Hello everyone! My apologies for the recent lapse since my last update, but the life of a teacher is incredibly demanding! Even when I did have a free evening during August, I wasn’t in the mood for writing. Even today, I am struggling to sit here and recall all of my experiences over the course of the past four weeks. It’s not that I am having difficulty remembering them, because I always jot down reminders about important experiences, but I want to be careful not to include too many trivial, repetitious stories. I am finally on a routine now that the school year is underway, and that means I am experiencing the same things on a daily basis. I am just like all of you who commute to work every morning, work until 4, 5, or 6pm, and then participate in whatever social activities during the evening before going to bed and starting all over again. There is, however, a key difference between our daily routines. I can assure you that there are far less happy hours in my part of the world. And although teaching provides new and exciting interactions every day, my weeks have started to blend together, despite the fact that school has only been in session for four weeks. My weeks are melting together because they pass by so quickly! After an entire two months of fasting and looking for ways to kill time, I am struggling to adapt to how fast each school-week flies by. Prior to the school year, I devoted adequate time to writing, reading, and embarking on adventures around my village. Now with teaching in the works all I want to do at the end of the day is eat, hang out with the family, and watch an episode of The Office. I find it far easier to wrap my brain around Jim and Pam’s love conundrum than to follow Captain Ahab’s relentless pursuit of a giant whale (Moby Dick killed my ambition to read as many classic novels as possible). I am happy to be on a routine, and to go to bed one night and realize that it’s already Friday evening. That’s a sign that I am adjusting to a this lifestyle, and hopefully, that I am on the right track towards integrating into my new community. When I moved to Washington, D.C., I knew that I was no longer a newbie when one month of work quickly turned into one year, when one kickball season ended and another began, and when one happy hour with friends turned into a weekly tradition. I look forward to finding that same comfort of no longer being a newbie in my village. Unfortunately, I have an inkling that as an American Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Java, that label might never go away. I turned twenty-five on July 30th! Thank you everyone who reached out to me over WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Email, Skype, etc. Even though I am on the other side of the world, I talked to so many people that it appeared as if I was living in the same time zone. My birthday was on a Sunday, which meant school was not in session. I did still go to school to “teach” a group of students for a few hours. It was the first time we held a special session and it was a blast! I taught them some introduction games so I could get to know each one of them, but I ended up sharing most of the personal information. The games subsided and students gravitated towards sitting in their desks, taking turns asking me questions about the United States, my family, and my hobbies. My Pre-Service Training host family from Kediri drove down to my new home for lunch. We were able to celebrate my birthday, but most importantly, my two host families met for the first time. I experienced many emotions: excitement, happiness, and even nervousness. I wasn’t nervous about how one family might act in front of the other, but I was nervous about myself. I certainly have not experienced two Indonesian families meeting each other for the first time so I didn’t know what to expect or how to act. I chose to wear the button-down shirt that my PST host parents gave me before moving to my permanent site. I’m glad I did, because the first thing I noticed when the family got out of the car was that Pak Miswan and Safa were wearing their matching shirts too. Bu Hertati, my permanent site host mom, made food for everyone. We sat and ate, and my Indonesian families went into more detail about their jobs and extended families. I can only provide so much accurate information in Indonesian so this meet and greet was the perfect opportunity for both families to clear up any questions they had about one other. Bu Hertati and Bu Ira, my PST host mom, eventually split off from the rest of the family members and resorted to gossiping about me specifically: Does he sleep okay? How often does he mandi? What does he like to eat? How often does he eat? How much does he eat? Please, notice the amount of questions revolved around eating. My two Ibus are so damn persistent! I pulled a classic Addison move and got all worried over nothing. The lunch gathering was a great couple of hours. I spent the majority of time with Safa and Aza, my two host siblings during PST, and their cousins from Kediri. Prior to their arrival, I was concerned that Safa might be too shy around me, and three-year-old Aza might have forgotten who I was. Fortunately, I got a big hug from both of them, and we played together as if not a day had gone by since I left Kediri. I didn’t realize how much I missed living with the two kids until I saw them on my birthday. The Kediri family brought a birthday cake and candles to celebrate. Bu Ira even brought some of my favorite foods. They made me feel extremely special. The family left after a couple hours at the house. Their visit was too short, but it was sweeter than I could have ever imagined. I was teary eyed when their car pulled away from the house—the first time I had cried since breaking down during my last evening in Kediri. I have cried twice in Indonesia, and that family is the culprit for both accounts. I have the privilege of teaching tenth grade students this semester. Following Peace Corps’ suggestion, the administrators at my school recommended that I stick with teaching one grade for my first semester. Since an entire grade learns the same English curriculum, I should spend less time lesson planning. This also gives me time