Weekend Getaways

While I spend my weekdays in Surabaya, my weekends are happily spent visiting those I love in Mojokerto and Jombang. Here are a few things I've been up to: 

The Mojokerto Independence Day Parade

When Vallen invited me to a "carnival" 2 weeks ago, I said sure, I'd go. A few weeks ago, we'd gone to a carnival with a little haunted house, bumper cars, ferris wheel, etc, so I figured that one more in his city would do no harm. 

About 2 days before my arrival, Vallen clarified that I was going to be in the carnival, right? I said asked what he meant, since you can't really be "in" a carnival. He clarified: in the parade. Wow, buddy, that was not what I signed up for! As if the attention from walking down the street by myself is not enough, did I really want to relive this?

Ponorogo parade of 2013

Well, actually, yes, I would relive the makeup and dress up part, but the parade part? With over 2 hours of people screaming "Bule!" and "Picture Mister!" and staring at me? No way. At least I had those three for moral support, not to mention we were 10 feet off the ground on a dragon. The Mojokerto parade 2015 would have been me, alone, walking amongst the wild onlookers. No. Thank. You.  

So it was decided that I'd stay at my friend's house while Vallen was at the parade for 3 hours or so, and then we'd hang out together. 

Upon arriving in Mojokerto, Vallen took me to "meet some friends" at his gym. The 5 friends I envisioned meeting involved, in reality, me walking through a small house filled with about 20 men in matching black beaters with with words, "Pakde's Gym: There are no friends here. We are family" splayed across the chest. You can imagine my surprise to find myself walking through the midst of all of these guys, smoking, chatting, and so excited to be in this parade. 

Vallen is the modest one in the black t-shirt, to the right of the red t shirt guy. 

Vallen told me his niece and parents would be going to watch the parade, so I decided to put in some time with the fam and hang out with them while Vallen was in the parade. He left at 12 noon. While I envisioned him home again around 4 or 5 at the latest, the reality was that this parade took forever. He walked from about 2 or 3 PM until about 6 PM, then finally got home about 7 PM! Good thing I am an expert chatter!  

The good news is, I got to hang out with his family, and even managed to take a nap in the non-air conditioned home! His family is really welcoming, and I find his brother (24) and sister (21) great people to talk to. 

Here are some parade shots: 

Mayra, Vallen's niece, knows who I am, but she's still a little shy around me. After all, we've only met in real life twice, but we have been sending each other voice messages for over a month now! 

No parade is complete without the drumband! Mayra freaked out when they started playing and basically didn't stop crying for the next 20 minutes. 

Javanese extravaganza! This float is from Vallen's university. 

This is what I can only assume was a representation of each of Indonesia's 6 religions...Here you can see the pope, a priest, and a Buddhist monk. There was also a bishop with the bright pink hat! 

The Return to the Village

I've also had time to catch up with friends! The weekend prior to this parade, I went back to my village for the first time in about 14 months.

The weekend started off with Bu Lilik, my counterpart from Peace Corps, picking me up and going out to eat the most sugar I've ever consumed all at once! Chocolate milkshakes and waffles with vanilla ice cream at A&W, because there was a coupon. 

Then my crazy friend Rois picked me up and we visited his house. 

Steven, an old friend and PC volunteer, was there, too! This is Rois' wife and my good friend, Linda. Steven doesn't always walk around with balloons...it was "healthy walk" day with the village! 

Turnin' up for the healthy walk (which was a "grueling" 1/2 mile walk that over half of the Indonesian participants did not finish).  Here's a great shot of the height difference surrounding Steven!  

Bu Yastri, a counterpart with other PC volunteers, stopped by to say hi, too! 

Azam, Rois' son, is the youngest baby I've ever held, at 2 days old. Now he's 3! 

After that, I went to Murukan. This is my host sister-in-law's baby.

One of my best friends, Lilik, got bunnies a few weeks ago. Sam and Forrest, you have competition for cute bunnies! 

I visited Teguh, my cultural facilitator from PC training in 2012, in the Peace Corps office, where he just became full time staff. Hooray! 

Rachmad, the technical trainer of PC, just moved on to another job, but I snatched a moment to hang with him right before he left for Jakarta.

No weekend is complete without a visit from this guy! 

It has not been hard at all to introduce Vallen to American food. Here's a Pizza Hut shot! 

Some questionable cheesy bread at Pizza Hut

Party all week long! 

Since party weekends are not enough, I go out during the week, too! Hahaha. This was the first time, actually. Some new Surabaya friends and I went out to eat and watch Mission Impossible 4 last night. 

Miss Nensy, a Bahasa Indonesia and German teacher

Mr. Frans (physics) and Mr. Yan (Geography)

Food shot, because you can never have enough rice!

Snapshots of the week

Hello all!

It's been a busy week!

Mr. Viky and I take a selfie. 

The sister school to the church that I'm volunteering at has two classes of 10th graders. One class is the King class, and the other class is the Sung class. Students get to decorate their own rooms. As in my school in Peace Corps, here the teachers come to the students' classroom, not vice versa. 

What is society? 

Mawar Sharon Christian School (MSCS) has a lot of administrative procedures for how to prep for a class. Lesson plans for an entire quarter are due technically before the term starts, but teachers are about a week behind on that. Before teachers hand out any assignments, worksheets, projects, tests, quizzes, note sheets, or anything to students, they have to show it to the head of SH curriculum, then get her stamp of approval, then it takes 2 days for it to be photocopied. This means that the last minute lesson planning lifestyle is not allowed. It's for the best, though!

Literally, the stamp of approval.

I also moved into my apartment and can finally walk around in my short shorts and tank tops without fear of being seen! Though last night, I did go take out the trash in some questionably skimpy outfit, and of course was seen by 4 people in the 10 seconds I was out of my room. Sheesh!

