Day 14 - 15: Shadow Puppets, debriefs, cooking classes and

Our first full day back included a trip to the Indonesia Bank Museum.  We learned a bit about how monetary policy is was shaped by society and how the policy shaped society.  Overall it was interesting, but dense, and we had a guide so it was a bit hard to process all of the information in a large group at the same time.

From there we learned about shadow puppetry.  This was a fun excursion.  We went to one of the artists studios and then saw a short "show" with the puppets.

Demonstrating how the puppet works and moves.

First they get bull's skin.

Then they add the holes they need and the general shape.

And then they add color and it is ready for show time.

Using the light they can make shadows larger or smaller.  Anyone see a "similar figures" math problem here?

And then we saw the show.

How they play with light is fun.  He mentioned that in the "old days" they would have men on one side of the show and women on the other.  So, you cannot see the colors on this side, but you can see them on the other side.

We ended the day with a debrief of our host experiences which was fascinating - I am still processing some of the themes that came up.  Right now, I am coming to better understand that A) representation in media matters not only for the US but globally as well, and B) when we talk about college and career readiness we are falling short on the "career" portion in many, many ways in the US.

On day 15 we took a cooking class!  I love to cook, so this was right up our alley.  Compared to other cooking classes, this was pretty posh.  We each had a recipe we were in charge of and all of the ingredients were prepped for us ahead of time - we still had some chopping to do, but the measuring and "finding" of ingredients was done.   We also had several chefs around us to make sure we didn't mess things up too bad.

In the end, here was our final product!

I made the symbal (a sauce of sorts) and helped with the presentation of the banana leaves.  We also had shrimp skewers, chicken, a fried tofu dish, and a vegetable dish.

We feasted on our meal and then went shopping! 

We went to Thamrin City which was a giant shopping mall which from a western perceptive, looked like it had been gutted and then a whole bunch of street vendors had set up shop.  It was a maze of Batik vendors.  I purchased some fabric, but even that was daunting as there were so many vendors.  Trying to embrace my inner Marie Kondo, I did not purchase anything else clothing wise.  Given my new job requires a different wardrobe, I figured I wasn't really sure what I would really use in my real life.  Initially, I was planning on buying clothes here for this trip, but we really did not have an opportunity to do that.  In retrospect, I think what I brought was fine.  I even have 2 pairs of pants and 2 shirts that I didn't wear at all here, so I think it is safe to say that I didn't need to buy anything else.

From there we went to a more traditional mall which had lots of cool things but was a bit pricier.  We ended with our final group dinner and then called it a day!

Day 13: Back to "The Shang"

Today we traveled back to "The Shang" which is our name for our hotel in Jakarta. 

Ronol, Yulia, and Ronol's girlfriend dropped us off at the airport and we got back to the Shang in time to do laundry, squeeze in a workout, and then do dinner with the group.

It really felt like coming home!  It was interesting to hear about other's experiences too - just like most countries, the experiences we had in different locations (rural, urban, beach town, etc.) were all very different. 

Day 12: Starting ceremonial and ending with eating Durian.

Today we did the farewell ceremony with the principal and Yulia after students did their Friday morning "Islamic Activity" which involved reading for the Quran and a message from the principal.  Thankfully today was less sunny so it wasn't as hot and this time students could sit.

We presented him with a certificate and some gifts from our homes.  They love their "ceremonial" activities here.

We also shared about our culture with the students who did "extra curriculuars" which were mostly dance, music, and scouting groups.  Jem brought pictures of her home and students to share with the Indonesian students.  This was all really interesting to watch how students interacted with us:

• Students wanted to know what our favorite food was.  This was a frequent question we got asked when we met people - it was typically their 3rd - 5th question which I thought was really telling about the culture.
• Students were a bit shy - a few students used google translate to ask us questions which was cool.
• One student asked us what the "key to success" was in America.  That's a tough one to answer.  Jem said "work hard" which was a good answer, but I wonder what the definition of "success" is this kid was thinking about.  I assumed it was financial success, but maybe that was a false assumption.  My answer to that question would have been "be mindful of your saving and spending" which isn't probably what the kid was thinking about.
• I think one point of difficulty with this format was that students didn't know which questions to ask.  One student asked what school was like in America - I don't know if I could have really answered that without knowing the Indonesian system.  Things like having 6 classes a day, or 6 subjects a year seem "normal" to me, but to the Indonesian students that was a CRAZY idea.
• One student asked if they had Islamic schools in America.  I honestly don't know of any Islamic schools in MN, but I was kind of surprised by the fact that I couldn't think of any - it seems natural that there would be an Islamic school

Gotta love that banner!

