I want to meet the person first to judge how legit this place is. I remembered Joe G's experience with PC in Guatemala and how he was Med Evac'ed for some strange dental things...but alas, I have to teach in 45 minutes now and I can't wait for dokter gigi (dentist) any longer. Another day, bu!

Return to school and teach. Almost fall asleep standing in class because MY COUNTERPART IS THE MOST BORING TEACHER OF MY LIFE. But I had to wait my turn for teaching, and I did it without freaking out, so I was as patient as a god today, some applause, please!

Plan a lesson with my other awesome counterpart.

Home to workout, only to remember my 13-year old host brother left the room in front of mine a disaster when he came back for 4 days from his boarding house, so instead I have to clean up his mess.

Small task made bigger problem #3:

Procuring turkeys for PCVs Thanksgiving on Saturday.
Option #1: Order two 13-lb turkeys for $25 USD a piece at a warehouse (Bahasa Indonesia over the phone again...exhausting!). Downside: Warehouse is located far from most stuff in Surabaya; we'd have to pick it up on Thursday so it can defrost, I can't get there until Friday afternoon; my friend who works at the PC office could get it but Thursday is Thanksgiving so she's off.

Option #2: More expensive turkey (one 13-lb turkey $36 USD) at a grocery store close to the PC office, they will defrost it for us and we can get it Friday. Order 2 over the phone again in Bahasa Indonesia.

Consult teman turkey/team turkey Brian, who said let's do the cheap way, the PC staff member agreed to do it. AND WHAT A SAINT SHE IS!!!

So now I have 4 turkeys, 2 of which will be cancelled tomorrow lest I turn into a turkey!!!

Turning into a turkey? It's happened before. 

Moral of the story? Whether you want to go to the bank to pay a fee, photo copy so worksheets, or call for help over the phone (using Bahasa Indonesia, AHHHH!), little things here sometimes take a lot of effort. I long for the simplicity of running errands in the US!!! But today, I was totally calm, cool and collected..Not to mention I miraculously accomplished so much in one day. Usually the way things work here, I could have accomplished one of the above errands on a given day. Today's efficiency was a gift!!!!!

Celebrations

My village is never short of celebrations and/or gatherings. You gather to pray if: someone dies, someone is born, someone is getting married, someone is going on the hajj, someone got back from the hajj, it is someone’s birthday (though last week was the first Indonesian birthday party I’d heard of), for the weekly prayer gathering time, for a holiday, for someone’s new house, for a new musholla (small mosque) opening…you get the point!

Gosh darn it, I hope I look that regal on my wedding day!

                                              

The process of these gatherings is always the same…

Nurul and THE SPEAKERS. Small lady, big sound!

Prep:

- Big speakers (usually borrowed from my rich host family) are turned up to full-blast so any music or speaking or reciting Al Qur’an that is done automatically makes me want to scream, “Doesn’t that hurt your ears!? And it doesn’t even sound good!”

Yupi, a distant relative who love to give me free salak and
oranges at the pasar. Prepping the take-home boxes for her
niece's wedding with over 250 guests...

- Cooking for mass quantities of guests for at least 5 hours (usually more like 10+ hours) before guests come. Add hours and days accordingly based on guest size (weddings have over 300+ guests, all of whom eat there and then take food home…)

- Move furniture away and put down rugs that the guests will sit on.

- Slap on your nicer hijab at the last minute so you look pr woman esentable to guests!

For my friend Indah's wedding, I was strategically
placed at the very front of the receiving line. To flaunt
the white lady or so the Indonesian girls wouldn't have
to stand in the sun and get darker?? Hard to say. But the
result? I was in the sun for only like 15 minutes and the
sun burnt me through the mesh holes of the kebaya...an
interesting tan, to say the least! 

The Event

- Welcome guests by extending your hand. The guest will take it and not shake it like we do in the US, but just give it a quick grasp. Some people, often men (maybe because I’m a?), don’t even really squeeze your hand, they just do an open palm touch, like holding hands with a teenage boy during the Our Father at church situation. If the guest is younger than you or you are important for some reason (old, rich, teacher, respected, etc), the guest will bring the host’s hand to the guest’s face, lips, or forehead. This is called “salim” and most children (as young as possible through adult children) will do it every day with their parents when they leave the house to go to school or work. Then the newcomer will proceed to shake everyone else’s hand and I’m not kidding you even if there are like 40 people crammed into one prayer circle I am prodded to shake everyone’s hand. Maybe it’s cause I’m a random white lady and people want a good look at me? Cause I’ve definitely seen other people just shake a few hands and then sit down. 

The mysterious food baskets!!

- At some of these events, women come with baskets of food. At first, I was confused: “How is one family gonna eat 100 baskets of food from the guests!?” Then I asked about this and learned that the women all bake and bring snacks, and when it is time to go, the hostess distributes the snacks into take-home bags, so really it’s like a cookie-exchange! You come with your cakes and you leave with a couple of other ladies’ treats!

- Guests will sit down and usually, if there is praying, that happens first, and usually just a few minutes. Then the guests are forced to eat and it doesn’t matter if you just ate at 5 other homes, you better eat or people will be upset. I have learned to plan for this and purposely do not eat beforehand!

