Muin Cup 2010

On Tuesday of last week I found out that there would be no class at all this week for something called the Muin Cup (Muin is Imran’s last name and thus the name of his grandfather, the founder of PPUW). As you might guess I was pretty bitter about not being notified that there would be no class, especially considering the reason seemed to be either they didn’t care enough to tell me or maybe more likely, they wanted to make sure I was here to be shown off. Either way I found/find it pretty rude and potentially a little deceitful, but I’ve come to terms with it and am making the most of being here this short week (it helps I had an awesome weekend last weekend and am going to Manado next weekend!).

The Muin Cup turns out to be a 3 sport competition (5v5 soccer, volleyball, and takrow (a Malay-Asia game that is essentially soccer-volleyball played over a low net, but not using your hands)) between various local elementary schools. It’s actually been kind of fun to watch, though it’s really laid back (3 games a day). There is kind of a carnival atmosphere to it with the local food sellers coming in and little kids running around. Easter has been doing play-by-play for some of the soccer games and they think it’s great to have me come over and say some things, which I gladly oblige hamming it up giving my best John Madden impression (COMPLETELY lost on everyone, but I really enjoy it and they just like having me say anything).
Other than the occasional commenting, my days have been even more relaxed. I have been of some use though in that I’ve had the opportunity to just sit and slowly talk with some of my students, forcing them to speak some English.

I also took part in the opening ceremony which was pretty mundane, but I did get an official pesantren polo shirt so that was a bonus. I also really liked the marching band; ok it was just a drum corps with some sort of keyboard thing.
Of course there were some negatives, and to me the main one was getting dragged up front so that everyone could gawk at me. While I was up there listening to a few speeches trying my best to get the gist (I did decent for the record), I couldn’t help but notice that almost no one else was paying attention, and this reminded me how seemingly common this is in Indo. For a country that is so preoccupied with appearances (not just saving face as in China or elsewhere in SE Asia, but even more so), I have been really surprised and a little horrified at the insincerity of most people at ceremonies like this one. Granted this was a very inconsequential ceremony, but it’s just an example, numerous times I have felt that people are being downright rude with their actions and lack of attention. It’s one thing to let your little kids run around or even to have your phone to ring; it’s a whole other thing to laugh out loud and comment loudly about your kid running around or answer your phone and proceed to have an un-muted conversation.
And these are not single occasions, I’ve seen this happen again and again. It’s kind of frustrating considering that we (bule visitors) are asked/pressured to be very polite and appropriate. A double standard? Yeah I’m used to those.

All in all though, the week (actually just 3 days) has been pretty enjoyable and I was able to get some planning done for travels (can’t wait for a few mountain climbs in Malaysia!), class, and the WORDS competition. I’ve also started getting some more exercise which has of course put me in a better mood.

I've put up a couple pics of Muin Cup in my pesantren album, and there also some I've put up of other things going on around here.

I’ll probably continue the outflow of blogs next week. Until then…