Day 9: Music and dancing at a vocational school... and fire.

We did a lab today in Chemistry class.  No one asked for a pencil and no one forgot their notebook.

MOREOVER, they brought the actual materials for the lab themselves!  As a teacher I am not too bothered by students asking for pencils and paper.  Especially my students with special needs, it really isn't a big deal and doesn't register on my list of things that bother me about teaching.  But looking around the room today, it was sparse.  No chromebook cart, calculators, graph paper, markers, scissors, nor pencil/paper.  In fact, there was only a whiteboard (no markers, teachers bring their own into the room when it is their time to teach) and a few copies of the Quaran.  And about 36 desks.  That was it.

I will back up a bit, when we got to school this morning, they were doing their morning reading of the Quaran in their first hour class.  I asked Yulia if they had any Christian or non-Muslim students in her school and she said they did and they either excused themselves or just sat quietly during the reading.  After the reading they sang the national anthem.  It was interesting because it was a class of all boys and I have never heard a group of non-chior boys sing so loud.  Usually it is under their breath, if anything at all.  These students all seemed pretty comfortable with singing.

Some things are the same.  This kids is clearly copying something during the reading.

After all that, we started the chemistry lesson on chemical and physical changes.  Apparently, prior to this lesson, Yulia asked students to bring paper, Q-tips, candles, a fruit with a juice inside (like an orange), and lighters(!) to class for the lab.  The school doesn't have a lab like we have in the US, so they just made pods.   

In our school, and most schools in the US, there is a huge reluctance/legal issue with asking kids to bring materials to school.  That whole "free education" thing is taken very seriously which I do appreciate.  But I also appreciate that Yulia could ask her kids to bring something to school and it wasn't a big deal.  Students explored what physical vs. chemical changes occurred in this lab.

This lab involved heating up juice on paper.  If the paper started on fire, they just threw the paper on the ground and stomped on it.  I suppose that is one of the benefits of tile floor.

Afterwards Yulia "mopped up" the material and debriefed it with the class. Then some students took pictures of the board to get the notes.  Jem and I talked about how our students do similar things.  I generally encourage writing things down to remember, but if it is announcement (or page numbers of reading, etc) a picture works fine.  We hypothesized what the pros and cons of taking pictures in this class might be for students.  

Look familiar US teachers?

Apparently they have a class-wide What's App channel they will use to post the picture.

Afterwards we took a picture with the class at the student's request.  This picture was also shared in the What's App channel.

From there we went back to the principal's room which as become our home base because it has AC.  We took a tour of the "cafeteria" which contained some carts along with this food stand.

A lot of this is deep fried which makes it difficult to tell what it is.  I asked them to go through each food to describe it, but when ever they didn't know how to describe something, we took a sample of it for the road.  As a result, we had a pretty mighty snack.  Most of these things were some combination of tofu, coconut, banana, and rice.

More of the cafeteria stands.

This was a "sweet potato" ball from the stand.  It was a BEAUTIFUL color purple inside.

We had pizza hut for lunch.  Stuffed crust style.  It seemed to have less salt/seasoning than in the US and I have yet to see any pizza with red sauce on it yet, but it was a nice change.  Typically when I travel to non-western countries, the most satisfying meal I have is a PB&J.  Trying new food is GREAT, but it can become overwhelming sometimes to do it for weeks in a row.  There is something nice about having something taste familiar occasionally.

 From there we went to a music/dance club. We learned a dance that we saw just yesterday at the opening ceremony.  We also got to play the drums and bonang.  The bonang makes different noises based on the thickness of the pot.  It was pretty hot - I was literally dripping with sweat just because of the heat in the room.  Moving with dance and drums made it much warmer.

The bonang.

Here were my dance instructors for the day.  They were good teachers - I just have some homework I need to do tonight.

After the dance lesson we headed back to the principal's lounge where we tried the Rambutan below.  The fruit is named after the word for "hair" because it has the spiky hair coming out of it.  You peel it and then below is a pitted fruit that tastes a bit like lychee.