Jem had some extra student gifts that included stress balls shaped like the earth and some math-logic puzzles.  I was trying to help with the math puzzles.  They were hard.

From there we went to grab lunch with the principal and other administrators.  The lunch was right on the beach and had the freshest fish all served Padang-Style.  Eating with my hands is still unnatural to me when it comes to rice or meat and eating with ONE hand is just tough.  Give me two hands and I can rip off parts, but one hand is like trying to touch your elbow with your tongue.

Lots of seafood here. I just don't know how to eat shrimp with one hand.

When we got back to school, the principal was happy to show us that he had already gotten the certificate framed.   That was a quick turn around!

More ceremonial pictures.

School ends around noon on Fridays so the men can go pray, so we headed back to our hotel for a "bit of rest".   Then we headed out to the Dragon Boat Festival that was happening.

The audio on the video is worth turning on.  They use a drummer to help keep the rhythm.

This is a picture of a motor bike carrying a large piece of furniture.  There were so many motor bike moments I wanted to capture.  I saw families of 5 on motor bikes.  I saw two grown men and two grown dogs on motor bikes.  I don't know how they did it!

From there we went to Yulia's house.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of the outside - it was super cute.  Inside, the walls and floors were white which matches a lot of what we saw around town.  She made a bunch of fruit, snacks, and noodles for us.   She was so welcoming to us all the while we were there - she got so many snacks for us while we were at her place and even got us a yellow watermelon to try after we admired it in the grocery store earlier in the week.  This just summarizes how much she welcomed us - from sun-up to sun-down she would listen for things we were interested in and then insist that we do them.  I have mentioned this on twitter too, but I know even in the most hospitable homes, that hospitality usually only lasts hours.  Yulia's lasted 7 whole days.  It certainly made me think about how I can be more hospitable to others that visit me.

We had fun watching her two cats too.

Robie met us again this night and we went to Karaoke which was a lot of fun.  I think Robie and I had the high score of the night of 96 on Bang Bang by Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and The Nicki Minaj.  Sadly, there is no video for that performance.

After karaoke we went to grab something to eat including "smashed banana" which was like a panini pressed banana with chocolate sprinkles on top - it was delish.  We also got durian.

That's right.  The fruit that inspired this sign in our hotel.

Durian is known for being super fragrant - Wikipedia describes the smell as "spoiled onions, turpentine, and raw sewage" - licking those lips yet?  I had mentioned on my first day there I hadn't tried it yet.  And now was the time to try it... apparently.

Here's the stand with the durian fruit outside.  You pick it, they slice it partially so you can finish opening it yourself.  The outside is very prickly and hard so you need a knife to get it started by you can wedge it open from there with your hands inside.  You can smell it just from standing there, it went in waves of "not bad" to "kinda bad"

We picked our durian, took off our shoes, and headed to the mat.  Of course, we ate with our fingers.

You can see the inside here.  You can also see the bowls of water to clean your fingers with.  This was present at all finger-eating places.

Unfortunately, there is no "insert smell" option on Blogger here, but Jem thought my expression was worth capturing on video.  Thanks, girlfriend.

And we ended our night there!   Honestly, I think the flavor has promise - they have durian ice cream and durian in other things, this is just raw.  Raw, durian is a little stringy and mushy at the same time - like over ripened peaches or raw meat.  I think I had a hard time getting over the texture.  I will have to try the durian ice cream some time.

I noticed that night my hands still smelled a bit like durian and even the next morning there was a lingering smell.  It was kind of like "jalapeno-hands" but smelly instead of burn-y.  After a lot of soaking and scrubbing in water it was fine.  It was such a great way to end such a fantastic week of learning and thinking about how Indonesian culture/education foils American culture/education in many ways.

Day 11: Home. Math classes. Comp Sci classes. American Corner.

Today we went to go observe a "Networking" class and I got to see an Electrical Engineering class who were using arduinos.  They just started working with Arduinos and were doing the basic "blinking light" lab that I do with my students too.  It was so interesting to see the students doing the same thing I did with my students in the same language.  The commands "delay" or "digitalWrite" are still in English.  It was also nice to be able to talk with students in the class and be helpful with the content too.  There was one student who had very strong English that I got a chance to talk with a bit.

I also took it upon myself to talk to the 3-4 girls in each of these computer classes and asked them why they decided they wanted to work with computers.  Many of them had family members, like brothers, who worked with computers.  One girl said she read a book about a girl who worked with computers and was interested in computers for that reason.

