Pusing dengan Senyuman

I will never admit to being stressed because of it's negative connotation. So I'll use an Indonesian's translation and say my subject line says "Dizzy with a Smile."

I've been on a wild whirl of life. We finally got our national creative writing competition approved, but we need to change our topic and title and we need to get moneyyy! So all you big spenders out there, beware - I'm coming for you! ;)

So the competition is one thing that's made my stomach turn and make me pusing amongst many other things. Yet to some extent this feeling makes me feel like I'm doing something good to keep my brain moving you know? And when times get rough I take a look at pictures like this one with my students and senyum at their kick arse percussion instruments -- drum duct taped up the wazoo, a chair, and the floor as instruments that they smack with hands and drum sticks or at least half of a drum stick. It sounded good too! Remind me to show you the video of this when I see yas.


Other video opportune moments was at this huge food court when my girl MC Peaches rapped/spoken worded about love -- and then Corey and I had a nice and embarrassing moment singing completely wrong words to "Every Breath You Take" oh man - we were glad when that was over - then made them let me try to redeem myself with "The Rose." I sucked, but it was times like this I was thankful to be in a country where they get that I always love to sing and dance - and it's not THAT weird.... (except when I look Indo and can't sing Indo songs. :S) BUT what was even cooler was that I was with my Bahasa Indo teachers, capoeira friends, Fulbright ETA friends, and new English teacher friends. Such a random group!

On to today -- I'm in the beginning of a backpacking trip at our 1st stop in Jogja in transit for a day before hitting up Surabaya on my way to BALI! yes again, but this time for Capoeira Senzala's Batizado! Wootywooo! Been playing a lot which has been a nice balance to other random craziness em minha vida. Here's a pic of one of our performances at the MIT of Indo ITB - Institut Teknologi Bandung - where I play pretty often.


Well, ya'll are in my thoughts and I miss yas muchly, whether I'm playing capoeira, dancing the night away, teaching amazing but nakal kids, planning a nation-wide competition, speaking Indonesian, Spanish, or Portuguese, chillin with fam at grandpas, driving people around, talking over shisha (hooka) n cervezas, performing, trying to samba, or just looking at pictures for extended periods of time on my laptop or behind my closed abnormal eyelids. :P Props to you if you know what I'm talkin' about.

Thank you for all of you that have been so very helpful this past month. I haven't ever had to rely on people (besides my parents and sibs) as much as I have this past month. Terima kasih banyak.

highlights of past weeks

This is a story all about how my life got twisted upside down and I’d like to take a minute just sit right there and I’ll tell you how mold became black in my air.

So I tried to post something last week but the internet crashed and I lost a lot of writing about my whereabouts the past couple weeks. So here I am trying again a bit late I know. Sorry.

Here are the highlights. Read what’s in CAPS if you’re too lazy to read it all :P
1) I’m MOVING. I don’t know where to quite yet but there’s some major mold growth goin on in my house and the water pressure and quality is not so groovy. One night I didn’t take a shower because I just couldn't after 30mins of killing about 23 cockroaches coming out of my bathroom. Then a few days later I didn’t shower because the water pressure was like cold drizzling rain out of 4 holes of my showerhead .. and there are some days I have to brush my teeth with the bottled water cuz it looks like what's in that green bucket of tap water. So when the mold was growing to the point where I felt like I was breathing in a sauna I decided to move to my grandpas temporarily. A friend of ours, fellow ETA in Bukitinggi, Padang, Sumatera had a lot of mold in his house and now he is in the health care of Jakarta pollution diagnosed with bronchitis. Finding a decent place to stay for 6 more months is just not that easy though so I might be staying at my grandpas. I have been at my Opa’s for the past week and it’s been pretty funny as he’s 95, deaf, and delusional sometimes.

2) Our program leaders the LOVED the NATIONAL CREATIVE WRITING COMPETITION idea we have! In fact they love it so much that they want to double the funding of the project, they want embassy people abroad to watch on a live stream, and they envision it being an annual program. WOOWOOT! That means a lot more work for Jamie and I, but it seems that we have a lot of great support from all the right people so far. Hey we’re kinda iffy on the competition name, what do you think of: “Worldviews of Real Daring Students” (W.O.R.D.S.) ????

