My Last 24 hours in Kalimantan Tengah

My last day in Kalimantan was incredibly busy and it wasn’t till I reached the airport and checked in, that I was finally able to sit down and take a breath!
My day began when Bu Arfa met me at Monique’s house after my unusual sleepover, where she spent some time helping the family search for her. All her school friends were contacted and quizzed to discover her whereabouts, but to no avail. It seemed that she had totally vanished. Bu Arfa thought there was a chance that she joined her friend at the Scout Camp, so a quick call to Monique’s father who was in bed sick, to ask him if I could get a lift out to the camp ground with the driver who was going to follow up on that lead. He happily agreed and I was very grateful because it was quite a long trip out to the camp ground and the last part of the road was unsealed and very sandy. We overtook many motorbikes struggling through the soft sand and I was very thankful to be in an air conditioned 4 x wheel drive car.
The camp ground itself was very basic and on a barren plot of earth with a few trees, none of which had enough leaves to provide any shade. The scouts who had already arrived had set up their tents around a open sandy parade ground
which was in front of the main building. You can see the tents in the background of this photo:

This building is where the scout leaders not only based themselves but was also where Bu Arfa’s cooking team did all their cooking. The building had 3 rooms, 2 of which were immediately designated as bedrooms with one being for all the men and another for all the women. The building also had a tiny bathroom (complete with squat toilet) for the staff which was fantastic as the toilets and bathrooms for the scouts felt miles away and apparently weren’t very nice because all the doors, some of the roof tiles and some of the flooring had been stolen due to the remoteness of the camp site.
Soon after arriving, I went for a walk. Here is the road leading into the camp site:

Isn’t it flat and sandy?
Here is the entrance to the camp grounds:

One of the schools had just arrived in a truck loaded not only with their teams but also with everything they would all need over the next 4 days.
Back on the tiled pavilion, connected to the main building, representatives from each of the participating schools were sitting in a circle discussing the camp schedule and the responsibilities for each scout group with the scout leaders. Each schools in the regency of Kotawaringan Barat were invited to attend the scout camp and each school that accepted sent a team of about 8 males and 8 females. Each school then designated 4 representatives to attend this meeting, which gave them all the opportunity to clarify any of the arrangements.

This tiled area was beautifully cool as there was quite a strong breeze coming straight off the nearby coastline.
Towards the end of the meeting, a young boy decided to climb the flag pole. No one knows why he chose to do this because while the rope for hoisting the flag was twisted, the flag pole can be lifted out and laid flat to unknot the rope which is definitely a safer way of doing this. The meeting broke up suddenly when the boy slipped and fell to the ground injuring himself severely. One of the scout leaders had to take him to hospital immediately with a suspected broken arm and jaw and goodness only knows what else. It was incredibly foolish of him.
Straight afterwards, there was a quick rehearsal for the opening ceremony and every scout team had to line up together facing the flag poles while they had a run through of the formal ceremony..

It was interesting to see just how many scouts were here for the camp!
It got dark very quickly after this. I went with Bu Zaitun to our schools scout group to see what their camp looked like. It was pitch black with no lighting anywhere to see where we were walking. We had to be very careful and stick to paths, borrowing torchlight where ever we could. The camp ground was like a paddock and even the road running around the perimeter was bumpy and we had to take care. The girls teams had all set up their tents to one side of the grounds while the boys were all set up on the other side. Most teams had made their tents from saplings which they had cut down themselves and then had bound them in such a way to drape a tarpaulin over the frame to form a tent. Each group had also made a fence and an entrance to their camp area using large bamboo poles. Each team’s camp area was very decorative and creative. Generators created power for each tent to string a light up and some also had a long fluro light attached to their entrance.
In our girls tent, we discovered our dance team finalising preparations for the traditional dance performance which was due to start any minute. We left them to it and headed back to the building pavilion where a dance area had been roped off and other teams were already seated along the outside of the rope boundary waiting for the performance to begin. Once the first dance team began, the crowd grew and soon the dance area was surrounded by enthusiastic and cheering teenagers. The dances were fantastic but what I particularly loved were the traditional costumes. Most were traditional Kalimantan costumes but there were also a few Javanese ones reflecting the large numbers of families who have moved to Kalimantan under the national transmigration program.