to get to know the students better and learn more about teaching English in the context of the Indonesian education system. As a PCV I am supposed to co-teach with a Counterpart (CP), which are English teachers at my school. My classes are split between two CPs: Mas Wendi (Metallica devotee and Resident Evil enthusiast), and Bu Pita (previously asked me questions about travelling to the USA via the Statue of Liberty and Ellis island). Each one of my classes meets for three academic hours (one academic hour is forty-five minutes) per week. Unfortunately, each one of my classes has English for three consecutive academic periods one time a week. That means I only see each of my students once a week—highly disadvantageous for teaching children a foreign language. During Pre-Service Training I learned to craft lesson plans for forty-five or seventy-five minute classes. My work at permanent site requires me to expand on what I learned during training and design lessons that last 135 minutes. This long class time presents numerous challenges. First, I need to make sure that the entire lesson engages the students. They sit in a classroom all day, and incorporating them into the learning process will be key to keeping them intrigued. Second, the students will not have any other English class after they finish their weekly class with me. It will be difficult to make sure that students retain all of the new information presented in a lesson for the following week. How can I build on prior knowledge when the students don’t have adequate class time to practice and develop their skills? I need to find an answer to that question sooner rather than later. Although there are many negatives that I can point out about this scheduling predicament, I have thought of one small, but important, positive. When I performed my shorter lesson plans during PST it was important to stick to the script and not go off schedule, because there was never sufficient time to linger on a point longer than what was originally allotted. With a three-period class, however, I have the clemency of time to reiterate certain points, or practice a certain topic, if the students are struggling to grasp the new information. I have already deviated from my lesson plans during my first few weeks of teaching. Fortunately I have a good working relationship with my two Counterparts. Peace Corps stressed during training that a Volunteer’s teaching experience is largely dependent on working well with CPs. Bu Pita and Mas Wendi both understand when we need to stay on course with our lesson plan; and they agree with me when it’s best to veer from our original path. One thing that I have learned about the Indonesian education system is that there is often overcrowding at schools, and as a result, very large class sizes. For this reason, teachers do not learn students’ names, but refer to them by their nomor apsen, or number assignment. Fellow PCVs told me that just by putting in the effort to learn names, students would see that you care about their education. I pride myself in learning, and remembering, peoples’ names. While I can’t rely on my teaching expertise when it comes to impacting my students, I can certainly try to leave an impression by relying on my people-to-people skills. My first week of classes turned out great. Right off the bat, my CPs and I introduced a list of class rules that we hung on the wall. We also asked the students to take ten minutes and make a name tent card. The name tents included illustrations of their hobbies, favorite foods, etc. I asked each student to come up to the whiteboard to take a picture holding his or her name card. It is customary for Indonesians not to smile in their pictures. Students generally started taking their pictures in this fashion. After encouraging them to smile, the students started having fun. Now I have all of their pictures on my phone, and I use them like flashcards to study their names. Students are at school seven days a week. Classes are Monday through Saturday and extracurricular activities take place on Sunday. Peace Corps requires that I be at school five days a week, which follows the traditional work schedule for teaches in the USA. Many teacher workshops take place on Saturday afternoons after classes finish. For this reason, I have been at school on many Saturdays. Students participating in OSIS (Organisasi Siswa Intra Sekolah), which is my school’s equivalent to National Honors Society, meet at school Sunday mornings. Since they are the school leaders, and have respect from both the students and teachers, I have made a strong effort to develop relationships with these students. Since students involved in OSIS are in eleventh and twelfth grades, I do not have the privilege of having any of them in my classes. They are, however, the most motivated and dedicated students in the entire school. They are eager to learn English and get to know me better. I enjoyed their company on the morning of my birthday when I played introduction games with the OSIS students. It was fairly evident that we were both in a position to help each other out. I meet with the student organization Sunday mornings to teach English, play games, and talk about American culture. They, in return, help me to learn more about the school and community. More importantly, they set an example for the 2200 students at the school. When a tenth grader, who is new to the school, sees OSIS students hanging out in the courtyard or eating lunch with me in the canteen, I hope he or she follows suit. OSIS students are also more in tune with the needs of the student body. I repeatedly remind them to come to me with any ideas for school projects. I have access to Peace Corps resources (grants, supplies, etc.) that could help students’ plans come to fruition. Any school project that I work on will be highly beneficial to the student body if the students came up with the idea themselves. So thus far, I have been at school nearly every day of the week. I don’t mind it though. If I stayed at home all day Saturday and Sunday, the weekends would turn boring and I would start looking forward to Mondays. Although looking forward to Mondays would make life enjoyable, I don’t ever want to