3) This past weekend in Jakarta I met a Brazilian Contre Mestre of Capoeira and Columbiano salsa teachers, so I got to practice my ESPANOL and PORTUGUES! As well as Indonesian and English ;)

4) In days before this weekend I have hit up HOT SPRINGS an hour up in the hills, played with FIREWORKS, and had an amazing BBQ with the neighborhood I’m very sad to leave. (P.S. Many Indos don’t believe black mold is bad for people, so some think we’re a bit strange to complain about it. They think our friend has bronchitis for some other reason.)

5) The students are wonderful! They rocked this CHANGE THE WORLD creative writing project based off the song “With My Own Two Hands” by Jack Johnson and Ben Harper. Credit to Jamie for it being her idea. Next up I think I want to work a Michael Franti song… maybe “Bomb the World” with an article about Franti in Iraq. But that’s deep … hum. But some students are capable of ideas like: “Money has become our god/To buy things that do not last;” ““I think USA is enourmous country but sometimes I think USA is greedy country because USA pleasure to appress another country;” “smile like virus (contagious).” Even if the words or grammar aren’t there, the ideas are provocative eh?

My English Club students are mantap! Awesome! We watched Take the Lead and talked about educational issues and motorcycle gangs in Indonesia and US. Some of them can even hardcore debate on issues such as uniforms, arranged marriage, and authority through fear. Psh’yah I’m learnin a lot too.

Ok mis sayangs, thanks for reading. Holler back youngin’. Oooo oooooooo!

“Indonesian Writers Idol” ….? Jamie and I are trying to write up this formal proposal for a national creative writing competition for our students. Suggestions for a name of the competition are welcome. There are 31 of us English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) all over Indonesia so it’d be pretty groovy if we could get some of our students to compete against one another, eh? Plus I think it would provide an awesome forum for students to be heard… hopefully. Wouldn’t you want to know what my Indonesian high-schoolers think about the world today? I’m interested to see how they perceive the world and specifically the US through our wonderful pop-culture that is kind enough to dominate the world. meh.

We’re tossing around the topic idea of Gandhi’s “We must be the change we wish to see in the world,” or a Kennedy quote, or something else along the lines of Fulbright’s mission for mutual understanding between nations. Perhaps a quote from his book, Arrogance of Power.

This week I’ve been gathering writing samples from students to hopefully motivate sponsors to give us some moola. Today my 10^th graders rocked on this activity about being world leaders and writing ideas of what they thought are the world’s biggest problems. Among the 50 something issues raised, my favorites are: global warming - destroys the ozone layer, melts the north pole, and makes land sink – such as Indonesia; creating diplomatic relations between countries; war between America and “Irak;” and Malaysia stealing Indonesia’s songs!

It’s really great to be back in Bandung with these awesome students. Apparently I’m one of the luckiest because other ETAs said that their students really can’t speak English too well, and their areas are pretty secluded. I had the chance to chill with about 12 of the other ETAs out in Bunaken under the sea, Manado, and Yogyakarta.

Had a short refresher dive after 7 yrs in Bunaken, and in the following dives I saw a lot of pretty fish and coral, a ship wreck, and went night diving and had glowing things, red worms and freaky fish swim all around. Purty sweet.

Breathing under water again was definitely a highlight of the trip, but chillin with Bunaken locals (diving crew to the left) was pretty awesome too! The kids there (not in pic) were my tour guides, and we jumped off the dock, n played water football and marco-polo :) and they even brought me mangos one day when I was sick. I miss them.

In Yogya we saw the famous Borobodor (left pic is of D and I reaching for Buddah's left foot for good luck) and many other sights including the “sex temple” in Solo (right pic). Yeah… history and Indonesia today don’t really match in my head. I haven’t quite figured out the social dynamics of Indonesia – everyone has a different take on social norms… but I’ve noticed amongst the 31 ETAs, we have pretty different ideas of America’s norms.

3:30am Breakfast call!

Sometimes the explanation doesn’t matter. I mean the reasons for why something is in existence doesn’t always matter you know? It’s the results of that something that matter. I guess that goes along the lines that it doesn’t matter what the intent a person may have, it’s the impact that matters.

Specifically I’m thinking of puasa – Ramadaan – fasting. People have different reasons for fasting – or for believing in anything right? The beautiful thing about puasa for me is that everyone recognizes it, and once the sun goes down it is a time in which we can all be thankful for the food and community around us. In the beginning of puasa I went to Capoeira from 4-6pm. Everyone was pretty exhausted but it was still a pretty tough practice. Around 5pm I was excited to see the sun going down so that I could have some water. By 5:48ish :P the prayer sounded and everyone cheered and ran to their water and snacks. I was thankful to have some water and I had lunch that day! Everyone shared their treats and we played around a bit more.

