Sorry about this being a gang letter but there
are a number of reasons for my not having time to write to you all
individually. When you hear all that’s going on I’m sure you will understand.
Pre Service Training is about to finish Week 4
(of 10). I’m living with an Indonesian family. I’m getting ready for a 4 day
trip to West Java.
Every day I have4¼ hours of Bahasa Indonesia.
This is the language we are learning because it is the national language and
most of the people understand it even if they don’t use it. It’s the language
of TV and other media. It is not my host family’s first language. They speak Javanese, understand most of what
I am trying to say in Bahasa Indonesia and can help me do my homework most of
the time. I have 5 other PCTs (Trainees)
in my language class. The 4 woman and 1 man have an average age of 24. Our
class starts at 7:30 a.m. and goes until 11:45. We have a different teacher
every week so that we get used to different regional accents. Last week we had
the first test. On the day of the test we submitted 200 word essays written at
home. I did rather poorly on the written part of the test but did better than I
thought I was going to do. I did well on the spoken part of the test and got a
93% on the essay. It will come as no surprise to those who know me that I lost
5 points for spelling wrongly the same word 5 times. Yes, the other 2 points
off were for spelling also. I’m having a hard time remembering vocabulary. Peace
Corps and I were prepared for the difficulties “older language learners” have
remembering new words. However, as a result I have asked for some extra
practice and now go to class a ½ hour early to go over difficulties with the
teacher of the week. To give you an idea of my problems: One day we had 112 new
words all about food and eating. There were names of foods I (and I would
guess, you) never heard of. One fruit’s name translates into English as “Snake
Fruit”. There were also names of vegetables I am served about 4 times a week
and still haven’t figured out what I’m eating.
After class we go out to the courtyard of the
city office complex where we have our class and eat the lunches our families
have packed for us. After lunch we sardine ourselves and another class of 6
PCTs into a pubic mini-bus kinda thing and go to the next village north of here
where we join 2 other language classes from that village for classes on
teaching English as a second language. I rather enjoy this 4 hour class because
I taught it to PCTs in Madagascar and am able to add some to what is being
presented. Since I often tell a story to illustrate what our teachers are
talking about, the other PCTs have started to use the expression “WWJD”
meaning, “What Would Jay Do”. Most of the PCTs from my village walk back to our
village from this class. It’s downhill all the way. I did this for a couple of weeks but have
been playing “the old card” and cramming myself into the public transportation
and paying the 15 cents to get home in 5 minutes rather than the ½ hour walk. I
get home at about 5:30.
If my chances of staying awake until dinner time
are slim, I make myself a cup of coffee. Otherwise I hit the shower. “Shower”
is not exactly the right word. The bathroom has a squat toilet and a waist high
cement reservoir for water. In the reservoir is a plastic pan with a handle.
There is not a toilet paper holder. I don’t want to talk about that any more
here. To “shower” I dump a pan of fresh mountain water over my head and lather
up. I often have to do some deep breathing before I dump the first pan of cold
water over my head. After I soap my head I dump a bucket of water to
rinse. After I get as clean as I set my
mind to, I turn on the honest to goodness shower which puts out hot water. I have
about 45 seconds from turn of faucet until the water turns from cold to HOT. I
mean REALLY HOT. I have the act down so that I can get all of the soap off
before I scald myself. A pleasant part of every bathroom experience is the view
from the window. Lush verdant volcanic peeks fill the view. It really is
beautiful, unless one of the volcanoes goes off which happens from time to time
but hasn’t for a while around where I am.
The bathroom is just off of the kitchen. As I
pass though, the mother of the family tells me how many of the 4 of us will be
eating dinner at the same time and I set the table.
After dinner I wash the family dishes, do my
homework and try to memorize vocabulary words until about 8:30 when sleep
completely overcomes me. By the time I write my journal, get my clothes ready
for the next day, pack my case with books and notebooks and set the bed net I’m
asleep by 9:00 so I can get up at 5:00 and start all over again.
This goes on Monday through Thursday and
Saturday. Fridays we go about an hour away to The University of Mahammaddah Malang
where all the PCTs (we are 64 in total in 6 villages) get together for classes
in health, safety and cross-cultural adjustment. Fridays I leave home about
6:00a.m. and get home at about 6:00p.m. We have Sundays free. Sundays I usually study and spend time with
my host family.
