I am re-posting this entry from last week (minus most of the photos) since there were some problems with Blogger and many readers just saw the new title attached to the previous post about Grabe & Stoller. I still haven't figured out why this happened, but I'm hoping that re-posting will at least temporarily solve the problem. If you can see this, could you please leave a comment or email me to let me know? Thanks!
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Last weekend I had the chance to discover a wonderfully remote corner of Sulawesi – the traditional fishing village of Torosiaje, home of the Bajo sea nomads. Since the 10th century, the Bajo sea nomads (also known as sea gypsies) have roamed the seas off eastern Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Although they used to have a nomadic lifestyle searching for pearls, tortoiseshell and sea cucumbers to present to the sultans of the region, modern governments have accused them of piracy and have forced them to lead a more permanent lifestyle on land. However, the Bajo of Torosiaje don’t quite live on land; they live in a unique and fascinating village on stilts.
Ramang, a friend of mine from Gorontalo who works for an NGO active in preserving the wetlands around Torosiaje, invited Sarah, Alexa and I to join him and another NGO friend of his, Honk, on an overnight trip to this remarkable village. The trip to Torosiaje involved a long 6 hour car ride over winding, bumpy roads plus a short 20 minute boat ride from the mainland out to the village. We arrived at sunset, which gave the already otherworldly location an even more surreal feel. Houses on stilts grew closer and closer while shadows of fishing boats contrasted with the brilliant colors of the setting sun.
After a welcoming snack of tea and cookies, Alexa, Sarah and I checked out the guesthouse where we would be staying overnight. Located at the end of a long wooden walkway rife with missing planks, it offered the most basic accommodation possible, but we loved it instantly. Electricity was provided from a generator, but we asked our host to turn it off so we could enjoy quiet sounds of the sea at night. The guesthouse, like all the houses in the village, was on stilts and had a porch with a set of stairs that went right down to the water. Looking down at the coral and fish below us, we were very tempted to take a midnight swim, but nixed that idea since the toilets for the entire village, including our guesthouse, were essentially holes in the floor directly over the water.
Before retiring for the night, we had a delicious dinner of fresh fish and rice at our host’s house. I’ve never been a big fan of fish served with the head and tail still attached, but this weekend was a turning point. Starting with lunch en route at Bolihutuo Beach, where was no choice except for cooked whole fish, my aversion dissipated. That’s because the fish was served with dabu dabu – a local salsa made with coconut oil, onions, tomatoes and chilies. I had been avoiding it because spicy food makes me hiccup, but at this particular restaurant they served the dabu dabu without the spicy chilies and it was heavenly. It’s a good thing I took a new liking to this dish because it was served for three consecutive meals.
After successfully navigating the holes in the walkway with our flashlights, we arrived back at our guesthouse and spent the rest of the evening stargazing. The stars here were amazing. The three of us laid down on the walkway with our feet dangling over the edge and made wishes on the shooting stars. We slept really well that night and awoke the next morning to the sound of the fishing boats gliding past the house. In our pajamas, we sat on the porch and watched the sunrise at 5:30.
Not long after sunrise, the village came to life and we quickly threw on some clothes to take a walk around. The villagers were hard at work at their daily activities of cooking, doing laundry by hand, chopping wood, drying fish, cutting coconuts and chatting with each other. People were happy to pose for pictures and it was fun being in such a remote, traditional place and being able to greet the people in Bahasa Indonesia – Selamat pagi! Good morning!
After a breakfast of fried rice and eggs, we took a traditional fishing boat out to an uninhabited offshore island for a little snorkeling and exploring. The beach was beautiful. The water was various shades of deep tropical blues and we could just make out the village of Torosiaje on the opposite shore against the mountainous backdrop of Sulawesi. Our snorkeling was cut a bit short by the presence of stinging plankton where the shelf dropped off, but even very close to shore in about one foot of water there was a lot to see. Sarah and I spent a good amount of time here watching sand-camouflaged starfish move at a surprisingly rapid pace over the bottom.
