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