From there we took a trip to the grocery store which was very interesting!  I love going to grocery stores in other countries because you see things that you never expected to see.  This place had a lot of oil which matches with what we have seen on stands with lots of fried food.  The produce here was also massive.

Working at Target has really changed the way I see stores now.  Before I would notice what new foods foreign stores had, but now I also look at volume of food they have.  We saw PALLETS of oil - that's right more than one pallet.  That's a lot of oil.

Gotta love a grocery store trip.

Check out this date section.  This is easily 4 feet of dates.  At trader joes there is one facing of dates.

MASSIVE avocados.  I was going to buy one for avocado toast in the morning, but couldn't find one that was ripe.  I ALMOST bought a jar of peanut butter for peanut butter toast in the morning, but resisted the urge.  I am regretting not buying either though...

Day 8: Welcoming ceremony and sea turtles

I have a new name: Kate.  It sounds a bit more like "Katch" when the students and teachers say it.  I think "Kate" is supposed to be a little easier for Indonesians to say.

I also learned why it is important to learn people's correct pronunciation of people's names.  It is personal.  That being said, I did a terrible job of pronouncing student names today.  Yulia wanted students to practice introducing themselves and I tried saying "Nice to meet you, Ronol" by repeating the student names but there were a LOT of students and they talked quietly.  It was rough.

Today started with pick up at 7:15 and then to the school to join them for "morning activity".   This is what it looked like:

This school is 4.5% girls.  You can see them in the way back, across the open space.  The staff speaker is on the podium and the students in the center are putting up the flag.  It looked a LOT like a military performance with the way all the students walked around.

It seemed very much like a military performance.  Lots of standing in lines and marching in place.  It was highly nationalistic.  It made me think if we did this in our schools.  I can see how this creates a strong common culture, but I am guessing that protesting the flag is not well received here.  The whole thing is supposed to last about 45 minutes but it can go longer if needed.

As it got later in the morning, the sun crept over more and more students, I was like "for crying out loud, dismiss them already!"  Apparently Indonesian students are tougher than US students (or US teachers for that matter).  I still think back to 2ish years ago where we had some crazy hot days in September and MPS cancelled school for some students in non-AC buildings.  That's not happening here. 

From there we went to a staff room where we were once again offered food. 

I am seriously starting to think our hosts think we don't have food in the US.  

All staff wear brown uniforms on Mondays and Tuesdays.

It opened with the Indonesian anthem followed by the US anthem.  Except there was a surprise twist.  The anthem they played had a second verse to it!  I already have mixed feelings about the anthem I know, but the second verse is... extreme.  Here's the second part they played, which Jem and I stood looking confused by:

     "O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
     Between their loved homes and the war's desolation.
     Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
     Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
     Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
     And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
     And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
     O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"

According to Wikipedia, this is actually the 4th verse, but MIGHTY.  "Conquer we must"?!  I'm surely not a fan of that...

We also saw more musical performances.

Welcome performance at our host school! SMK 5 in Padang pic.twitter.com/rOvTTK2XcH

— Kaitie O'Bryan (@Kaitie_Obryan) July 29, 2019

Check out that banner in the background! I’m so thankful @KnowlesTeachers got us headshots at our first meeting, that’s come through so many times! #IndonesiaUSA70th pic.twitter.com/1zdGewsOdA

— Kaitie O'Bryan (@Kaitie_Obryan) July 29, 2019

Afterwards we talked with some of the performers.  They had a good amount of English but clearly not as fluent as the high school students at the boarding school we visited.  One word they did know was "selfie".  I took several selfies with the students (and some teachers).

The school was clearly very proud to be chosen to host these "american teachers".  It made me realize how challenging diplomacy is.  Perhaps this school was chosen for a political reason, but I got the sense it was just a school that we were able to get to with a host who was interested.  They clearly took a lot of pride in this though.  Also, I would tell everyone I was from the US, or "the states" and I would get a confused look until Yulia said we were "american".  Even students who asked us, and knew the answer to the question, would repeat back "you're from America" when I would say I am from "Minnesota in the US".