These were two of the girls I was talking with about their interest in computer science.  I also passed out some Code stickers too which is why I am wearing one - they weren't really sure what they were for so I demo-ed the sticker.

Familiar picture around the world... trouble shooting arduinos.

By far, the most interactive learning was the Electrical Engineering class, which makes sense because it was small - only 15 kids, which I would LOVE in the US.  Managing 36 with arduinos is... taxing.

In the other classes, the teaching was pretty traditional.  In networking, students copied down 3 paragraphs of text from the projector defining Input, Output and a few other vocabulary terms.  It made me think about the work we do to put vocabulary in student friendly language.  Then the teacher passed out copies from the textbook with some multiple choice questions on that students copied down.  Apparently they have NO copy budget, so any copies the teacher pays for themselves and typically students don't keep the copies - it is just a temporary way to distribute things to students.

After that, we went to the American Corner at the local university.  The story behind the American Corner was interesting.  Apparently a professor was interested in getting more technology in the school and then learned that an American Corner would provide the technology.

Inside the room, there were some large tables, and about 10 computers.  They also had a 3D printer which apparently was given to them without asking.  Also, on the shelves they had a bunch of English books and movies.  When we got there, Robie was going through the new magazines they had to sensor them, which I was immediately interested in.  There were two Rolling Stone magazines pulled to the side that were in the "no" category for some pretty revealing images.  We "helped" by going through some magazines too - I would ask them about some images, but none of mine went to the "no" category.  They said there was no real rule for it, just that if there were large images that were too revealing, they got put aside.  Also, in the "movies" section, I went to find a good RomCom for Yulia and really couldnt find many RomComs at all!  I am wondering if the embassy sensors the films they send to the American Corners a bit too... there are just too many good RomComs for this place to have NONE.  The closest one I could find was La La Land.  That's suspicious.

Then, Robie said, "let's play a board game!"  I about lost it.  Earlier this summer, my new coworker from New Orleans laughed that she had never heard so many people talk about board games until she visited Minnesota.  And now, we were hearing about board games in Indonesia's "American Corner".  I asked Robie about board games and he said it is NOT something they do in Indonesia, this is a US thing (or, maybe just a midwest thing, Jem didn't play board games in California either).

We played 10 Days in USA which was actually really fun.

Screening magazines.

Here's part of the gang.

I wish I would have taken a picture of their "event calendar".  They had things like "American of the Day" featuring AOC, Ilhan Omar, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Spike Lee.  They also had "tour the USA" days featuring "tourist attractions" in the US.  I use quotes because they had "North Dakota" as a tourist attraction and I don't know how accurate it is to say ND is a place people go to "sight see".  They also had a "What is is it like to be a person with a disability?" day where they invited people with disabilities into the space to talk about it and then practiced navigating the city with that disability.  They also had movie nights with american movies and game nights with board games.

From there we headed to the Great Mosque in town.  It was only built in 2014 so it was not that old but it was still quite beautiful.

This is the best view of it from our hotel.

This was just a view from the mosque to another building on the property - still beautiful!

Getting artistic with some pics.  There were so many pretty angles here.

This is the dome inside.  In each of the triangle spaces on the wall you can see some artful Arabic lettering which includes the 99 names for "Allah" in Arabic.

We got inside just in time to see the space before evening prayers.  While Ronol, Ayu, and Yulia went inside to pray, we took a spin outside... still beautiful!

Day 10: Teaching English

Alright, it has been a couple of busy days!  Not surprisingly, the "business" corresponds with getting into classrooms.

On Wednesday (day 10) we started teaching in the English classrooms.  We were told students were learning "introductions" - I understood this to be "how to introduce other people".  In retrospect, that might not have been the goal.  The class hour was 2 hours long.  It reminded me a lot of teaching ELL in MPLS when I interned at UHC.  It was a bit chaotic.

They practiced introducing eachother with a buddy and then in fours. And then in front of class.

My board work needs a bit of work... I am so thankful for all the whiteboard space I had in my classroom.

It also reminded me of how much teachers do to create classroom norms, culture, and trust.  I used to spend hours planning my first week of school to tell the "story" I wanted students to believe in.  I LOVED planning the first week of school.  Jumping into a classroom without having those relationships, norms, and procedures in place was tough.  I channeled my high school Spanish teacher, Seniorita Haack, in the room.   One thing I most admired about her was her dedication to stay speaking Spanish to the class.  It might have taken 5 minutes to understand a simple instruction but through her actions and animated delivery, we eventually understood what she was communicating.  It would have been 100% easier to switch to English, but way less learning would have happened.  I always admire when a teachers do the thing that results in more learning, even if it is the harder path. But I digress...

