From Daniel -- This week I traveled by bus to Surabaya to meet a handful of current volunteers in order to greet the new gang of 48 new trainees who have chosen to volunteer 27 months of their life here in East Java, Indonesia. This month marks one year of service for our group of 22 volunteers. If you have been following since the beginning you may remember we started with 30 trainees in our group. Due to various reasons from sickness, family health problems back home or just being “kurang krasan” (aka not comfortable and happy) our group is smaller. At the same time all but 3 from the first group of volunteers, who have been selected to stay a third year, will depart from Indonesia looking for new opportunities back in the USA and throughout the world. It feels fitting to say that with the shuffle going on “Change” is a great theme for discussing the first year here.
Just recently one of our friends, Febri who works at the local gym, decided to move to another Indonesian island called Kalimantan to work. We found out the night before she departed by plane that her contract will be at least a year long. Many people search out work on other islands or countries due to higher wages that ultimately they hope to bring back home. We were surprised and sad to hear the news because she was a constant face for us in our community. Most days we find our way to the gym usually around 4:30 as the weather cools off and the crowd thins in preparation for the evening call to prayer. “Hello Febri how are you?” said slowly by one of us followed by “I am good” and a loud nervous laugh. Febri like many adults here are respectful and often too nervous to talk much to us because they are afraid they will not understand the entire conversation. Her simple mannerisms and laugh are something we did not realize we had found comforting and safe until suddenly it is gone. Sound familiar?
Our life today is drastically different from a year ago. We ride bicycle daily roughly 60-100km/week instead of driving cars 200 miles/week. (I am sitting in the front open room of our house typing this blog as Paige tries to figure out the game she created for her class tomorrow. Our family must be tired because they are already in bed with the lights out at 9:15pm, normally Pak or one of our host sisters watches TV until about 11:00pm. An enormous flying bug or possibly a small dragon just flew in the open front door and is amazed by the ceiling lights and is having a hard time finding his way back out. Neither one of us even flinches and continues on with our activities.) Many of the foods eaten daily were not in our vocabulary before and some of them we are still not sure exactly what they are. We happily eat pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables a week. Our appreciation for good teachers, improvisation skills, and patience are at an all time high. Daily mood swings are much more drastic that either of us remembers as frustration can grow quickly when dealing with a situation confused by language and cultural differences. We have more time to read, although that can be difficult due to the day time heat and local kids wanting to play if sitting outside. Daniel is happy to say he has read two books in the last month, Moneyball and Heaven is for Real. The best part is that in both the past and present we were and are happy. God has continued to bless us with changes that are helping us to grow stronger. Although change can be difficult and challenging there is always a purpose and why not believe it is for the good?
From Paige -- We left on April 4th, 2011 and I happened to finish my journal on April 4th, 2012.
The following was the last journal entry of my journal:
It’s amazing to flip through the pages of this journal and recall the highs and lows of this past year. Exactly 365 days ago we said good bye to everything we knew and boarded a plane to start our Peace Corps life. I was scared, Daniel was excited; I was sad too.
Over the past year I feel like we’ve grown and hopefully changed for the better. I take that back – I know we’ve grown. At times I wonder if I’ve grown more cynical and judgmental. But then there are times where I know we’ve grown into better teachers, better supporters, listeners, spouses, friends. The moments of cynicism are exchanged with moments of joy and elation after a student “Gets It”. Or a moment of language frustration has been replaced with compassion for a teenaged-boy with down syndrome who clearly understands my questions “Namamu siapa?” (What is your name?) and “Apa kabar?” (What’s up?). Eko replied “Baik saja” (I’m fine) and gave me a high five.
Life as we know it will never be the same. Life in Indonesia has forever impacted our impressions of life back in America. I’m curious to see how weird America will feel or how weird our families say we’ve become. We now have lenses of simplicity and of “hands-on”. I know I don’t need near as much as I thought I did. All the boxes of possessions that are waiting for me back home seem almost foreign. I have the notion I really don’t remember most of what I thought I needed to keep.
Don’t get me wrong. There are still days where I would love to have a microwave, an A/C, a car, and especially a curling iron or hair straightener. These are the days I look in the mirror at a girl with no make-up on and my hair in a head-band, ponytail combo and wonder when I became so frumpish and boring. These are the days when I miss showing cleavage and sparkle and dragging my reluctant boyfriend/fiancé/husband onto the club dance floor. But those “missed days” are less frequent, actually pretty rare. Those days have been replaced with Dyah’s bright smile when she sees me down the street, yells “Missssss!!!”, and runs to catch up to me to ask about our les on Tuesday. Or Layna saying she’s happy because she’s sitting next to Miss Paige while she’s making her paper Easter Egg.
I will not regret my Peace Corps time. I am where I should be, even when I’m calling Daniel in sobbing tears over the disrespect of a student copying in class (which actually happened today). Or when I’m still not feeling quite fluent enough, or not fitting in well enough at school (which happens almost every day). I think this experience if nothing else, will teach me how much good really does come out of those bad days. And hopefully those bad days will remind me of the need for patience, compassion, love and full dependence on God. I know I forget that way too often and for some reason I still receive His grace. Lucky for me He’s not through with me yet. And I have an odd year experiences to remind me of all that I’ve become.
And finally I’m still thrilled to say that when those “missed days” come out too strong to ignore, I meet up with the awesome Peace Corps volunteers for our 1 year-anniversary, for the welcoming of 47 newbies and for shaking it all night long on the roof of our hotel for our Inaugural Peace Corps Prom. No better way to celebrate!
We love sharing about Indonesia, so don’t hesitate to leave any comments or questions. Many activities and such have become normal and sometimes hard to share with full detail, but your questions will allow us to focus on a topic.
Also, for anyone interested in visiting Indonesia let us know. We would love to start planning when and where to go. Thanks for all the support and prayers.
Daniel - rockwall6@hotmail.com skype: Daniel_gable
Paige – paige.gable@live.com skype: Paige.Gable.Indo
Most of the pictures in the slideshow are of students who participated in an International Art Exchange. Indonesian students were asked to create culturally strong pictures that will then be sent to other countries. In return the schools will recieve pictures from 25 other countries.
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