This update is going to be on the shorter side because I'm still not feeling as well as I should. My fever hasn't gotten back up to 102 degrees again, but last night it was just over 100. Since it went back up, I went and checked with Joan to get her input and she said I should have a blood test done to make sure there's nothing crazy wrong with me. So my blood should be being read as I write, and I'll know this afternoon if I have some kind of super evil disease. So please be praying AGAINST evil diseases and FOR the rapid return of my health. RAPID return.
In addition, Janine and I share a nasty cough, but hers has cost her a portion of her voice, so be praying that that's defeated as well.
After training yesterday we went and ate leftovers at Joan's, followed by a quick trip to the hypermarket for breakfast supplies. I have this fondness for exploring international grocery stores that I think must be a little bit on the odd side. In Kenya, I was obsessed with Nakumatt. In Australia, there was this store called Coles that I loved. There's something just kind of intriguing about wandering the aisles of the store and noticing the items that are so similar to those found at home, and examining products that you've never seen before. Perhaps I am just totally insane, and this is a total possibility, or maybe I'm just a little unique (Grace says she likes wandering foreign grocery stores too!).
We relaxed for the afternoon and got ready to head to Jayapura. Jayapura is the administrative capital of the island (if I'm remembering the information that Wally gave us correctly). And when we were driving there, as you round a bend you can see the lights of the city and it truly looks like a city. I think we were all struck by that.
But before we got to Jayapura, we stopped at Invasion Beach. This beach has huge rusted out tanks from WWII set up on cement pedestals. Apparently they used to simply stick out of the beach, but in the past couple of years people have decided to dig them out and pay them proper dues (or something like that). What was kind of hilarious is that as we drove up to the beach, the tanks seemed to kind of just fit in! They didn't stand out at all--you looked and kind of just thought to yourself, "oh look, there's a rusted out tank on a cement pedestal in the middle of the beach" as though it was something one sees everyday. Which it obviously is not. So we took the requisite photos near the tanks, on the beach, and Annika teased us by suggesting that this was the "snorkeling" beach we'd be visiting in Saturday (this would not have boded well for that adventure since there were crashed boats on the beach and trash floating at the water's edge). A look of panic crossed Janine's face, but when Annika broke into a huge grin, she let out a sigh of relief and a little chuckle.
Some random dude approached Grace and wanted to know where she was from and how long she would be here. And when he got up to leave, he mentioned something about giving her his address...which she politely refused. It was ridiculous since she was obviously a very available female, what with the pregnant belly and all!! :)
We stopped at a little row of souvenir shops and wandered through them for a while. While there are lots of cool things (little bags made from bark that has been converted into string and then woven and paintings on bark, etc), I was really trying to get things that people would find uses for and not think were incredibly random or not so useful. Grace did buy a gourd for Atticus...What is a gourd, you may ask? And why did she purchase one for Atticus? Well, in many of the interior tribes, a "gourd" is what the men wear. And it's all that they wear, so it merely covers up a man's...private parts. Some of them are designed to be "roomy" so that things like money can be stored in there. How multi-functional, right? :)
So we continued on the winding, twisting road to get to Jayapura. We made it to the restaurant which was little more than a hole in the wall (I wouldn't have known there was a dining room except that Wally pointed us inside). We got to select our fish to be grilled and brought to the table, and it was all served with a helping of rice, a bowl of soup, and tons of various spices for the fish. This fish may have been the most delicious fish I have ever eaten. There were few bones, and the taste was just superb. When you poured the soup broth over chunks of fish and rice and ate it all together, it was a simply divine experience. I don't know what spices they used to cook the fish--the taste wasn't strong--but it was more than satisfactory. And the servings were huge; almost no one ate more than half what they were served.
They also had this cool lemon basil at the table that smelled amazing and was great for cutting through grease on the fingers. We each had little dipping bowls to cleanse our fingers (since some of us were eating with them) and we added this herb to the bowls to give a lovely fragrance, and help keep the fingers clean. I also got to have an unsweetened iced tea to drink and it was SOOOO good! I'd really missed iced tea, since I used to drink it so much in the US. It was a great treat.
After dinner, Joan and Wally went to get haircuts (how funny, right? Haircuts at 8pm?) and we went to check out this particular street known for selling pearls and gold of good quality and price. None of us was too interested in the gold (what can I say--we're cheap!) but when we came across some pearls and heard their prices, we were ready to buy, haha! Unfortunately, in one of the stores we were ready to make some purchases with the man at the counter who had given us fairly decent prices, when a woman from the back came out and doubled the prices. We left that store pretty quickly because that was just not acceptable behavior.
We walked on and came across another store with a decent collection of pearls and they had even better prices! I'm not going to tell you what the price was because some of you might be getting these as souvenirs, haha! But Liz, Grace and I each bought 5+ necklaces...and Janine bought one. It was pretty entertaining because she sat there debating between two necklaces and ended up getting only the one. But the little shopkeepers were so kind and so helpful, and tried to understand our meager hand motions, even though we had a translator with us (Annika).
By the end of the pearl adventure (and it was a long one, as we sat there inspecting stand after strand), we were sweaty, soggy, and exhausted. We climbed back into the car ready to head home, but Joan discovered that we had found an excellent price and went and did some shopping of her own. And from what I hear, she put the three of us to shame in her purchases!
Today was the second to last day of training, and it's exciting because we can definitely see the way in which the teachers have opened up to us, and to each other. Grace did a pictorial input about clouds, Janine did the narrative (which the teachers were really excited about--they saw a lot of potential for their classrooms and asked questions about how to make it usable in their context. Then I started the expert groups, calling people up by number. We did groups one and two today, and while some of the teachers were doing those with me, I had them working in groups on creating a "Here, There" poem (Tina and Juliet, you will remember the "soggy monsoons in the fields" line from one of these). By the end of the training, every group had created AT LEAST one poem and taught their expert group information to the rest of their table group. I feel good about how it went, and we'll finish them tomorrow, and then do a class-wide process grid. It should be good, as long as I'm well enough to actually be in the class at 8am tomorrow. I'll need lots of sleep tonight.
So it looks like my suggestion that this would be a short entry was a total lie, so I apologize. But if you know me, you know that I'm a talker...and this plays out in my blogging as well.
I really can't believe that tomorrow is our last day of training. It's gone by so quickly! I hope to have happy stories to share with you tomorrow as well...
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Scenic Outlook
Yesterday, after we finished checking our email (and I finished blogging, haha) Wally took us to the local supermal to have lunch and check things out. We ate at an Indonesian restaurant (though we did also have the option of eating at "Papa Ron's Pizza" or even "Texas Chicken") and Wally ordered several items for us to share. One of them was a hot plate that came to us sizzling and the other was black bean beef. We also each had a plate of nasi goreng to eat with the meal. Grace was really hungry and not only finished her plate of the rice and meat, but ate the leftovers of Janine's as well! It was pretty hilarious that she was even able to eat that much...but she did.
After lunch, Liz and I went to the ATM center (though Liz's card got rejected for some reason...we think it's because it has a MasterCard logo rather than a visa logo) and then met Grace and Janine downstairs at the hypermarket. Wally had a meeting to get to so we didn't have a lot of time to explore the mall, but I insisted on buying a donut from the Indonesia Dunkin Donuts store (for those curious, it tasted much the same as an American Dunkin Donut).
Wally dropped us off back home and we spent the afternoon reading before we were to leave for our scenic picnic dinner.
Throughout the day I had noticed that I was getting chills randomly (which is bizarre in this climate), and especially when we were sitting in the living room near the air conditioner. I had to put on my sweater because I was so cold, which was really unusual because I thrive in air-conditioned situations. I knew this was not good, but I didn't want to complain.
At 4.30 we got ready for our scenic dinner, and i covered myself as best I could. Some moment of insanity had made me decide not to bring any kind of pants with me, so I wore a long dress and my sweater for our little adventure. We stopped to pick up Annika who would be joining us for dinner.
The drive up the mountain was nice, and it turns out that this scenic spot for dinner was actually on a military base, so we had to check in with the post before we were allowed to enter. As luck would have it, the entrance gates to the specific spot Wally and Joan wanted to show us were locked with chains. But Joan was insistent that there was a way in, so we drove round a bit and Joan found an entrance on the other side of the hill. Of course, this entrance involved fighting off plants and climbing through a trash hill, but we made it to the view eventually. And it was quite beautiful. We could see out over Lake Sentani and the mountains--it was lovely. We walked down a little path to a perfect picture location and just admired the changing color of the sky and the haze that seemed to cover the mountains. We ate dinner in a little gazebo (quickly, because we were supposed to leave at 6pm, when it got dark) and then trekked back to the car in the quickly darkening evening. Joan and Wally wanted to show us a video of an interior tribe on Papua, so we headed to Annika's apartment to watch it.
The movie told the story of the Moi people, who had never been reached by foreigners, and their transition and eventual acceptance of Christianity (at least some of them). I'm still processing that movie, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. I need to think on it more.
It was while were at Annika's that I started feeling really ill. My head felt like it was on fire and I felt light-headed and weak. We took my temperature and it was a whopping 102 degrees. The last time I had a fever I think I was in high school, so it was kinda crazy. We went home and I showered and then went fairly quickly to bed. I had taken some advil and the fever went down a tiny bit in the night, but I was still feeling pretty gross when I woke up. I decided to sleep some more and try to make it to the second half of the training. I took more advil hoping to bring down my temperature, and when I woke up about an hour later, my fever had broken and it was back down to normal. I'm being careful to monitor it today, but so far it's hanging around normalcy. I still feel pretty weak, so I'm definitely planning to take it easy the next couple of days, and I'm praying that it's really just a flu bug and nothing more serious than that. Please pray for that as well, and for my total healing.
Grace was again able to talk to Jeremy last night, which we were all glad for. But I think we all called it a pretty early night.
