Life has been going along here, sometimes I’m really excited other times I’m homesick (frankly, a new sensation for me), but in general I’ve been figuring things out. I’ve been trying to make more friends with people here mostly for my own sanity. One ‘out-of-the-blue’ connection that showed up on my door step was a teacher at a school in a town about 20km from here. He had heard from his brother (a teacher in Rappang (are all teachers in ‘teacher families’ here?!)) that there was a bule teaching at the Pesantren, and he stopped by to talk. I have enjoyed speaking with him because his English is good enough that I can speak freely and he understands and it’s been nice to make a connection outside of the pesantren for a change, though even he comes wanting something. Beside the usual want of practicing English, he really wants me to come to his school to motivate his students. This is not a surprising or new request, but unfortunately it’s one I can’t fulfill as the Indo government is very particular in that I may only be at one school. We may be able to work something out, but I won’t be going to his school once a week like he wants. Nonetheless, it’s nice to make a friend or at least acquaintance outside of the pesantren.
Also on the social note, I’ve been trying to hang-out with Daya, Yusran, and Easter more lately. They’re all pretty close to me in age and very friendly. The one thing is the gender difference with Daya and I makes some things difficult. Speaking of annoyances/difficulties, I’ve been feeling kind of trapped lately because I really can’t relax outside of my room. The second I step out that door I’m on display, and while all the attention is fun at times it tends to get annoying; it really saps the enjoyment out of a jog when you can’t disappear into your own world. A great example of that was last night. I went with several of the teachers to visit some of our students at an English camp (schools from all over come and literally camp for 3 days while they talk with each other and have various competitions; only our best students went and were taken by Yusran; the students really appreciated us coming and it was cool to see; I also spoke with the organizers of the camp which was interesting). On our way back from the camp we stopped in someone’s home that was associated with the pesantren, I don’t know exactly how. And of course as soon as we came in we were presented with food and drink that we’re obliged to sample. This obligation is particularly strong on the bule. Every 10 seconds I had someone telling me to makan or minum, and while I was happy to oblige by sampling things, I didn’t particularly want to drink the entire glass of painfully-sweet orange stuff they set in front of me, but I ended up being told we couldn’t leave until I did. Now I know it’s kind of a stupid thing to complain about, as they were just being polite and I should return the favor, but I thought sipping from the glass was enough. More than that though it’s meant as an example of how I always am on display and that REALLY wears on a voluntary-extrovert/natural-introvert like me. Certainly not the end of the world, just a minor annoyance that continues to pop up.
One solution to this lack of privacy is the travel I’ve been planning. I have an extensive break for the holidays and have been spending much time planning a potential trip to Kalimantan (Borneo) and or Sumatra and or Yogyakarta. I’m looking forward to all of that.
All the Makassar pictures are on facebook now too.
I’m guessing the next post will be about Thanksgiving and Surabaya. Sampai lalu…
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