School has Started

After nearly four months we finally settled in and everyday no longer feels like we are enjoying a long vacation, instead we are thankful to say we are living an amazing experience in Indonesia. We have started work at our high schools, active in a Church, and have already made many friends who are always introducing new social activities.

The first few weeks of school have been everything from thrilling to challenging. The students and teachers are still white eyed and respectful as we come to class. Everyone is excited about having a native English teacher to learn from and this has motivated us to really challenge the school to speak English. As mentioned before we are the first foreign couple to live in our town and consequently the first to teach full time at our high schools. Many stereotypes are being discussed and debated on a daily basis about the differing cultures of Indonesia and America. It is interesting to slow down conversations and really have time to think about what you are saying and realize that you are representing an entire country in the words you use. Most of our counterpart teachers only know what they read in the newspaper or see in the movies when it comes to the American lifestyle. The English teachers here are not completely fluent and struggle to motivate students because they themselves are scared to make mistakes as well. As we teach the entire class, we hope to calm the nerves of a very shy culture and hopefully the new excitement will outweigh the old mindset. Step by step, little by little. (Jalane saja, pelan-pelan)

At our new Church we slowly understand more of each sermon and enjoy the interaction with Indonesian Christians. Church starts much earlier at 6:00am, which we figure is to offset the call to prayer that starts every day at 5:00am. People are free to enter Church at 4am and many people do every day. After each service everyone walks across the street to a small house that serves food (warung) for breakfast. We then join the “Generation of Stars” to pray, sing, and have a bible study in English. This group is made up of roughly 10 high school students. We meet again on Monday nights. Most meetings involve a lot of laughter and scattered conversation and they are no different than most in our town: shy. We have been practicing “Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone” and will sing during the service this coming Sunday.

For entertainment we have joined a Hash Club, which has about 50 members from our town. (We’re not why it is called a Hash Club). The club meets twice a week in the late afternoon. We then load up in as few cars as possible and drive within an hour to a new spot to hike. This has allowed us to see the local mountains and natural beauty of our area. The group walks 3-5 miles at whatever pace each cluster wants and this allows time for us to practice our Indonesian small talk, joke a bit, and laugh a lot. We have made a handful of friendships already from this group and they have invited us to other events their families are involved with. It has been amazing how welcoming and hospitable these friends have been.

Lastly, Paige’s school had a teacher outing to Yogyakarta, the main city of Central Java. We had been told Yogya was about 3-4 hours west of us by train so we figured the same by bus. We met the other teachers and family at school at 2:30am and started the long bus ride. We learned a few things on this trip: Teachers like to eat and in a Muslim culture even on a bus trip you must stop to pray 5 times a day. The trip to Yogya took us about 7 hours! Luckily the bus had entertainment, aka, Karaoke. This day trip was more of an accelerated tour of the city. We started by viewing the base of Merapi, one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Next we visited a somewhat crowded and beautiful, Parangtritis beach. We were told swimming was forbidden there, but learned it was only because most people are scared of the water. So we found something to swim in at the local vendor and enjoyed the big waves. Following the beach, we drove back to one of the main market areas called Malioboro. For the first time we saw “Buleh” (anyone with white skin). The markets were crowded with many traditional crafts, specifically the Indonesian Boutiques. We enjoyed this very much because as we bargained the vendors were shocked to hear we could speak Indonesian and we could tell them their prices were high (Harga Mahal!). The trip ended with a 15 minute walk home at 2am and then school at 6:45 the next morning. It’s hard to get out of bed after a trip like that, but the kids’ excitement makes it worth it.