I arrived at the school right around the normal break time, and class was still going. Break was about 30 minutes later than usual, which was ok because it meant that I got to still do my part of the training today--poems and sentence patterning chart. It seemed to go over well--people commented on the way in which they could see the poems being applicable in their classrooms. We also had the opportunity to write a poem together, which I think was fun. Liz and Grace and Janine said they thought it was good. Again, God's provision, since I was probably only functioning at about 65% capacity!
This afternoon the plan is to go to Jayapura, and I hope I feel well enough to join in that. We'll stop at invasion beach for photos and then eat at Joan and Wally's favorite seafood restaurant. Yummy! Hope to fill you in again tomorrow...
Lesson of the day:
(this one's from Grace)
"Crocs suck."
After lunch, Liz and I went to the ATM center (though Liz's card got rejected for some reason...we think it's because it has a MasterCard logo rather than a visa logo) and then met Grace and Janine downstairs at the hypermarket. Wally had a meeting to get to so we didn't have a lot of time to explore the mall, but I insisted on buying a donut from the Indonesia Dunkin Donuts store (for those curious, it tasted much the same as an American Dunkin Donut).
Wally dropped us off back home and we spent the afternoon reading before we were to leave for our scenic picnic dinner.
Throughout the day I had noticed that I was getting chills randomly (which is bizarre in this climate), and especially when we were sitting in the living room near the air conditioner. I had to put on my sweater because I was so cold, which was really unusual because I thrive in air-conditioned situations. I knew this was not good, but I didn't want to complain.
At 4.30 we got ready for our scenic dinner, and i covered myself as best I could. Some moment of insanity had made me decide not to bring any kind of pants with me, so I wore a long dress and my sweater for our little adventure. We stopped to pick up Annika who would be joining us for dinner.
The drive up the mountain was nice, and it turns out that this scenic spot for dinner was actually on a military base, so we had to check in with the post before we were allowed to enter. As luck would have it, the entrance gates to the specific spot Wally and Joan wanted to show us were locked with chains. But Joan was insistent that there was a way in, so we drove round a bit and Joan found an entrance on the other side of the hill. Of course, this entrance involved fighting off plants and climbing through a trash hill, but we made it to the view eventually. And it was quite beautiful. We could see out over Lake Sentani and the mountains--it was lovely. We walked down a little path to a perfect picture location and just admired the changing color of the sky and the haze that seemed to cover the mountains. We ate dinner in a little gazebo (quickly, because we were supposed to leave at 6pm, when it got dark) and then trekked back to the car in the quickly darkening evening. Joan and Wally wanted to show us a video of an interior tribe on Papua, so we headed to Annika's apartment to watch it.
The movie told the story of the Moi people, who had never been reached by foreigners, and their transition and eventual acceptance of Christianity (at least some of them). I'm still processing that movie, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. I need to think on it more.
It was while were at Annika's that I started feeling really ill. My head felt like it was on fire and I felt light-headed and weak. We took my temperature and it was a whopping 102 degrees. The last time I had a fever I think I was in high school, so it was kinda crazy. We went home and I showered and then went fairly quickly to bed. I had taken some advil and the fever went down a tiny bit in the night, but I was still feeling pretty gross when I woke up. I decided to sleep some more and try to make it to the second half of the training. I took more advil hoping to bring down my temperature, and when I woke up about an hour later, my fever had broken and it was back down to normal. I'm being careful to monitor it today, but so far it's hanging around normalcy. I still feel pretty weak, so I'm definitely planning to take it easy the next couple of days, and I'm praying that it's really just a flu bug and nothing more serious than that. Please pray for that as well, and for my total healing.
Grace was again able to talk to Jeremy last night, which we were all glad for. But I think we all called it a pretty early night.
I arrived at the school right around the normal break time, and class was still going. Break was about 30 minutes later than usual, which was ok because it meant that I got to still do my part of the training today--poems and sentence patterning chart. It seemed to go over well--people commented on the way in which they could see the poems being applicable in their classrooms. We also had the opportunity to write a poem together, which I think was fun. Liz and Grace and Janine said they thought it was good. Again, God's provision, since I was probably only functioning at about 65% capacity!
This afternoon the plan is to go to Jayapura, and I hope I feel well enough to join in that. We'll stop at invasion beach for photos and then eat at Joan and Wally's favorite seafood restaurant. Yummy! Hope to fill you in again tomorrow...
Lesson of the day:
(this one's from Grace)
"Crocs suck."
Monday, August 3, 2009
As promised, here's more...
So, yesterday was our first day of training. It was a lot of foundational material, going over the kinds of research that support the way we're training teachers to organize, run, and teach in the classroom. We spent a lot of time on introductions, which I think was good. We had originally hoped to have translation occurring at the individual table groups (because the there are fairly wide range of English proficiencies in this classroom), but at the break time it became pretty clear that that wasn't working so well, so Annika, the administrator at Sekolah Papua Harapan, took over. Though she wasn't crazy about the idea (she felt a lot of pressure because a lot of the stuff that was being discussed was pretty high level vocabulary, but I think she did a great job. Grace and Liz took turns going over important points, but it was kind of cool because a lot of the things that they were saying was familiar to the students due to their previous training.
The only real strategy that we went over was the pictorial input that I model while speaking Spanish. Because I was ill with a cough and sore throat (which are unfortunately still present), there was a lot of coughing as I moved through the drawing. But fortunately, the teachers had grace for me and seemed to once again enjoy the input. One of the teachers came up to me after the session was over and told me that it had given her a lot of inspiration for her own classroom. It's really awesome to have a veteran teacher tell me, miss youth and inexperience, that what I've presented is inspiring. Once again, God working through us and paving the way for us is just so totally obvious. I know that throughout the training I've felt that it's totally His strength that's making the way--because I've got nothing!!
The training ended just before noon, and then we headed out to visit Sekolah Papua Harapan, the school that Wally started here in Papua. First we saw the new complex that they're developing for the new year, which will provide them with a lot more space and several more classrooms. They're getting a great rate for the space and the property as well, which is awesome. We then went to the current location of the school, and entered to see the students playing bingo in English! It was pretty adorable. We were shown around the school, which was much nicer than any of us anticipated. The dorms that students (who are from remote areas of this island) live in is really nice, and the dorm parents have an adorable 1 year old baby named Galvin. The school has two stories and the upstairs portion contains the actual classroom while the downstairs portion has a large room for play and the office space for the employees. We ate lunch at the school, which was DELICIOUS, except that I was feeling so ill that I could hardly enjoy it. :( Poor Liz at some point tripped over a raised portion of concrete and has two unfortunate bruises on her thigh to prove it. We've decided that she really just wanted to commiserate with the rest of our battle wounds from the "light hike" (read: trekking adventure) the other day.
After lunch, we dropped off a couple of students from a local program and then headed back to our apartment. A little later we came and visited the computer lab (which is how I got an entry in yesterday) and then I went back to the apartment and tried to take a nap so I wouldn't be feeling so ill. The afternoon was really quiet--the girls talked about the plan for today and then spent some time journaling and reading, after which we headed upstairs for dinner with Joan and Wally, and Annika joined us as well. Dinner was sooo yummy, and I was finally beginning to feel a tad bit better.
When we went back downstairs to get ready for bed, we all sat around talking for awhile, and it was some really great quality time for us. We also spent some time praying, initially for Janine who has the same throat disease that I have, and then for our team as a whole. It was pretty quality. :) One of the things that has been truly awesome about this trip (at least for me) is the way that we have gotten to know each other as people, and shared a lot about ourselves. Our friendships have definitely become deeper and stronger, which I think is one of the most rewarding points of the trip so far. Grace and I sat up talking, first in the living room, and then into the bedroom that we share, until midnight. Which is really late here, especially since we've been getting up between 5 and 6 am each day!
This morning we made breakfast as usual, and then headed up to the classroom. Many of the teachers were there waiting for us, but we weren't late, I promise!
Janine spent a lot of time going over classroom management and setup ideas, which seemed to go over really well and be received with interest by the teachers. Then Grace went through the content dictionary, I reprocessed the water cycle in Spanish, and Liz led an activity about the water cycle. All went well again. One thing that's great about this team is that it's composed of a group of really engaging speakers, so even for the students who have a difficult time understanding English, they're paying attention to our inflections and our movements to get cues, and then listening to the translation for information to write down and process. We're glad for this because one of our concerns was that students would zone out during the English portion, which isn't helpful since we're really trying to model a language acquisition classroom. The hope would be that everyone would get some new language (and strategies, of course) out of this seminar.
Today we're going down to the town to have lunch (since the international school where we're staying and doing the teacher training is up on a hill, pretty removed from the town itself) and we'll probably visit the Supermal here...maybe not as exciting as climbing over river rocks, but a piece of the story nonetheless!
On a more personal note, I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better, though I do still have a rather evil cough. Please keep me, and the whole team in your prayers.
In addition, a couple of days ago there was a local flight out of Sentani (by the carrier Merpati, and Indonesian airline, but not the one we're flying) that has gone missing, and is assumed to have crashed. It happened on the day of the crazy storm on the trek to the waterfalls, so the best guess is that bad weather caused the crash. As we'll be flying back to Jakarta on a local airline in a few days, please keep our safe travel in your prayers as well.
Lesson of the day:
Mosquitoes are capable of biting through layers of clothing-- as I have two bug bites on my booty to prove it (and Gracie has generously dubbed me "sweet cheeks," haha!).
The only real strategy that we went over was the pictorial input that I model while speaking Spanish. Because I was ill with a cough and sore throat (which are unfortunately still present), there was a lot of coughing as I moved through the drawing. But fortunately, the teachers had grace for me and seemed to once again enjoy the input. One of the teachers came up to me after the session was over and told me that it had given her a lot of inspiration for her own classroom. It's really awesome to have a veteran teacher tell me, miss youth and inexperience, that what I've presented is inspiring. Once again, God working through us and paving the way for us is just so totally obvious. I know that throughout the training I've felt that it's totally His strength that's making the way--because I've got nothing!!