The Kalimantan costumes were beautiful and most reflected the Dayak culture.

I only managed to watch a few of the dances when I was suddenly grabbed by Bu Arfa and told me get my stuff as we were heading home. Apparently a boy had been running to the toilet block and had tripped into a ditch and dislocated his elbow. Bu Arfa recommended someone she knew who could help the boy, so we got a lift back to town with the boy’s principal! While I had been all set to stay the night sleeping at a scout camp, I was equally happy to go back to town where I could sleep on a mattress rather than on a rattan mat on the floor but more importantly was particularly relieved to have some time to finish packing. It turned out that the main reason Bu Arfa wanted us to go back to Pangkalan Bun was because she was starting to get nervous that it would be too difficult to get back to town the next day in time for my flight to Bali.
The trip back to Pangkalan Bun was rough and I felt so sorry for the young lad nursing a dislocated elbow. It would have been so painful and I rued forgetting our pillows as that would have cushioned the bumps significantly for him had he been able to rest it on something soft instead of just holding it. Once the elbow had been realigned, it was then splinted to hold it straight and as we walked out the door, the boy was advised to avoid eating peanuts for a couple of weeks! There seems to be a significant link here throughout Indonesia according to doctors between peanuts and bones. This hasn’t been the first time I have heard someone with either broken bones or aching joints to have been told not to eat peanuts. I’d love to know what the link is!
By the time we collapsed into bed, it was after 11pm! It was bliss knowing I didn’t have to get up early the next morning however my internal body clock woke me as usual at 5:30. Soon after breakfast, we headed out to do some more shopping for the camp.
On the way we dropped in briefly at Monique’s house and discovered that she had been found safe and sound. She had caught a bus to Palangka Raya to visit her Mum. I was so relieved to hear she had turned up.
We continued on to town and bought 3 boxes of sweets for the opening ceremony.

Bu Arfa choosing which ones she wanted

Do you recognise any of these?
We left the boxes with the seller to be collected later so we wouldn’t have to lug them about with us. We drove off and immediately came across the marching competition. We wove in and out of the marchers waving hello to the many teams from our school. It was the middle of the day and very hot and humid. Each team had a support crew on a motorbike. The person riding pillion balanced a box of water on their lap and would offer the water to the team whenever they were taking a break from marching by just walking normally. Each marching team consists of 15 marchers and one commandant who directs the movement and direction. The commandant is the person walking to the far right of each team in the front row.

Traffic continued alongside the marchers however there were policeman standing along the route to keep an eye on everything.

We then popped into the market to buy fresh spice mixes (how lovely to be able to do that) and then with all our shopping, collected the boxes of cakes and took them all to SMP #7 where it would be collected later. We then decided to treat ourselves to lunch and a cold drink and completely by accident chose the warung that the SMA#2 staff were at recovering from the competition specifically for government officials. They were all in uniform and looked absolutely exhausted!

After our goodbyes, we headed home to finish packing and on the way stopped off to buy some fruit.

Can you see the fresh rambutans and mandarins? They were so sweet and juicy.

We had hoped to be able to go home and have a little time to rest but no sooner had we got home that Bu Arfa recieved a call saying that if she wanted a lift back to the camp ground she needed to get back to SMP # 7 now as the truck was about to leave. As Bu Arfa’s motorbike was still at the camp ground, she didn’t have any choice, We grabbed everything, and her husband drove us to SMP 7 where I said a hurried goodbye to her and then he took me to the airport. He had to get back to school, so he dropped me off. As I was checking in, the guys behind the counter asked me what I had been doing in Pangkalan Bun. They were gobsmacked when I told them I had been working at SMA 2 and as I walked off to pay my departure tax, I could here them repeating it with awe to the other counter staff! Bu Arfa would be thrilled to hear that even at the airport, I was promoting her school!