This trip was so amazing and special that it helped confirm the decision I had already made: I’m going to request to stay a second year in Indonesia. Hopefully, I can stay on Sulawesi. I’m starting to feel a strong connection to my island and would like to have more time to explore it.
I have encountered the names Grabe & Stoller several times in my TESOL career. I think I first became aware of them was when a friend and I were doing a mammoth assessment project on reading and writing ability in grad school. I just checked our references – their names appear no fewer than six times. Then last year I saw them present at the TESOL conference in Denver. Their presentation on “Debunking Myths about L2 Reading Instruction” was dynamic, interactive and made a lasting impression. Needless to say, I was thrilled when my supervisor from the U.S. Embassy informed me that Grabe & Stoller would be coming to Gorontalo as English Language Specialists to present two 90-minute workshops on reading and vocabulary at UNG. It was hard to imagine two such big names in the TESOL field coming to my remote little outpost in Indonesia, but they were here, it’s true! Here’s a picture of us to prove it:
As we shared meals, car rides and even a bentor sightseeing trip around town, Grabe & Stoller became Bill and Fredricka. What an amazing opportunity to get to know two such big movers and shakers in the field on a very personal level. We chatted about what it’s like to live and teach in Gorontalo and they asked for my opinion about how the workshops went and what I thought the participants got out of them. Interestingly, Fredricka told me how she and Bill found the reading text she used in her workshop here years ago when they were preparing another TESOL presentation. The text just so happened to be about biodiversity in Sulawesi! She never dreamed that she would actually come here, let alone use the text as a basis for a vocabulary workshop here.
Fredricka was especially interested in taking a bentor ride around town. Bill decided he was too tall for one, so he stayed back at the hotel while Fredricka and I went exploring. I’d like to mention here that I now have the next best thing to a personal chauffeur – an English speaking bentor driver who I can text to pick me up anywhere. Ahmad has made my life here much easier since I met him last week. A friend of Tia’s, he attends a hospitality professional school in the mornings and is free to drive me around town in the afternoons and evenings. So, he was the man I texted when Fredricka announced her interest in seeing the town with this special type of transportation. We only had half an hour to spare, but we managed to visit the oldest mosque in town, go down an arcaded shopping street and most importantly, Fredricka got a taste of what it’s like to ride in this type of public transportation that sort of feels like riding in an awkward Epcot center amusement park ride. Here’s a picture of Fredricka, Ahmad and I at the end of our little tour around town:
Bill and Fredricka’s short stay in Gorontalo ended with a group dinner at a new seafood restaurant right on the ocean. We arrived too late to catch the sunset, which I image must be magnificent from this spot, but we did see a fantastic lightening show in the distance. Over non-alcoholic mango, soursop, jackfruit and avocado cocktails, we talked about the events of the past two days with my supervisor from the Embassy, his assistant, my counterpart, the head of the English department at UNG and another lecturer in the department. Getting to know Bill and Fredricka on such a personal level is a great perk of being an ELF!
One of my most devoted blog followers recently sent me a snail-mail letter enclosed in a Thanksgiving card that included a list of random things that she wanted to know more about. I decided to answer her questions here on my blog because, as every teacher knows, if one student asks a question, others are probably wondering the same thing. I encourage you to keep asking me questions!
1. What do you know about dangerous and poisonous wildlife where you are, things such as moray eels, sharks, scorpions, snakes, etc.?
Fortunately, there is no dangerous or poisonous wildlife on land that I am aware of.In the water, there are scorpionfish, stonefish, sea snakes, and stingrays. When diving, it is easy to avoid these creatures because you’re not walking along the bottom, where stingrays lurk, and you shouldn’t be sticking your hands in crevices where scorpionfish and stonefish hang out anyway. Sea snakes can sometimes approach, but it’s best to just keep your distance and give them plenty of room. Sharks are out there too, of course, but are only a threat if they are attracted by blood or flashy jewelry that they might mistake for prey.
