How to: Make gado gado - a photo tutorial

So I finally talked to my favorite gado gado ladies about a gado gado lesson. A lesson is a bit of a stretch, because all it really requires is combining ingredients, but they were excited about me taking pictures so I could share the tasty dish with everyone back in America.

Ingredients:
-Ginger
-Garlic
-Peppers
-Salt
-Peanuts
-Sugar
-Steamed/Lightly Cooked Vegetables (green beans, cabbage, bean sprouts, leafy greens)
-Fresh Vegetables (cucumber, tomatoes)
-Lontong (compressed rice cake)
-Tofu

First, gather ginger, garlic, peppers, and salt. These ingredients are based on personal taste preferences.

Combine them in your giant stone mortar and pestle, and grind away.

Add peanuts to your grinder until you have about 3/4 of a cup.

Break off a chunk of sugar.

Add the sugar and ground peanuts, plus a little water, to the mortar and pestle. Grind it all up together.

Add veggies, woohoo!

Then tofu, and lontong.

Play with a cute baby.

Then mix it all up! And top it off with some krepuk.

Bon appetit!

February: A Picture A Day

My goal for the month of February was to take a picture a day. Here are the results (a few months later) with captions that shed some light on my day to day life plus some time with my parents.

February 1: This is one of the goats tied to the side of the road that I get to see.

February 2: The orange angkot that I ride to the mall/grocery store/gym.

February 3: The famous fruit of Indonesia, Durian!

February 4: Nail polish party with some of the neighborhood girls.

February 5: The banana stand down the road.

February 6: My first crustacean.

February 7: This lesson lead to many compliments (fav teacher) and giggles (dream boy/girl).

February 8: My favorite food here, tempe sambal!

February 9: Creme baths with the ladies.

February 10: One of the many, many kittens in the house.

February 11: Fishin' in Palembang with my parents.

February 12: All the shoes lined up outside class.

February 13: Pre-Valentine's Day love.

February 14: A night on the river, checking out the pagoda.

February 15: My princess bed in the jungle of North Sumatra.

February 16: Orangutan sighting!

February 17: Trekking through the jungle.

February 18: The friends I made at the pool. They were tickled by everything I said.

February 19: The cool dock in Manado.

February 20: Snorkeling in Bunaken.

February 21: A walk around Wori.

February 22: Back home after an awesome trip with my parents.

February 23: Staying safe in the sun!

February 24: Basketball practice! Followed by dinner out with the team.

February 25: Lots of letters and love! All of this was waiting for me when I got back from my trip, it was amazing.

February 26: The best fruit juice stand in town! At least 25 different types of juice, and I've learned what all of the fruits are!

February 27: My favorite gado gado stand.

February 28: Photo opp with some students on batik Thursday.

A long trip to the post office.

On Monday I took a trip to the post office after school. I had a few things I wanted to send out, and enough time to make it downtown and back before the sun went down. I traveled by angkot from Lemabang (where I live) to Ampera, and there was a family from my neighborhood on my angkot, so I chitchatted with the mother and had a nice little talk. When traffic came to a stop, I decided to walk the remaining stretch. I got out at Pasar 16, a giant market with food, clothes, everything you can imagine for sale, and responded to all of the friendly "hey mister! how are you!" remarks I received. On my ten minute detour, I realized that I had a whole afternoon at my disposal, and I was already downtown, so I might as well make the most of it. My trip to the post office was quick and painless, and from there my adventure began.

I walked across the street to a big monument that I have driven buy plenty of times, but never stopped at. I went inside the gaited area to take a few pictures, and checked that off my Palembang to-do list. From the monument I could see the Ampera bridge, and I noticed people were walking across the bridge. I had never thought about people crossing the bridge by foot before, and the idea sounded delightful, so I crossed the necessary traffic to get to the bridge.

