For 730 days...

...I will be living in the province of Jombang, in a village called (email me for the name, Peace Corps encourages us to maintain confidentiality about our exact location on a public blog)! Look this baby up on a map, because this is my new home and where some of you will hopefully be coming to visit me! It is about 2 hours by bus from Surabaya, the nearest big town and frequent gathering place for PC events and trainings. I have also been told it is as hot as hell...we have been living in Batu, an elevated area, so it is "cool" (read: 80 degrees) and mountainous. We visited current volunteers last week to see what their sites were like, and I went east to Situbondo. I could not believe that it was true that Batu was cool, because Situbondo had to be in the upper 80s. Lord!

Anyways, some stats on my new home, where I will be moving June 15th or 16th.

Sekolah (school)

~3 English teachers, one man, two women. Not sure of their ages right now, or with whom I will work. Probably all of them, honestly.

~ School hours:

Monday- Thursday	6:40 to 1:35
Friday (most people go to the mosque at noon)	6:40 to 11
Saturday	6:40 to 1:35

That's right, folks, Indonesians go to school Monday-Saturday basically all year round. Oh my gosh! On the other hand, school gets cancelled frequently and sporadically, there is lots of testing during which I don't teach, and the whole month of Ramadan is shortened school because people are exhausted!

~ I should have acc

ess to internet at my school, meaning I can answer more emails!

~ There are only 300 students at the school, with about 28-30 students per class. A big improvement from St. Paul's student teaching classes of 40 students!

~ I am teaching at a MAN. This means "Madrasah Aliyah Negeri," or a public Islamic school run by the Minister of Religious Affairs (instead of the Minister of Education and Culture). Many schools in Indonesia are MAN, though I believe MAN schools are still the minority. So what does teaching in a MAN mean? The students still have all the same classes as a public high school, but their religion classes are only about Islam instead of about whatever religion they want to take. It is also mandatory that girls wear the hijab (not a full body covering or even veiling the face, just a headscarf that covers their hair and is closed under the chin). There are uniforms at every school that I have ever seen here, so boys, girls, and teachers wear those. Peace Corps allows the school to decide if I will wear a uniform, but Peace Corps has made sure that the schools we are working in do not mandate volunteers to wear hijabs (called "jilbab" here). My feelings on the jilbab will have to come in a later post, because I'm not sure what my feelings are on it. Even more unsure what my feelings would be on having to wear one. Interesting...

Keluarga (family)

~As I requested, another big family!

~5 host siblings, including 4 guys (ages 26, 24, 20, 15 (girl), 13). One guy is married and has a 2-yr old son! Then a host mother and father. Not sure who will live in the house with me...but maybe with me, 10 people in one house!

~ The family is "well-respected in the community and relatively well off." That translates to a 2-story house (my room will be on the second story), a western toilet and maybe even shower!

~ Host dad (I have never had a host dad before, as in Paris my host mom was divorced and here in Batu my host dad died years ago) works as a secretary for the village government, and his brother is the kepala desa (literally "head of village"). My host mom does a lot with community organizing, including health care for moms and children.

Masyarakat (community)

~This is a rural community with no public transportation. I'll have to bike to the main road (2.5-3.5 miles) to catch it.

~ My new community is close to a historic Majapahit site (not sure what that means yet...) There are Hindu temple remains where both local and international tourists come.

~Many community members are farmers and recycling home industry workers (not sure what that means...)

All in all, this sounds like a great site placement! Definitely going to take some getting used to that I'll have a really nice house, shower, and toilet. I spoke with another volunteer about how it's been a bit difficult for me to adapt to the changing times (see my post on globalization). I admittedly joined the Peace Corps with the romanticized notion that I'd be living in a small home with only a squat toilet, no shower, etc. But times are changing, and the Peace Corps is changing. The Peace Corps in Indonesia is, I will say it again, so very similar to my life back home.

At the end of the day, I have to remind myself that being here to get dirty and feel like life is hard is not what I seek to get out of the Peace Corps. I am here to teach, and share cultural, human and social capital with those around me. I am here to empower and encourage. If that comes with sweat, squat toilets, and bucket showers, all the more dramatic and good for a story! But if it doesn't, my time here is still of the same value.

Don't worry, the sweat will definitely occur.