The training ended just before noon, and then we headed out to visit Sekolah Papua Harapan, the school that Wally started here in Papua. First we saw the new complex that they're developing for the new year, which will provide them with a lot more space and several more classrooms. They're getting a great rate for the space and the property as well, which is awesome. We then went to the current location of the school, and entered to see the students playing bingo in English! It was pretty adorable. We were shown around the school, which was much nicer than any of us anticipated. The dorms that students (who are from remote areas of this island) live in is really nice, and the dorm parents have an adorable 1 year old baby named Galvin. The school has two stories and the upstairs portion contains the actual classroom while the downstairs portion has a large room for play and the office space for the employees. We ate lunch at the school, which was DELICIOUS, except that I was feeling so ill that I could hardly enjoy it. :( Poor Liz at some point tripped over a raised portion of concrete and has two unfortunate bruises on her thigh to prove it. We've decided that she really just wanted to commiserate with the rest of our battle wounds from the "light hike" (read: trekking adventure) the other day.
After lunch, we dropped off a couple of students from a local program and then headed back to our apartment. A little later we came and visited the computer lab (which is how I got an entry in yesterday) and then I went back to the apartment and tried to take a nap so I wouldn't be feeling so ill. The afternoon was really quiet--the girls talked about the plan for today and then spent some time journaling and reading, after which we headed upstairs for dinner with Joan and Wally, and Annika joined us as well. Dinner was sooo yummy, and I was finally beginning to feel a tad bit better.
When we went back downstairs to get ready for bed, we all sat around talking for awhile, and it was some really great quality time for us. We also spent some time praying, initially for Janine who has the same throat disease that I have, and then for our team as a whole. It was pretty quality. :) One of the things that has been truly awesome about this trip (at least for me) is the way that we have gotten to know each other as people, and shared a lot about ourselves. Our friendships have definitely become deeper and stronger, which I think is one of the most rewarding points of the trip so far. Grace and I sat up talking, first in the living room, and then into the bedroom that we share, until midnight. Which is really late here, especially since we've been getting up between 5 and 6 am each day!
This morning we made breakfast as usual, and then headed up to the classroom. Many of the teachers were there waiting for us, but we weren't late, I promise!
Janine spent a lot of time going over classroom management and setup ideas, which seemed to go over really well and be received with interest by the teachers. Then Grace went through the content dictionary, I reprocessed the water cycle in Spanish, and Liz led an activity about the water cycle. All went well again. One thing that's great about this team is that it's composed of a group of really engaging speakers, so even for the students who have a difficult time understanding English, they're paying attention to our inflections and our movements to get cues, and then listening to the translation for information to write down and process. We're glad for this because one of our concerns was that students would zone out during the English portion, which isn't helpful since we're really trying to model a language acquisition classroom. The hope would be that everyone would get some new language (and strategies, of course) out of this seminar.
Today we're going down to the town to have lunch (since the international school where we're staying and doing the teacher training is up on a hill, pretty removed from the town itself) and we'll probably visit the Supermal here...maybe not as exciting as climbing over river rocks, but a piece of the story nonetheless!
On a more personal note, I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better, though I do still have a rather evil cough. Please keep me, and the whole team in your prayers.
In addition, a couple of days ago there was a local flight out of Sentani (by the carrier Merpati, and Indonesian airline, but not the one we're flying) that has gone missing, and is assumed to have crashed. It happened on the day of the crazy storm on the trek to the waterfalls, so the best guess is that bad weather caused the crash. As we'll be flying back to Jakarta on a local airline in a few days, please keep our safe travel in your prayers as well.
Lesson of the day:
Mosquitoes are capable of biting through layers of clothing-- as I have two bug bites on my booty to prove it (and Gracie has generously dubbed me "sweet cheeks," haha!).
Sunday, August 2, 2009
So much to tell...
Well, it's been only a day or so since i last posted, and yet I feel like there's SO MUCH that i need to catch you all up on.
Since I left off last time, we headed off to a lovely lakeside meal. Joan and Wally had arranged for a boat to meet us at the restaurant, which it had its own dock (yes, it's very own dock). We all climbed into the boat and spent the next half hour touring around the lake, looking at various villages that have been developed in the islands of Lake Sentani. We even passed what Joan informed me was a legalized prostitution village. Apparently, prostitution is socialized here, so as long as the people to the specific locations in which it is legal, there are no repercussions.
All of the houses on the islands are on raised platforms so they hang out away from the shore over the water. All of the people hanging out on their decks waved to us as we motored past, and we all took tons of pictures. The sky was doing amazing things while we were out on the lake--the boat trip was supposed to be a sunset tour, but the clouds prevented us from getting a true sunset view. Nonetheless, it was beautiful and I kept shaking my head at the majesty of God's creation.
When we got back to the dock, it was time for dinner. Joan ordered for us, including a local specialty called papeda. How shall i describe this dish to you...well, let me start with how it's made. It comes from the bark of a particular type of palm tree on the island, and the women work really hard to process it, running water through it and doing all sorts of things until it becomes a sort of gelatinous goop. Sounds appetizing, right? Well, it goes down the throat in a way quite similar to mucous. Yes, you read that correctly: mucous. The papeda doesn't have much of a flavor itself (just its crazy weird texture), but the soup that traditionally accompanies it is delicious. It's a type of fish soup flavored with lemon grass, and it really does taste quite tasty. All four of us got a helping of the papeda and the soup, with assurances that we needn't finish it if we didn't like it. Gracie and I managed to finish our helpings, but Janine and Liz opted for rice and the many other dishes. It was quite a feast: egg foo young, rice, vegetables, sweet and sour shrimp, more fish...there was so much food!! We left that meal more than content, despite the harassment that we all received from the various kinds of insects hanging around.
When we got back to the room, Grace decided to try to get in touch with her family, but to no avail when it came to the use of skype. I gave her my cell phone to try with, but there was nothing on the other end. As a last ditch effort, I gave her a phone card with an international access number. Thankfully, she was eventually able to get through and talk to Jeremy and Atti. Unfortunately, the only thing Atti had to say was "noooooo..." But at least she got to hear their voices.
The next day was Sunday. Time for church! Joan had kindly gone out and gotten us breakfast supplies, so we ate well and were ready for church in plenty of time. We went to the English service that held here at the International School, and it was kind of cool because there were local Indonesians playing the band instruments. Some of the songs were familiar, and others not so much. But the message was pretty good and we finished with enough time to go and get ready for the hike, on which we would meet the 8 students of Sekolah Papua Harapan.
Wally had told us that this was a "light hike," so we put together our backpacks without fear that it would be too much--we were careful to pack water for the hike, since it IS ridiculously hot out here. :) When all was ready and Wally had exchanged his car for a bus, in order to better accomodate the 8 children, one of their teachers, and the 6 of us, we headed off to pick up the students at the Indonesian church. They were dressed in Sunday clothes, but ready for the hike, truly excited (Wally and Joan had packed swim attire for them since the hike involved a river and a waterfall). On the way to the point of origin for the hike, we stopped and grabbed "fast food" to take with us: a ball of rice, topped with vegetables and meat, and wrapped in paper. We examined the food with interest (there are photos to document this as well).
Wally took off toward our starting point and even just getting to the beginning of the hike. Wally was off-roading in a BUS. We crossed a river, drove on an elevated road that was too narrow for our vehicle, and climbed hills that were lined with little more than rocks. But, thankfully, we eventually made it. To the beginning.
As we started off, it was nice, there was a little stream with a gravel path beside it and then less water and more gravel-ly areas. At some point we entered a more tropical jungle region of the hike, and somehow managed to move away from the path that they traditionally traveled. So Wally sent out the children, yes, the children, to find a path back to the water. These kids were incredible. They were ten times as sure-footed as any of us, leaping from rock to rock when eventually we did make it back to the river. They took every opportunity to frolic in the water, playing games with each other. Their litheness put us all to shame.
Especially me. We were moving uphill in a river, climbing over boulders and trying to maintain our balance over slippery spots, without falling into a rock or into the water with all our stuff. I really cannot even describe to you what this "light hike" was like...it was unlike any hike I had ever been on. At some point, I started feeling incredibly dizzy (we hadn't eaten and it was HOT, especially when you factor in the hiking). So we stopped for lunch, and I opted to stay behind with Sonja, the teacher, who was NOT dressed for a hike in her jeans, long-sleeved sweater and snazzy sandals. I don't know how she made it as far as she did.
I sat in the cool water of the river as Sonja made a rather unhappy phone call on her cell and the rest of the group trduged onward. As I sat there, listening to the "alarm clock" sound of the cicada, I noticed the sky growing increasingly dark. The leaves on the trees were rustling intensely, and I heard what sounded like thunder in the distance. Sonja began to look anxious and pulled out an umbrella from her ultra-snazzy purse (that should not have been on a hike). She offered to share it with me, but my feeling was that I was already wet from the river, so what was a little rain? Sonja stood up, guaring our possessions from the rain with her umbrella.
And so it began. At first gently, and soon in torrents. The rain kept coming and coming, and just when I became certain that it could not possibly rain any harder, it did. I sat in the river and looked up to the sky, letting the drops wash over my face. Eventually, the combination of the cold water from the river and the intense amount of rain coming down made me rather chilly. I thought of how incredibly ironic it would be for me to get hypothermia in PAPUA, so I got out of the river and stood on the meager shoreline.
I don't know how long Sonja and I waited for the rest of the group to come back, but it didn't seem like too long. Before we knew it, the kids came bounding from the jungle into the river and the rest of the adults were not too far behind. We grabbed our things to meet up with them on the other side of the river, which was actually a very slow-going process. Wally fell into the water once, with the bag of towles on his back and the camera in there. I was concerned that he was injured, but he was much more worried about the state of Liz's camera! It was fine, and so was he, but he stopped to wring out the water from the towels, which had become unbearably heavy with their exposure to the water.
