Farewell ETAs!

This year I had four ETAs – Sarah and Alexa in Limboto and Anna and Erika in Manado. All four of them are amazing young women and we’ve had many good times together. I can’t believe they’re gone! They’ve left Sulawesi for bigger and better things while I’m still here wrapping up the school year (and catching up on my blogging!). So, I just wanted to write a post to all of them as a tribute and to thank them for being so awesome and for turning into such great friends.

I will never forget one particular night early in the year when Anna and Erika had driven down from Manado for the weekend. Alexa, unfortunately, was sick but Sarah, Anna, Erika and I went out on the town to do a little Gorontalo sightseeing and shopping. We also wanted to get Alexa something to cheer her up. And you know what we ended up getting? HOUSE DRESSES! Many women in Sulawesi go about their daily activities wearing these house dresses and although they may not exactly be fashion statements, they are extremely comfortable and suitable for the hot weather here. So we each selected one for ourselves and then picked out one for Alexa. When we got back to Sarah and Alexa’s house that evening we excitedly changed into our new house dresses to surprise Alexa when she got up from her nap. She looked at us puzzled, “Whaaa??” And then we unveiled her present! We twirled around the house in our new house dresses and then settled in for the night. The power went out so we spent the rest of the night playing Apples to Apples by light of the emergency lantern, eating manggis (mangosteen in English) and sitting around in our house dresses.

Besides being all around fun people to hang out with, three of my ETAs are also divers! Anna got certified last summer before moving to Indonesia, just like me. Sarah and Alexa got certified in March and, as you know, we’ve spent the past few months doing as much diving as possible. All four of us share great memories of diving together in Gorontalo and the Togean Islands. At the end of May after the dive season in Gorontalo had ended, I traveled up to Manado for a final weekend of diving with Anna. On the boat on the way out to Bunaken we were treated to the most fabulous display of leaping bottlenose dolphins. Good times.

Overall, I saw Sarah and Alexa a lot more than I did Anna or Erika because they lived nearby. We ate out in town, went to the salon to get our hair and nails done and texted often. We also shared many fun dinners at their place in Limboto and mine in ‘Kota’; I’ll always remember the night we made peanut butter cookies in my toaster oven with a mix that I got in a care package. Alexa even described me once in her blog as their big sister, mentor and best friend. I can’t even explain how much that sentiment moved me. I miss and love you guys!! Gorontalo isn’t the same without you.

With Alexa and Sarah at Bolihutuo Beach, Gorontalo

A day at the beach – Gorontalo style

Finally, finally, finally made it to the beach in Gorontalo! Look how happy we are!

(Photo Credit: Kibor Qb)

A couple of colleagues from UNG and a friend of theirs picked me up at 7 on Sunday morning. En route to Monano, we stopped to pick up another friend of theirs, who happens to be a professional photographer, and then we went to Limboto to pick up my two ETAs, Alexa and Sarah.

After more than an hour of driving over serpentine roads, inching our way through the traffic of a traditional market and stopping here and there to ask for directions, we arrived at a wonderfully remote, sandy beach lined with coconut trees and dotted with traditional fishing boats. Of course, our arrival at this out-of-the-way beach did not go unnoticed by the local regulars. Shortly after setting up camp, we saw that a few Indonesians had wandered over to sit behind us in the shade. At first, I thought maybe they were just seeking shade as well, but oh no, they were there to look at us. The group quickly grew in numbers. Suddenly, there were about 30 people plopped down right behind us giving us shy smiles and taking pictures of us with their cell phone cameras. Empty beach stretched for hundreds of feet in either direction, but apparently this is where everyone wanted to be.

Alexa, Sarah and I briefly escaped the madness by heading into the water. The sea was wonderful – warm, calm and perfect for floating. As I floated there with my hands behind my head, peering at the coconut trees over the tips of my painted toenails, I felt incredibly peaceful and relaxed. Then we went back to the beach where my colleague Titien got to work setting up a delicious lunch of tofu, tempe, chicken and rice.