After that, we went for a tour of the school.  The school is a "vocational school" meaning all of the students will go straight to a job after finishing.  They have a networking, electrical engineering, and automotive program.  Below is a picture of the

My school did n't have equipment like this and I know how expensive it is to add.  One of the things I will miss about not being at MV next year is seeing the "How to make almost anything" class we added.  I would love to observe our students in this type of environment.  Some would struggle.  Some would blow me away.

The tour involved looking at various classrooms and talking to some teachers.  We saw mostly "workshop" classrooms where students were doing hands-on training in their program.

I am not going to lie, it was HOT.  Literally had sweat dripping down my back without doing any work at all.  I cannot imagine how the kids in the automotive program were managing - or even the kids sitting in class.  Being a student in the school would be an endurance sport for me.  It felt like hot yoga, except with no actual relief.

Then it was time for lunch.  Here's what my lunch box looked like.  They have a beef dish that is roasted for 8 hours or something like that with spices that they are known for.  I need to get the name, but I think this is the third time in 3 days that I had that dish.  It is good.  The big round "container" is the rice.  It was a lot of rice.  Jem commented ted that since rice is cheap and available, they will lots of times give a lot of rice with their meals and less meat/veggies.  I ate all the meat and some of the veggies with some rice, but I think the headmaster was confused when I was done since there was SO MUCH left over.  Again, with the heat, I wasn't that hungry - and we had been offered food every 30 minutes, so, I didn't think I was about to starve at all.

Jem is Philippina and said her family also provides lots of food when they host people.  So, while I have joked that we eat way too much and are offered a ton of food, it seems like it is a cultural trend and sign of being welcoming.  We feel very welcomed here. 

I also ate with my hands today which was an adventure.  It was odd eating so "casually" with the administrator next to me, who was also eating with his hands.  It was kinda like eating spaghetti at a business dinner - super messy but without any other option, so you just dig in.

From there we went back to our hotel for an "afternoon rest".  Part of me felt like we should have stayed longer, but it was so hot, it was hard think about anything other than how hot it was.  Jem has a great strategy of thinking "cold thoughts" (ice cream, ice, snow, wind, drafts, etc).  I am going have to try that tomorrow.  My thoughts are more like "HOLY MOSES!! IT IS FREAKIN HAWWWT!" - I think it would be a good idea to monitor that thinking a bit more.

Going back to the hotel also gave me a chance to get caught up on some blogs too (here we are!).

After school was done (~3) Yulia and Ronol came to pick us up to go to the "turtle sanctuary".

I wasn't really sure what this would be, but it turned out to be pretty awesome!  It is this one dude who just loves sea turtles and pays fishermen to bring the eggs to him that they find on random beaches.  This guy then takes the eggs and puts them in some sand and waits for them to hatch.  He pays about 3k Rupia per egg (that's about a quarter a piece) and fishers bring in about 100 at a time.  He also goes around and finds eggs himself and brings them back.  He said if the fishermen bring them, they can lose about 50% of them but if he finds them, it is close to 100%.

HERE'S the cool part!  He had some sea turtles that were only a day old.

Cute.

Only 8 of the 100 survived, but they were really adorable.

Here's the giant sandbox that has the eggs inside.  He dates the eggs by when he got them and numbers them.

From there we grabbed coconut water on the beach.

And then... we got to release the turtles!

Off they go!  We took them out of the bucket and let them walk to the sea.

But really you need to see a video, to get the picture:

We arrived at the turtle sanctuary JUST in time to release the day old sea turtles. @usembassyjkt pic.twitter.com/1fQJU9tkxm

— Kaitie O'Bryan (@Kaitie_Obryan) July 29, 2019

A time-lapse video can't hurt either.

All-in-all, just cute.

The man on the left is the head of the "turtle camp".   We are doing our best sea turtle impersonation.