2. Tell us about your experience grocery shopping and what meals you prepare for yourself and if you eat out often and where you go.
About once a week I go to the Galael supermarket to stock up on pasta, tomato sauce, processed cheese, eggs, cereal, milk, yogurt, and instant coffee (a sad but true fact is that even though Indonesia produces and exports some of the world’s finest coffees, the supermarket shelves are just lined with instant powders). Options are limited here and although I find my supermarket selections less than thrilling, they still give me the freedom to eat some Western foods at home.
The restaurants in Gorontalo are mostly either Indonesian or Chinese, with the exception of KFC, where I ate my Thanksgiving dinner. Unlike KFC in America, the one here doesn’t serve any biscuits or sides of mac n’cheese or veggies. It’s strictly fried chicken and rice, which, when you think about it, doesn’t really make it much different from all the other Indonesian restaurants selling fried chicken and rice.
I’m not crazy about any of these dishes and am always thrilled to get out of town to eat somewhere different. For instance, a couple of weeks ago I went to an Indian restaurant in Yogyakarta where the food tasted divine! Lack of culinary variety remains one of the hardest challenges for me here in Gorontalo, especially after two years in New York.
3. Is your generator up and running? How do you deal with power shortages? Ever have to get rid of food because it spoils?
Yes, my generator is up and running but I don’t actually use it that often even though my power normally goes off at least once a day. When the power goes out in the evenings, I generally use this time to make phone calls or listen to my iPod. Now that I have a new battery in my laptop (thanks to Maura’s boyfriend who bought me a new one in Jakarta), I can also draft a blog or watch a DVD during a power outage. I only power up the generator if I need to get school work done or if I have people over. The thing is horrifically loud! I don’t worry about food spoiling because I generally don’t buy food that spoils. Even my milk is UHT.
4. I think I recognized some of your new Indonesian tops, but are you wearing them with jeans? Did you get matching pants for any of the tops?
I just dropped off some material at the tailor’s the other day, so keep your eyes open for me wearing some new custom made tops! I pair all my tops with five pairs of long work pants that I had the tailor make for me as well – black, brown, tan, blue and gray stripped. I generally save my jeans for the weekends or evenings even though there’s no strict rule against wearing jeans at work.
5. Are you taking your malaria pills daily? Are there a lot of mosquitoes in the dry season? What will the rainy season be like?
I haven’t taken a single malaria pill. After arriving here, I learned that malaria is not a problem in Gorontalo. In fact, when people do show up at the hospitals with malaria, they are immediately questioned about what areas outside of Gorontalo they have recently visited. That said, it is possible to get Dengue fever here but there is no prophylactic for that. We’ve switched over to the rainy season now, but I haven’t noticed a change in the number of mosquitoes.
6. Is it too soon to tell if you will return to Indonesia next year, seek another ELF assignment, or seek a college teaching job?
At this point, I’m leaning more towards staying in Indonesia for another year. Despite all the challenges, this is an extraordinary experience.
7. Are you going to get a maid like one of the other ELFs did?
I have hired a cleaning lady and am very pleased with my decision. Having her come once a week to mop the floors, dust, scrub the toilets, and clean the windows saves me hours of time that I can put to better use grading papers or sightseeing. She asks for about $8 a week, which I gladly hand over. For me, this is an insignificant amount equivalent to maybe two grande lattes at Starbucks in New York. For her, it is a large sum of money that will enable her and her family to afford their basic necessities.
8. Why is the diving season only from November to April?
I asked myself the same question! It turns out that for the other six months of the year the seas are too rough for diving due to local weather conditions. My first scheduled dive on November 1st was canceled because the waves were still too high.
Warning: This post contains graphic descriptions and photos. Vegetarians may want to think twice about reading this.
