My Classroom!

My Kindergarten Class!

Kalista, Princess, Jeremy, Allegra (from top to bottom and left to right)

Jeremy and Allegra playing with bocks.

Usually these two play together.

Kalista and Princess playing with the puppets. These two usually play together.

Ms. Vail and Ibu Dian ("Ibu" is the Bahasa word for "Ms.")

Ibu Dian is my full-time aid. Its hard work with my four little ones!

GROSS!

I counted 19 mosquito bites on my body in the first week of being here! They are nasty little buggers! Look at how gigantic the bites are! And they ich like crazy!

Indonesian Independence Day

Here's me and my Indonesian friends for the day. I couldn't tell you their names... and I haven't seen them since that day... mostly because the church is so big you can never find anyone again. That's why I call them my friends for the day. Notice how I wore a hat... I thought I wouldn't stick out as much with my blonde hair covered up!

Since I'm so much bigger than the Indonesians, they convinced me to play tug-a-war, because they thought I'd be so much stronger! Don't forget my big muscles everyone... now I've got proof!

I participated in this one: You have to run to the other side with a balloon inbetween you and your partner. Our balloon popped and we had to start again!

Carrying a marble in a spoon in the mouth.

Who can eat the cracker on the string with out their hands the fastest.

Sack Race: Two people jump in the sack together and race to the other side.

August 17th was the Indonesian Independence Day. The church had a huge celebration. We had a game-day. All 1500 members were divided up into teams of about thirty. Every team was a different color. We then played Traditional Indonesian games. It was so neat to participate in this cultural experience. I was on the Red ("Merah" in Bahasa) team. We had a chant they tried to teach me. It went something like this:

Yo ayo tim merah

Ku mau harus menang (maju) 3x

Maju tak gentar membela yg benar

Maju serentak

Tentu merah menang

Bergerak (2x) (tut 2x) serentak (2x) (Tut 2x)

Mulah (2x) Merah
I don't know what I was saying, but it basically said something like:

Fight Red Team
Go Red, fight Red

Whatever it said, it was fun!

View of Jakarta

At night I have a beautiful view of Jakarta. The day time picture looks over cast but in actuallity it is the pollution. It sounds gross, but if you just pretend its fog, its not so bad.

My Apartment!

My apartment is quite comfortable. I have recently purchased matching bed sheets and bed spread, so it looks much better now, then in the pictures. I have all of the necessities; a washing machine (no dryer, although they air dry within a few hours outside on my balcony) microwave, T.V, DVD player, etc. This is a good deal for free-99.

Prayer Rooms

They had prayer rooms for all three different religions in the Twain airport. What a neat cultural experience I witnessed just in the airport!

Traveling

I took Eva Airline to Twain, then to Jakarta. My travel time was 23 hours. What a long day! Thanks to Jen's sleeping pills I didn't even notice it took that long.

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye to my friends and family was the hardest part. My beautiful sister is graduating college while I am away.

School Website

This is my biography picture from my school website. The school 's website that I'm teaching at is:

http://www.njis.org/

If you want to see where I'm teaching and learn more about what I'm doing here in Jakarta check out the website. Later in the year I'll post my classroom website. I don't have one just yet, but I will soon.

School Starts!

Hello Everyone!
This is the first week of school with the kids! The days go by so much faster with the kids! I just love it! Now I remember why I am here. When I'm in the classroom I feel at home. The classroom is my comfort zone. Sometimes as I'm teaching I forget that I am thousands of miles away from everyone. That's how I know I am meant to be here.

The kids are wonderful! All of them are Kindergarten. I have three girls: Princess, Allegra, and Kalista (all Indonesian) and one boy: Jeremy (he is Thai). They all were in the Pre-K class here last year and they all speak pretty fluent English. They are sweet and well behaved kids. (Kay - they are not extremely affectionate, like the kids back at home. But they may become more later on in the year.)

They are only here from 7:30 am until 12noon. They gradually will move to full day Kindergarten by January. They have so many specialists here for the kids. They have: Swimming, Computers, Bahasa, P.E., Music, Choir, Art, and Library. They have Two forty minutes sessions of each class every six days. So that usually means I have two or three specialists a day. I barely ever see my kids! It will be better when they are full day, though.

