I will be living in
Garout, the capital of Garout Province, West Java. It’s a bit like living in
Beaver, Beaver County but Garout is a much bigger city than Beaver. It is
located about two hours (by bus) SSE of Bandung the capital of West Java. I
have to do the research but I think it more the size of Chicago than
Pittsburgh. Bandung is a big city with
several important universities.
My school is MAN 1
Garout. This is an Islamic high school. Although it is an Islamic school it is
still a government school but not under the Ministry of Education. The school
has 916 students in three classes with 36 teachers. It is the oldest Islamic school in Garout. The
school has waited three years for a Peace Corps Volunteer English teacher.
Because my training group is so large (63), PC can start sending Volunteers to
cities. Before this only villages got PCVs.
I will live with Pak
Ahmad and his wife Bu Nuraini. (“Pak”
and “Bu” are honorary titles given to respected elders. I am always called “Pak
Jay”.) They have four grown sons. One of the sons, Maki, is an English teacher
at my school. Pak Ahmed is on the board
of directors of the school. He is a farmer but I don’t yet know what he grown
unless it is fish. I know he raises some kind of fish in a large pond five
minutes from my school. I mention the distance from pond to school because
their house is built in the middle of the pond above the water. I have only
seen one black and white picture of the house with the bridge giving access to
it and it looks out of this world beautiful. Other people in my group have good
looking houses but none of them are built on water.
I am thrilled with the
place Peace Corps has selected for me.
We have to more weeks of practice teaching, language classes and a one
day ‘camp’ each language cluster is planning for grade school kids then we will
be sworn in officially by the ambassador. The morning after swearing in those
of us going to West Java will board a train for the 12-15 hour ride to Bandung
where we will meet our principals and counterparts.