look past the weekends. Peace Corps implements a three-month long “travel ban,” which initiates when we moved to our site. This is put in place to help Volunteers assimilate with the new culture and to integrate within our new communities. I moved to permanent site on May 22nd, which means that the travel blackout wraps up August 22nd. That’s tomorrow! I have made a list of places I would like to visit over the weekends, but I am still hesitant to leave site. One weekend (Saturday and Sunday) away is two days that I would normally be at school interacting with the students or teachers, or in my neighborhood talking to my family and neighbors. I am excited to go on some adventures around Java, but I am cautious about leaving for extended periods of time when making new plans. I stop and talk to neighbors every afternoon on my way home from school. The kids are usually out flying kites, playing soccer, or riding their bikes. Most of the kids in my village are comfortable enough to engage in small talk, and most are brave enough to give me a high-five too. Once I have taken some turns, and I am biking down the road that leads to my house, there are usually a few kids running after me or biking alongside me. One afternoon, however, there were many more elementary school children following me than usual. By the time I arrived home there must have been close to twenty kids in tow. Why are there so many of you today? I asked the closest kid. “Our teacher hasn’t come back to school yet.” The kids responded. The teacher left school in the middle of the day, presumably for a lunch break, and had not returned to school. The kids were at school, alone, unsupervised, not learning. I turned my bike around and asked them to lead me to the school. If they weren’t going to learn from their teacher, then they would have to learn with me that afternoon. We gathered in the school courtyard and practiced numbers and colors in English. I walked around the courtyard and pointed out objects for the students to repeat in English: “window,” “door,” “tree,” etc. I spent close to an hour with the students until the teacher pulled in on her motorcycle. I did not speak with her directly, but I reiterated something to the children: whenever they are alone at the school they need to come and find me. I look forward to another impromptu class with the neighborhood kids, but I hope it doesn’t happen too soon. August 12th marked five months since I arrived in Indonesia, which explains why I have a full head of hair again. Furthermore, I have lived at my permanent site longer than I lived in Kediri for Pre-Service Training. The ten weeks of PST flew by, but the first ten weeks in my village passed even faster. As I mentioned earlier, I am happy that’s the case. Time flies by when you’re having fun, right? The school administration provided me with this year’s academic calendar, which means I know when we have holidays and opportunities for extended travel. Upon receiving that calendar, I instantly mapped out several trips, and before I knew it my entire first year of teaching was planned out. Typical Addison. Planning the entire year will certainly make it go by faster, but I reminded myself that it is important to enjoy this year too. There’s no point in teaching English in Indonesia with the Peace Corps if I’m whizzing through the year. I want to enjoy my time, and not take this experience for granted. I want to take it day by day—as opposed to month-by-month, or even semester-by-semester—to keep the time from speeding by too quickly. I committed to the Peace Corps for twenty-seven months, which is just over 800 days. Extraordinarily, 150 of those days are already over. I want to enjoy—and really appreciate—my remaining 650 days more so than my first 150. It’s not just arriving at the 800-day benchmark that I want to relish; I want to treasure the relentless pursuit of day 800 even more. Maybe I have an important lesson to learn from Captain Ahab’s unremitting chase after all. Shout-Outs:
SO to my friend who starts her masters program in Health Education at Texas A&M University next week. In addition to that degree, your forthcoming certificate in Gender and Women’s Studies will compliment your aspirations perfectly! SO to my friend who starts her masters program in Museum Studies at George Washington University. I can’t fully enjoy a trip to any museum without your guidance and expertise! SO to my friend who starts his masters program at Marquette University. HSO to my cousin for starting medical school this summer. It’s nice to know that there will be a doctor in the family! HSO to living happily ever after!! Congratulations to my friends for getting married in Madison this past weekend. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it, but I was there in spirit! SO to my friend for sending a postcard from Vancouver, British Columbia. The mountain scene makes a great addition to my wall. SO to my grandma for the package of goodies. I appreciate the birthday gesture, even though you forgot to put in the birthday card. HSO for the new hammock I have. It hangs perfectly on the balcony of my house and I take frequent cat naps. SO to my mom for sending the hammock along with other great things in a package for my birthday SO to my cousin and her husband for sending a package. The confetti in the birthday card was a nice touch! SO to my friend from high school, college, and DC for her promotion. Making moves! A HSO goes to each of my two good friends in Washington, DC for their new jobs on Capitol Hill. The three of us started together as unpaid interns (we hunted down the receptions on a weekly basis so we could eat free food). I wouldn’t be surprised if you are both Staff Directors by the time I come back from Indonesia. I know that you guys will keep everyone in line. Thank you, especially, for keeping Donald John in check. HMFSO to democracy (don’t let him forget about democracy). HMFSO to diplomacy too (don’t forget about the Lisbon Treaty guys). HMFSO to August 17th, which was Indonesia’s Independence Day! Happy 72nd Birthday Indonesia! Merdeka, Merdeka!!
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May 2019
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