I live in the village of Putin. The 1 floor
house is on a side street about 2 blocks from the main road that goes farther
uphill to some other villages and downhill to the town of Batu. Batu is about
45 minutes from Malang in East Java. You
might be able to find Malang on a large map. The front yard is filled with
perhaps 200 seedling trees toward the street and many decorative ornamental
plants closer to the verandah. I’m sitting on the verandah as I write this. The
house has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, rather formal living room, TV room, dining
room and kitchen. All 4 bedrooms are on one side of the house. My bedroom is in
the front with a view of the front garden, next is the husband and wife’s
bedroom, then the daughter’s with the last bedroom now used for storage and
ironing since the son married and moved to another town. My bedroom has a very
large bed and a wardrobe. The bed is flush with 3 walls. The wardrobe takes the whole other wall. I
have about a foot of space between the bed and wardrobe in which to
maneuver. This space is not enough to
fully open the wardrobe doors but I can open them enough to get what I need
from inside. I can move around a bit in the spaced used to open and shut the
door. Judging from the washing machine, fridge, TV, 2 two burner stoves, 3
motorcycles and the hot water shower I would say that the family is well off:
not as well off as some of the other host families but better than others.
The father of the family, 13 years younger than
my real age, owns an orchard. He says he grows oranges but the fruit he brings
home looks, peals and tastes like tangerines. Oranges and tangerines have the
same name in Bahasa Indonesia so I’m not exactly sure what I am eating which is
a general theme for my food consumption here.
He goes to mosque 5 times a day to pray and many evenings goes to a
men’s prayer group to which he has taken me a couple of times. He and his
siblings make sure that one of them sleeps each night at their 80 year old
widowed mother’s house. The daughter is a midwife with a university degree so
speaks some English and is a great help to me with my language. The wife is a home maker and sometimes takes
some of the potted decorative plants and seedling oranges (or tangerines) to
sell at the traditional market in Batu. How she does this on her motorcycle I
don’t want to think about because I depend on her to feed me. And feed me she
does. There is always a foundation of rice. That foundation is always large.
There is always something in a sauce or broth to go on top of the rice. There
may or may not be chicken, beef or goat meat in this. There is always some form
of tofu fried in coconut oil. There is usually some kind of sauce for on top of
the tofu. One of these sauces is made with ground peanuts, is wickedly spicy
and wonderfully delicious. I very often have no idea what it is I’m eating but
it all tastes good so far. There seems to be no specifically breakfast, lunch
or dinner foods. What I’m given for breakfast may be packed for my lunch with
left-overs served with other things for dinner.
There is always rice. There is always rice. There is always rice. ALWAYS! The house
always has snacks. These might be cookies, some form of pastries or fruit. I am
offered snacks at 5 minute intervals while at home and awake. Cleaning my plate
or accepting a snack brings an ear to ear smile to the mother’s face.
I leave tomorrow morning for a trip to Cirebon,
West Java. Another PCT guy and I will visit a PCV who has finished his first
year of service. After we have a teacher training session tomorrow at UMM the
other guy, 2 women PCTs and I will be driven 4 hours to Surabaya where we will
get on a train for 14 hours (more or less) and arrive the next morning in
Cirebon. If the 2 PCVs we will visit cannot get to the train station to meet us
at the time the train gets in, we have the name of a hotel we can stay in and
wait for the PCVs to show up. From there
we will go to the 2 places where these PCVs live. We will spent 3 nights and 2
days finding out how PCVs live, teach, do with their free time, eat, get along
with nationals and in general exist. We have been given 4 pages of questions to
ask and things to observe. We will do the reverse trip on Tuesday-Wednesday.
Thursday morning the four of us will give a formal report of the trip to the
other PCTs who will alo report on their visits. Other PCTs are visiting PCVs
who live 2 hours, 4 hours or 6 hours away from Malang. Only the 4 in my group
are going as far as we are and getting into West Java. We will not be told
where our future sites will be for a couple of weeks. I have to wonder if PC is considering sending
the 4 of us to live in West Java after training. I know West Java is the
hottest part of the country which is where I have said all along I want to
be. Therefore, we have to be extra
observant and ask all the right kinds of questions in order to make our
presentation a reflection of our feelings about our possible future locations
of service.
The internet speed at the local café is
something around 3 key strokes a minute. The last time I put myself through the
experience it took 45 minutes just to load my g-mail account. This afternoon
after lunch I will go to the host family of another PCT and use their internet
connection to send this (Inshah Allah)
Today most of the PCTs are in Malang having
shots and some are taking an optional mock language test. Since I have already
had the shot being given today and I opted out of the test, I have today off to
put into words some of the things I am doing and the reasons I don’t write as
much as I would like to.
I wish you all a Happy Easter. Easter morning I
will have just finished a 14 hour train trip.
I wonder what Indonesian trains are like. The adventure continues.
PEACE,
JAY
p.s. I have been 100%
well. I hope all of you have been also.