All Lessons Cancelled Today @ SMAN 2

My planned lessons with Bu Febri have once again been cancelled due to today being dedicated to preparing students for upcoming competitions. So Bu Arfa & I took our time getting to school this morning and it was lovely dawdling instead of racing against the clock to get to school on time. We stopped off at a great warung for bubur – delicious rice ‘porridge’ which is actually more like chicken risotto served with sliced shallots, fried onions, fried peanuts and a little extra chicken soup poured over the top. While eating, we watched the 4 women working in the warung as they had a steady stream of customers, some eating at the warung like we were and some getting take away. The TV was on in the corner as always and even though it was 7am, there was a soapie on. Indonesians are all addicted to soapies and there are so many of them and they seem to be on 24/7. One ridiculous soapie I saw recently is called, “My boyfriend is a Celebrity” and the episode I ‘watched’ was about a girlfriend discovering that her celebrity boyfriend had moved on when she saw him on TV with his new girlfriend. The plot of the soapies here are always over the top with every possible calamity affecting the characters and the acting is so over the top it is hilarious. Every emotion is exaggerated and it is more like a pantomime than a tv show. It is so hard not to burst out laughing at the outrageous plot and acting but I try not to in case I offend who ever I am watching it with. Most Indonesians realise the plots are bizarre but they still get hooked and start to empathise with the characters.
After we dragged ourselves away from the TV, we headed off to school and got here about 7:45! As we reached school, we passed a group of students practicing ‘gerak jalan’ (marching) as there is a competition on Friday morning. The teachers are also competing and Bu Arfa has just convinced me that I should join in tomorrow’s rehearsal and all being well, join in the competition before I fly out on Friday! I just hope it isn’t too hot! Unfortunately we will be organised by height with the tallest at the front so it looks like I won’t be able to hide at the back!
Here at school, it seems that the group we overtook practicing were the last group to do so, and I have to wait till tomorrow to see exactly what it looks like. There are 2 categories, both are ‘Komanden’ teams, one consists of 16 people and the other consists of 10 people. Not sure what that means but am hoping tomorrow it all becomes clear.
Since all the teams did their rehearsing earlier in the day, students are all mostly recovering. Most are sitting in their classrooms or on benches outside their classrooms chatting. One group of students were crowded around a laptop in one of the classrooms which they immediately closed as I walked into the room. Whether I had my teacher hat on or my parent hat on, bells were ringing! They tried to reassure me that everything was ok!! Teenagers are the same all over the world it seems!
This group of teenagers are watching two games of sport being played on the basketball court. At one end is a basketball game while at the other end is a game of soccer
Over on the sepak takrow court, several teams are competing for fun too
In between the basketball court and the sepak takrow court are several teams practicing for various competitions which will be held at the scout camp starting on Thursday. One team had just finished making a flag pole and another was making a archway from bamboo
Meanwhile students in Bu Arfa’s mentoring class are finalising names and phone numbers for their marching team. Seems like a few students have pulled out for various reasons, most of which sound like an excuse to get out of participating which was not received happily by the team nor Bu Arfa. Another point was raised was the wearing of jilbab’s. So as all students looked the same, they discussed what colour they would wear and whether they all needed to wear them. As it is so hot marching, some of the girls were wondering how they were going to cope as they don’t wear a jilbab everyday. Wearing a jilbab it seems, is not just the head scarf, they also wear a sort of thin beanie underneath it, so the double layer must be so hot. It would give me instant heat stroke marching with a double layer covering my head.
I then walked down to the oval to see if I could find any teams practising. As I passed by classrooms, I asked students sitting there if they were planning to rehearse again and all said they had finished for the day and would practice again tomorrow morning. I headed anyway down to the oval to see if anyone was there and to my surprise discovered a huge group of students playing and watching volley ball.
Under the shade of a huge tree, spectators were enjoying watching while eating snacks sold by sellers operating from mobile stalls on their motorbikes. This man is selling quail eggs. He sells mini quail egg omelet sate. The tiny omelets are speared on a sate stick. Can you see the basket of them ready for sale? Here he is about to grease the griddle to make some fresh omelets.
Another seller was selling meatballs. These are incredibly popular. You can either buy a small bag of them with tomato sauce or you can stand by the seller and help yourself and pay afterwards for the number you eat. Using a toothpick, you spear the ball and then dunk it in tomato sauce or chili sauce.The hole in the middle is where boiling stock is and the steam from it keeps the balls hot or you can buy bakso, a thin soup with meatballs floating in it.
Also nearby are several warungs, small stalls where you can buy snacks. The best thing about warungs is that they have somewhere you can sit and relax while munching on the food you bought. Each warung has its own specialty depending on the owner and the cook!

