Adventures in Kalimantan

Kalimantan had its ups and downs. Downs included that I didn't have many people to speak to in English (my conversational Bahasa Indonesia is still very limited), and traveling with another family made me miss my family. However, ups included getting to see a new part of Indonesia, trying new food, some beautiful scenery, and getting to know a new family and their traditions.

I flew into Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan, but we stayed in Singkawang, a three hour drive north. Here are the coordinates for the gate at the Pontianak airport. This is the best proof I have that I crossed the equator. Turns out there's no sign or celebration to usher you from one hemisphere to the next.


The first morning I was there, we woke up before dawn to go to the Chinese cemetery--the English title on the sign was "Hereafter Park"--to have a ceremony to honor the family's deceased ancestors. The family is Chinese with practicing Buddhists and Catholics, but honoring ancestors unites the faiths. This is the gravesite. You can't see it, but behind the stone is a large mound of earth. Hundreds of these mounds in various sizes covered the hillside. As the sun came up, I watched them light sticks of incense, set out food and drinks, and burn a mound of fake money and paper clothing (the belief is that the items will become real when burned).

Later that day we went swimming and picnicked by this lovely little mountain stream.

The next day, we went to a zoo owned by a family cousin. I saw some of the biggest snakes of my life, and now I will never forget the Indonesian word for snake: "ular." We also saw lizards, monkeys, orangutans, lions, tigers, bears, (Oh my! I'm sorry. I had to.) and a monster crocodile. As a sidenote, I've visited two zoos in Indonesia now, but both of them have gotten me curious as to how well the animals are cared for and how committed the owners are to promoting education and conservation. When the orangutans know to stick their hairy red arms out of the cage to get the bananas that you've brought to feed them, it makes you wonder.

The animals were fun to see, but even better was going up to the top of the hill where we had beautiful views of the city of Singkawang and the ocean.

I should have gotten some pictures of Singkawang close up because it's an interesting city with a strong Chinese flavor. Apparently the Chinese New Year celebrations there attract people from around the world. Even my limited Bahasa Indonesia wasn't always useful because many of family members spoke mostly in a dialect of Chinese.

Tuesday, we drove a long way to visit this beautiful waterfall.

What I didn't photograph was the massive construction site just above the waterfall where they were doing something for flood protection. On our way out, they set off a dynamite charge that made us all jump. Cool!

Even though the drive was long, it was interesting to see the countryside homes and fields. I know this video is fast, bumpy, and pixelly, but you can see some of the houses and even a school with kids playing outside.

If you can't tell yet, I think that Kalimantan is beautful. And the people I met were as beautiful as the scenery. One aunt who couldn't speak any English or much Bahasa Indonesia either knew I liked their sweet tangerines and made sure I was kept in good supply. I stayed at the home of another aunt and her family, and they made me feel at home with good food and brave attempts at communication. They even turned the TV to movies in English so that I could watch with them. The Indonesian taste in drama veers to the supernatural, so the movies on TV were strange B-level suspense flicks, like Mammoth and Inhabited, which you've probably never heard of and which I wouldn't recommend. Actually, the best thing I saw on TV was an Indonesian Obama impersonator who lifted his arms and yelled something about change.

And finally...

Yes, people actually wear these hats.

Upcoming plans

Spring break is next week. Well, I call it spring break because it's in March, but since Midwestern seasons don't really count here, I think it's more accurately "midterm break." Regardless, in the long tradition of spring breaks, I'm taking a trip to a tropical location for some fun and relaxation. In the road less traveled of spring breaks, I'm going with a student's family. We're headed to Kalimantan, also known as Borneo. Here's the (very short) list of what I know about Kalimantan:

1. It's Indonesia's largest island (3rd largest in the world, apparently), and Indonesia shares it with Malaysia and Brunei.
2. It was part of the Pacific arena of World War II, and I'm proud to have a little family history in that realm.
3. Kalimantan's rainforests are being destroyed rather quickly (along with the homes of the people who live there) to make room for palm oil plantations. You can thank Unilever.
4. I'm excited to go, so I have a load of clothes in the laundry tonight, I've called a taxi to take me to the airport, and my camera battery is charging. Expect a picture post soon!

