Wednesday, October 30, 2013

A little bit o’ this, a little bit o’ that

It is definitely true that the second year of Peace Corps flies by. While I have still be teaching, I have been investing a lot more time in travelling around the area and spending time with friends.

Here are some snapshots of the festivities I have been up to.


Riza’s wedding

Riza and Lia signing the legal documents
Riza is my close friend in Mojoagung. He is the 10th of 12 siblings (one person died though, as a baby) and my host cousin. 

Here it is, the picture I have been waiting for for 16 months. All 11 siblings!!!

Just a few of the grandkids...literally, just a few of them. There's about 35 and counting. 

We also work at schoo together. His journey to marry was a tumultuous one. He was dating a girl for about 3 years and wanted to marry her. However, his parents didn’t approve because they didn’t know her and didn’t want to get to know her. Additionally, they had already arranged weddings for all their other childern (save one), so they wanted to arrange Riza’s wedding, too. He was heartbroken but as a good Muslim son does, he did what his parents asked. He met with the first girl they wanted to set him up with, but he really wasn’t feeling it, so that quickly ended. The next girl, Lia, was apparently more his type because a few months later, they were married. How well did they really know each other before getting married is not clear, though my guess is not well. Riza’s other siblings hardly knew their spouse before marrying. One sister-in-law, Dia, told me that she was scared to marry Ria’s brother Lutfe. Lutfe had really long hair that he didn’t cut until the day before the wedding, so she thought he was a little crazy! Fit and Khuna, Riza’s sisters, married men about 10 years older than them.

Riza and Lia at the ceremony at her house. Check out that fancy background!
Anyhow, Riza and Lia clearly met a few times and got to know each other a little. At least to the point where Riza would come to school and I would be able to tell when he’d been to see Lia because he was so upbeat and smiley.

Me: “You just saw Lia, didn’t you!?”

Riza (huge smile): “Yes, how did you know?!”

Me: “You are beaming!”

Riza (blushing, if a brown-skinned Indonesian could blush, that is): Eeeeeeeeeee!

Aisyah and Salma, the cutest wedding attendees and Riza's nieces. 

Riza and I playing with Lia's hijab after she took it off! 

Riza (married the day before), brings Lia to his house, accompanied by her parents.

Costume change! This is at the reception at Riza's house.
Lia sans tons of make-up
Cooking up a storm!
Spying on Riza's make up session!
Al Banjarian. Riza's friends spice up (or maybe "holy" up) his wedding part with some Arabic tunes. Aka reciting the Al Qur'an. Best to just call it what it is...
Teaching 'em young! 
The crew Lutfe and wife Diah, Khuna (with the knife pointed at her brother), Titik, Nisak and Yul's wife Titin. 

People were EXHAUSTED! Just sleeping anywhere and everywhere!!
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 That crazy day when I took 18 kid to the pool…by bicycle

If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for milk.

If you tell a neighbor kid that you went swimming, they are gonna ask to go with you sometime.

If you promise them you will take them, they are gonna invite their friends, too.

I knew all this, yet I was shocked by the result of this group. As soon as I promised to take a handful of these kids to the pool, I knew that there would be a ton more who wanted to come. So I told them for every 3 kids, one adult. No adults, no pool. I was not about to bike with a million kids down a very busy road (picture highway 19 in Sun Prairie, or the highway into Northfield at Carleton).

Right before I freaked out they were gonna drown!
The morning came and the one other adult girl who was committed to going with me very Indonesian-ly cancelled. I was left madly texting all my friends. “Have pity on me! There’s a million kids going to the pool with me!!” After a 45-minute, anxiety filled waiting period, six of my friends were ready to chaperone the 18, yes, 18 kids. Lord.

Endah is endel (loves attention)!
 
We set out for the pool at least three miles away on lots of bikes. All my friends were on their motorcycles with kids hanging off the front and back. That still left about 12 kids on bikes. Imagine a long line of kids going down the highway with a white lady screaming at them to get to the side. Cars are whizzing past, the kids (who have never biked outside of the village) are passing each other on the busy road. The motorcycle-riding chaperones are going forward and falling back to scold the kids to stay in line.

Check out that awesome Muslim lady bathing suit!!
 
Miraculously, we made it there and proceeded to swim. And by swim, I must point out that only about 10 of these kids, if even 10, could actually swim. So there was a lot of me catching kids as they went down the waterslide. Only 2 of the girls went in over their heads once and almost went under. Fortunately, one of the chaperones was there, because God forbid an Indonesian pool have a lifeguard. Aka, there were over 150 kids there and no lifeguard anywhere.

The crew. Lord. Have. Mercy.

Thankfully, Aan was ready with tools in his motorcycle for when one of the kid's bikes needed some repair!
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Weekend at Rois's House

Aside from being my es degan (coconut juice) provider, Rois has also been a close friend since my arrival! He was my Bahasa Indonesia/ Bahasa Jawa teacher for 2 months when I first arrived in Mojoagung. He is fluent in English, Javanese, Indonesian, and Arabic. He’s a middle school Arabic teacher now, but he’s going to school for a second undergrad in English.

I met his wife Linda and son Azam and quickly fell in love with his family. 

Rois and Azam
I have stayed the weekend at Linda’s family’s house, and a few weeks ago headed over to Rois’s house in Mojokerto city. We made delectable gurami bakar (grilled fish). I played with Azam. And I drank about 5 glasses of es degan. Oh enak!


I was coached through cleaning and cutting the fish, but Rois was unsatisfied with my crappy job. Whoops…
Filet that fish!

Gurami Bakar (Grilled carp), oh enak!