In the library, Bu Arfa is working with a group preparing for a dance which will be performed next month. Her plan is to train a small group of 25 and they then will be responsible for training the other 75 dancers! So far the dance is amazing and seems to incorporate aspects of many different dancing styles. It begins with a balinese style dance complete with outstretched fingers and eyes making fast extreme movements. Following this was saman dancing which I absolutely love.

Saman dance incorporates a line of dancers usually kneeling facing the audience and instead of using their feet, the dance is largely a dance of hands and arms. It is very effective. This dance is further enhanced with sticks that look like drum sticks and the clack of them hitting the tiles simultaneously is impressive. The next dance is a salsa but this is still a work in progress. So far it is amazing and without doubt the final performance will be memorable.

An Unusual Friday at SMAN2 Pangkalan Bun

Last night I stayed at Bu Kutmie’s house which I thoroughly enjoyed. She doesn’t live that far from school so it wasn’t far to get a lift when I realised that she had left without me!! Poor Bu Kutmie! She had a huge day and had totally forgotten that I was coming to stay the night.
While chatting to her this morning over a breakfast of nasi bungkus, she mentioned that as there were going to be so many teachers away today, lessons had been cancelled and instead, staff and students would ‘kerja bakti’. Indonesian schools are largely maintained and cleaned by staff and students and every so often a kerja bakti is organised. It is just like a working bee. except that it is compulsory and it is held in school time. Usually students are told in advance that it will be held so they can bring gardening tools or cleaning odds and ends. I have only read about kerja batkti so was really looking forward to seeing it in action.
When I arrived at school, all the students were at an assembly on the basketball court

and the principal was standing in the shade of a tree using a microphone to tell them about 2 major upcoming events. The one that excited the students the most will be held the day I leave. The whole school will go down to the river Arut which bisects Pangkalan Bun. Each class will be given one kelotok which they have to decorate. Sounds like it will be a great day. The event is to commemorate the birthday of Pangkalan Bun and recognises the history of Pangkalan Bun as a town which used to rely solely on river transport.
After outlining this upcoming event and also a massive sports competition that will be held next month, the students were dismissed. Nothing was said about kerja bakti! When I asked the principal afterwards why, he was puzzled and couldn’t give me an answer. I am not the only teacher here who is confused and a little disappointed that a whole day of lessons has been abandoned, Sounds like he often changes his mind with no staff consultation and is unused to being asked why he did so! The few remaining staff are all now sitting around chatting & eating and looking slightly disgruntled.
Meanwhile the students are sitting by their classrooms chatting and enjoying the unexpected bonus free time. A group of boys have organised a game of sepak takrow. This is a traditional game played throughout Indonesia by both males and females however only boys are playing it today. It looks like a fun game to introduce to my students next year. Do you agree?

How to play Sepak Takrow:
1. Teams of 3, 2 people standing close to the net and one towards the back.
2. The server (the person on the right) serves to the single person in the middle
3. When making contact with the ball, use only your head or your feet. Do not use your hands.
4. The winning team is the first team to 10.

Teaching Year 11 & 12’s @ SMA2 Pangkalan Bun

Today I have been preparing for my lesson tomorrow with the year 11 class I worked in yesterday with Bu Wahyu. As she will be away tomorrow, I was asked if I would like to teach them instead tomorrow. I am very excited about having the class to myself and wasn’t at all persuaded by all the students yelling at me, pleading me to teach them tomorrow!
Yesterday I read them the story of Tidalik, an Aboriginal legend about a thirsty frog

