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.