At some point after lunch, we noticed a group of Indonesian men dragging one of the traditional fishing boats across the sand to launch in the water. Titien asked if we could take some pictures and before I knew it, we were all sitting in the boat posing for photos while the fishermen looked on.

Not long after that, word spread that a TV crew from Jakarta was here and wanted to interview us on our thoughts about the beach! We briefly conferred about what we would say as we walked over to the cameraman. But when we got there, I found out that I had somehow been elected spokesperson for the three of us. A microphone was clipped onto my cover-up and then the cameras started rolling. Flanked by my two ETAs and surrounded by a posse of onlookers, I said we were English teachers in Gorontalo and Limboto and this was our first visit to the beach here. I then gushed about how beautiful it was and how warm the water was while Sarah and Alexa nodded their agreement. I wonder if this clip will actually end up on TV!

(Photo Credit: Kibor Qb)

Our celebrity status more firmly established, we headed back to our stuff and posed for more pictures with the congregated masses. I started to grow weary of all the hoopla when I noticed that one guy was actually taking a video of my legs, or at least that’s what it seemed like. Sunburned but happy, we packed up our stuff and headed back to a thatched-roof hut on land where a couple of us took cold bucket showers with water drawn from a well. We changed in the hut and then headed back to the beach for another photo shoot with our photographer.

(Photo Credit: Kibor Qb)

Unexpected Encounters

Indonesia never fails to surprise me with unexpected encounters. On the trip home from Bali (where I actually met a fellow diver from Basel, Switzerland!), I happened to run into the two Fulbright ETAs (English Teaching Assistants) who will be working in Limboto, a town about 20 minutes away from Gorontalo by car. I had first met Alexa and Sarah during the State Department orientation sessions in Jakarta, where we got into small groups to brainstorm some teaching activities for the coming year. I knew they would be arriving in Limboto sometime in late September but it was quite a surprise to run into them at the Jakarta airport and realize we were on the same flight to Gorontalo.

However, this surprise meeting pales in comparison to the surprise awaiting us at the Gorontalo airport. Unbeknownst to any of us, Alexa and Sarah’s schools had organized a welcoming committee to greet our plane. Immediately after disembarking on the tarmac, we were whisked to the VIP reception area where we were greeted by at least 50 students and teachers. They were holding a big banner welcoming Alexa and Sarah and ceremoniously gave each of them a big flower necklace.

I felt a little out of place since this welcome was definitely not intended for me. I hovered in the background feeling distinctly self-conscious about the fact that I hadn’t showered that morning since I got up at 3:30 to get to the airport. However, to my great dismay, my presence did not escape notice. After the girls had been given their necklaces of flowers, I was pulled into the requisite photo shoot that followed. The teachers and students were all nicely dressed - the women with their coordinating jilbabs and the men in crisp clean shirts. I felt sorely underdressed for the occasion in my dirty jeans and running shoes. Not only that but I was also wearing my new Absolute Scuba t-shirt from the dive shop in Padang Bai, which probably isn’t the most appropriate thing I could have been wearing considering that I am primarily here to teach English and not to scuba dive. Hundreds of photos were taken of us and even some just of me. I am sure that I will be making another newspaper appearance one of these days in what is guaranteed to be another unflattering picture.

Following this friendly ambush, I was also included in the welcoming dinner at a restaurant in Gorontalo. There were about 12 of us there. I had been planning on taking a taxi from the airport and then making a supermarket run when I got home, but being taken out to dinner and then being driven home by fellow teachers was infinitely nicer. But by the end of the meal I was exhausted. It had been a crazy long day – leaving Padang Bai at 4am to drive to the airport in Denpasar, a 3-hour layover plus a 2-hour delay in Jakarta, a brief stop Makassar and then finally arriving in Gorontalo around 6 pm. But I am glad that Sarah and Alexa are here. It’s nice to know that there are some fellow English teachers living only 20 minutes away from me. They are about a decade younger than me and fresh out of college but I think our circumstances will bond us together.