I modified some of the language and even still, they found it very difficult, however were still keen for me to come in and teach them again! So I have made some flashcards from the story and will play ‘postie’ with them where by students work in pairs and each gets a flashcard. They read one side to the pair who has to say the translation for it. If their partner doesn’t know the translation, they have to give clues in English! The other game I want to play with them is Chinese whispers, using phrases or sentences from the text! The end person has to write on the board what they heard! Then if there is any other time, we will retell the story together in English! They had homework too to complete their retelling, so I will collect them and give out key rings to the best ones.
I had just finished the cards when Bu Chandra approached me to remind me that I had promised to accompany her for her last 2 lessons today. She then asked me what I was planning to do!! I just love this question! My role is as an assistant teacher to support English language teachers but they see me more as a demonstrator and are so keen to see me in action. This is a hoot really because I am primary trained and my focus is so different to theirs, so instead I am drawing extensively on the tasks I did with Pak Bayu at IALF last January. Both the activities I outlined above were ones I enjoyed doing myself as a student! Thankfully I was blogging my experiences, so I can easily refer back to all we covered!
My blog link:
http://eltf.blogspot.com/?zx=d96f4b329817d309

So when I suggested to Bu Chandra, I repeat my lesson with her year 12’s today, she was thrilled and I too am happy to trial it before tomorrow when I will be by myself!

The Following Day….
My lesson yesterday with Bu Chandra was fun but I am not sure how useful it was for a class of year 12’s on a tight schedule heading like a freight train towards the end of year exams.
We began with the reading of Tidalik and it was obvious again once I started to read it, that I had lost most of them right from the start, so I encouraged them to help me translate it as we went. Other than a couple of students, most of them have a very narrow vocabulary which made me wonder just how motivated they were with learning English and therefore just how much independent study was done if any. At the end of the story, we reviewed again the storyline and discovered even though we had translated the story as iai read, there were still many who had still failed to grasp several aspects of the story. I then asked Bu Chandra to help me both explain the rules of the postie game and then to demonstrate it. The class absolutely loved this game and there was a lot of language being used which was awesome however when I went through the flashcards directly afterwards, only a few of the students seemed to have made any headway with this new vocabulary. I would like to play the game again and see if this improves with a second go. The next game I played with them was, n my opinion, a total waste of time. I asked the 2 students to get into 3 teams and then lined them up. I quickly discovered that the phrases I had written from the story were too long and anything longer than words sent them into a spin. The girls in particular where perfectionists and really struggled with every aspect of this game at times to the point where they sulked and became annoyed. They didn’t like not getting any part of the sentence wrong and instead of focusing on what they achieved, focused instead on their failures. The boys on the other hand wanted to win at any cost. They were incredibly competitive, to the point where they didn’t care that everyone could hear what they were ‘whispering’! This game seemed to reinforce in the students minds that they struggle with English, unfortunately. Not my intention at all.
So back to the drawing board for a language game/activity that doesn’t require too much preparation and yet is motivating and fun.

My First Week in Pangkalan Bun

I have been in Kalimantan for 2 weeks and of those 2 weeks, have been in Pangkalan Bun for just over a week now. We traveled to Pangkalan Bun by night bus after spending some time with Bu Arfa’s family in Palangka Raya for Lebaran and being dark, I read or slept most of the way. Considering the road is so narrow and bumpy, I was amazed at how smoothly the bus ride was. I think this was largely due to the fact that other vehicles are intimidated by bus drivers and happily surrender the road to them! We got into Pangkalan Bun at 2am where we were met by Bu Arfa’s husband who had driven here in a friends car. We didn’t join them in the car because there wasn’t enough room and we were also much more comfortable in the bus!
It has taken a while for me to adjust to being back in Pangkalan Bun as the day after we returned, school started! Then the second day found me on my way back to Palangka Raya! I had a fantastic time in Palangka Raya and thoroughly enjoyed experiencing a school debating competition and having the opportunity to meet Bu Wahyu’s warm and generous family who kindly agreed to put me up while there for the debate.
However by Friday, after 2 days of traveling and 1 day of debating, I was exhausted and took the day off to recover. It was so lovely to stop and do nothing but read and catch up with my washing and other boring jobs! I spent most of the day in the sitting room in front of a fan reading books on my kindle! Bliss!
I also packed for my weekend with Bu Wahyu and her family here in Pangkalan Bun. I went home with her after a very short school day as it was an election day for students to vote for their senior SRC committee. Once the campaigning was finished, we headed off. We first stopped for some es buah

and then dropped off to buy some rambutans which are just coming into season

and then went to the market to buy tofu and vegetables for lunch. I love visiting Indonesian markets. There was a huge fire here the night we returned to Pangkalan Bun which wiped out a large section of the market however while there are still people sifting through the coals, the market continues around the carnage.