Several weeks ago I found out that UNG would be closed on November 27th for a Muslim holiday. Fantastic, I thought – a three-day weekend! I didn’t know what the holiday was called or even what was being celebrated until about two days beforehand. When I finally did find out what it was all about, I was extremely surprised, to say the least. The holiday is Idul Adha, which roughly translates as Festival of Sacrifice, and involves the slaughtering of many cows and goats. This tradition stems from the Muslim belief that they should sacrifice something for others as a way of honoring Abraham’s devotion to Allah. As the story goes, Allah appeared to Abraham one day and ordered him to sacrifice his son to prove his loyalty. When Abraham went to kill his son, the son turned into a goat. An important part of the holiday is distributing the meat from the sacrifice to the neighbors and especially to the poor.
Tia invited me to come watch the slaughtering of a cow in her family’s yard. I wasn’t sure if I could stomach it, since I generally don’t like to think about where my meat comes from, but I decided to go for the cultural experience and I kept telling myself that what I was witnessing was just a religious ritual, not the brutal killing of an innocent animal. I also tried reminding myself that killing animals is just part of the food chain. Every single cheeseburger I’ve ever enjoyed was made possible by the death of a cow. Consequently, I tried to make myself feel as numb and objective as possible as I witnessed one of Tia’s relatives slit the cow’s throat. From my vantage point, I had a clear view of the squirting blood. I watched in horrified fascination as the blood quickly filled a dirt hole that that had been dug under the cow’s head for this sole purpose. The cow’s tongue hung limply out of its mouth and the animal made a few last full body twitches before finally dying. Then the men began skinning it. It is a sight I will never forget.
Many families, like Tia’s, perform their own private sacrifice. Alternatively, people can also go to a sacrifice at the nearest mosque. So, after we watched the sacrifice at Tia’s place, we went around town in a bentor and visited several mosques that were at various later stages of the ritual process.
The first mosque we stopped at was one that I pass every day on my way to work. Today, there was a tent set up in the yard and a dozen or so men were at work chopping up the meat of eight cows. People crowded around to watch the work as women served the men cool drinks and rice snacks wrapped in banana leaves. Children played nearby and the atmosphere was one of great happiness and merriment.
Down another road we stopped at another mosque where this man was happy to pose with his big knife.
At yet another mosque we could see the men dividing up the meat into equal portions on huge sheets of banana leaves.
At the last mosque we saw the final stage of the process. The meat portions were waiting in plastic bags to be picked up by those holding meat vouchers that had been distributed to the needy prior to the holiday.
And finally, I will leave you with this charming picture of a man holding a cow’s head. He joked that the two of them were twins, but I didn’t really get the joke.
On Sunday I went diving for the first time in Gorontalo and the experience was so remarkable that I can only relate it to maybe living in Paris for nearly three months before finally seeing the Eiffel Tower. I finally had that “pinch me I’m here” moment that hits every tourist when they finally visit a place they’ve always dreamed of seeing, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Gorontalo may not have much to offer tourists above ground, but the underwater world here offers first-class diving and the opportunity to see various endemic species found only in these waters, many of which are still unknown to science.
The local dive shop, Miguel’s Diving, is run by Rantje Allen, an American who has lived in Gorontalo for over ten years and has done a lot of work in establishing dive sites and educating local fishing communities about the dangers of common fishing practices, such as blast fishing and potassium cyanide poisoning. He works closely with the governor of Gorontalo, who is also a diver, on marine conservation issues. It was a privilege to dive with him. Along with Rantje, there was an American from Ohio, two Swedes from Stockholm and Rantje’s local assistant dive guide, Yunis, on this trip.
