Up this point of my service, I have spent the majority of my blog entries talking about my experiences at site: working with counterparts, teaching students, and adventures through my rural world. That world--I like to call it my “Desa (village) sphere”--doesn’t occupy the entirety of my time during service. There is another world, my “Peace Corps sphere”, which takes up another large portion of my service in Indonesia. There are many aspects of my service when I work directly with Peace Corps Indonesia staff. This often is entirely separate from my work as a teacher in my village, which is why I visualize my job as having two “spheres” of influence. The sphere that I talk about in this entry focuses specifically on the structural elements of the program that arise from over a decade of Peace Corps Indonesia. I am one of more than 40 Volunteers in my ID11 cohort. There have been ten cohorts--largely similar in size--before me in Indonesia, which helped lay the groundwork and mold the program to what it was by the time I arrived here in March 2017. There are many opportunities for Volunteers to work closely with staff and other Volunteers. Since the aspects of each Volunteer’s service is entirely up to him or her, some of us choose to devote more time and attention to the “Peace Corps Sphere” than others. These opportunities include Volunteer-run committees, trainings, and conferences. CommitteesI serve as a member of the Volunteer Advisory Council (VAC), which acts as an advocate and intermediary for Peace Corps Volunteers with in-country Peace Corps staff. VAC Representatives meet three times a year with senior Peace Corps staff members to discuss issues affecting the Volunteer community and to suggest program policy changes. The purpose of the Council is to provide a forum of open communication for all involved parties to ensure the well-being, productivity, and accountability of Peace Corps Indonesia. The tri-annual meetings rotate between East Java and West Java, which are the two provinces in Indonesia where Volunteers live. I have attended meetings as a member of the Council three times in Jakarta, Surabaya, and Bandung. About a month of preparation takes place prior to a VAC meeting. As one of two Representatives on VAC from East Java, I reach out to half of the Volunteers in the province one month before the meeting for comments and concerns. During the phone calls, VAC members try to reach for suggestions from volunteers to ameliorate any issues they may have with the status quo. The four VAC members compile the ideas from phone calls into a centralized document. The Council then sends those notes to staff two weeks before the meeting date so that everyone can be adequately prepared. Staff may or may not add new topics to the agenda. These meetings take place over the course of three to six hours, depending on the number of items that staff or VAC would like to address. Each VAC member takes a turn introducing a topic that was brought up in conversations with other volunteers. Staff often asks for us to expand on particular concerns, or they may explain why a certain policy exists in its current form. They might also inform us that a current policy is not open to negotiation or adaptation. For example, our annual leave allocation is non-negotiable, but what types of travel require annual leave is open for discussion. These conversations are important to both staff and volunteers: Volunteers learn why a programmatic policy was implemented in the first place, and staff receive insight about how rules or procedures might not work as well as they had originally hoped. Staff implemented a new “check-in” call this year, where staff members reach out to principals on a semester basis. Many PCVs raised concerns that these calls equate to staff policing volunteers’ decisions and actions. Furthermore, several were apprehensive that--in a very non-confrontational culture--principals would rely on these calls with staff to discuss issues relating to the PCV, instead of directly approaching the volunteer. Thus, volunteers worried that the calls would undermine the relationships that we have worked so hard to build. Peace Corps, on the other hand, viewed the calls as an opportunity to hold schools accountable. When a school commits to hosting a volunteer for two years, the administrators and teachers need to uphold several Peace Corps requirements: Volunteers must teach a minimum of twenty hours a week; English teachers must lesson plan with their volunteer on a weekly basis; and schools should interact with host families on a regular basis. Moreover, Peace Corps staff envisioned these calls as an effective way to maintain a professional relationship with members of authority in school communities. After a volunteer finishes his or her service, Peace Corps hopes to maintain relationships with schools for future opportunities. The calls could help staff achieve these goals. Both points of view were presented during our most recent meeting. These points were added to the meeting’s minutes and will eventually be shared with the entire Peace Corps Indonesia community. In this case, it is important that a medium like VAC exists: Volunteers learned of staff’s intentions for implementing this new procedure; staff, on