There are high demands on us here in an International school. I have a Reading, Language Arts, Writing, Spelling, Math, Science, and Social Studies Curriculums. For you teachers... Can you imagine having 7 teacher manuals for Kindergarten! Think of how my planning books! It is extremely intense.

My classrooms has all the supplies I would ever need. Two classrooms were filled with Kindergarten Curriculum not just one. I had to go through all the old stuff and throw out what I didn't want, because they needed to use the other room for Manderin Class. I have four kids computers... one per kid (Ha!). The things we are teaching them are very similar to what the states teach. Actually the reading program we use for Kindergarten is Rigby. (Evergreen teachers... I gueses Indonesia is just one step behind you.)

I'm so grateful that I had so many wonderful teachers in my life to help me out last year at Evergreen in Kindergarten, because I'm sure that is what will get my through this year on my own in Indonesia.

The staff here is like a family. They do everything together. I guess you kind of have to in a different culture away from your own family. We all went out to dinner on Saturday to celebrate the beginning of the year. Yesterday, Teresa Cook (the principal's wife, who is also a teacher here) invited me to coffee. Then I spent the evening in her hot tub and ate dinner with her and her husband. They both are from Washington as well. They have taken such good care of me.

Its just the first week and already I am getting a cold. I have no voice and I wake up in the night coughing. Well... that's being around kids, for ya. I don't think you can get away from it no matter where you are if you are a teacher. I'm trying to rest when I can.

Next weekend they are sending me to Singapore to get my visa. So I will be taking Friday off and traveling around over the weekend. I'm looking forward to it. I hope things are going well back at home.
I miss you all.
Take Care,
Becky

Tidbits About Indonesia

Email #3
Well guys, I think the excitement of being here is wearing off already. The realization that I'm in a 3rd world country is approaching. Honestly I thought it would last quite a bit longer. I wanted to give you some insights into Jakarta.

First of all everything here takes ten times as long: airports, traffic, grocery store lines, internet, the days! It took us nearly two hours to get to church on Monday night, when on Sunday it only took 45 minutes. I rode with five other ladies in a tiny car all the way there. I was crammed in the back seat with three other Indonesian women. None of them spoke any English, so I sat there listening to them all talk in Bahasa the entire way. It was interesting to try to communicate for the first hour, but then it got old and tiresome. I'm already sick of people having to translate for me everywhere I go. It is beginning to get frustrating not speaking the language. It's hard to get things you want if you can't describe it! But the good thing about this is it is motivating to learn the language.

They have four different ways of saying hello:
Selemat Pagi = Goodmorning (they use this from 1am - 11 am)
Selemat Soray = Goodday (they use this from 11am-3pm)
Selemat = Goodeveing (they use this from 3pm-sundown)
Selemat Malam = Goodnight (it is still a greeting they use it after dark)
I always have to look at my clock before I say these! :)

Traffic is TERRIBLE! I've never seen anything like it. If there was no traffic it would take maybe 45 minutes to go from one side of the city to the other, but it usually takes 4 hours to go from one side to the other because of traffic. Everyone honks all the time its means "watch out, here I come." The cars here are so funny looking. They all have very short fronts. I think its so they can get as close to the car in front of them as possible.

It seems very dangersous to ride motorcycles here. They weave in and out of cars/vans. They ride between the lanes. Actually there are not a lot of lines to separate the lanes. Sometimes there could be room for two lanes and other times people squeeze in three lanes. I can't imagine what their traffic helicoptors can see.

You can pay the government and police to do anything. In ways this country is very currupt. If you get pulled over by a policeman you can just slip him a 200,000 Rupiah (which is 20 American dollars) and he lets you go for free. Its normal to do that here. If your visa runs out and you haven't gotten a knew one yet, you just pay the government more money and you get to stay. YOu can get out of murders, rape, anything you can think of just by paying money.