The market here is built very close to the main river which runs through the town and the stalls closer to the river, are built on wooden planks. By the time we reached the fish section of the market which is very close to the river because that is where the fish are farmed, I noticed that the floorboards were quite a way off the ground so I had to watch my step with some of the loose and warped boards. The added benefit of the fish stalls being so high off the ground meant that all water used to wash the fish drained straight down through the boards! Surprisingly the only smell was that of the fresh fish which although didn’t smell like rotting meat, was still very strong! The fish stalls were a mixture of dried fish, filleted fish and live fish. While Bu Wahyu was waiting for her order of fish to be completed, we constantly had to jump sidewards to avoid being splashed by fish thrashing about in shallow tubs of water! The beauty of keeping them alive is that at the end of the day, they can be returned to the fish farms for another day.
With our shopping completed we headed home where I was delighted to discover that we would be having cassava leaves in coconut milk and stuffed tofu. While Bu Wahyu made the cassava leaf dish, I stuffed the tofu! I absolutely love stuffed tofu and have introduced many friends to it, so I was thrilled to be shown how to make it myself. The stuffing is made from bean sprouts, grated carrot, and finely chopped cabbage which is boiled briefly and drained firstly. A slit is made in one end of the tofu and then it is stuffed with the vegetable mixture. This was surprisingly easier done than I thought it would be.

The tofu parcels are then dipped in a batter

and then fried till golden.

yum!

That night we took Bu Wahyu’s daughter to ‘Bundaran’. It i shard to explain in a few words what it is but I will try! It is a little like a night market except the focus is more on entertainment for children than food. There are all sorts of fun things for children to do. For the really young ones, there are ponds full of plastic fish with a magnet on them and children can hire a fishing rod to go fishing. They sit there for a set amount of time filling up a bucket with all the many fish they catch! For the older children there are quad bikes to ride,

electric scooters

people powered scooters

or jazzed up peddle bikes where everyone peddles!

As you can see Bu Wahyu’s daughter had lots of fun riding on some of them!
The following day Bu Wahyu and her family took me to Pantai Kubu which is half an hour out of Pangkalan Bun. From Pantai Kubu, they chartered a klotok (boat) to take us across a huge bay to a white sandy spit. The spit is called Tanjung Keluang and is an educational and recreational park. The educational program here is about turtles and includes releasing them into the ocean. Bu Wahyu paid for both her daughter and me to release a 2 month turtle which was fun although the turtles seemed way to small to be able to survive independently!

That was the weekend! Because in Indonesia, students go to school for 6 days, the weekend is only Sunday and it goes past so quickly! There is definitely a move here in Indonesia for schools to change to a 5 day week but so far the schools that have done so seem to be mainly in the larger cities and so far here I have heard of only one school here that has done so!
School the next day though went quickly even though I was very tired after my fantastic weekend and also having to return to early mornings once again. School starts at 6:30, so the alarm is once again being set for 5am!
Being Monday morning, the school day began with the flag raising ceremony. After the ceremony which is compulsory for all staff and students to attend, the female students were all dismissed as were all teaching staff. he male students were all then lined up in rows in front of the principal, and the 2 deputies who then closely examined the length and cut of each boys haircut. If their hair was deemed to be too long or inappropriately cut, then they were singled out while the rest were dismissed and told to go to class. One by one, the group of remaining boys were called out to either the principal or one of the deputies who was holding a pair of nail scissors. They then proceeded to trim the boys hair to the desired length! This happens at the beginning of every school year so I am puzzled why there is always a large group of boys who end up having a very unprofessional hair cut. I couldn’t imagine anything worse!