Our first dive was at Swirling Steps, a site normally not recommended for inexperienced divers because of its strong currents. But on Sunday there was no current so down we went. The water looked so clear from the dive boat that I was doubtful about doing a back roll entry because it looked like I was going to hit my head on the coral! But I was reassured that the coral was actually several meters underwater. For the next 44 minutes I was submerged in a world of sheer exotic beauty. Rantje had a writing slate with him and helpfully wrote down the names of some of the creatures we saw. Not long into the dive, he turned towards me and made a punching-like motion with his fist. This is the diving signal for “danger”. Intrigued, I looked past him to the coral wall as he scribbled “scorpionfish” on his slate. Scorpionfish have venomous fin spines and are not to be messed with.In worse case scenarios, scorpionfish stings can lead to violent pain, unconsciousness and even extended comas. After taking a look from a safe distance we moved on. Some other curious creatures we saw included garden eels and jaw fish. Garden eels stick up from the sand and sort of move their bodies like a beckoning finger. Likewise, jaw fish also live in the sand and poke their heads up to see what’s going on. Other highlights included seeing a blue spotted stingray, a giant clam and the best one of all - a green sea turtle!
The second dive was at Traffic Circle, located right off Olele Beach, where I had previously gone with some students; from the dive boat I could even see the hut we sat at. More captivating than the hut though, was the pod of Risso’s dolphins that were swimming in the distance. These dolphins are distinguished by their blunt noses and the fact that their bodies become lighter in color as they age, while their dorsal fins remain dark. They also like to fight each other, which explains the scars below:
We all watched the dolphins for a while and then some of us hopped overboard to snorkel for a bit. It felt so liberating to be in the water sans scuba gear with just my swimsuit, mask and snorkel and it was exciting to know that the dolphins were frolicking just meters away.
The second dive brought even more surprises. Rantje’s assistant, Yunis, is an expert in spotting very small creatures. On this dive, he showed us all a teeny, tiny bright pink soft coral crab that was clinging to some coral. Remarkably, this soft coral crab has the ability to mimic the spiny appearance of the coral it is on. How cool is that? I also saw my first Salvador Dali sponges - the name that Rantje gave to these previously unknown giant sponges that resemble a surreal Dali painting with their ornately swirly carvings. This is the only place in the world where these sponges exist. Other endemic species we saw were cigar sponges and a small fish known as a yellow blenny. And I probably swam by countless other endemic species without even realizing it. That is part of the reason why diving in Gorontalo is so thrilling.
The third dive was at a site called Honeycomb East, not too far from Traffic Circle. The big feature of this dive was a “swim through”, a hole in the reef that you can swim through. Even though you can see the other side from the entrance, I decided to swim around instead, since I haven’t been trained in overhead environments. Like Traffic Circle, there were numerous Salvador Dali and cigar sponges here. There were also Napoleon wrasse (some pretty big fish!) and beautifully colored clown triggerfish with black and white polka dots. A highlight of this dive was seeing a yellow pufferfish taking a nap in a coral crevice. So cute!
That night all of us divers (minus Yunis, but plus the American’s wife and her friend) went out to dinner at a Chinese place in town. Over bowls of delicious wantons and fried rice, we chatted about diving in Sulawesi and life in Gorontalo. The two Swedes came to Gorontalo after a week of live-aboard diving in the Lembah Straits in north Sulawesi. A week of diving, eating, and sleeping on a live-aboard boat sounds like heaven! I hope I get the chance to do that while I’m in Indonesia.
All in all, Sunday was the best day I’ve had in Gorontalo to date. Like I said, it was really a “pinch me I’m here” kind of day. I see Gorontalo in a whole new light now and feel supremely lucky to be living here. I finally understand why the people at the dive shop back in NJ were so envious of me moving to Sulawesi!
I recently got an email from my supervisor at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta letting us ELFs know that it is already time to start thinking about whether we want to renew our fellowships for 2010-2011. Since we’re not even 3 months in to the 10-month fellowship, it seems really early to be asking this question, but that’s how the program rolls.