Just for kicks, we also saw a goat eating a coconut.  Also pretty cute.

Day 7: Exploring Padang

Since Sunday is pretty much the only day of the week teachers have off here in Indonesia, we went out to explore around Padang - mostly in towns about 2 hours away in the mountains.

We started by going to a traditional Padang building.  Immediately when we got out of the car, I noticed it was cooler outside - not cool, just cooler, which I was thankful for.

Inside they had clothes that are "traditional dress".  Our host and Adi (Yulia's friend), said we should get dressed up right away to beat the rush.  I didn't really know what they meant until we went inside.

Inside they have all these different outfits that typically people wear during Indonesian weddings.  Outfits were picked for us and then we got made up.  This was a bit crazy.  We proceeded to have a photoshoot outside.  Yuilia and Adi knew all the best spots for photos - they had clearly done this before.

You know how I said it was "cooler" here.  It's not so "cooler" once you put on pounds of velvet.  I was ROASTING.  It felt good to be able to breath afterwards.

Jem, my travel buddy, and I had a conversation afterwards about cultural appropriation.  It felt a little bit like that.  I have generally heard that if someone from that culture invites you to participate, then it is OK.  Jem believed it was more so how you acted while doing something from another's culture.  

She had a great analogy to food.  We never blame people for cultural appropriation for trying food from other cultures or even trying to make food from other cultures.  It seems like wearing things from other cultures is where people get in trouble, but I cannot really understand why.  Jem felt like people sometimes are too sensitive but I can see how it might be a blindspot for me or maybe it is like micro-aggressions that while it is "not that big of a deal" - it adds up over time.  I am open to changing my thinking about all of this.  I'd love to hear other's thoughts.

From there we went to another site.  Along the way we stopped for food.  This place had heat below the kettles and then put a kettle of wood on top too so heat was coming from all sides.  I pretty much just wished I had a marshmallow to stick in the fire... gotta love a good s'more anywhere on earth.

Here's the kettle set-up.

These were the result of the double firing.  These were the coconut ones which tasted a lot like macaroons.  They were sweet and had rice flour also in them.  There were also banana and rice flower bika (the name for the food).  Those tasted a lot like banana bread. They were both really good and really filling.

After that, we went to a large overlook of a large lake in the mountains.  Again, we took more pictures.

Pretty much the two words we hear the most here is "let's take a picture" and "are you hungry?"

We tried a bit more traditional food up on the overlook.  Since we had done a lot of mountain travel that involved switchbacks and narrow roads.  I was NOT hungry.  Also, those banana and coconut things were filling.

From there we went to a market to see a clock tower that was donated from the dutch and to, you guessed it, try more food.

Again, I was full and still not really settled from the mountain travel, so Jem and I "shared" a bowl.  It was honestly very similar to what we had yesterday, but the serving situation was a bit different.  There were all these different stands with different women at them with a similar setup.  They were in the middle (see below) and had all these large bowls in front of them.  They served people from there and seats were set-up around the edge.

Again, another "let's take a picture" moment.  Interestingly enough, people seem really excited to "invite the American" to take a picture - one guy at a location just randomly came up to me and said, I want to take a picture of you - and then we took a selfie.   Jem doesn't get asked that at all.  With the guy, I told him Jem was from California and he just kinda looked at her confused since she looks more Indonesian than "American"

In this same area we went to explore some caves and do a bit of shopping.  I bought some fabric to bring home.  Here they use more woven fabric rather than the batik we saw everywhere in Jakarta.  But even as you are looking around, there weren't very many people wearing batik in Padang.  What I did see today was a lot of people wearing jeans and MULTIPLE layers.  Adi even put on a hooded sweatshirt today.  It had to be 80 degrees and humid, so the idea of jeans or a sweatshirt were not of interest to me.  Before I left I just couldn't imagine that people wore "business professional" clothes in this heat without AC.  My roommate kinda told me I might be surprised.  Man, I am!  In my classroom I will go sleeveless when it gets hot, I think tomorrow at school will be rough with long pants and long sleeves.