I spent the first double with Bu Wahyu as she taught a class of year 10’s. This was her first time meeting this class and so we spent the lesson asking them to introduce themselves to us in English. Writing and then presenting orally this introduction took a double lesson, although to be honest, by the time the last of the boys trickled back to class, the first lesson was almost over! They did a great job and were nowhere near as shy as I thought they would be.
I next accompanied Bu Evita to her double year 11 biology lesson. The first lesson was spent introducing me and talking about Australia and then the second lesson was a lesson on cellular structure. I found it fascinating linguistically because once again much of the language used is taken almost straight from English with only the spelling adjusted to Indonesianise it! Bu Evita is a very engaging teacher and it was obvious that her students enjoy her lessons and have a close relationship with her.
Straight after this lesson, Bu Arfa and I headed home as we needed to take Bapak and her son Ari to the airport for their flight to Surabaya in Java. Ari is studying in Malang, and is about to move into a shared house, so Bapak went with him to make sure the move all went smoothly, It was funny at the airport, because for the first time it wasn’t me leaving! It must have seemed odd for the locals there to see a western person as part of the farewelling committee! We had to take the car to get them and their luggage to the airport which was okay getting to the airport, but was a hoot getting home. Their car is a very old car and without doubt if the car was in Australia, there is no way it would be allowed on the road. We both had a go at driving it and it is easily the hardest car I have ever had to drive. The gears seemed to be all together except for reverse which was nowhere to be found! The brake was good however needed pumping! I don’t know what was scarier being in the passenger seat or in the drivers seat! We made it to the salon where I got my hair cut and coloured for AUD$7! She did a brilliant job! However on our trip home, Bu Arfa stalled at the traffic lights because we had a police car behind us, and when she nervously tried to go around the corner on the green light and the car stalled and it refused to restart. Thankfully a group of young lads sitting at a warung jumped out on to the road and helped push us a little way up the road so that we weren’t in the intersection and from there Bu Arfa called the bengkel (mechanic). They finally arrived and they too couldn’t start it, so they lent us a motorbike to get home on! What an eventful trip home!
Today was a lot smoother! I accompanied another English teacher this morning. Pak Hujen firstly covered for Bu Wahyu who was sick and they had to translate an English text about the Taj Mahal into Indonesian. It was an incredibly difficult piece of writing with words like ‘mausoleum’, ‘spherical’ and ‘symmetrical’. The text was largely lifted straight from wikipedia! I read it and then we translated it together. When the bell went, Pak Hujen turned to me and asked me what was the homework I wanted them to do! I was flummoxed because I am not a big believer in homework and yet I knew I should set them something, so I just asked them to finish translating the first paragraph!
After this lesson, we then headed to his class where I helped him with his English lesson about sea lions! We read through it together and then talked about it generally. Pak Hujen then invited the class to ask me any questions about sea lions seeing as they are found in Australia! Wow, is every Australian an expert on sea lions? I just based my answers on the seals found on the beaches on the Fleurieu Peninsular and hoped I wasn’t too far off the truth! One question was whether sea lions could be eaten and the other was if they could domesticated! For the first question I explained that they are a protected species and for the second I suggested that possibly a female could but definitely not a male! Do you agree?
It was then ‘recess’ which is the first break in the school day. I joined staff and students in the library where as usual, Bu Mariana was cooking bakwan in between selling drinks and selling bakwan. I enjoyed eating my bakwan dipped in a mixture of chili sauce & kecap manis which was absolutely yummy! The staff sat at the library desk while students sat at all the library tables. It was packed with people eating and drinking! Once again, I found it so strange buying and eating food in a library! When the bell rang, the students all got up and went and paid for what ever they had eaten. With them all crowding around the desk, it was bedlam yet no one stressed and everyone seemed to be honest!
On our way home, it started to rain just as we reached the warung where we were heading for lunch. So we sat and enjoyed some of the nicest gado gado I have ever eaten while listening to the rain.

Delicious steamed veggies with ketupat and covered in peanut sauce made with real peanuts!! I asked for a chili and so it was quite spicy too which is why I think it made it even yummier than usual.
After the rain finished, we headed home. While driving along, Bu Arfa noticed that her motorbike was making some strange noises so she stopped into the bengkel (mechanics) near her house. I love bengkels because you can just drop in when ever, no need to book, and someone will immediately see to your problem.

Immediately a mechanic came over and not only gave her motorbike an oil change but also reattached her number plate! The mechanics here wear shorts and t shirts and often only have thongs on their feet!
What a great start to my time here in Pangkalan Bun! Bu Arfa keeps me busy and is always taking me to interesting places! It is so hard finding time to blog about it all, but I am having a wonderful time and hopefully I can at least share with you a fraction of it all!