Given my recent posts about not wanting to learn Indonesian, power outages, lack of Internet connectivity, housing issues, food issues, etc., you may be somewhat surprised to hear that I am even considering staying in Indonesia for another year. Yes, there are a lot of frustrations to living here, but never once have I wished I didn’t come.
I am changing and growing every day here. In these two short months alone, I have learned volumes about Islam and have confronted poverty first hand. Moreover, for the first time in my life, I am living in a collectivist culture, which constantly challenges all my individualist notions about how society works. My intercultural competence is increasing daily and I know that this fellowship, whether it lasts one year or two, will be yet another defining experience of my life.
This fellowship is also a great opportunity to develop professionally. Earlier this month, I gave a workshop on “Integrating Skills” to lecturers in the English department at UNG. Next month, I will be presenting on “Using Peer Reviews to Improve Student Writing” at the TEFLIN conference (Teachers of English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia) in Malang. Then, in January there will be a series of workshops in Makassar, Yogyakarta and Solo.
Also, let’s not forget the incredible diving and travel opportunities that living in this part of the world affords.This year, I will be spending my Christmas vacation in Bali and Australia bumming around with Courtney, Stephanie and my friend Nat, who lives in Sydney. Then I’m heading back to Sulawesi to take the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course in Bunaken with Mark. And that’s just talking about now until mid January. The travel opportunities here are fantastic and if I stay another year, then there’s so much more I could see…
Plus, this fellowship has introduced me to nine amazingly smart, funny and down-to-earth teachers who are quickly becoming good friends. As an added bonus, I also have totally awesome ETAs. I must admit, I really like the company I’m keeping here. Granted, next year this group will change, but fortunately some of the other ELFs are also thinking about renewing.
Finally, staying another year would guarantee me a job and an income. This gig pays pretty well for an English teaching job and there are all sorts of added bonuses like free housing, paid travel and living expenses, and program funding. I know many people back home who have multiple degrees and are out of work. I know people working part-time jobs but wishing they had full-time jobs. I know people in their 30s who have moved back in with their parents to save a little money. This is a full-time job that guarantees me a salary, housing, multiple allowances and a huge, life-changing adventure to boot.
So, what’s holding me back? What would be my reasons for not renewing? Well, the biggest reason is that I miss my family and friends a lot. Distance is hard and it’s even harder when you’re troubled by the thought that you might never see your loved ones again. This thought has haunted me for the past five years, ever since my family survived a fatal car accident in Iceland. This fear was brought to the forefront of my thoughts again when the father of one of the other ELFs died suddenly at the beginning of the semester. Knowing that life can be extinguished in an instant forces me to wonder if it’s not selfish of me to be living so far away from home for so long.
The other reasons I have for not renewing are not nearly as compelling. Clearly, life would be much easier and more comfortable back in the States or in Western Europe - I could easily find stores that sell the things I need and I wouldn’t have to worry about power outages or lack of Internet connectivity. I would be able to understand what people are saying to me and would have a clearer understanding of workplace expectations. What’s more, bathrooms in the U.S. and Western Europe have Western toilets, toilet paper, soap and light bulbs! How amazing! And then there’s the food issue - I miss cheese and wine and pizza and burgers and lox bagels and Mexican food and Italian food and New York City Restaurant Week. On a slightly more essential note, I feel like I have zero dating opportunities here and this is a part of my life that I don’t particularly enjoy putting on hold. For one, it’s rather hard to meet people here that I would be interested in dating and two, even if I did manage to find a boyfriend here, he certainly wouldn’t be able to spend the night, given the predominant Muslim beliefs about dating and marriage.
On the other hand, my philosophy of life is well expressed by this Anais Nin quote, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage”. Accordingly, my life so far has been a collection of amazing experiences that probably never would have happened if I hadn’t found the courage to leave my comfort zone and strike out into unfamiliar territory. Living in Indonesia is my latest adventure and I’d like to think my life will be that much more extraordinary if I stay another year.