I, at some point, whacked my shin against a rock and developed a huge goose egg just below my knee. The swelling has gone down, but it's going to be a beauty of a bruise. Janine also came out with a battle wound on her shin, but Liz and Gracie (thank goodness!) managed to come out virtually unscathed. Today our bodies ache, but we survived, and that's a lot! It turned out that they didn't make it to the waterfall because of the storm, and they weren't sure how much light was left in the day (it gets dark here at 6pm +/- 15 minutes or so).
We made it without further incident back to the bus and packed up to leave, exhausted and soaking wet from the storm. We had just enough time to reover and shower before dinner, which was a delicious fish and lobster soup made from fish and lobster that Wally himself had captured. Dinner with the Wileys is always such a pleasure.
After dinner, we took all our supplies up to the classroom in which we would be holding our seminar for the next five days. Despite our exhaustion, we managed to set up the classroom, which meant we would have a little more time in the morning, which was definitely a good thing.
Today was actually our first day of training. It went well (there were about 15 teachers present) and I'll describe it in detail later, but right now I'm feeling quite ill (please pray for my speedy and full recovery!) so I should go and rest.
I have decided to add a new feature to my blog, however, and it's called "lesson of the day."
Today's lesson:
HIKING IS NOT MY THING.
And a bonus lesson:
It is indeed possible to be cold in a tropical climate, even when it's more than 85 degrees outside. LOL!
More to come, hopefully soon...
Since I left off last time, we headed off to a lovely lakeside meal. Joan and Wally had arranged for a boat to meet us at the restaurant, which it had its own dock (yes, it's very own dock). We all climbed into the boat and spent the next half hour touring around the lake, looking at various villages that have been developed in the islands of Lake Sentani. We even passed what Joan informed me was a legalized prostitution village. Apparently, prostitution is socialized here, so as long as the people to the specific locations in which it is legal, there are no repercussions.
All of the houses on the islands are on raised platforms so they hang out away from the shore over the water. All of the people hanging out on their decks waved to us as we motored past, and we all took tons of pictures. The sky was doing amazing things while we were out on the lake--the boat trip was supposed to be a sunset tour, but the clouds prevented us from getting a true sunset view. Nonetheless, it was beautiful and I kept shaking my head at the majesty of God's creation.
When we got back to the dock, it was time for dinner. Joan ordered for us, including a local specialty called papeda. How shall i describe this dish to you...well, let me start with how it's made. It comes from the bark of a particular type of palm tree on the island, and the women work really hard to process it, running water through it and doing all sorts of things until it becomes a sort of gelatinous goop. Sounds appetizing, right? Well, it goes down the throat in a way quite similar to mucous. Yes, you read that correctly: mucous. The papeda doesn't have much of a flavor itself (just its crazy weird texture), but the soup that traditionally accompanies it is delicious. It's a type of fish soup flavored with lemon grass, and it really does taste quite tasty. All four of us got a helping of the papeda and the soup, with assurances that we needn't finish it if we didn't like it. Gracie and I managed to finish our helpings, but Janine and Liz opted for rice and the many other dishes. It was quite a feast: egg foo young, rice, vegetables, sweet and sour shrimp, more fish...there was so much food!! We left that meal more than content, despite the harassment that we all received from the various kinds of insects hanging around.
When we got back to the room, Grace decided to try to get in touch with her family, but to no avail when it came to the use of skype. I gave her my cell phone to try with, but there was nothing on the other end. As a last ditch effort, I gave her a phone card with an international access number. Thankfully, she was eventually able to get through and talk to Jeremy and Atti. Unfortunately, the only thing Atti had to say was "noooooo..." But at least she got to hear their voices.
The next day was Sunday. Time for church! Joan had kindly gone out and gotten us breakfast supplies, so we ate well and were ready for church in plenty of time. We went to the English service that held here at the International School, and it was kind of cool because there were local Indonesians playing the band instruments. Some of the songs were familiar, and others not so much. But the message was pretty good and we finished with enough time to go and get ready for the hike, on which we would meet the 8 students of Sekolah Papua Harapan.
Wally had told us that this was a "light hike," so we put together our backpacks without fear that it would be too much--we were careful to pack water for the hike, since it IS ridiculously hot out here. :) When all was ready and Wally had exchanged his car for a bus, in order to better accomodate the 8 children, one of their teachers, and the 6 of us, we headed off to pick up the students at the Indonesian church. They were dressed in Sunday clothes, but ready for the hike, truly excited (Wally and Joan had packed swim attire for them since the hike involved a river and a waterfall). On the way to the point of origin for the hike, we stopped and grabbed "fast food" to take with us: a ball of rice, topped with vegetables and meat, and wrapped in paper. We examined the food with interest (there are photos to document this as well).
Wally took off toward our starting point and even just getting to the beginning of the hike. Wally was off-roading in a BUS. We crossed a river, drove on an elevated road that was too narrow for our vehicle, and climbed hills that were lined with little more than rocks. But, thankfully, we eventually made it. To the beginning.
As we started off, it was nice, there was a little stream with a gravel path beside it and then less water and more gravel-ly areas. At some point we entered a more tropical jungle region of the hike, and somehow managed to move away from the path that they traditionally traveled. So Wally sent out the children, yes, the children, to find a path back to the water. These kids were incredible. They were ten times as sure-footed as any of us, leaping from rock to rock when eventually we did make it back to the river. They took every opportunity to frolic in the water, playing games with each other. Their litheness put us all to shame.
Especially me. We were moving uphill in a river, climbing over boulders and trying to maintain our balance over slippery spots, without falling into a rock or into the water with all our stuff. I really cannot even describe to you what this "light hike" was like...it was unlike any hike I had ever been on. At some point, I started feeling incredibly dizzy (we hadn't eaten and it was HOT, especially when you factor in the hiking). So we stopped for lunch, and I opted to stay behind with Sonja, the teacher, who was NOT dressed for a hike in her jeans, long-sleeved sweater and snazzy sandals. I don't know how she made it as far as she did.
I sat in the cool water of the river as Sonja made a rather unhappy phone call on her cell and the rest of the group trduged onward. As I sat there, listening to the "alarm clock" sound of the cicada, I noticed the sky growing increasingly dark. The leaves on the trees were rustling intensely, and I heard what sounded like thunder in the distance. Sonja began to look anxious and pulled out an umbrella from her ultra-snazzy purse (that should not have been on a hike). She offered to share it with me, but my feeling was that I was already wet from the river, so what was a little rain? Sonja stood up, guaring our possessions from the rain with her umbrella.
And so it began. At first gently, and soon in torrents. The rain kept coming and coming, and just when I became certain that it could not possibly rain any harder, it did. I sat in the river and looked up to the sky, letting the drops wash over my face. Eventually, the combination of the cold water from the river and the intense amount of rain coming down made me rather chilly. I thought of how incredibly ironic it would be for me to get hypothermia in PAPUA, so I got out of the river and stood on the meager shoreline.
I don't know how long Sonja and I waited for the rest of the group to come back, but it didn't seem like too long. Before we knew it, the kids came bounding from the jungle into the river and the rest of the adults were not too far behind. We grabbed our things to meet up with them on the other side of the river, which was actually a very slow-going process. Wally fell into the water once, with the bag of towles on his back and the camera in there. I was concerned that he was injured, but he was much more worried about the state of Liz's camera! It was fine, and so was he, but he stopped to wring out the water from the towels, which had become unbearably heavy with their exposure to the water.
I, at some point, whacked my shin against a rock and developed a huge goose egg just below my knee. The swelling has gone down, but it's going to be a beauty of a bruise. Janine also came out with a battle wound on her shin, but Liz and Gracie (thank goodness!) managed to come out virtually unscathed. Today our bodies ache, but we survived, and that's a lot! It turned out that they didn't make it to the waterfall because of the storm, and they weren't sure how much light was left in the day (it gets dark here at 6pm +/- 15 minutes or so).
We made it without further incident back to the bus and packed up to leave, exhausted and soaking wet from the storm. We had just enough time to reover and shower before dinner, which was a delicious fish and lobster soup made from fish and lobster that Wally himself had captured. Dinner with the Wileys is always such a pleasure.
After dinner, we took all our supplies up to the classroom in which we would be holding our seminar for the next five days. Despite our exhaustion, we managed to set up the classroom, which meant we would have a little more time in the morning, which was definitely a good thing.
Today was actually our first day of training. It went well (there were about 15 teachers present) and I'll describe it in detail later, but right now I'm feeling quite ill (please pray for my speedy and full recovery!) so I should go and rest.
I have decided to add a new feature to my blog, however, and it's called "lesson of the day."
Today's lesson:
HIKING IS NOT MY THING.
And a bonus lesson:
It is indeed possible to be cold in a tropical climate, even when it's more than 85 degrees outside. LOL!
More to come, hopefully soon...
Friday, July 31, 2009
Welcome to Papua! (not New Guinea)
So...Here we are, all the way in Papua, Indonesia. Papua used to be called Irian Jaya, but the people of this part of the nation wanted independence and by way of some sort of compromise, they agreed upon a name change. So Papua it is.
We spent the afternoon packing our things up for the evening flight. We were told that it would probably be a 2 hour drive from Ibu Connie's house, and with a 9pm flight, decided that we should have a taxi sent at 5pm, to arrive by 7pm (since security protocols were supposed to be more stringent, especially since the bombing in Jakarta). Nur, the sweet, sweet maid with the fabulous smile in Ibu Connie's house, came around 2pm to let us know that the taxi's arrival time had been changed from 5pm to 4.30pm. No one seemed to know the reason for this alteration, but we still had plenty of time to get ready, so no huge deal.
We gathered our things and waited by the door at 4.20pm. Then we waited. And waited some more. And at 5pm, the taxi arrived. Perhaps the taxi was told 4.30pm so that it would actually arrive at 5pm?? It was a big car, but it's trunk was of questionable size for all the luggage--there are four of us, we each have a personal bag of medium size and there's an oversized team bag filled with our supplies...not to mention two poster tubes filled with poems and such, and our individual carry-on items. By some miracle, the driver fit all our bags into his trunk, and we were on our way, with more beatific smiles from Nur as she waved and called out "see you next week!"
Initially, the traffic didn't seem too congested (I've seen much worse on the 405 in CA and the 95 back East). At some point though, things slowed down a lot and the driver got a bit anxious when he realized that none of us spoke Bahasa Indonesian. Eventually, he asked us our flight time and when we explained that we weren't to depart until 9pm that night, he seemed much more relaxed :)
We made it to the airport in plenty of time (though poor Gracie had a bit of motion sickness from the extended cab ride)--checked in without hassle (had to pay a 40,000 rupiah airport tax for some reason that was not explained in English, haha) and went on a mission to find ourselves some dinner. We ended up at two little (semi-sketchy looking) cafes, that were pretty much identical except one had red chairs and the other had yellow ones. We opted for the yellow cafe. The people working there must have been shaking their heads at us as we tried to interpret the meager menu. Grace had pulled out her phrase book and we were working word by word through the menu. In the end, we all ordered either mie goreng or nasi goreng (stir fried noodles or stir fried rice, both with veggies), which were the only two items on the menu that we actually figured out without the phrasebook. The food was adequate--airport food, afterall--and then we treated ourselves to a DELICIOUS cream puff from Beard Papa's, this bakery from Japan that I've seen in NYC, right by NYU's campus.
After dinner, we went through security, whose protocols did not seem stringent by my standards, anyway. Again, no hassles (God has definitely seen us through on that end, for sure!), and we took a seat near the entrance to the waiting area for our gate, on some comfy benches. I kept thinking how much nicer this part of the airport was as compared to the terminal in which we had arrived...that is, until we actually entered the waiting area. The chairs were quite battered and stained, and the toilets were simply NASTY. But, the squarish room had truly high vaulted ceilings in a traditional and ornate style. It made the room itself rather beautiful. Eventually we were told that our flight had been moved to another gate, so we waited in a different room, but much the same. Finally, our flight was called for boarding (it's funny--we were up while they were making the announcement in Indonesian, before they even got to the English part).
I must admit that when we boarded the Garuda Indonesia flight, I felt more tense than on the previous two. The plane was obviously older and I was aware that Indonesia's air safety record is not the best. I wasn't freaking out, but I was definitely praying that God keep the flight safe. It was also a comfort to know that I had people around the world lifting up those same prayers!
The flight to Jayapura in Papua, Indonesia involved really 3 different flights: Jakarta to Makhasar; Makhasar to Biak; and finally, Biak to Jayapura. All three flights took place on the same plane, and we had been told that we could remain on the plane in the transit airports. Unfortunately, that was not the case. And so began what we have fondly named "The night tour of the Indonesian Airports."
When we landed in Makhasar, we were not only required to disembark, but to take all our carry-on luggage with us. This was a lot, and keep in mind that this also occurring at approximately 1am. We were far from pleased. And imagine our displeasure when we discovered that not only did we have to go into the airport, but that to enter the waiting area we had to go through security, AGAIN, just to get back on the same plane in the same seats with the same crew. It all seemed pretty ridiculous. It wasn't like the security procedures were intense, but it was an annoyance to a group of people who really just wanted to be sleeping! Poor Liz had taken a sleeping pill and she was semi delirious (there's photo documentation of our joy to be in that airport).
The airport terminal seemed fairly modern, but somehow, there were no TOILETS!! When we got back on the plane, we asked the flight attendant if we would have to do this each time and he told us that it was up to the airport's discretion. We held out hope that Biak would be more reasonable. Unfortunately, they were not. Biak was tiny. It's on a smaller island, and the airport was little more than a small garage/building with only one boarding gate, and yet, we went through security, yet again, and entered a room that at least had toilets, haha. The flight from Biak to Jayapura was less than an hour and pretty smooth. There was also a change in flight crews here.
One good thing that I can say about the airline was that they kept us fed. On every flight (even the last leg, which was 55 minutes), they offered us a meal. In the 7 hours from Jakarta to Jayapura, we were given more food than on the 14 hours from JFK to Tokyo!
On that final flight, we were all awake. We had met someone in the waiting room in Biak who is associated with MAF (mission aviation fellowship), the organization that Wally, our contact here, works for. I think that the anticipation of reaching the place we had actually planned this trip for was enough to keep our exhausted bodies functioning. And when we stepped off the plane in Jayapura, we were not disappointed.
Even from the airport tarmac you can see beauty all around you. In the distance, there are fabulous views of "Mt. Cyclops," one of the more prominent features of this region. We of course stopped for a photo op--and despite our total exhaustion and having traveled through the night, the picture looks good (don't worry, pictures to come...though you may have to wait for our return...)!! Wally met us at the airport, outside the terminal, before the baggage carousel. As Grace commented, thank God that he met us there instead of outside the terminal as expected, because collecting our baggage would have been a nightmare! There were hordes of people, as three flights had landed within 30 minutes of each other, and they were all crowded around the single functioning baggage carousel, waiting expectantly. Wally took charge and we described our bags so he could capture them. We had a bit of a scare with Janine's bag when it didn't come out with all the others, but eventually we gathered that one as well.
Wally drove us to the Hillcrest International School, where we're staying, and we put our things in our own little downstairs apartment. It's quite cute. The housing is intended for temporary teachers and there are two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and even a little living area. We're really fortunate to have our own space, and Wally and his wife have been so welcoming to us. The live just upstairs and invited us up for breakfast, where we got acquainted, and then headed back downstairs for a nap of recovery.
Due to our utter exhaustion, I think that each of slept a solid 2 hours (which is quality, since Janine and Grace especially have been having trouble sleeping). We went upstairs and had lunch with Wally and Joan when we woke up and freshened up a bit, took the beautiful and short walk from their home to the school itself, and now here I am sitting at the school's computer lab writing to all of you. The computer lab is amazing, by the way, with probably 50 computers in all. Hopefully, each afternoon I'll have a chance to catch you up on the happenings.
This afternoon I believe we're going to tour Lake Sentani, and tomorrow we'll take a hike to "God's Awesome Falls" in the nearby mountain. Our first day of training here is on Monday, and we're expecting 15-20 teachers of various English proficiencies. It's exciting to be here, and I hope that we'll make a positive difference for the teachers that join us!
We spent the afternoon packing our things up for the evening flight. We were told that it would probably be a 2 hour drive from Ibu Connie's house, and with a 9pm flight, decided that we should have a taxi sent at 5pm, to arrive by 7pm (since security protocols were supposed to be more stringent, especially since the bombing in Jakarta). Nur, the sweet, sweet maid with the fabulous smile in Ibu Connie's house, came around 2pm to let us know that the taxi's arrival time had been changed from 5pm to 4.30pm. No one seemed to know the reason for this alteration, but we still had plenty of time to get ready, so no huge deal.
We gathered our things and waited by the door at 4.20pm. Then we waited. And waited some more. And at 5pm, the taxi arrived. Perhaps the taxi was told 4.30pm so that it would actually arrive at 5pm?? It was a big car, but it's trunk was of questionable size for all the luggage--there are four of us, we each have a personal bag of medium size and there's an oversized team bag filled with our supplies...not to mention two poster tubes filled with poems and such, and our individual carry-on items. By some miracle, the driver fit all our bags into his trunk, and we were on our way, with more beatific smiles from Nur as she waved and called out "see you next week!"
Initially, the traffic didn't seem too congested (I've seen much worse on the 405 in CA and the 95 back East). At some point though, things slowed down a lot and the driver got a bit anxious when he realized that none of us spoke Bahasa Indonesian. Eventually, he asked us our flight time and when we explained that we weren't to depart until 9pm that night, he seemed much more relaxed :)
We made it to the airport in plenty of time (though poor Gracie had a bit of motion sickness from the extended cab ride)--checked in without hassle (had to pay a 40,000 rupiah airport tax for some reason that was not explained in English, haha) and went on a mission to find ourselves some dinner. We ended up at two little (semi-sketchy looking) cafes, that were pretty much identical except one had red chairs and the other had yellow ones. We opted for the yellow cafe. The people working there must have been shaking their heads at us as we tried to interpret the meager menu. Grace had pulled out her phrase book and we were working word by word through the menu. In the end, we all ordered either mie goreng or nasi goreng (stir fried noodles or stir fried rice, both with veggies), which were the only two items on the menu that we actually figured out without the phrasebook. The food was adequate--airport food, afterall--and then we treated ourselves to a DELICIOUS cream puff from Beard Papa's, this bakery from Japan that I've seen in NYC, right by NYU's campus.
After dinner, we went through security, whose protocols did not seem stringent by my standards, anyway. Again, no hassles (God has definitely seen us through on that end, for sure!), and we took a seat near the entrance to the waiting area for our gate, on some comfy benches. I kept thinking how much nicer this part of the airport was as compared to the terminal in which we had arrived...that is, until we actually entered the waiting area. The chairs were quite battered and stained, and the toilets were simply NASTY. But, the squarish room had truly high vaulted ceilings in a traditional and ornate style. It made the room itself rather beautiful. Eventually we were told that our flight had been moved to another gate, so we waited in a different room, but much the same. Finally, our flight was called for boarding (it's funny--we were up while they were making the announcement in Indonesian, before they even got to the English part).
I must admit that when we boarded the Garuda Indonesia flight, I felt more tense than on the previous two. The plane was obviously older and I was aware that Indonesia's air safety record is not the best. I wasn't freaking out, but I was definitely praying that God keep the flight safe. It was also a comfort to know that I had people around the world lifting up those same prayers!
The flight to Jayapura in Papua, Indonesia involved really 3 different flights: Jakarta to Makhasar; Makhasar to Biak; and finally, Biak to Jayapura. All three flights took place on the same plane, and we had been told that we could remain on the plane in the transit airports. Unfortunately, that was not the case. And so began what we have fondly named "The night tour of the Indonesian Airports."
When we landed in Makhasar, we were not only required to disembark, but to take all our carry-on luggage with us. This was a lot, and keep in mind that this also occurring at approximately 1am. We were far from pleased. And imagine our displeasure when we discovered that not only did we have to go into the airport, but that to enter the waiting area we had to go through security, AGAIN, just to get back on the same plane in the same seats with the same crew. It all seemed pretty ridiculous. It wasn't like the security procedures were intense, but it was an annoyance to a group of people who really just wanted to be sleeping! Poor Liz had taken a sleeping pill and she was semi delirious (there's photo documentation of our joy to be in that airport).
The airport terminal seemed fairly modern, but somehow, there were no TOILETS!! When we got back on the plane, we asked the flight attendant if we would have to do this each time and he told us that it was up to the airport's discretion. We held out hope that Biak would be more reasonable. Unfortunately, they were not. Biak was tiny. It's on a smaller island, and the airport was little more than a small garage/building with only one boarding gate, and yet, we went through security, yet again, and entered a room that at least had toilets, haha. The flight from Biak to Jayapura was less than an hour and pretty smooth. There was also a change in flight crews here.
One good thing that I can say about the airline was that they kept us fed. On every flight (even the last leg, which was 55 minutes), they offered us a meal. In the 7 hours from Jakarta to Jayapura, we were given more food than on the 14 hours from JFK to Tokyo!
On that final flight, we were all awake. We had met someone in the waiting room in Biak who is associated with MAF (mission aviation fellowship), the organization that Wally, our contact here, works for. I think that the anticipation of reaching the place we had actually planned this trip for was enough to keep our exhausted bodies functioning. And when we stepped off the plane in Jayapura, we were not disappointed.
Even from the airport tarmac you can see beauty all around you. In the distance, there are fabulous views of "Mt. Cyclops," one of the more prominent features of this region. We of course stopped for a photo op--and despite our total exhaustion and having traveled through the night, the picture looks good (don't worry, pictures to come...though you may have to wait for our return...)!! Wally met us at the airport, outside the terminal, before the baggage carousel. As Grace commented, thank God that he met us there instead of outside the terminal as expected, because collecting our baggage would have been a nightmare! There were hordes of people, as three flights had landed within 30 minutes of each other, and they were all crowded around the single functioning baggage carousel, waiting expectantly. Wally took charge and we described our bags so he could capture them. We had a bit of a scare with Janine's bag when it didn't come out with all the others, but eventually we gathered that one as well.
Wally drove us to the Hillcrest International School, where we're staying, and we put our things in our own little downstairs apartment. It's quite cute. The housing is intended for temporary teachers and there are two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and even a little living area. We're really fortunate to have our own space, and Wally and his wife have been so welcoming to us. The live just upstairs and invited us up for breakfast, where we got acquainted, and then headed back downstairs for a nap of recovery.
Due to our utter exhaustion, I think that each of slept a solid 2 hours (which is quality, since Janine and Grace especially have been having trouble sleeping). We went upstairs and had lunch with Wally and Joan when we woke up and freshened up a bit, took the beautiful and short walk from their home to the school itself, and now here I am sitting at the school's computer lab writing to all of you. The computer lab is amazing, by the way, with probably 50 computers in all. Hopefully, each afternoon I'll have a chance to catch you up on the happenings.
This afternoon I believe we're going to tour Lake Sentani, and tomorrow we'll take a hike to "God's Awesome Falls" in the nearby mountain. Our first day of training here is on Monday, and we're expecting 15-20 teachers of various English proficiencies. It's exciting to be here, and I hope that we'll make a positive difference for the teachers that join us!
Still in Jakarta, but on the way out...
So, we really did spend most of the afternoon lazing by the pool. And this is one amazing pool--there are 5 jets of water that arc out over the pool, creating a refreshing sound of rushing water and just making the pool ultra beautiful.
It was nice sitting out there, in the water but under a spot shaded by the many trees in the garden. We were able to spend some time talking, and just getting to know each other better. Before I had come downstairs, I had met two of Connie's three younger boys, Andre and Anthony. They had looked at us so curiously in the morning before they headed off to school that morning that I decided they should have a name to put with at least one of the faces. :) While we were hanging out in the pool, Anthony, the youngest (he's 7) kept watching us from the balcony, but whenever I would see him and wave, he would run shyly away, only to return moments later.
When Connie came home at about 5pm, she asked us if we wanted to stay in for dinner or go out to the village dining, and we opted to stay in. She also told her boys that it was time to do their laps in the pool--Anthony does 50, Alden (the middle boy) does 75, and Andre does 130. Janine and Gracie were so impressed (I mean, i totally was too) because they had tried to swim a couple of laps while I was blogging and had given up in tiredness. The boys proceeded to do their many laps with their cousin, Ben, who lives here too as he goes to the same school and the three other boys.
We all went to our rooms to shower and freshen up for dinner, which was supposed to be served at 6pm. It wasn't totally on time, which was fine, except that Janine and especially Grace were exhausted! Poor Grace actually fell asleep on the couch as we waited for dinner. Alden and Anthony were riding some kind of skateboard around the living room, creating obstacles for each other and generally being semi-rowdy young boys. When we expressed how impressed we were with their technique, they simply responded, "you just wiggle." I don't know about Janine and Gracie, but if I got on one of those boards and "just wiggled," I would fall flat on my face and probably end up with a broken bone of some sort!
Dinner was had without Ibu Connie and Pa Kasmin, so it was the three ladies and four boys: Andre, Alden, Anthony and Ben. Andre was such a wonderful host, it was adorable. He apologized for keeping us waiting (though we weren't waiting that long and it was certainly not his fault!) and insisted that we serve ourselves first. He asked me to bless the meal (I think because I was the only one who had been introduced to him) and then served me some rice. It was really quite cute. Initially it was a little bit awkward, since one side of the table didn't really know the other, but we asked some questions and things just kind of took off from there. The interactions of the three brothers was quite hilarious, but they get along rather well--I was certainly impressed.
After dinner, they insisted on giving us a tour of the house, including their own bedrooms and their parents' bedroom, "walk in closet" (which was seriously as big as my bedroom), bathroom, and office, as well as the 3rd floor of the house which provides lovely views of the backyard and the rice paddies just beyond their fence. They were quite excited to show us around,and it was certainly a pleasure to be shown around.
They invited us to a game of UNO, which turned into a competition between the "home team" (the boys) and the "away team" (us). Being gracious guests, we let them win (haha!). It was intense, but truly enjoyable. I really loved how they welcomed us into their room and all seven of us crowded on the bed to play. They were so open and funny, it was a true pleasure to play with them, and definitely the highlight of my evening.
We all headed off to bed (and by "we" I mean Janine, Gracie, and I--the boys continued to frolick around the house), and Janine was out just about as soon as her head hit the pillow! I journaled for a bit and then read, and then went to sleep, and rested fairly well, despite another early morning.
Janine and I were up around 6am again, and I think Grace must have been as well since she was at our door at 6.30am. We went downstairs and had breakfast, and met Liz who had arrived last night around 9pm. Pa Nouvell was back to pick us up at 8.15, and we headed out for another morning of training.
Since we had left most of the stuff up in the classroom, there was a little less set-up required, which was good. Liz led the class through the gallery walk, which included pictures of various storms (our unit is on weather, in case I failed to mention that earlier) and prompts for them to respond to. Our translator from yesterday was otherwise engaged, so we called on Billy, one of the students, to assist. He did a great job throughout the day. The students seemed to enjoy the gallery walk, and were engaged with the photos. Some of the comments/responses that they left were pretty hilarious. We saved them for posterity. :)
Grace went through a content dictionary strategy, which was also great. The students are supposed to predict what the meaning of a vocab word is and at the end of the day we confirm or deny (lol) and give the accurate meaning. Their predictions were again pretty entertaining. A reservoir was "a sewer" according to one prediction. And Grace is so engaging with the students. She's always making them laugh.
I went through many of the poems we had written and then through the sentence patterning chart. I was so impressed with the way the students responded to the poems--I would say it first, model it to them, and then asked them to repeat it with me. Their pronunciation was quite good, and they spoke boldly. I was really pleased. And the patterning chart went well too.
Janine next did the narrative (which they really enjoyed, and did really well with the reprocessing, even without translation) and then I did expert groups and process grids. That went fine, but I want to re-work how it's presented because it went so quickly and I want to make sure all the relevant information is accurately conveyed. They went through the process grid smoothly though, even though I insisted on going over the text without translation, so I know that at least the information was being understood for the most part! And they remembered this strategy when we asked later what kinds of strategies that we had modeled could be used in a math classroom.
We finished with exit slips, which are really a form of assessment for us, and the students seemed to be writing A TON. I haven't seen the comments yet, but I'm excited to. They seemed to enjoy the training, and made favourable reports to one of the faculty members, so that's encouraging.
We went for lunch once we had packed up all our supplies--rolled up all the poems and chants and posters and such--which was Indonsian chicken sate (much like thai satay) and something that was made from rice but was more...chunky? It's hard to describe--it was green on the outside and looked like it would be crunchy like a vegetable, but was soft and tasted like rice. I cannot at all remember the name of it...maybe I'll figure it out later and report back. But it was quite tasty, especially when dipped in a thick peanut sauce!
We opted to come back to Ibu Connie's house and rest and pack after lunch. Pa Nouvell graciously drove us home again. Our flight to Papua leaves from the Jakarta airport at 9pm, which means we should get there by 7pm (security has been increased since the recent bombing), which unfortunately means that we have to leave the house by 4.30! Apparently, it's going to take 2.5 hours from here to get to Jakarta due to rush hour traffic. This is not encouraging. :(
So, prayers are appreciated as we continue to travel-- it's about a 7 hour flight from here to Sentani/Jayapura, Papua--and there are two stops along that itinerary. Tomorrow morning, we'll arrive in Papua, and I can't guarantee what my internet access will look like, but as always, I promise to do my best to keep you updated!
Oh--a little tidbit that I forgot to mention from our arrival at Jakarta (that Janine reminded me to share with you):
I have a global phone and wanted to get a SIM card, and went to Janine, who was waiting with our luggage to tell her I was heading to find one. A janitor overheard our conversation and comes over saying "SIM card? SIM card?" and making the universal sign for phone. We nodded and asked where we could get one. Then he pulls a handful of sketchy-looking SIM cards from his pocket and moves toward us conspiratorily. We laugh, and shake our heads and he awkwardly chuckles and moves a little bit away. I head over to the LEGITIMATE kisosk to purchase one, but apparently the little guy kept pestering Janine about getting one and when she said I had one, he persisted in asking her where I had gone and when I was coming back. Poor Janine. :)
It was nice sitting out there, in the water but under a spot shaded by the many trees in the garden. We were able to spend some time talking, and just getting to know each other better. Before I had come downstairs, I had met two of Connie's three younger boys, Andre and Anthony. They had looked at us so curiously in the morning before they headed off to school that morning that I decided they should have a name to put with at least one of the faces. :) While we were hanging out in the pool, Anthony, the youngest (he's 7) kept watching us from the balcony, but whenever I would see him and wave, he would run shyly away, only to return moments later.
When Connie came home at about 5pm, she asked us if we wanted to stay in for dinner or go out to the village dining, and we opted to stay in. She also told her boys that it was time to do their laps in the pool--Anthony does 50, Alden (the middle boy) does 75, and Andre does 130. Janine and Gracie were so impressed (I mean, i totally was too) because they had tried to swim a couple of laps while I was blogging and had given up in tiredness. The boys proceeded to do their many laps with their cousin, Ben, who lives here too as he goes to the same school and the three other boys.
We all went to our rooms to shower and freshen up for dinner, which was supposed to be served at 6pm. It wasn't totally on time, which was fine, except that Janine and especially Grace were exhausted! Poor Grace actually fell asleep on the couch as we waited for dinner. Alden and Anthony were riding some kind of skateboard around the living room, creating obstacles for each other and generally being semi-rowdy young boys. When we expressed how impressed we were with their technique, they simply responded, "you just wiggle." I don't know about Janine and Gracie, but if I got on one of those boards and "just wiggled," I would fall flat on my face and probably end up with a broken bone of some sort!
Dinner was had without Ibu Connie and Pa Kasmin, so it was the three ladies and four boys: Andre, Alden, Anthony and Ben. Andre was such a wonderful host, it was adorable. He apologized for keeping us waiting (though we weren't waiting that long and it was certainly not his fault!) and insisted that we serve ourselves first. He asked me to bless the meal (I think because I was the only one who had been introduced to him) and then served me some rice. It was really quite cute. Initially it was a little bit awkward, since one side of the table didn't really know the other, but we asked some questions and things just kind of took off from there. The interactions of the three brothers was quite hilarious, but they get along rather well--I was certainly impressed.
After dinner, they insisted on giving us a tour of the house, including their own bedrooms and their parents' bedroom, "walk in closet" (which was seriously as big as my bedroom), bathroom, and office, as well as the 3rd floor of the house which provides lovely views of the backyard and the rice paddies just beyond their fence. They were quite excited to show us around,and it was certainly a pleasure to be shown around.
They invited us to a game of UNO, which turned into a competition between the "home team" (the boys) and the "away team" (us). Being gracious guests, we let them win (haha!). It was intense, but truly enjoyable. I really loved how they welcomed us into their room and all seven of us crowded on the bed to play. They were so open and funny, it was a true pleasure to play with them, and definitely the highlight of my evening.
We all headed off to bed (and by "we" I mean Janine, Gracie, and I--the boys continued to frolick around the house), and Janine was out just about as soon as her head hit the pillow! I journaled for a bit and then read, and then went to sleep, and rested fairly well, despite another early morning.
Janine and I were up around 6am again, and I think Grace must have been as well since she was at our door at 6.30am. We went downstairs and had breakfast, and met Liz who had arrived last night around 9pm. Pa Nouvell was back to pick us up at 8.15, and we headed out for another morning of training.
Since we had left most of the stuff up in the classroom, there was a little less set-up required, which was good. Liz led the class through the gallery walk, which included pictures of various storms (our unit is on weather, in case I failed to mention that earlier) and prompts for them to respond to. Our translator from yesterday was otherwise engaged, so we called on Billy, one of the students, to assist. He did a great job throughout the day. The students seemed to enjoy the gallery walk, and were engaged with the photos. Some of the comments/responses that they left were pretty hilarious. We saved them for posterity. :)
Grace went through a content dictionary strategy, which was also great. The students are supposed to predict what the meaning of a vocab word is and at the end of the day we confirm or deny (lol) and give the accurate meaning. Their predictions were again pretty entertaining. A reservoir was "a sewer" according to one prediction. And Grace is so engaging with the students. She's always making them laugh.
I went through many of the poems we had written and then through the sentence patterning chart. I was so impressed with the way the students responded to the poems--I would say it first, model it to them, and then asked them to repeat it with me. Their pronunciation was quite good, and they spoke boldly. I was really pleased. And the patterning chart went well too.
Janine next did the narrative (which they really enjoyed, and did really well with the reprocessing, even without translation) and then I did expert groups and process grids. That went fine, but I want to re-work how it's presented because it went so quickly and I want to make sure all the relevant information is accurately conveyed. They went through the process grid smoothly though, even though I insisted on going over the text without translation, so I know that at least the information was being understood for the most part! And they remembered this strategy when we asked later what kinds of strategies that we had modeled could be used in a math classroom.
We finished with exit slips, which are really a form of assessment for us, and the students seemed to be writing A TON. I haven't seen the comments yet, but I'm excited to. They seemed to enjoy the training, and made favourable reports to one of the faculty members, so that's encouraging.
We went for lunch once we had packed up all our supplies--rolled up all the poems and chants and posters and such--which was Indonsian chicken sate (much like thai satay) and something that was made from rice but was more...chunky? It's hard to describe--it was green on the outside and looked like it would be crunchy like a vegetable, but was soft and tasted like rice. I cannot at all remember the name of it...maybe I'll figure it out later and report back. But it was quite tasty, especially when dipped in a thick peanut sauce!
We opted to come back to Ibu Connie's house and rest and pack after lunch. Pa Nouvell graciously drove us home again. Our flight to Papua leaves from the Jakarta airport at 9pm, which means we should get there by 7pm (security has been increased since the recent bombing), which unfortunately means that we have to leave the house by 4.30! Apparently, it's going to take 2.5 hours from here to get to Jakarta due to rush hour traffic. This is not encouraging. :(
So, prayers are appreciated as we continue to travel-- it's about a 7 hour flight from here to Sentani/Jayapura, Papua--and there are two stops along that itinerary. Tomorrow morning, we'll arrive in Papua, and I can't guarantee what my internet access will look like, but as always, I promise to do my best to keep you updated!
Oh--a little tidbit that I forgot to mention from our arrival at Jakarta (that Janine reminded me to share with you):
I have a global phone and wanted to get a SIM card, and went to Janine, who was waiting with our luggage to tell her I was heading to find one. A janitor overheard our conversation and comes over saying "SIM card? SIM card?" and making the universal sign for phone. We nodded and asked where we could get one. Then he pulls a handful of sketchy-looking SIM cards from his pocket and moves toward us conspiratorily. We laugh, and shake our heads and he awkwardly chuckles and moves a little bit away. I head over to the LEGITIMATE kisosk to purchase one, but apparently the little guy kept pestering Janine about getting one and when she said I had one, he persisted in asking her where I had gone and when I was coming back. Poor Janine. :)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Arrived, and safely!
Welcome to my blog for my summer trip to South East Asia. I'm going to keep things as up-to-date as possible, but as my access to reliable internet might be scattered, please allow for some grace!
So, we made it! Janine, Grace and I arrived, tired but happy, at approximately 7.30pm Jakarta time last night. By God's grace, we met few hassles, despite the team bag being overweight by several pounds and Janine and I carrying on long tubes containing all of the pre-made poster materials for our training sessions. Juliet graciously drove us to the airport on Tuesday morning, and as we were able to check in at home, left my house at 5.45am, rather than the previously scheduled 4am. We didn't hit ANY traffic (I don't know that I can say the same for Juliet on the way home...) and were able to eat a leisurely breakfast near our departure gate after going through a security screening that had absolutely no queue.
The plane to Tokyo was FULL. I think I counted 3 open seats on the HUGE 747...I was seated on the upper deck, where I had never been before, and Gracie and Janine were on the lower deck, in the very rear. I accidentally stole a sandwich from the business class "oasis" on the plane...but it was worth it because that was a good sandwich, haha! The flight was incredibly long, more than 13 hours, but it passed relatively quickly, thanks to sporadic sleep and a decent collection of movies for my viewing pleasure. Also, a big thanks to those of you who prayed for me and the huge stress/hesitation I was feeling prior to the trip--I was not nervous at all, and felt totally at peace from the moment I stepped on that plane, and the flight from Tokyo to Jakarta. Hopefully, that peace will be maintained for the 8 flights I have left to go!
I found Janine and Grace in the Tokyo airport, right before the transfer security. We made it through without any problems and had about 30 minutes before we needed to board our next flight. I was feeling rather ill from the previous flight, so I went in search of this magical pain medication I had previously found in Japan called "bufferin." I found it, and bought a bottle of water, and by the time our Tokyo flight took off, my headache was totally gone.
And when I thought that things couldn't get any smoother, I discovered that the seat I had checked in for on the second flight was actually a premium economy seat! This was a huge deal because I never get upgraded or anything. It's not like it was business class or anything, but there was so much more leg room and I had a leg rest and a foot rest...and I just totally felt spoiled. It was totally marvelous. The food on this flight was slightly questionable (I think I ate a piece of octopus sucker??), but no worries. I am still alive, whatever it was that I ate on that plane. I was also fortunate enough to sleep about 5 of the 7 hours from Tokyo to Jakarta, so I arrived in Jakarta feeling less than exhausted, which was marvelous.