You cannot really see it in this picture, but there is a huge valley here between the two sides.  Inside the valley is where we headed to next.

Next we traveled to a very off the beaten place for tea.  That's right, more food.

Here was the sign for the place.  It was down some VERY narrow roads.  I don't know how Adi drives there!  The roads looked barely big enough for one car, so when two cars were on the road, one essentially needed to pull off to the ditch.

It was SO beautiful in this place.  It was inside the valley and very very lush.  It was nice to get off the beaten path a bit.

I got a mango "smoothie".  I was a little nervous it would have ice in it or water, but it certainly did not.  It had ton of mango.  It was almost like pureed mango.  It was delish.

More photoshoots.

Today was also the first day I saw a dog in Indonesia.  Typically I expect stray dogs at least, but I didn't see any in Jakarta - neither as pets or as strays.  It was odd.   Out here, in the country, I have seen more strays and a few as pets.

Hungry puppy.

As we drank our tea, the sun started to set.  It was SO pretty!  These photos have no filter.

Since it had rained a bit, the sunset was just beautiful!  

More sunset photos.

From there, we headed back to the hotel which was about a 2-3 hour drive.  To be honest, while we are supposed to be a "citizen diplomat", this diplomat spent much of the driving time fighting to stay awake.  A fight I frequently lost.  Between my capacity/impulse to sleep in cars and the winding roads/full stomach combo, I feel asleep more than I probably should have.

Overall, it was a great day!  We started at 7:30 and got back at 9:30, 10 by the time we got the sim card for our cell phone... long story there.

Tomorrow we start school!

Day 6: Travel to Padang

Here we go!

We are leaving in pairs to go to our "host community" where we will spend a week in a given school.  My school is public vocational high school in Padang which is north west of Jakarta and about an hour flight.  It is a more conservative area than Jakarta and has both mountains and beaches.  It does not have good wifi.  So, these blogs might get a little more brief as I am really hogging a lot of data on my phone to put these together... sorry Dad, let me know what I owe you for our increased phone bill...

I love signs like these - I feel like it shows how "close" everything in the world really is.

Made it!

When we landed we met our host teacher Yulia who is a chemistry teacher and associate principal at the school we will be at.  I asked her about certifications to be admin and she said the principal needed to have a certification but associated principals were "elected" by the teachers.  THAT'S an interesting idea!  I don't know if I am for or against it, but it is an interesting thought experiment.

Yulia said she didn't want the post (sounds like a familiar story with teacher leadership positions at my school too), but felt like since the teachers elected her, she should take up the responsibility.

Here we are in Padang with our host teacher, Yulia.  It was hot as Hades out there.  I think that will be a theme.

From there we went to go get lunch.  We went to a "Padang Style" restaurant where they bring out ALL. THE. FOOD.  And then you pay for whatever you eat.  Kind of like the opposite of tapas-style eating.

Here is what the table looked like before we ate.  Afterwards the waiter counted up the dishes we ate from and then gave us the bill.  This was also a "eat with your hands" place so they gave us bowls of water to "wash" our fingers between meals.  

We had to take off our shoes to get into the restaurant.  It was the opposite of "No shoes, no service". 

After that, we headed to our hotel room to review the agenda Yulia made.  I think it will be an action packed week with a variety of experiences.   We will be observing some different classrooms, talking to a cultures club in the school, and meeting with some of the school leadership.  We will also be visiting a turtle conservatory, hiking a mountain, and visiting Yulia's home.

Tonight I did some good-old-fashioned "hotel sink" laundry which turns out is a good "grip strength" exercise that involves squeezing as much water out of each piece every five minutes or so.

Day 5: Islamic Public Boarding School

I once had a roommate who went to a boarding school as a kid.  My only experiences with boarding schools was with kids who were poorly behaved and "sent away" to boarding school.  She didn't seem like a person who was a bad kid, but according to her, "everyone" out east went to boarding schools.