I arrived here with 4 bags, and in 2 weeks, I acquired! Both those in the foreground and background are mine.  

Ms. Lies (pronounced Lease) modeling the view from the 19th floor, my new apartment!

Ta-dah! A panoramic of my apartment, from where I am sitting on the bed. 

Amidst all the chaos of moving and having no transportation (more on that in another post, though it's worked out for the next month, don't worry!), my free time on the weekends is spent with Vallen.

There is no better place to find a giant, lit peacock than at Surabaya Night Carnival!  

I'm not oddly sunburned, it's the shadow of my camera while I'm taking a picture. 

Watching a 5 minute 3D movie before going into my first haunted house. Nothing jumped out and me but I still hated it. 

He also took me shopping to get things for the kitchen, and then shopped for some rings himself! 

Big rings are all the rage for bapaks (old guys) in Indonesia now, and I suppose Vallen, at age 30, is on the cusp of being old? Hahaha. One of my other friends asked me to bring back a bunch of rocks for him to tumble into stones and then sell for the rings, and Vallen wanted to check them out. 

As advised by my new pastor (also an American) at "International Christian Assembly", Vallen took me to get bread and, well, chocolate, at a bakery. Real French bread, hooray! 

Below, you can see photos of when I went shopping with Miss Meyta. She is a new staff member at MSCS. She just graduated from a branch of Alabama University that is located, of all places, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is 22, and she is a crucial part of the Student Support Services. She will help with counseling and the Life Skills class.

Miss Mey buying snacks for us! 

Mawar Sharon Christian School

I’ve translated this phrase, Mawar Sharon, for many people now, but really, where does this phrase “Rose of Sharon” come from? My mom told me that Rose of Sharon is used as one of the many titles for Mary in the Catholic Church. I also asked a coworker just now what she thought it meant, and she said that Rose of Sharon can grow and flower even in the desert. Hence, the host church where I am volunteering adopted the philosophy of growing a strong, faithful church in the midst of whatever surroundings there may be. 

The welcome desk

Lobby

Here she is, MSCS. While the outside of the school looks a little like the face of a transformer, the inside is clean and cozy! 

Words of encouragement fill the halls

As well as words of...caution?? : /  Yikes!

Whirlwind weeks

I finished work at “I Have A Dream” Foundation on July 17^th, flew out July 18^th at 6 AM, arrived in Surabaya at 9 AM on July 20^th, and went to the church for the first day on July 22^nd. I have also visited the church's sister school to see what that is like. Last Thursday (July 30^th) the senior high students arrived for the first time. As 10^th graders, most of them were part of the first class that ever existed at MSCS (the school began 10 years ago). However, a handful of the 29 10^th graders have been at MSCS only since middle school (grades 7-9), and 3 of the 29 are completely new to MSCS. 

"1st Batch" had already happened by the time I tried to explain that that was more for cookies than students...

  

The school building

The facility is a beautiful, clean building with 6 floors. The higher the floor, the older the students! 

Standard classroom, complete with President Jokowi and the VP's picture flanking the Garuda. Because this is, after all, still Indonesia!   

A candid shot of some teachers. The staff is overwhelming yuppies in their 20s and 30s. 

  The church and school are equipped with Western toilets, classrooms with the black lab tables just like I used in high school, a classroom with a full kitchen for Life Skills class, a (nearly empty) library, computer labs, an elevator that sadly only runs from 7 AM to 4 PM (meaning that the 6:40 AM and 4:30 PM arrival and departure forces teachers to walk up and down 5 flights of stairs), lockers for the middle and high school students, and so on!

Chem/Bio lab

Life skills classroom

The library that is rather empty at the moment.

Computer lab

Hooks for the little kids

Lockers for the big kids

It really is a beautiful school, but it is bursting at the seams. The school prefers to have moving classes for the middle and high school students, but it is not possible with the number of classes this year (pre-K-10^th grade). Just like Peace Corps, the teacher comes to the students’ classroom, not vice versa.

Miss Nensy modeling the elementary school staff work room

The high school teachers' workroom...the school is maxed out on space, so they all have to share this one room until they move to a new location next school year!

Students

While I have spent a few days at the school, today was my first day interacting with them in English. I have to say, I was pretty doubtful about their level of English after witnessing how everything happened in Indonesian on the first day of school. All communication with teachers is also in Bahasa Indonesia, so it’s a real blessing I speak it. Most of the teachers from pre-K-10^th grade speak either decent or pretty darn good English, but it is not always required that they use English when teaching. It will depend on the teacher and the subject. 

Team-building activities

Indoor playground!

Sports field for gym class

Anyways, the students. These students are SMART! Today, I heard references to “a short summary of WWII”, “9/11 and Al Quaeda, John Wilkes Booth and Abraham Lincoln, Miller’s “Paradise Lost,” Dante’s “Inferno,” “Girl Meets World”, and more! These students are nothing, I repeat, nothing like my students during Peace Corps. Many of them travel to MSCS from 20-30 minutes away. Some have drivers. Some visit other countries on Christmas and summer break. Some of them make movies and are in bands. I bet most of them have laptops, too. 

I find myself struggling already to bridge the gap in my mind between these students and those in Jombang. I have to hold back from widening my eyes as I tell people I meet here in Surabaya that basically one student in Jombang spoke conversational English, and their classrooms in Jombang are little more than 4 cement walls. I do not want to discredit the wonderful personalities and smart students I met in Jombang, but when I see firsthand the haves and have nots, those presented with countless opportunities and those who do not have opportunities, the gap is gaping.

First day seminar with the school pastor, Mr. Victor

Praise and worship with the students...including three students who were asked to dance in front of the screen the whole time. Needless to say, there were no smiles from these middle schoolers when asked to do this. : )