Having gotten some positive feedback from you, my faithful blog followers, I have decided to write another “Day in Gorontalo” entry. Actually, I think I will try to do at least one a month for the rest of my fellowship. It’s a nice break from the theme based entries I usually write and it paints a pretty good picture of the highs and lows I experience on any given day.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
6:00 a.m. My alarm goes off early because I intend to mark some essays before breakfast. I then hit the snooze button repeatedly for an hour.
7:00 a.m. I am up and puttering around the house wondering when Nita will arrive with my tea. Yesterday she brought me tea and homemade cookies for breakfast. But today she doesn’t appear at all. So, I make a cup of instant Indocafe Cappuccino instead and sit down with my stack of essays from my Writing IV class.
8:00 a.m. Distracted by the sound of water coming from the front of my house, I tear myself away from my essays and angrily head towards the door. People are constantly helping themselves to my water supply because the gate that’s supposed to be in front of my house still hasn’t been finished yet. Prepared to confront thetrespasser, I throw open the door and am stunned to find a young man washing his face and feet not with the hose connected to the house water supply, but with the waste water in the dirty old bucket left under the dripping air conditioner. My annoyance suddenly turns into pity for this young man who apparently has nowhere else to clean himself. I say good morning then go back inside.
9:00 a.m. Taking a break from the drudgery of marking my essays, I decide to make myself a pancake breakfast. These are absolutely delicious and I wonder why I haven’t been making these more often. Galael sells a Pancake & Crepe mix. All you have to do is all water and an egg. So simple, so good.
10:30 a.m. As I make my way through the stack of essays, I discover that an alarming number of students have turned in work that is clearly not their own. For this assignment, students had a choice of four possible topics, including describing interesting places in Gorontalo or Indonesia. One student’s essay had the following sentences about Kuta Beach, Bali: “Rapid development and an influx of visitors haven’t kept the surfers away and Kuta still remains one of Bali’s best surfing beaches and a great place to enjoy a beach lifestyle. While the surfers are still part of the Kuta scene, it’s the shopping, nightlife and party vibes that attract thousands of visitors.” Perhaps this student is quite gifted. Perhaps these sentences were not lifted directly from some tourist website. But then consider that the same essay opens with “Indonesia is a country that popular with beautiful scenery and also tourist attractions” and closes with “In conclusion, there are three tourist attractions in Indonesia. It is interesting to visit.” Nope, I don’t believe for one second that the body of the essay was the student’s own creation. What baffles me is that the students have the gall to submit such work. I had been warned that plagiarism was a big issue in Indonesia, particularly at my university, but it’s appalling and also a little bit devastating to see it done in my own classes.
10:45 a.m. Once again I am distracted by the sound of water coming from the front of my house. When I peek out of the window I see that someone is at work washing his car in my driveway. Honestly! Again, I throw open the door and prepare myself for a confrontation. I ask the man in English what he’s doing and point out that this is my house. He answers in English, “I know, I know. Sorry!” Then he laughs and drives off. I glare at him as he pulls out of the driveway. I just don’t get it. Why do people think it’s OK to come over and help themselves to my water supply?
11:00 a.m. Fed up with my plagiarizing students and my water-stealing neighbors, I decide to calm myself down by taking a shower and getting ready to head to campus for my afternoon class. Since the water in my shower is usually on the cold side, I turn it off while I lather up. When I go to turn the water back on to rinse off, just a trickle comes out. And then it completely dries up. I feel that the water karma gods are getting back at me for denying my neighbor the water to wash his car. Either that or he used it all up. In any event, I need to get rid of all this soap. Dripping in sudsy water, I tramp over to my other bathroom and try my luck with that faucet. Luckily, there is just enough water in the pipe for me to splash off the suds.