The people here are very friendly and helpful for the most part. People stare at me everywhere I go. They call us "Boulie." Which means "Whitey." Its not meant to be derogatory. They stare at me everywhere I go. Did I say that already? I mean everywhere (even church). They aren't used to seeing white people. Everyone calls me "Barbie" because I have blonde hair and light eyes. I was offended at first, but now I'm used to it. :)

YOu definitly get treated differently once they see what color you are. I can not shop anywhere that bargins, because they automatically raise the price and they do not like to go down because I'm white. I've been taking friends with me to shop if I want to bargain.

The smog in the city is starting to give me a head ache. It is filled with pollution here. Most days I can't even see the beautiful view from my apartment because of the smog.

I've only been here a little over a week and I think I've got 100 mosquito bites. School is the worst. I have too look out for the big ones in the day time because those are the ones that can give you Dangay Fever. (don't worry no malaria in the city). The good thing about being on the 18th floor of my apartment is that usually mosquitos don't fly that high.

The heat has not been too bad. It's the Australian winter, so we get nice breezes coming from them. And its been overcast a lot. But don't get me wrong its still been extremely humid, I haven't been brave enough to wear pant just yet, I stick with capris. Almost everywhere is airconditioned, my apartment, school, classroom, malls, theatres... I actually have to bring a sweater everywhere I go because it gets so cold inside.

Well there is so much more to write about but I'm sure this is getting quite long. Friday is the Indonesian Independence day so no school. But that means I have to be ready for the kids to comein on Monday! Yikes, I better get to work!

Ok Love you all!
Becky

School and the Church

Hello Everyone!
Email number 2! I did not get to finish writing what I wanted to write in my last email. I left out two major parts to talk about. So this letter should catch you completely up to date.

So I start teaching next Monday. Last week we had new teacher orientation. They showed us around the school and Jakarta. This week we have all-staff orientaion. We have long meetings in the morning and the afternoon is set aside for us to work on our classrooms. I have four students in my class, all of them Kindergarten. They all were at the school last year in Pre-Kindergarten. Can you believe it, four kids and they all went to Preschool! Wow! Three of my students are Indonesian and one is Thai. The school I am at is a private international school and is very expensive for the students to come here. All of our students are children that are from a higher social class. The students that come here are usually children of business people whose companies pay for the kids schooling. And aparently most companies do not pay for Kindergarten, that is why my class is so small. These kids usually have a driver and a maid for each kid in the household. Most Indonesian kids are very spoiled. Some are spoon-fed until the age of ten. Some kids do not go to the bathroom on their own or dress themselves on their own, mostly because their maids raise them and do everything for them. Some maids even do the kids homework. So my job as a kindergarten teacher is to teach them more independence. But I'm lucky because these kids were all here last year. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you, I have a full time aid in my classroom as well. She is great. She is Indonesian and is learning English. She basically does anything I ask her too. She has been in my room everyday since last week setting up my classroom for me. I have so many things to work with here. They have every toy you could possibly think of and all the curriculum tools I'd ever need. I've been sorting through everything and getting rid of stuff, because there was just so much. Ibu Dian (that's my aid, Ibu is a title, just like Ms.) she follows me around waiting for me to tell her what to do. Its so different for me. Its sometimes hard to think of things for her to do. I'm used to preparing my own classroom and everything for 22 kids on my own. I have it good, what can I say. This kind of treatment and I might not want to come back and teach in the states! Just Kidding!

I got hooked up with the church here in Indonesia last week. A disciple actually works at my school with me! I"m so excited! She's from the states as well, and is married to an Indonesian-Chinese (Kelly is her name). Her husband works for the church and is actually one of the disciples I've been emailing back and forth when I was in the states trying to get connected. Small world! So she's lived here for 8 years and knows Bahasa. She is such a great resource and I'm sure going to be a great friend. She is a great person to talk to because she understands a little about how I'm feeling since she moved here on her own as a disciple as well. She took me out on Saturday shopping at the local stores and bargined with the locals for good prices for me. Then her and her family (she has two young kids) took me to REAL chinese food for dinner (not American chinese food). I spent the night at her house on Saturday and got to know them very well. They took me to church in the morning. Service was so neat! It was all in Bahasa. Kelly translated for me. She's going to every sunday. Some songs they sing are Kingdom songs and so I can sing a long in English, but others are more contemporary songs in Bahasa. But they have a big screen that the words are on, for me to read. They own their own building, its actually an office building. But its very nice on the inside. They just bought it this year. Kelly introduced me to Vania and Harlem (the evengleists of Jakarta church). They are very nice and invited me to spend the night in two weekends. I'm excited to get to know them. I also met some of the singles. There are so many! A lot of them speak English as well. This is very good for me. There is one single who just moved to teach here one month ago from Orange County. She seemed really glad to meet me, because I can relate to her. I connected with her right off the bat, I think we will become good friends. I also met a girl named Angelica from the Boston church who is good friends with the Mitchells in Seattle (John and Tracey). Again... What a small world! I feel so much better now having met the disciples.