Day 1 of the Debating Competition in Palangkaraya

It is heading towards 3pm as we sit in the hall waiting for the grand final to begin. The stage is set with the long table from last night split in half so that one team can sit on the right and the other on the left. In between is the lectern while the judges are positioned in front of the stage which reminds me more of a TV talent show.

Thye are going to debate the motion “that Iran should be allowed to develop nuclear energy.”
Our day began here at 7:30 which gave me a very appreciated sleep in till 6:30am! Absolute bliss! We met the team in their hotel room and then walked with them to the hall which is all part of the hotel complex. In the hall we were shown the draw for todays debating. Our first debate was against a team which turned out to be on a par with our team so that was a great way to start. The topic debated was “That the government should raise the taxes on cigarettes and tobacco”. All 8 teams debated the same topic in different locations around the hotel grounds. They were given 30 minutes to write up their speeches as a team and then in the eating hall outside. For the first debate, the SMA2 Pangkalan Bun team did very well considering how foreign it all must have seemed. Aviv even gave a point of interest interjection while the other team were talking and in doing so, gave our tam the one point by which they won! It was so exciting winning the first debate and it was such a confidence booster. Before declaring the results, the judge spoke to each competitor personally to give advice about their talk and she made some really good points. She reminded our first speaker that she needed to explain the motion in detail and then tie this to her teams first point in support of the motion. She reminded our second speaker that she needed to start with a rebuttal and it can include a point from the previous speaker from the opposition that was unclear or didn’t make sense! She also said that they should give reasons if they disagree with any points raised by the opposition. Her advice to Aviv was a reminder of the advice we had given him at school on Monday – expand, expand, expand! He had some good ideas however didn’t enlarge upon them and thus wasted the given 8 minutes that each were allowed for their talk, which would make his point stronger. Her advice for our third speaker was to remind her that she needed to give a rebuttal and by not giving a rebuttal she was in actual fact agreeing with the points that had been made by the opposition!
We were all then called to return to the hall where all teams were given some further general advice. The main adjudicator told them all that overall, he was disappointed with the overall level of debating presented by the teams participating today. He then explained further why he was disappointed; firstly participants must use the full time allotted. He said that if they use um’s & ah’s, they won’t be penalised at all. He also told them that pronunciation is not important and that they just need to focus on speaking. I think here he meant accents! His final piece of advice was definitely his most important. It was LISTEN to your opponent, because unless you do, you can not make an informed rebuttal!
Up on the screen, the ladder was displayed before the draw was announced for the second debate. Our team were very unlucky to draw their next debate with Palangkaraya. Whereas our students are representing their school and basically only had Monday to rehearse their debating skills, Palangkaraya had selection trials from which the best students were selected. The other issue turned out to be given a motion that our team had difficulty opposing. It was “that soldiers and ‘polices’ (police) should be given the right to vote in national elections.” Our team were convincingly defeated as not only did they have only one idea about why this would be a bad idea (reasons of safety), they also didn’t expand their argument nor give rebuttals! I think mainly they felt pessimistic about the debate from the very minute they discovered who their opposition would be!

Aviv speaking as 2nd speaker.
Back in the hall later, we were informed that the top 4 teams would go through to the semi finals and we missed out by 1 point in the end but to be honest, I think our team had mixed feelings about this! So when the next motion was put up on the screen, we could relax and just watch the top 4 teams huddle for 30mins to plan their attacks. Then during the debate, it gave our team an opportunity to watch and film a debate which should be a valuable resource for next years team should they participate again. Both semi final debates happened concurrently and because it was so hot and muggy, we chose to stay in the hall and watch the one being held here and enjoy the air conditioning.
The grand final debate is just about finished; the last speaker is talking. The debators were then asked to leave the room while the adjudicators make a decision about the winner.
The winner was the team from Sampit!
After announcing the winner, the MC then called out the top 7 speakers from the entire competition. The first 3 will be the team representing Kalimantan Tengah at the National Competition to be held in Jakarta later this year. Here they are lined up in order from right to left after the 3 winners of the German Writing Competition on the far right.

Those wearing the green uniform are the team members from Sampit.