Here were some other take-aways:

• It is hot.  I know, this was not a surprise but I was seriously DRIPPING in class.  I stopped putting foundation on day one of our week here because it was useless.  We have been mostly observing since we arrived but today was "action" day.   I know I am an active teacher and am thankful for my prep program making me move around the room when I teach.  It is so easy to focus on content and get "tied" to that board, but in the classroom this time I wanted to be tied to a physical fan.
• Boys... This school is only 4.5% girls.  Thus, there were a lot of boys.  We speculated afterwards how gender impacts the classroom management in the school.  I know gender effects management in the US, and I imagine that effect might be more severe in Indonesia. 
• Management.  Jem is an instructional coach and said that she also is working on classroom management which I found strangely comforting.  Classroom management is tough.  I know very few teachers who feel like they have "it" - in reality, there are some teachers who manage probably 98% of their students wonderfully, but there is always 1-2 students, even in the best-managed classrooms that challenge those strategies/techniques.  I struggled with management in this class because I didn't have any relationships with the students and it was clearly a different approach for some students.  Things like cell phones or just "off" behaviors were hard to manage, or know how it was appropriate to manage.  It made me realize in the US teachers are so "programmed" to get all students to learn - there is a huge amount of responsibility for the teachers to get the student to learn (even through, we know students play a role in learning... a pretty big role), but teachers really take a lot of that weight onto their shoulders.  I get the sense that there might not be that same weight on teacher's shoulders in this school in Indonesia.  It seemed like cell phones were ok since students didn't even try to hide the phones at all.  Yulia had consequences for the students by having them do push-ups.  Bottom line: classroom management is tricky - every where.   
• Meta point: With it being a vocational school, I kind of get the idea that there is a similar level of "it is on the students" mentality that I feel is present in a community college.  If students are in school to learn a vocation, maybe teacher see it as student's responsibility to tune-in.  This is in direct contrast to my "we are going to wait until we are all ready to start" mentality/approach to the classroom. 
• When it comes to gifts, I should have done quarters.  I had brought stickers.  Students asked me if I had any US cash on me (which, of course I didn't), but I did have some coins which they thought was fascinating.  They wanted to trade me for Indonesian coins, but I didn't have enough for everyone, so I didn't really do that, but I did give out stickers which went over OK, but not as well as the money.  PLUS quarters could have been so easy to pack and not hard to "return" later.
• After the class one student asked for my What's App number and Instagram.  I don't do Instagram much, and I barely keep on top of What's App, but I gave it to them anyway.  I figure I can always block anyone if it gets to be too much, but maybe it would be a good opportunity to help students practice their English.

After our classes on Wednesday we went back to the hotel and had a burger.  I think Pizza Hut broke me a bit.  I just appreciated having familiar foods again... I am not proud of it, but it is the truth.

From there, we did a hike to on top of the Padang sign and then saw an ancient rock formation.  We met up with Robie who worked at the "American Corner" at a near-by university.  He is studying international relations and is doing a thesis on the effectiveness of the "American Corner" and soft diplomacy.

Here is the "Padang Sign" from behind.

The SMALL white letters above my head are the "Padang Sign" from the front (Taken the first day)

It was hot - thankfully at the top, it was windy.

Trying a warrior pose.  Someone else in our group sent out pictures of them doing yoga by waterfall.  I was trying to one-up them.  I didn't.

More yoga poses - tree pose, by the tree.  Not brave enough to do it ON the tree.

Little Banana Island, which was close to the ruins.

Here's the crew!

We went out to dinner with Robie where he asked some really interesting questions.  He asked us a bit about US politics, which I have come to somewhat expect now, but he also asked us things like "When MBS comes to Indonesia, everyone is really happy/excited but when other world leaders come from western and non-Muslim countries, people are indifferent - do you think that is racist?"  He actually asked us if several things were "racist" now that I think about it.  It could have been a good opportunity to talk about the power of the word "racist" in the English language... something for next time!

At dinner I saw a guy wearing a Nebraska shirt.  I was going to just snap a picture of him when he wasn't looking but Robie suggested we go up and ask him for a picture instead.  TBH 99% of the people in Indonesia have been super warm and welcoming, this guy was either annoyed or practicing his best Hollister pose.