And that means that I have a lot to get done tomorrow to be ready to leave. I collected a video project on Monday, study guides on Tuesday, and I already had a traffic jam of work to assess on my desk. Fortunately, this week has been much more relaxed because of a computer competition at our school, so I've had some time to get caught up on grading and planning.

And finally:
Correct answer on Animal Farm quiz:
No animal may sleep in a bed with sheets.
Favorite student answer on Animal Farm quiz:
No animal may sleep in a bed with sheep.

Two and Half Battles and a Steamroller

A battle I am winning:
A few months ago, I decided to do something about the fact that my accumulation of plastic grocery bags vastly outstrips my consumption of them as trash bags. So now at the grocery story, I confuse the people at the cashier by whipping out an enormous wad of plastic bags from my purse. I'm not sure that they have ever seen anyone bring her own bags. They security guards certainly haven't; I once had problem (the substance of which I never understood) at the entrance to the grocery store when I had the bags in my cart. A security guard explained the problem to me in Indonesian, and I explained in English that the bags were empty and that I wanted to use them for my groceries. We eventually came to an uneasy understanding. And finally, I've started to make a dent in the plastic mountain under my sink. Small victories.

A battle I am losing:
Ants. There seem to be three main colonies in my apartment. One raids my kitchen trash can. One invades my kitchen from behind the sink. The third inexplicably scavenges in my bathroom. I prefer to use behavior modification techniques to control them, as in "If you crawl on my counter, you will die, so tell your friends." I even had a dream of perfect ant behavior in which I squished five or six, and hundreds of them turned around and went back where they came from. (Erica described it as a strange mix of teacher and exterminator.) However, I'm starting to think that chemical warfare is the next step.

Steamroller:
It's no secret that the expatriate teachers at IPEKA are much more vocal complainers that our Indonesian counterparts. And sometimes I feel like I steamroll over Asian personalities when I say how I'm feeling, what I think, or what I need. I didn't consider myself an especially outspoken person before I came here, but in comparison to Indonesian gentle politeness, sometimes I feel like an inconsiderate buffoon. The worst is when I can tell that my students are not being direct with me out of some kind of respectful non-disclosure. I can't help them if they won't tell me how they're struggling. I have yet to figure out how to let them save face when they're feeling uncomfortable, but I've realized that that is one of the kindest things I can do for them.

Half a battle won today:
My apartment is much tidier than it was this morning, and I made a delicious chicken curry for supper.

Domestic Felicity

For most of the month of January, I watched the pile of dirty clothing in my bedroom grow as my motivation to wash it proportionally shrank. My laundry experiences in Jakarta had been fairly unpleasant until then.

Some of it, like my school uniform, went through the laundry service at my apartment complex. The clothes I send there come back clean and pressed with a "Laundry Order Form" attached, which has 37 subdivisions on it. I had no idea laundry could be so complex, but there are different categories for "Skirt," "Long Skirt," "Blouse," and "Skirt and Blouse." "Shirt," "Polo T-Shirt," "Sweater," and "Undershirt" are also subdivided. My favorites are "Scraf" (sic), and "Small Doll," "Medium Doll," and "Big Doll, which is the most expensive item on the list at at about $1.75.


However, the bulk of it went through this little red bucket, washed by hand and hung to dry on the clothesline in my utility room. If I were to rank the laundry experiences of my life, handwashing my clothes in a bucket in Jakarta is dead last, below even the summer I worked in a camp in Wisconsin and had to beg a ride into town six miles away to spend an afternoon at the coin laundromat.

So after being spoiled by the washing machine at home over Christmas and dreading more bucket time, I went to the apartment office to see if they had a washing machine I could rent. They did, and two hours later, I had a load of clothes going. I felt like a 1950s housewife marveling at the miracle of mechanized housework. The sheen hasn't worn off yet, so now I'm enjoying washing clothes more than I ever have before.

Thank you, little washing machine, you have shot to the top of my list of favorite appliances. Sorry, red bucket.