I told you, this food prep is serious business! (Wedding) 

Vats of food!! (House warming)

Host brother's 13th birthday party. 

   

The take-home food bags ready to go!

- After you eat, and sometimes before you are even done, the host will hand you your second meal to go, all wrapped up and ready for the motorcycle ride (or bike ride!) home.

- Guests immediately leave, after shaking everyone’d hand on the way out. If I’m lucky, I leave, too. The whole process is relatively painless and usually happens in under a half hour. But sometimes I get stuck because I’m the lone white lady who “bisa Bahasa Indonesia?!” (can speak Indonesian) so the trapped bule (foreigner) proceeds to answer questions for a while, despite sweating like a hunting caveman and being tired. 

Fahris' 13th! 

First birthday party he's ever had...I helped him with the decorations, all of which
the guests (13 and 14 year old neighbors) found to be very odd decorations! And
check out those rugs to sit on!!!

Effie as the emcee...hilarious! 

 

And for some good measure, the day I taught about Thanksgiving in English Club. Don't let these awesome pictures fool you, as a whole it could have been 100x  more fun and engaging. I lectured for a long time about the Native Americans and English and how it was a similar take-over with the Dutch and Indonesian ethnic groups. Many different ethnic groups get a label slapped on them, like the Lakota, Dakota and Cherokee become Native Americans and the Javanese, Sundanese, and Dayaks become Indonesians Also, I really tried to push the idea that the Europeans were jerks to the Native Americans, thought not sure how well that got across...anyways, then I ended with a quick story about how in the beginning, the Native Americans helped the Europeans and then had a big meal together, thanksgiving, before sh*t went down and the Europeans turned bad. I may have thrown out the word genocide, but clarified that this genocide was manifest differently than others. Land, food, and other essentials were taking away so Native Americans had no chance, while in other countries with genocide people were systematically hunted down and killed. (Though some battles between Europeans and Native Americans aimed to do that, too. And I'm also not very educated on the whole history of Native Americans versus Europeans, so in this case Native Americans very well could have also been systematically hunted down and killed, too). It's complicated and a crappy situation that may have left my students really, really confused now that I think about it, because why would we be celebrating this terrible relationship between the Native Americans and Europeans? I hope I was clear that the celebration happened first, then all the bad stuff...

  

Post Miss-Sarah lecture, we had like 5 minutes to make hand turkeys or the famous (maybe infamous, it took sooooo long!) turkey boxes I made for teacher's appreciation in high school.

   

Kris, "I am thankful that I got a present."

Chindy, "thankful for enough money." (I may have prompted that one!) 

A new month and praying for a fresh start...

The last 2 weeks have been a little rough, to be honest. There were some harsh judgments of my character, judgments by me on others’ characters, and a severe lack of progress at school. 

October finished harshly. 

I am learning to be patient, something at which I have never been good. I am learning to take time before responding to a stressful situation. Bart, an ID-4 who has been here for 2 1/2 years now (CRAZY, MAN!) calls it "5 F-ing Hours." No matter how much you want to scream at someone for what is going on, he waits "5 F-ing Hours" to respond, so he has had time to cool down. Now for those who know me well, 5 hours would be like 5 days in my world. I hate conflict so much, I can last about 5 minutes. So Bart's 5 hours is about 30-60 minutes in my world. But biting my tongue for those 30-60 minutes the last few weeks (and even drafting emails before sending them so I can reflect on what I'm about to say!) has been such a good learning experience. I have avoided a lot of drama (albeit there still WAS a lot of drama), managed to remain composed in a society were that composition is of upmost importance, and, frankly, I have managed not to openly yell at anyone...though today's IPS-I (social science class) got a stern, "Wow, we learned this for one day and you practiced it and still no one can say one sentence?! Wow." I have no problem showing disappointment. 

So needless to say, all this drama has me asking, "It is worth me being here?" "How much difference have I made?" "How much difference can I really make?" 

I am tired of being called fat. I am weary from being reminded how different I am, I have been brought to tears at the lack of understanding of the language around me, and I am frustrated from pouring my heart and soul into teaching and cultural integration only to have few people seem to recognize how hard it can be for a lone American here.

Last night at my church’s worship was the first time I almost broke down here. There is something about worship that allows your heart to finally get a word in and you are finally in tune with your emotions rather than lost in your thoughts. In that moment, I realized how much I miss home. I miss worshipping in my language. I miss chatting with my friends and it being effortless. I miss having people I love to comfort me when I am sad and lonely. I miss being able to call people up at a moment’s notice when I need them. I miss hard work being recognized. I miss simple things, like not having to boil water before drinking it, eating food that I like, not having to brave the storm of 15 little kids yelling at me until I say hello as I just try to make my way to the shower during their tutoring time.

As hard as these 2 weeks have been, I try my best to stop and put it all into perspective. I was sent here and I have a purpose. I am learning so much about myself, my culture, my faith. I am here for a reason, even if that has not been revealed to me yet.

Despite all of the lonely, tough times...

here are the reasons I remain hopeful and trusting: