Wayang Cici- Chinese Puppet Show
Takbiran
Cleaning our Goat Intestines in the River
Washing Clothes
Tokek
Things have been wildly busy over the past few weeks (minus a relaxing few days in
Since the school day during Ramadan was dramatically shorter than usual, I spent a lot of time working on creative activities for my students (my favorite being Scrabble sets made out of recycled cardboard, using the Sharpies Mom sent out, even though most of the teachers thought they were ugly) and getting to know my community a bit better. My homestay situation is less than ideal at the moment, so I try to spend as much time out of my ‘home’ as possible, which has definitely had its rewards. Every Sunday morning I go on a bicycle ride before English Club with Bu Sari, my RT or head of neighborhood. She’s the English teacher that befriended me awhile back and she’s been super supportive and gracious ever since. Each Sunday she takes me somewhere where there’s someone with a ‘unique occupation’.
The outskirts of Mojosari are much more rural and the terraced rice paddies at sunrise are absolutely breathtaking. Since I haven’t been able to run here, these morning bike rides have been my new way of exploring my surroundings while simultaneously clearing my mind. The first weekend Bu S. took me to a home in a neighboring village where there’s a man who catches these white lizards, tokek, (maybe geckos? I’ve never been good at classifying different species of reptiles) in order to use their blood (I think, maybe venom…if lizards have venom) for some type of HIV medication which is exported to neighboring Asian countries for hundreds of dollars an ounce. Apparently it’s a really difficult and dangerous job because the lizards bite and one must climb unstable bamboo? trees…some of the details may have been lost in translation. A different weekend she took me to meet a woman who specializes in helping women get pregnant…via massage. Newlywed women who are having difficulty conceiving come to this woman for a special back massage followed by drinking Jamu (a local Javanese health drink, which, in my humble opinion, tastes awful!) While we were there I watched someone clean the intestines of a recently-slaughtered goat in a nearby stream, which surprisingly didn’t make me queasy like I had anticipated. In the village there was also a small enclosed freshwater spring where women wash their daily laundry while their half-naked children swim. Being in these more rural areas is more of how I pictured my Peace Corps life. It seems like the people in these smaller villages are much more community oriented. My host bro always accompanies us, and this is usually the only time that he’s 100% pleasant to be around: he’s polite, respectful, and light-hearted. Outside of those bike rides he lies, is demanding, angry, likes to set things on fire, and occasionally throws in a death threat when I’m wearing my Arema (soccer team from
The end of Ramadan was astoundingly uneventful considering Idul Fitri (the last day of the Islamic month) is the most important Muslim holiday. We went to all the neighbors to ‘ask forgiveness for those faults we have knowingly and unknowingly committed’ as well as every member of the extended families, all 950 students at my school, the teaching staff…and anyone else we seemed to run into. I did enjoy watching takbiran where all of the village children walk through the neighborhoods carrying colored torches and singing about Allah the Great.
And then it was off to
Teaching is getting easier and I’ve started establishing more of a routine. I spend more time with friends outside of my house. The other night I went with Mas A. to watch wayang cici (traditional Chinese puppets) at a Buddhist place of worship. There weren’t very many people there, so the leader invited us up to see the behind-the-scenes action. It was really cool to meet another segment of the Mojosari population and learn about Buddhist as well as Chinese culture. Last weekend I also went back to
Right now I’m working on creating an English day camp once a month for the school-aged children in my immediate village. I have a lot of support from my RT and Village Head. My English Club students will help administer the activities. I have big hopes for establishing this as a sustainable secondary project. I’m super excited about its potential for success, but equally nervous about the potential of failure. We just passed out announcements and registration forms for the first meeting which will be on Sunday October 10.
My school is under construction at the moment which has proven challenging for teaching: four classes in one room, separated by cubicle barriers. 150 kids, four different teachers, four different subjects, all at the same time. It’s absolute chaos. But supposedly it’s “only” for 2 months. The other day BAPPENAS (the Ministry of National Development Planning), members of the national and provincial Ministries of Religious Affairs, as well as various Peace Corps staff (10 significantly important persons in total) came to observe and meet me as well as 3 other volunteers. I was tremendously nervous to teach in front of them, but my students and counterpart were amazing- I couldn’t have paid them to be more enthusiastic and participatory! They made me look like a better teacher than I actually am. I think I helped make a good first impression of what Peace Corps represents and after talking with all of them I was reminded of why I wanted to join Peace Corps in the first place. My energy has been rejuvenated.
That’s been the last month in a nutshell. Super busy, but I’m starting to see positive results from my time here, both in me growing as a person as well as the impact I’m having on my school and my community. There are tough days, but the good days are starting to drastically outnumber those that I have to fight through.
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