A couple days ago I talked on the radio about this and they had asked if we have fasted at all. Jamie and I had fasted for 8hrs while we were working, but never the full 14hrs. So today was the first day we fasted like many around us. We had sahur at 3:30am with some of the family members from next door, and I had my last sip of water at 4am. It really wasn’t bad at all with just spurts of hunger or thirst, and a bit of tiredness and crankiness. By 6pm it wasn’t really a rush for food, but it was nice to be with people that immediately brought us water and snacks, with dinner that followed. It’s like open family dinners all around.

Yesterday I took some studio pics with the English club and then we had buka puasa (breaking fasting) for the day at a food court of a nearby mall. Bandung ppl love their malls ;) Bandung is the Paris of Java – home of the Gedung Satay, SMAN 11, good lookin’ men, no drugs, and rebellion… riiight. Ooo I should use that for a quick True or False quiz :P

Now my school is in their pesantren week – their week of religious study. Then the Ramadaan break starts next week until Oct. 21. So I’m off to Manado – Bunaken to go scuba diving for a week, and then I’ll be in Yogyakarta for a bit.  Abracos y saludos. And for all yas fasting, much respect and I hope you're getting some beautiful community love or at least a refreshed body. ;)

PS. I taught the capoeira crew here: “Obrigada/Obrigado; de nada; boa noite; cuidado; voce tambem.” teehee!

quotes

Carl Sandburg - “Slang is language that takes off its coat, spits on its hands, and goes to work.”

So true. Maybe proper use of language is good for when I should wear a suit, but I don't like dressing up. ahm. So I'm looking up quotes to share with my students... maybe I'll use idioms every day from this idiom book or a cool quote such as the one above. Any quotes or idioms ya'll recommend? Or any good comic strips for role play? Or fill in the bubble.

Anyhow here’s a pic of the little alley I take sometimes on my walk to school with a becak guy biking down to find some clients. You wouldn't really realize these cute alleys from driving around in the crowded and polluted area of South Bandung, but then again maybe you wouldn't think there are pretty rice fields either.

Everyday Indonesian pride is present and I love passing the flags, becaks, ankots, rice fields, food markets (even though they smell like dirty flies atop stinky fish) and a quaint little residential/market area with tall walls.... yeah.

Welp please pass on any suggestions for teaching these kids as I hope to have a bit more liberty AND organization with teaching these kids in a fun way. Cheerio!

More pics :)

Yoyoyoyoyoyo! :PSo I actually went for a bit of a driving lesson with one of my cool fellow teachers, and we visited a sick student at home with about 12 other people - students and teachers. Then we dropped off some people and did some errands so I didn't eat until around 3pm. I need to learn to eat some bigger breakfasts.

Anyhow, so Bali was splendid as you can imagine :) With lots of family in a beautiful hotel on the beach, an amazing wedding, and rafting on a surf board. I can't say I really surfed, because I didn't really get to a full stand - just kind of a mini attempt to stand that you would make on a flimsy raft.


In Bali we stayed in Kuta - where there was a carnival and most the wedding festivities. We also took a day trip to Ubud where we walked around, passed by monkeys, and visited the Blanco museum (supposedly the Dali of Bali, but I like Dali better.) The pic is my fam at the gorgeous museum.


The other pics are from the wedding, but these only capture 1/4 of the beauty. It wasn't a tres Indonesian wedding so sorry ya'll that were expecting exotic photos. Perhaps in another episode. Stay tuned.

Alls peachy :)

Heyas! I'm going to keep this short because I'm quite hungry and have to scurry off home to eat. It's considered quite rude to eat or drink in public during Ramadaan here (bulan puasa). So actually school ends earlier -- 11:55am instead of 2 or 3pm.





Anyhow, many of yas have emailed me concerned because of the recent earthquakes. I was actually driving at the time from Tegal (Central Java) to Bandung (West Java).... Although my fam in Tegal felt the quakes, I only felt my stomach turning upside down from driving in Indo. Thank you all for your concern.
There are many stories to tell, but for now, here's some evidence to let you know I'm alright:

Peachalicious baby.

Photo Copyright: Jeff Loman