the other hand, can see why volunteers might react negatively to this addition. Ultimately, we came to a mutual decision. First, these new calls will be referred to as “Partnership Commitment Calls” from now on, eliminating a negative connotation associated with surveillance. Second, staff will follow up with VAC at the next meeting to discuss how the first round of calls went. We will decide the next steps to take during that meeting. In the time of an emergency, Peace Corps Indonesia has established a detailed Emergency Action Plan (EAP). This plan can be initiated as a result of a natural disaster, civil unrest, or any other emergency situation. The EAP has several different levels, and staff will activate the stage that is most appropriate for the given emergency. An earthquake, for example, might require Volunteers in one region to consolidate to a nearby city. Mass violent protests in response to a coup d’etat, on the other hand, may lead to all volunteers evacuating the country. These are both hypothetical situations, but they are certainly within the realm of possibilities. Peace Corps programs in other countries have had to deal with these types of situations. Indonesia experiences frequent earthquakes and is home to dozens of active volcanoes. It is quite possible that a natural disaster could inflict serious consequences on the safety of volunteers in this country. In order to ensure the efficacy of the EAP, Peace Corps staff designate Wardens to coordinate between volunteers and the office in Surabaya during heightened safety and security concerns. There are nine total consolidation points: four in East Java and five in West Java. I am a Warden for the consolidation point in Malang, which is a city in the middle of East Java. When a volcano erupts, or if there was a terrorist attack, Peace Corps staff relies on Wardens to contact the other Volunteers assigned to the same consolidation point. Wardens ensure that the Volunteers are safe and not in the area of the specific security incident, and then they report back to staff. Wardens went to a two-day training in Jakarta during August 2017. We learned about the various levels of the EAP, and under what circumstances staff would consider activating the plan to each level. Peace Corps safety and security staff decided that volunteers must stay in their villages during the national elections that were held earlier this summer. Heavy rains that create mudslides might cut off a volunteer from an evacuation route, leading to his or her preemptive move to a specific consolidation point. As a result of the string of bombings in Surabaya this past May, Wardens had to make sure that all PCVs were accounted for, and staff later made the city off limits for travel for the subsequent four weeks. TrainingsPeace Corps Indonesia offers various different workshops for volunteers throughout our service. These trainings are optional, and volunteers fill out applications to participate with a designated counterpart. I have travelled to Surabaya to attend two such trainings. This past December, I participated in the Project Design and Management (PDM) workshop. Having submitted an application with a project idea at our school, Mas Wendhi and I attended the conference to learn about how to develop that concept. We spent time learning about grant opportunities through Peace Corps, and how to write a grant proposal. I do not want to get into the specifics of our project, because it is still in the early stages; but those three days helped the two of us hone in on specific goals. We also outlined the steps we want take to in order to cross the finish line. We took our new information back to school and have used it as a guide for laying the foundations of our idea. I attended a second workshop with Mas Wendhi this past January. The Student Friendly Schools workshop discusses strategies for transforming school culture to make it a place where everyone feels safe, welcomed, and part of an empowering community. We covered topics such as classroom management, punishment and discipline, bullying, and gender equality. Since school culture varies drastically between the United States and Indonesia, and even among Indonesian schools, we were encouraged to think about the underlying causes and consequences of different kinds of behaviors and responses. Mas Wendhi and I brought our new knowledge back to school to share with the principals and teachers. Several of us now ask students to make a list of class rules at the beginning of the semester. It is nice to see students hold each other accountable to achieve the standards that they set themselves. ConferencesStaff requires Volunteers to attend the occasional conference. The first was In-Service Training (IST), which was a week-long conference that took place in October 2017--three months after we moved to site. East Java Volunteers gathered in Surabaya, while West Java Volunteers convened in Badung the following week. The conference is filled with sessions that introduce new strategies for teaching, lesson planning, language acquisition, mental health, dealing with unwanted attention, and sexual harassment/assault. This conference was the first time that all of the Volunteers in East Java were together since