Settling in

First off, some of you might have heard about the earthquake in Sumatra and the tsunami in Samoa; don’t worry there were no effects here whatsoever. If Sumatra is about where Oregon is in the US, then I’m in Indiana (the point being I’m safe and sound, and earthquakes rarely if ever happen here).
With that out of the way here are some more excerpts from my running journal; edited for all eyes J

1 of the teachers here (Easter, a philosophy major) climbed a tree, and hacked off a bunch of young coconuts, and then split them open so we could eat and drink from them out in the middle of the field. Another teacher accompanied us (I forget his name, but he invited me to go to his village sometime because he has lots of chickens; maybe he thinks I like chicken because I am a bule (white, foreigner)?) and another older woman teacher joined us after a while. She doesn’t speak any English, but she seems very nice and later that night dubbed me a ‘monkey putih tinggi’ (a tall white monkey) because I was eating a banana! When I was awarded that title I was in the middle of spending about an hour hanging out in one of the girls’ dorms with Yusran: basically it was just me being fed lots of cookies and talking to and through Yusran. Still pretty interesting though.
Speaking of food, force feeding has been going on for a while now! I know I need to fatten up, but these people love to see me eat and try their food (which I have to do not to be rude)! I’m figuring it out though and just not eating as much at the meals with Imran (which makes me feel better about eating his food). Which reminds me, it looks like I’ll be doing kind of a home stay with Imran: eating my meals with him (actually breakfast is hand delivered to me every morn at 6:30), using his washing machine for clothes, etc. I feel a little bad, but I think things will get sorted out; I have a cooking stove outside if I decide I want to cook sometime.
It’s also hard to tell when I might be encroaching or asking too much because no one says no in this culture in general and then you add in that I’m a visitor and I get “yes’d” all the time. That makes asking questions REALLY difficult because the answer is always the same and usually provided before I’ve even started asking the question, but it doesn’t mean anything (i.e. it’s pointless to ask much of anything or plan ahead of time).

As for class, the students definitely have a lot to learn, but it’s hard to tell how much because they are so shy. There’s definitely a large difference in ability between individual students. Another little issue is that Daya, the teacher that I’m working with, is brand new and is deferring to me all the time, but I don’t know what the hell I’m doing so that makes it…interesting. We’ll see how it goes; I have some good ideas, but not 8 months worth! I’ve already offered to have the students come to me when they need help so I’m going to be staying pretty busy, but I’ve kind of surprised myself with how connected I’ve gotten so quickly. Already I care that these kids learn to speak and be able to use English!

On the topic of teaching, my schedule is:
Monday: 810-930-1050 Tues: 730-8:50; 1025-1145 Wed: 1025-1145; 4-5:20 Thurs: 4-5:20 and Sat 1025-1145. Though I’m intending to get that Saturday class moved, hopefully to Thursday morning.
I provide this because I got my first call from home this morning (thanks mom!), and the connection was good enough and apparently it isn’t too expensive ($0.16/minute and maybe even cheaper if you call a land line, though that’s less private since it would be Imran’s). I’d love to hear the occasional voice from home so if you’re interested… The best time would probably be the morning for me as that is a good time for most of you, and I wake up around 6:15 here anyway (call to prayer wakes me up at 5ish, but I fall aback asleep until the students and people start making too much noise).

I think I’ll wrap it up for now as the power just went out again (meaning I’ll have to post this later); this would be the 5th time it has gone out in the last 3 days, apparently when the water levels get low the power goes out pretty often, makes me actually look forward to the rainy season at least a little bit.
Also, here is a link to my latest Facebook photos, this one is just going to be of things around the pesantren and I’ll add more as I take them so check it occasionally.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074571&id=15804233&l=64d4b87f5a

I should also mention a couple things about the Pesantren:
· The school is co-ed, but the girls dorms are in the back while the boys are at the front.
· I’m not sure if it applies to all situations, but in my classes the 10th grade is separated by sex into two classes while the 11th grade is split into 2 by their tract: science or social.
· The school has a kindergarten for the day, and a 6 day a week, 24 hour/day boarding school for grades 7-12 (I only teach 10 and 11). Besides teaching the senior high students I think I’ll be meeting the jr. hi. students on a fairly regular basis in a more informal setting to do some low level teaching.
· There are uniforms, though they aren’t required for classes after the afternoon break apparently, and outside of their dorms, it seems the girls/woman always wear jilbabs
· There are classes pretty much all day, but not before 7:30am, not after 10pm, and not between 2-4pm (this allows for a prayer break, and is vital since it’s so hot at those times)
· Especially in the school, but I think in this area in general (and probably Indo as a whole) the Islamic belief is pretty main stream, and a long ways from conservative. I mention this because Imran has made such a point of it. He is a very interesting guy and someone with a fair amount of clout (he has been invited to the US several times, and at one point was in a meeting with Colin Powell!).

Ok that should answer most of the questions I’ve received, but let me know if I forgot any or if more come up.