Today we visited a public Islamic boarding school in Jakarta.

Here's what I learned in Indonesia, the US also has public boarding schools!  Another teacher told me about that program in her state.  Again... just needed to travel 31 hours away from the US to know more about the US.  From the Islamic boarding school, I also learned:

• This boarding school accepts 150 kids into their program each year and is fully state covered.  
• Students get to go home twice a year - at the end of each semester
• They don't get to use cell phones at all.  They check them in at the beginning of the semester and then get them back at the end of the semester.  If they find a cell phone on a person, they destroy it.  They did say every year this policy becomes harder to enforce.  Sounds like a familiar theme.
• Students also don't get to use their laptops in their dorms - they can use their laptops during a designated time.
• Students are VERY segregated by gender.  It sounds like this is a self-inflicted segregation (using different stairways, sitting on separate sides of the classroom, and using different lunch areas).  It was a bit odd. 
• Much like the US, the teachers are very proud of their kids.  
• It was so much easier to talk to students here - maybe it was that they were more mature than the elementary school kids or maybe it was just that their English was better, but asking students about their school and their community was really easy.  I am hoping in our host community, we will be able to communicate with the kids as easily as we did here. 
• Families are not allowed in the school except for first year orientation and third year graduation.  Somewhat the opposite of the family involvement plan we have in the US. 
• Kids tested into this school and they only accept up to 10 kids from each middle school to try to get a variety of students.

Once again we were welcomed with two different dances.  I keep thinking how much my Grandma would LOVE all this music and dance.  Whenever I travel, she asks me "what's the dancing like?".  95% of the time it is the same club dancing as the US, but here I don't get a sense that there is a huge club scene.  There is a lot of ceremonial dancing though.

I cannot help but love these welcoming performances! How would your school welcome guests to your building? pic.twitter.com/wpJxV0V7r9

— Kaitie O'Bryan (@Kaitie_Obryan) July 27, 2019

One more welcome dance to Indonesia! @FulbrightTeach pic.twitter.com/O8PWUxb6nQ

— Kaitie O'Bryan (@Kaitie_Obryan) July 27, 2019

After the school visit we went back to the hotel and had a "pre-host visit meeting".   Leaving the cush-y life the the Shangri-La is going to be tough.  I am used to getting 6 bottles of water in my room every day and a gross amount of delicious food for breakfast and lunch.  I am excited to build some deeper connections at our host school in Padang.  

In the evening I traveled to a modern art museum with another teacher.  They had an Infinity Mirror Room by Yayoi Kusama there.  Eleanor tried to get us ticket to the exhibit in DC when I was there but it was sold out, so this was my first experience.  

Day 4: Meeting the kids and making our Batik

Day in emojis: 🎨💃🙇

First off... Breakfast.  This was a picture of my first plate.  My second plate was all fruit.

We have egg tarts, bacon, bread pudding, samosas, and steamed dumplings for breakfast.

Including snake fruit!

I love trying new foods but finding a whole new fruit is always my favorite! This is Snake Fruit- it looks a lot like a giant garlic clove when peeled. #indonesiaUSA70th @FulbrightTeach @usembassyjkt #newExperiences pic.twitter.com/5wK1GJcVyR

— Kaitie O'Bryan (@Kaitie_Obryan) July 25, 2019

On the agenda for today was visiting a public elementary school and a Batik museum.

Here is our group in front of the school.  Can we talk about this banner they had made?!  I am really surprised that it was so professional.  It is hard to imagine what it would take to get a professional banner made at our school!

Once we got inside they had a welcome song for us.

Welcome song at an elementary school we visited in Jakarta! ⁦@FulbrightTeach⁩ pic.twitter.com/FcqxWdpZQV

— Kaitie O'Bryan (@Kaitie_Obryan) July 25, 2019

Thursday is "Batik day" so all of the students and teachers were wearing their uniform Batik.  The government teachers wore a black and white batik uniform and the "non-government" teachers wore a red uniform.

