Saturday, January 3, 2009

Days 1-3 in a nutshell

Hello or I should say "Selamat Siang" (Good afternoon)

I've had two busy days...

Day 1 arrival - got in earlier than expected, taxi driver got a touch lost

Day 2 - Early start -had breakfast at 7am! Met a number of different people, had a language lesson, and went to the local supermarket (Carrefour) which involved using public transport - definitely not like our buses! Also had to be mindful of who to look at and who not to, and not be overwhelmed by just how crazy the roads were - busy, and quite hectic. The massive supermarket was also all those things. Felt out of my depth and as they say "a fish out of water"

I then came back and had another language lesson. I was learning the national language of Indonesia (Bahasa Indonesia). Indonesian is probably one of the easier languages to learn as it is a phonetic language, but don't expect me to come back fluent!. It uses the same lettering as English, and for the most part the pronunciation is the same or close to. Notable exceptions: 'r' = rolled, 'c' = ch as in chair,

After that, it was out again to see some children's work. I met some kindergarten teachers who are learning new methods of teaching children as well as how to teach English. They are being supported by an English Teacher, who is also developing teaching materials that they can use. I was asked to teach the Hokey Pokey. I had fun and the teachers looked like they enjoyed it too. They will hopefully use it with the children as it has English words in it that they have been teaching them.

Came home to dinner and was pretty whacked by then, so was grateful for a couple hours sleep. When I woke up, I worked out what the problem was with my phone and called home. - I hadn't been able to make any calls and was pretty frustrated about it on the night I arrived.

Day 3 - another early start that had us setting off at 7.20 to visit a kindergarten in a needy area. The children were all a bit astonished at our appearance, and a couple of them burst into tears and had to be taken outside (It may have been the first time they had seen a White or a Black woman).

This visit involved another stint on the buses and crossing the road for the first time, which may seem like nothing, but out here is something. - Closest thing I can say is, think of spaghetti junction with loads of fast moving traffic, including motorbikes that will just weave in and out around you. I then had a semi answer to a desire of mine, which was riding a motorbike! It was a form of taxi, and they will sometimes have up to 4 people on a bike.

So there I was on the back and actually 'bricking it'. I had no helmet, had two hefty bags to hold onto, and when I began to hold onto the driver, I suddenly thought, I'm probably not allowed to do that! So swiftly withdrew my hands - LOL. For the entire journey I was just repeating "perfect love drives out fear, perfect love drives out fear" :-)

Well I could go on, but I'm supposed to be learning some vocab and have some colouring in to do. I also need to try to get an early night tonight - not sure if it is jet lag or just needing to go to bed, but have been up till 2am both nights. Can't keep that up as the heat of the day is very draining and tiring, so need the rest.

(day 5..ok so I dropped of for a few days, but my consistency stretch should get back on track now!)

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