2:10 Time for CCU! I love teaching this class - I get to learn all sorts of interesting things about Indonesia from my students. Today’s topic is classroom behaviors. We start off with a little situational quiz about what to do in certain classroom situations in the US. To extend the activity, I ask the students to get into groups and make a list of some of the differences they have noticed between Indonesian and American classroom behavior. I learn that my students have a lot of criticisms of Indonesian teaching styles. They find most of their Indonesian teachers to be very serious and authoritative in the classroom. Punctuality, on the teacher’s side, is also a problem. Classes might start late because a teacher sends a student out to make photocopies and then everyone just sits around waiting for that student to come back with the copies. Sometimes the teachers just write an assignment on the board and tell the students to have it finished by the following week. If students are late or don’t have an assignment they are sometimes punished by being forced to sing a song or recite a poem in front of the class. They even admit that they are afraid of their teachers most of the time. In contrast, my students seem to really like the American teaching style. They like that American teachers are friendly, informal, interactive and non-threatening. They also appreciate our punctuality, organization and use of body language to make difficult ideas understandable. I wish I could spend more time on this topic. I feel we are just scratching the surface of things we could talk about - things like plagiarism, sharing among students, saving face in the group, how students and teachers address each other, who asks questions, what topics are appropriate for discussion or writing assignments, the amount of experiential learning vs. rote learning, speech acts like greetings and how to start and end a class, social distance between students and teachers, etc. I think classroom behavior is a fascinating subject to study cross culturally.
4:00 p.m. Since the Internet isn’t working for the 7th day in a row in my office, I plug in my USB modem and wait a painful 20 minutes for something to happen. For some reason, the connection is being ridiculously slow and I consider shutting everything down and going home but then the rain comes. Rainy season in Gorontalo has officially arrived. So, I do like the Indonesians do and decide to just stay put until it passes.
5:30 p.m. On the way home I stop by my counterpart’s office to pick up some package notification slips that he texted had arrived for me. Packages!! Few things thrill an expat’s heart more than packages from home. I wonder who they’re from. Probably from my mom, as I know she’s shipped several packages of reading material, vitamins, dental floss and other essentials. Or they could be from one of my friends who responded to my Facebook plea to please send Annie’s Mac & Cheese. Oh what excitement! I’ll have to go to the post office tomorrow right away after work. I love having things to look forward to.
6:00 p.m. Back home, I decide I need to resume my paper grading work. The plagiarism issue is really bugging me because I have now identified 6 out of 18 essays read so far that clearly have something fishy going on. So I send a text to my fellow ELFs asking for advice on how to handle the situation. Suggestions and support pour in instantly; Maura reminds me that plagiarism is culturally acceptable here, Amber promises to send me some great paraphrase citation exercises tomorrow, Stephanie recommends underlining the text I’m suspicious of and then asking the students where they got it from, Courtney advises me to speak with each student individually, and Mark says he’ll read my book when I figure it all out. Ahhh…what would I do without the other ELFs? They are a constant source of support and their humor helps keep me laughing too.
6:23 p.m. I finally get to work on the next essay in my stack. I tell myself that I will mark essays for an hour or so and then take a dinner break.
6:25 p.m. Mati lampu!! Plans to grade papers are foiled by another of Gorontalo’s infamous random power outages. I need to get these papers done tonight so I debate between firing up the generator and relocating to the Quality Hotel for a couple of hours. I opt for the generator.
6:30 p.m. I drag it out of one of the spare bedrooms and hook it up to the power source outside. I’m about to go through my start up checklist when Sarah calls. Sarah always has perfect timing. Some strange sixth sense leads her to call me just at a moment when I’m dying to complain about the latest Indo curveball. As per our standard routine, we update each other on the craziness of the day and talk about how we’re looking forward to seeing all the other ELFs for our early Thanksgiving in Yogya this weekend.I treasure these conversations with her; I think we help each other stay sane in a very challenging country.
The rest of the evening is filled with making a pasta dinner, finishing my grading, and writing this blog post. And now I’m off to bed. Another day in Indo is done.
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