7 Days and Counting.
on Rachel Gates (Indonesia), 17/Jul/2010 04:11, 34 days ago
Well in 7 days I fly out to Flores. The reason I have come halfway across the world for 2 years. I am going to be meeting Sister Christine, my manager, and Anouk another volunteer working in Retung with the same school 1 day a week. Thank goodness I am feeling much better than last week.This week we have had more language school. Unfortunately our normal language teacher was replaced. It has made me really appreciate how hard it is for people to teach English. Our normal teacher is really interested in everything, so when we ask questions in our lessons about certain things Indonesian he thinks why we would ask a question and answers things as well as he can. He also has a good level of confidence in his language skills and is able to verbally communicate almost fluently in Indonesian. Unfortunately his replacement does not have this same level of confidence, but also does not understand why we think in certain ways. E.G. In Indonesian you do not take a photo, you photograph.However this was a beneficial experience as I think it was possibly a introduction of what things may be like, such as people not listening, or not comprehending what you are saying. Culturally having very different experiences about how people learn information, but also how daunting it is when you cannot understand anything going on around you.This all culminated in a school trip that we went on Friday. Which turned out being a tour of souvenir shops which sell their goods in American dollars. The people facilitating the trip just did not understand that our budget at the moment equates to 3.50 pound a day. Quite interesting not having much money, but being judged because of the colour of my skin!This week we have had one volunteer fall off her push bike after being hit by a car. It was Alanna, same person who got bite by the dog. She's not having much luck at the moment.The good news is that Lau and Danny, two of the Phillippino volunteers who are going to be moving to Bajawa together, which is only four hours from Retung have got a three bedroom house! Which means somewhere for me to sleep when I visit.The wedding I am going to tomorrow is in the local banya (community) we have been invited as it is either the nephew or cousin of someone who works in the VSO office. Don't really know how he feels about 8 foreigners gate crashing his wedding. The wedding goes on over a period of days, and I do not know which bit we are at on Sunday. On Thursday the bride was carried to the future husbands house to talk with him about there future together. In the UK we have horse and carriage, or a car for such events. In Indonesia about 12 men carry bamboo rods in the shape of a square and carry the bridge and groom on top of this. Everyone must be quite strong in that process.Looking forward to tomorrow, so next week I shall try and get more photos on the website.See ya