the end of our ten-week Pre-Service Training (PST). The conference was also motivating for people who were feeling withdrawals from fellow Americans. Staff asks volunteers to apply to co-facilitate various sessions during conferences. I was very busy at IST helping lead a review session of the EAP, facilitating discussions about sexual harassment and assault between volunteers and counterparts, and mental health session focusing on positivity and gratitude. I was spread too thin during that conference, however, and I told myself not to work on so many sessions at the next conference! Each volunteer works with his or her counterpart during the last two days. Together, Mas Wendhi and I practiced various co-teaching models, learned new activities to introduce to students, and engaged in conversation about how we can better support one another. This is one of the few times where a counterpart is able to discuss and ask questions with Peace Corps staff. It turned out that Mas Wendhi found the conference to be just as informative as I did. It provided copious ideas for us to bring back to site and disseminate among the other teachers. The second conference was Mid-Service Conference (MSC), which took place in the middle of July this year. Similar to IST, East Java Volunteers gathered in Surabaya while West Java Volunteers gathered in Bandung. The conference coincided with the first couple weeks of the new school year. Peace Corps waits to host this conference until the school year begins because volunteers and their counterparts are back from summer break. The first three days of the conference involved volunteers only, and the counterparts joined for the last two days. The week was filled with sessions; some of those paralleled topics from IST. There was more of a focus on community projects this time, with presentations including ideas for libraries, English Clubs, and more. The two days with counterparts was for identifying our strengths and weaknesses; then we discussed how we can improve on those weaknesses and capitalize on our strengths. Most importantly, we left the conference motivated to start off the new school year with a bang! After an extended lull with our project idea, the conference was an opportune time for Mas Wendhi and I to get our butts back in gear. One of the last sessions of the conference allowed time for Mas Wendhi and I to discuss how the initiatives and changes we have made at school will be sustainable after I leave Indonesia. After all, we don’t want new teaching practices and a welcoming school environment to dissipate in my absence. Even though I still have a full year to teach, Peace Corps staff stresses the importance of thinking about sustainability and how the gains made during two years of service can stand the test of time. All of my time working on different committees, training sessions, and workshops leads me into September, where a new task presents itself. On September 30th, a new cohort of prospective volunteers will arrive in Indonesia. Just like my ID11 cohort, the ID12s will embark on a ten-week period of intensive language training and professional development in Kediri. Echoing their requests before the conferences through the first half of my service, Peace Corps staff hopes that we can commit to training this new group of trainees. After eighteen months in country, we will be the experts that can help the new arrivals prepare for life in Indonesia. I am eager to meet the new trainees. I remember when I first arrived in Indonesia, and I asked the “veterans” as many questions as I could. I found their knowledge to be invaluable. Their advice and answers surely helped build my confidence as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Now I have the opportunity to pass that confidence on to another group. I will do that both directly and indirectly. I hope to directly motivate them by leading sessions during their ten-week orientation. I want them to read this blog (I found former Indonesia PCVs blogs incredibly helpful, and I hoped that the thoughts and stories in my blog could help prepare others for their service). I suppose that I will indirectly support the new Trainees through the new policies discussed and crafted during VAC meetings, Warden training, and other workshops. I still have nearly ten months left of my service, but the first step in passing the torch starts next month! Shout-Outs:
BSO to starting semester three of teaching! SO to my sister and her fiance for locking down a wedding date. July 13th can’t come soon enough! SO to the Badgers I met in Bandung a few weeks ago. They are from a suburb of Jakarta, and spent eight years in Madison to get their Masters and Doctorate degrees. Their first daughter was born there, too! SO to participating in my second Idul Adha. I helped butcher six goats and a cow! I think that each one of them deserves a SO of its own. BSO to the students who spent their holiday butchering the cow. We had a lot of fun! HASO to the recent earthquakes in Lombok that left hundreds of people dead and even more homeless. HMFSO to my high school friends, who are currently en route to Bali for an epic reunion. Next month’s post will likely cover our adventures.
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