Arrival in Jakarta was also smooth. One semi-hilarious moment occurred while I was waiting in line for my visa: I looked up to see a welcome sign in the airport that read "Welcome to Indonesia: Death penalty for drug trafficking. For some reason this made me laugh--what a welcome! Be aware that the death penalty is available here! I received a visa on arrival, which was actually this pretty intense sticker that they print out with all your information and takes up an entire page of my passport. I hope that there aren't many more of those kind to be received on this trip because otherwise I will run out of pages in my passport! The lines weren't too long, and I beat Janine and Gracie through the visa line and immigration, and headed over to collect our bags. Gratefully, all of our bags arrived, but one of our team members didn't!
One of Gracie's friends from Chicago was to be joining us on this trip, and when we didn't see her at the gate, we weren't too concerned, and expected her to join us on the plane. Only, she never did. It turns out that she did not make her connection in Tokyo and is currently still there, waiting for a flight out tonight.
I was able to purchase a SIM card at the airport (so I now have an Indonesian cell number--email me if you want it, haha), which just totally makes me feel more secure as I roam around, knowing that I can reach someone if absolutely necessary.
We took a really nice taxi from the airport to the home of the director of the teacher's college, about a 30 minute drive from the airport. The home was like NOTHING we anticipated.
First of all, this is place is like a mansion. I am so not joking. There are two of us to a room, but we have huge king size beds, flat screen TVs and our private bathrooms. It's also air-conditioned. The back yard has two fish ponds, half a basketball court, a pool and multiple trees lining a grassy yard and a patio with a approximately 5 tables surrounded by chairs. There's a spiral staircase leading to the room I share with Janine and a balcony that connects all the upstairs rooms. I can't even describe it...it's amazing. And the woman and her family are so nice and so generous--so eager to make our stay pleasant. We're spending the afternoon lazing around the pool, trying to distract ourselves from the beds that call to us so persistently...
And the training. Today was the first day, the first time we've had to put all our hard work and planning into action. We all got up around 6am (after 24 hours of travel--imagine!) and got ready for the day. A driver came to pick us up at 7.45am and we were then shown around the building that houses the teacher's college. We met many of the faculty and staff and then were shown to our room for the day and allowed to set-up. The room was perfect--the tables were situated just in the fashion that we wanted to model and there was lots of wall space for the various posters we were going to use. There was some uncertainty as to the English proficiency of the students we would be working with, so we were given a translator. She was awesome too!
It went REALLY well. I was to model a pictorial input, but done in Spanish, a language that no one in the room knew. The idea was that even though they don't understand the words that I'm saying at first, the pictures that are associated with them make the meanings clear. When I got up there and started speaking in Spanish, the whole room kind of gasped. But as things went on, as I would say words in Spanish, they would repeat them, and you could hear students getting their English equivalents ("Oh, condensation! Oh, oceans!"). They laughed as I moved through the drawings and did hand motions and pointed to words and repeated them, and when I finished, they clapped for me! I was the last strategy of the morning, so they'd been listening for 2 hours straight, and they clapped! I cannot even express the warmth that moved through me. It was an amazing feeling. I then explained why and what I had done, and the students were nodding their heads in understanding before the translator could even get to what I had said. Then we did what is called "reprocessing" where the students were given little cards with words from the poster on them and asked to come up and stick it in the appropriate location when they hear their word called. Every single one of them did it correctly, and they loved it when I said "que bueno!" after they posted their word. Then they clapped again. It was awesome. I was pretty nervous since I was going to be talking about the water cycle in Spanish, but God's provision was once again evident. All in all, I think there were very few ways in which the training could have gone better. We're up again tomorrow, and I hope it goes just as well.
We ate lunch after the training (It was delicious) and then went to a mall nearby and wandered around. We're now back at Connie's amazing house and Janine and Grace are waiting for me to join them in the pool, so I'd better sign off for now. So far, so good--but keep us in your prayers!
So, we made it! Janine, Grace and I arrived, tired but happy, at approximately 7.30pm Jakarta time last night. By God's grace, we met few hassles, despite the team bag being overweight by several pounds and Janine and I carrying on long tubes containing all of the pre-made poster materials for our training sessions. Juliet graciously drove us to the airport on Tuesday morning, and as we were able to check in at home, left my house at 5.45am, rather than the previously scheduled 4am. We didn't hit ANY traffic (I don't know that I can say the same for Juliet on the way home...) and were able to eat a leisurely breakfast near our departure gate after going through a security screening that had absolutely no queue.
The plane to Tokyo was FULL. I think I counted 3 open seats on the HUGE 747...I was seated on the upper deck, where I had never been before, and Gracie and Janine were on the lower deck, in the very rear. I accidentally stole a sandwich from the business class "oasis" on the plane...but it was worth it because that was a good sandwich, haha! The flight was incredibly long, more than 13 hours, but it passed relatively quickly, thanks to sporadic sleep and a decent collection of movies for my viewing pleasure. Also, a big thanks to those of you who prayed for me and the huge stress/hesitation I was feeling prior to the trip--I was not nervous at all, and felt totally at peace from the moment I stepped on that plane, and the flight from Tokyo to Jakarta. Hopefully, that peace will be maintained for the 8 flights I have left to go!
I found Janine and Grace in the Tokyo airport, right before the transfer security. We made it through without any problems and had about 30 minutes before we needed to board our next flight. I was feeling rather ill from the previous flight, so I went in search of this magical pain medication I had previously found in Japan called "bufferin." I found it, and bought a bottle of water, and by the time our Tokyo flight took off, my headache was totally gone.
And when I thought that things couldn't get any smoother, I discovered that the seat I had checked in for on the second flight was actually a premium economy seat! This was a huge deal because I never get upgraded or anything. It's not like it was business class or anything, but there was so much more leg room and I had a leg rest and a foot rest...and I just totally felt spoiled. It was totally marvelous. The food on this flight was slightly questionable (I think I ate a piece of octopus sucker??), but no worries. I am still alive, whatever it was that I ate on that plane. I was also fortunate enough to sleep about 5 of the 7 hours from Tokyo to Jakarta, so I arrived in Jakarta feeling less than exhausted, which was marvelous.
Arrival in Jakarta was also smooth. One semi-hilarious moment occurred while I was waiting in line for my visa: I looked up to see a welcome sign in the airport that read "Welcome to Indonesia: Death penalty for drug trafficking. For some reason this made me laugh--what a welcome! Be aware that the death penalty is available here! I received a visa on arrival, which was actually this pretty intense sticker that they print out with all your information and takes up an entire page of my passport. I hope that there aren't many more of those kind to be received on this trip because otherwise I will run out of pages in my passport! The lines weren't too long, and I beat Janine and Gracie through the visa line and immigration, and headed over to collect our bags. Gratefully, all of our bags arrived, but one of our team members didn't!
One of Gracie's friends from Chicago was to be joining us on this trip, and when we didn't see her at the gate, we weren't too concerned, and expected her to join us on the plane. Only, she never did. It turns out that she did not make her connection in Tokyo and is currently still there, waiting for a flight out tonight.
I was able to purchase a SIM card at the airport (so I now have an Indonesian cell number--email me if you want it, haha), which just totally makes me feel more secure as I roam around, knowing that I can reach someone if absolutely necessary.
We took a really nice taxi from the airport to the home of the director of the teacher's college, about a 30 minute drive from the airport. The home was like NOTHING we anticipated.
First of all, this is place is like a mansion. I am so not joking. There are two of us to a room, but we have huge king size beds, flat screen TVs and our private bathrooms. It's also air-conditioned. The back yard has two fish ponds, half a basketball court, a pool and multiple trees lining a grassy yard and a patio with a approximately 5 tables surrounded by chairs. There's a spiral staircase leading to the room I share with Janine and a balcony that connects all the upstairs rooms. I can't even describe it...it's amazing. And the woman and her family are so nice and so generous--so eager to make our stay pleasant. We're spending the afternoon lazing around the pool, trying to distract ourselves from the beds that call to us so persistently...
And the training. Today was the first day, the first time we've had to put all our hard work and planning into action. We all got up around 6am (after 24 hours of travel--imagine!) and got ready for the day. A driver came to pick us up at 7.45am and we were then shown around the building that houses the teacher's college. We met many of the faculty and staff and then were shown to our room for the day and allowed to set-up. The room was perfect--the tables were situated just in the fashion that we wanted to model and there was lots of wall space for the various posters we were going to use. There was some uncertainty as to the English proficiency of the students we would be working with, so we were given a translator. She was awesome too!
It went REALLY well. I was to model a pictorial input, but done in Spanish, a language that no one in the room knew. The idea was that even though they don't understand the words that I'm saying at first, the pictures that are associated with them make the meanings clear. When I got up there and started speaking in Spanish, the whole room kind of gasped. But as things went on, as I would say words in Spanish, they would repeat them, and you could hear students getting their English equivalents ("Oh, condensation! Oh, oceans!"). They laughed as I moved through the drawings and did hand motions and pointed to words and repeated them, and when I finished, they clapped for me! I was the last strategy of the morning, so they'd been listening for 2 hours straight, and they clapped! I cannot even express the warmth that moved through me. It was an amazing feeling. I then explained why and what I had done, and the students were nodding their heads in understanding before the translator could even get to what I had said. Then we did what is called "reprocessing" where the students were given little cards with words from the poster on them and asked to come up and stick it in the appropriate location when they hear their word called. Every single one of them did it correctly, and they loved it when I said "que bueno!" after they posted their word. Then they clapped again. It was awesome. I was pretty nervous since I was going to be talking about the water cycle in Spanish, but God's provision was once again evident. All in all, I think there were very few ways in which the training could have gone better. We're up again tomorrow, and I hope it goes just as well.
We ate lunch after the training (It was delicious) and then went to a mall nearby and wandered around. We're now back at Connie's amazing house and Janine and Grace are waiting for me to join them in the pool, so I'd better sign off for now. So far, so good--but keep us in your prayers!
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