After that, we did more song and dance.

An additional song and dance by the 5th grade class in Jakarta! ⁦@FulbrightTeach⁩ pic.twitter.com/hqkd2K7Ycq

— Kaitie O'Bryan (@Kaitie_Obryan) July 25, 2019

It is actually really interesting to check out the girls who are wearing the head scarves but still are showing "hair" in the bun (it is actually fake).  I feel like there is a good history story there about the dance/outfit and how it is a blend of cultures.

We had the "option" to dance with the students for round 2.  Since I was dancing I didn't get a video of it.  I know, you're bummed.

This is an interesting trip because we are really "citizen diplomats" meaning that there is a fair amount of things that look like this:

Semi-formal speech in front of a banner. 

No, this picture was not accidental.  We had to take off our shoes before entering the library for the staff meeting.  I would be super OK with all staff meetings being sock-footed.  I realize my more germ-a-phobic colleagues may not enjoy that quite as much.

After a little talk, we went to observe classrooms.  We saw several classrooms.

Check out the poster to the right... design thinking?!?!?!  I know it is just a poster in a library, but come on... my school is still a few steps away from really embracing this. 

"Stand up" classroom - this was a science classroom where they were labeling parts of a flower.  They all had real flowers at their table and were gluing the names in place on a worksheet.  It reminded me of Sarah Van Der Werf's "stand up math" goal.

Not all classrooms looked like that.  These students were in pods.  Most other classrooms we went in were in rows.



I also snapped a few pictures of their math books.  Practicing place value, I see!

I even took it upon myself to quiz a kid in math.  300 + 200 was too easy, so I gave him 300 + 121.  He thought about it for a while and then gave me an answer.  I was going to ask him to explain his thinking, but it was clear we BARELY had numbers down in English so explaining your thinking was a bit much.

His friend on the left wanted to join the picture.  It was also CRAZY hot in here.

I also talked to a girl in her Indonesian class.  She says her favorite thing about school is being with her friends.  Me too.

We were warned not to sign any notebooks.  Apparently people last year got mobbed with "autograph" requests.  Towards the end, there was kind of a lot of that.  They were also very well trained in greeting people - they would take our hand and put it up to their head.  Apparently it is a sign of respect to elders but we were a bit confused if that was something they WANTED to do or if it was something they were supposed to do.  It was a bit confusing for a while since I thought the kids wanted to shake our hands at first and then they would put our hand on their forehead and then walk away. 

After that we then went back to the library for a performance of music.

We had a chance to play the instruments our selves.  This lead to a jam session that spontaneously included beat boxing.  Didn't see that one coming. 

Then we left for lunch.  Lunch was amazing.  Pretty much my goal is to skip dinner each night - maybe "goal" is the wrong word, but between breakfast and lunch her, there is no reason to do dinner at all. 

The "carrot flower" is next-level "playing with your food".  I am going to show it to Eleanor and see what she can do with that!

Then we went to the Textile Musuem where we got to make our own Batik.  Batik is a process of wax-resistant dyeing (source: wikipedia).   Essentially what we did was draw on fabric with pencil and then go over our pencil with wax.  We went over it with wax on both sides of the fabric (but I am pretty sure that was redundant and lead to more drips and errors rather than a better product on my part.  If I were to do it again, I think I would just use one side. 

This was the pot of bees wax we were using along with the little tools.  They had a well for the wax that you would fill up and use until the well was empty or the wax cooled.

I am not in this picture but you can kinda get the process of it here.

This is what the pros looked like.

They dyed them for us and then boiled them in water to remove the wax.  Theoretically, with more planning and time you could do this many times with different colors and areas waxed off to make a multi color object.  It is worth googling images of the pros.  

My finished product.

Tomorrow we go to an Islamic public high school and then have a "Host Visit Best Practices" session about how to prepare for our week in our locations.  We leave for our location on Saturday!