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MGMP Mojoagung

MGMP is a group of teachers of the same subject area who get together and share ideas and information about the subject area. I attended a few times with my school, but the English MGMP was sorta a drag. So I made my own!

If you’ve ever read the book The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, you will be familiar with a “connector.” A connector is a person who is very good at bringing his/her various social networks together and introducing people to each other. Since my Carleton days this is something I have loved to do, and my new MGMP is no different.

Commands, maybe? "Raise your arms!"
So far, we have met 3 times. We have had PC volunteers, middle school English teachers, high school English teachers, student teachers, university students, private English tutors, and general English enthusiasts (read: Rois!) come to the meetings. We have a blast hanging out and chatting. The best part is that the attendees bring other friends, so the connections keep growing. My hope is that this can be a really sustainable resource for English speakers to gather and hang out even after I leave.

Unscrambling a story, "The three little cows" (best not to use pigs here as they are Muslim!)
We have shared English vocab/grammar games, storytelling, Total Physical Response (TPR) activities, and I remain nothing short of dumbfounded by the humility, fluency, confidence, and passion of these people. When people ask me how to help the education system in Indonesia, I tell them that they don’t need me. The resources and the outstanding teachers are already here (like everyone who comes to the MGMP). They are simply overworked and underpaid.


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 Lilik and Faik

I swear that friends in my village just come out of the woodwork.  I didn’t know Faik and Lilik well until about 6 months ago, and now we are joined at the hip! Faik teaches LES for elementary students in the evenings (tutoring). I teach about 10 elementary school students English on Tuesday afternoons at her house. After that, we usually cook and hang out together.

I taught them the card game President.

Because this is not the USA with “beverages” as Julia says, we use powder or make-up to draw on each other’s faces when we lose. I was introduced to this concept months ago, but my friend Brian was totally confused when we played cards with our friends when hiking Semeru.

Coret!!!
Brian: “Why do they drink a glass of water when they lose?!”

Me: “Brian, this is Muslim Indonesia. Ain’t no alcohol here!” So the loser’s choice is to get powder on his/her face or drink a full glass of water. Brian promptly concluded that if anyone was gonna get sick from this drinking game, it was not alcohol-related but the fact that that cup was dirty and definitely had some bacteria growing on it. That’s living on the edge for this particular group of Indonesians, I guess!

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Idul Adha

Idul Adha is the Muslim holiday to remember the time Abraham was going to sacrifice Ishmael but God delivered Ishmael and provided a ram instead. In the Christian story (Genesis chapters 16, 21, and 22), Abraham is going to sacrifice Issac because he is the true son of Abraham and Sarah, the son that they waited to have for so long. Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Hagar, a maidservant of Sarah. God promised Abraham many descendants but Abraham essentially got tired of waiting and had a child with Hagar. This son, Ishmael, would have descendents who became Muslim, while Issac’s descendants would be Christians.

Walking the goats pre-slaughter

Muslims do not believe in animal sacrifice as a way to be forgiven of their sins. It is simply a way to remember the sacrifice of Abraham, God’s mercy, and the sacrifice of ourselves as we serve God on earth. Additionally, one of the five pillars of Islam is to give to the poor, and giving out the meat from this sacrifice is a way to do so.

Nothing like watching a cow die while one's name is on the list of people for which this cow is being sacrificed! (Clarification, not MY name, just names in general)


My school sacrificed 1 cow and about 6-7 goats. Cows and goats are very typical of Indonesian sacrifices. Maybe a lamb or a sheep here or there, too. One of the PC staff went to the Muslim country of Morocco last year at Idul Adha, and she said that they celebrate this holiday there even more than Idul Fitri (the day after Muslims finish fasting for Ramadhan). She said the streets were literally red with blood. In this part of Indonesia, this is not the case. Generally, people gather at their mushollas (small mosques) by their house to sacrifice a cow or goat with their neighbors. They distribute the meat to the neighbors and that’d that. My school distributed meat to all the teachers (this year I got some good cuts of meat as opposed to last year’s mixture of innards, skin/fur, and a little meat!), the poorer students, and community members.


People are always strangely gleeful to have their picture taken as they hack away at the meat...
Note that my students are just sitting around the meat in their school uniforms that they will just put on again the next day for class...

Portioning out the meat, just on some old tarp. 

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English Camp

This English Camp could not have been more awesome.

I didn't plan anything, so it will be 100% sustainable.

My girls! 15 people in a gutted out van? No problem-o!

The woman leading it is named Bu Yam. That’s “Boo Yum.” The co-leader was a woman named “Sofa.” “You can call me Sofa, but not chair!” she joked. The student representative was Hani. That’s “Honey.”  These are their real names!!

Bu Yam, after taking the center stage, held her arms up like this, and then prompted freaked out. "Hello, I am Bu Yams Imyute (The cute Miss Yams). I am so happy you are here. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I'm standing like this and I haven't bathed yet! You poor people, smelling me!" What a lady!

I gathered 12 students, 2 friends, rented a van, and drove up to Wonosalam. We joined other high school students, university students, and community members in a beautiful, secluded bamboo structure.

Rosyid and our wheels


I presented about English idioms, symbols (I love you in sign language, you drive me crazy, winking), and how to interact well with foreigners. Bu Yam presented on fun grammar, and Sofa did listening and pronunciation. We had a campfire, a yell-yell competition (like group cheers), and outbound. All in all, it was an exhausting but very successful weekend.



Yell-yell competition (team cheer)

Andrian is the most spirited of them all. Rivaled only by another guy nicknamed "Panda."

Problem-solving

A birthday celebration. Hit with flour! Instantly aged for one's birthday

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