Thoughts on Ramadan and other recent news

So I promised that this post would be about Ramadan (which started October 2 and ends today, I think), but as I’ve been thinking about it, the fact that it’s Ramadan isn’t that apparent, at least not to my untrained eye. There are a few things that stick out. People get up early to eat so I sometimes heard an air rifle being shot off at about 5:15am and I saw a few fireworks at night as the fast was being broken. Right now, some one’s setting off a lot of fireworks in the neighborhood, and they’re getting just high enough that I can see them bursting over the rooftops out my living room window. When I was tutoring late at my private student’s house, I would have to wait a few minutes until the family’s driver had broken the fast so that he could take me home.

I have been learning more about Ramadan, though. I’ve learned that it’s a time of purification, generosity, and forgiveness for Muslims. At the end of Ramadan, Muslims celebrate Idul Filtri (known as Lebaran in Indonesia). Giving money is an important part of the celebrating. The wealthy give to the poor. Employers (though not mine) give to their employees. Parents give to their children. What’s interesting to me is the culture conflict that happens in that arena. Many of us gladly contributed to funds for the security guards at my apartment and for the cleaning and security staff at school, but I overheard an Australian coworker complaining about how his paper boy came begging for a Lebaran donation. Walking the line between generosity and handouts is difficult here.

In some ways, the Indonesian celebration of Lebaran resembles the Christmas season in the United States with the emphasis on generosity and family (and increased consumer spending). There’s a mass exodus out of Jakarta for Lebaran as people go home to their towns and villages to celebrate with family. Even though IPEKA is a Christian school, we get a week and a half off for Lebaran, so I’m enjoying easy transit around the city and sleeping past five o’clock until....

My parents and my roommate Megan get here on Sunday! I’m beyond excited. We’re going to Yogyakarta for a couple of days and then they’ll spend a week with me in Jakarta. I’ve been delightfully busy with figuring out details like groceries and linens and who’ll sleep where. Which means that I haven’t been doing as much grading as I should be. I got slammed with 11^th grade papers and then 10^th grade tests and then 11^th grade finals, and I’m still not done. The hard part about giving out an assignment is that I know I’ll have to grade more than a hundred of them. But with my family coming, I’m really motivated to get it all done.

In other teaching news, I’ve been easing into eighth grade, where we’ve started a unit on war. My first class with them kind of devolved into shouting matches of their opinions on war, which was fun, even though it was a little chaotic. They’re definitely different from my 10^th and 11^th grade students, and they have lots of energy. Here’s one thing that’s been cracking me up. One of the problems that we have as English teachers at IPEKA is that students don’t always speak English in class. IPEKA is supposed to be a 100% English school, but it certainly doesn’t work out that way. So, we English teachers try to discourage Bahasa Indonesia in our classes as much as we can. About a month ago, I was thinking about how my high school French teacher made us sing a song in class if we made a certain verb mistake in past tense. Inspired by Mrs. Lattimer, I wrote the following lyrics for Indonesian-speaking infractions.

(Sung to the tune of Alouette)
This is English class where we speak English,
We speak English no matter what the task:
In our groups and to our friendsies
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Wednesdays
Fridays, too, yes that’s true. Ohhh.
This is English class where we speak English,
We speak English no matter what the task.

Since it was a little late to start it with my 10^th or 11^th graders, I decided that my ditty would have to wait until January, but then eighth grade fell into my lap, and I thought I’d see how it worked. Well, I taught it to them on my first day with them (Monday), and when I saw them again on Friday, I heard little choruses of “This is English class” erupting as I walked down the halls. It made me laugh. I hope it works.

I did something really exciting today, but I want to tell the story with the pictures I took.