Sulawesi Getaway
It might be more accurate to say that I took a vacation near Sulawesi. Four other PCVs and I spent nine days on and
near Sulawesi, mostly on the little island of Bunaken. This was a good vacation. Much better than the one I took to Bali and
Lombok. I wanted something
calm-peaceful-serene. Bunaken was the
right place for that. But if you’re happy playing tourist…forget I said
anything. Bunaken sucks, go to Bali
instead.
I don’t really like writing about “what I did” on vacations
(or reading about what others did), but one minor highlight was Nicole
accepting a challenge to put two large spoonfuls of cumi-cumi (squid) in her mouth and trying to chew/swallow it all at
once. The cumi-cumi was served in a black ink sauce, which made it look
rather like a pen had exploded in her mouth.
To her credit, she got it all down after a couple minutes of working on
it and claimed a free beer as reward.
The peace and quiet afforded me a lot of time to think some
things over, which I needed. I finally
finished filling up my first-ever paper journal, close to two years after
starting it. Good decompression.
The part of Sulawesi we visited is majority Christian, which
was very interesting. I’d never been to
a Christian part of the country before.
There are just as many churches in Manado as there mosques in
Jombang. It was a little bit
trippy. It gave me the impression that
the people there are equally religious and equally eager to express that
religiosity, but they just do it in a different way. It was totally different, and completely the
same, if that makes sense. It was also
nice not to have the adzan screeching
through the peace of the mornings and evenings.
**
Mid-Service Training
(MST)
Mid-Service Training was at the Santika Hotel in
Surabaya. This was definitely a step up
from IST last October, which was at the Oval Hotel. Everything was nicer—the food, the air, the
ambience. And there were no bed
bugs! The only thing I could say for the
Oval is that some of the rooms are bigger with pretty awesome windows. And maybe the only thing I could say
“against” Santika is that during mealtimes, the staff is a bit overzealous
about offering coffee and trying to clear plates from the tables. Other than that, it’s no contest.
MST had a completely different feeling than IST. IST was held about four months after we had
arrived at our permanent sites. At that
point, most people had a lot of crazy built up in their blood. There was tension in the air, as if every session
was critical to our survival at site, and every evening after sessions had to
be jam-packed socially or wasted. There
was something frenetic about IST. For a
few days afterwards, I felt totally sapped.
MST was relaxed.
There was no panic in the air, and nobody was begging for help. Very few of the training sessions were run by
the staff. Rather, the majority were
facilitated by Volunteers leading discussions about project ideas and sharing
best practices. It was pretty
fluid. Going into MST, I actually felt
like it wasn’t terribly important (at least not in the way that PST and IST
were important) and wouldn’t end up being very useful. As it turns out, I was happy about the
sessions that we had. There were lots of
good ideas floating around. After some six
weeks of neither teaching nor thinking about teaching, it was a great way to
get my head back in the game. And I gave
my first-ever haircut to a very brave man.
MST was also the first chance for all of us to get together
since Thanksgiving. ID-5 has lost six
people since then. It was sobering to
see how much the group has shrunk. When
we arrived with thirty people, there was definitely a big-group feeling. Twenty made it to MST, and now this feels
like a really small group. Throughout
the training I was periodically impressed by the maturation of ID-5. We have come a long way. Everyone is so much more aware of themselves
and their environment than they were before.
People are calmer. It’s like
we’ve figured out who we are in this place.
**
Notes from the first
few days of school
So, my second year of teaching has begun, and I’m not sure
it’s possible to exaggerate the contrast to the first. All things considered, I think I was about as
prepared as one could expect going into the last school year. I wasn’t really that confused, but the whole
environment was still quite foreign.
This year, however, has a completely different feel. I only started teaching on Monday, three days
ago, but the last few days might be the most productive that I’ve strung
together since getting here.
Wins
·
We had our first teacher planning meeting for me
and my CPs. Everyone who was supposed to
come DID come—no excuses, no complaints.
Because so much of the groundwork was laid last year, we’re farther in
terms of organization after three days than we were after several months in my
first year.
·
All the English teachers met with the principal
to discuss our activities and making Speaking Club the school’s official
English Club. Honestly, I felt a couple
twinges of pride looking around the office and seeing all the English teachers,
two Vice Principals, and the Headmaster sitting and hammering out the details
to make this activity legit and school-supported. All the English teachers will be involved,
and we received permission to recruit student facilitators from 12th
grade so we can expand the capacity of the club. The government funds that normally go toward
supporting traditional English clubs will now be directed to the Speaking Club,
so we can actually pay the teachers for their participation—a pretty important
motivational tool for people who are used to going home to their families
immediately after school ends (or even before it ends). This was a huge step towards sustainability.
·
At MST, Ms. Ani and I decided it would be
worthwhile to get an MGMP running for the schools in my regency that have
PCVs. There are only five state
madrasahs in my regency, and three of them now have a Volunteer. So we discussed this with the principal, and
he approved the idea (and some funding).
We’re going to invite PCVs and their co-teachers from three nearby
madrasahs and try to get some cooperation going between the schools. Hopefully I can help out the new kids as they
make their way through the wacky funhouse that is the first semester of
teaching in Indonesia. And farther down
the line, perhaps we can organize some kind of English camp or competition.
·
I’m infinitely more relaxed in the classroom
than I was at the start of last year.
The students are less frightened, I think, because they saw me around
the school for a whole year before becoming my
students. The main thing is feeling
like a boss.
**
Fasting for Ramadan starts tomorrow. I’m not going to do it this year. I mean, there’s no way not to fast at least
somewhat. Eating or drinking out in the
open would be unacceptable and cruel to all the hungry, thirsty people. But having had the experience of a full month
of fasting last year, and having already paid a significant physical price for
the general conditions of deprivation (at least as regards food) where I live,
I’m not interested in joining the fast again.
Anyway, I’m leaving for the US two weeks from tomorrow, where my goal is
to do exactly the opposite of fasting.
I’m ready to pig out.
I would like to be more active in the next two weeks than I
was last year during Ramadan. Now that I
actually know a lot of people, I can feel comfortable going to other houses to
break the fast. I would like to do that
with my old students and with some teachers and maybe at other PCVs’
houses. Ramadan also affects the
teaching schedule. Class periods are
shortened to 25 minutes and all extracurriculars are canceled. Still, I’ve got a lot I want to accomplish
before my trip to the US, so there can be no slacking off.