Well I miss all of you so much! I am so glad to hear from those who emailed me. I love to know what is going on back at home! Well, I really should get back to my classroom... there's so much stuff to sort through!
I love you all and miss you tons!
Please keep me posted.
Becky

I'm here!

Wow! I finally figured out how to change the website from Bahasa to English! I can finally update the blog! I"m sorry it has taken so long. One thing I'm learning about 3rd World Countries (which apparently I'm told that we no longer use 3rd or 2nd anymore, its now developed or not developed, I think that is worse) is that everything takes ten times as long as I'm used too!

So to catch you up to date:

This is the first email I sent out:

I certainly understand now that I am in a 3rd world country! The internet here is extremely slow and I'm having a hard time figuring out my blog because I can't read anything because it is all in Indonesian! Ha! Why didn't I think of that?! So it looks like email will be the way for me to communicate for a while until I figure things out. And mass-emails to everyone will probably be the easiest, at least until I get email at my apartment. I can not email during school hours so any emails written have to be after school hours between 3 and 6pm. So it limits my free time on the computer. I have been going going going since I've been here. Sunday when I got in I waited 3 hours at the airport to get through customs, get my baggage and apply for my visa! The lines were terrrible. The airport is gigantic! The principal (headmaster) of my school was picking me up and had to wait outside of customs for me. I was so worried he was going to give up waiting for me and leave me at the airport. But he was there waiting for three hours for me. He took me and the other new teachers out to dinner at a fabulous chinese food restaurant right from the airport. I got home and tried to settle in to my apartment as best as possible. My apartment is so much more then what I expected! I am in a 24 story building, on the 18th floor. I have a beautiful view from my two balconies of downtown Jakarta! It is gorgeous at night, in the day its very grey. My apartment is very modern, fully furnished and even has a washing machine! The school has hooked me up with a maid that comes to do my cleaning and laundry twice a week! They fix everything that needs to be fixed and build anything else I want for my place.There are some negatives about it, though. My co-worker, who lives below me, found big cockroaches, and the biggest rat I've ever seen ran through my kitchen and living room! It was quite entertaining watching two grown men run around chasing this rat with a broom! I was grateful they were there when it decided to pop out! Also my co-worker below me experienced a flood with her washing machine already, so it shows you how reliable these Indonesian appliances are. If you haven't heard, Jakarta had a huge earthquake (7.5) hit this last week. I woke up at midnight to my building swaying back and forth. I jumped under my vanity in my room (a lot of good that is going to do me on the 18th floor) and watched out my window as my building rocked back and forth for over a minute! I was fine, my building was fine. Everyone in Jakarta was fine. OH I have so much more to write about, but my ride it here to pick me up,so I'll have to write more later. Love you all miss you all. Ihave much to write about the church.

Love you all,
Becky

Leaving Tacoma

Well Guys,

I am setting up my blog. I haven't left yet. I am still in Tacoma. I leave in 8 hours. I have mixed emotions, but everything has not sank in.

I want to thank all of you for coming to my goodbye party last night. I was so deeply encouraged and so grateful for all the love and support that I received. I appreciate your thoughts and prayers. You all will be in my prayers and I will be keeping in touch consistently.

I want you all to know I will not be updating my blog for a while, because I will not have a computer right when I get to Jakarta. I am purchasing a laptop when I get there, through the school. But I will make sure to be consistent in my entries.

I love you all and will miss you greatly!

Your deeply humbled friend,
Becky