For being the only real bridge that connects North and South Palembang, I'm always surprised at how quick traffic moves across it. Once I hit the mid-point of the bridge, I came across some fruit vendors who were passing out fruit. I was initially very skeptical, but I noticed how all of the Indonesians were gladly taking it, and figured it would be ok. I accepted their slice of watermelon and asked them why they were passing out the fruit. They said they were done for the day and wanted to go home, and they were giving out what they didn't sell. We chatted a little about Palembang, then they were on their way. I enjoyed my watermelon and my view of the city, then tossed my rind into the river like everybody else. I had no intention of staying on the other side of the river for very long, because there really isn't much to offer. I knew that the average income was much lower, and because I didn't know much else I figured I'd do a quick loop to the other side of the bridge.

Once I got back to the North side, I continued on my trip. I went around the rest of traffic circle, and on to the giant mosque. I didn't want to go in the building and risk offending anyone, so I just snapped some pictures of the outside. I worked my way around to the front and got a nice picture of the giant fountain which is in the middle of the traffic circle I had been working my way around. I was just thinking how thirsty I was when I saw two men selling drinks on the corner, how perfect! I bought some water, chatted for a bit, then decided to head home. And luckily, the angkot I needed was routed right by the street I was on!

Once I got back to Lemabang, I had a delightful walk back to my house. I passed a fruit stand that I sometimes shop at and stopped to say hello. There was a new brown fruit that I'd never seen before, and when I asked about it, the guy handed one to me, along with a massive knife to peel it with. I took a seat while I talked to the guys and tried out my new fruit. We talked about my school and Palembang, and different fruits in America and Indonesia, then we started talking about my marital status. One of the guys insisted on driving me home, along with something else, but I had no idea what the other word meant, so I thought it best not to take him up on the ride. I thanked them for the fruit sample and was on my way. There was another fruit stand another few meters down the street with another new fruit, and when I asked the lady what it was, I got a free sample of that too! Neither fruit was worth buying... But I certainly appreciated the generosity of the vendors.

My last stop was the gado gado stand. I have become friends with three lovely ladies that make some pretty good gado gado, and I hadn't seen them in over a week, so it was time to say hello. When I got there, the women commented on how it had been so long since they'd seen me and how they missed me. They are very sweet. One of the things that is left on my Palembang to do list is make gado gado with these ladies. We chatted about my approaching departure, and made plans for a gado gado lesson. They were tickled by the idea and said I had to make sure to bring my camera for plenty of pictures.

Finally I was back in my neighborhood, high off of all the lovely interactions throughout the day, when I saw the neighbor I had met on the angkot earlier that afternoon! She pointed to the sky and referenced the rain we were about to have, and invited me to take shelter in her house. I thanked her but passed. Then I was greeted by the swarm of neighborhood kids, and prepped myself for a million high fives. I've recently started doing very high fives, where the kids have to jump to hit my hand, and they get a kick out of it. After my final high five I felt the first raindrop, and stepped in my house just in time.

It was quite the day with many wonderful interactions. The coolest part was that they were all in Indonesian! I've come a long ways since August.

I apologize for the lack of blogging these past few months! I plan on back tracking and catching up within the next week or so.

I love you Palembang!

So this title is a reference to this show that aired three episodes on MTV a few years aga, called Suga. It was a show about young people in East Africa, and suppose to promote AIDS awareness. There is a scene at the end of the third episode where the main character is in a car after a night out, driving through the city, and she sticks her head out of the window and yells "I love you Nairobi!" It was a sort of on going joke for our abroad trip, wherever we were we would lean out and yell, "I love you Olasiti/Mombasa/Zanzibar!" And now whenever I'm really happy I think back to that phrase and want to yell out "I love you _____!" Wherever I am in the world. So today, my declaration of love goes out to Palembang.

When I got to school I saw some teachers huddled over a computer and a schedule. Things were shifting around because it was the beginning of a new term, and with our new school classes were shifting around a bit. I was a little nervous about this, because even though I wasn't in love with my current situation, and had recently come to terms with it and found a way to be happy with it for the remaining three months. But then something wild happened. The schedule Gods were smiling down on me today, because my new schedule is awesome! I get to sleep in a little more each day, and my days are a little more condensed (so I don't have 4 hour gaps between classes). Also, I have completely new classes, except my two favorite classes from the previous schedule! I am working with two new teachers who are super great, and don't have a single class with the teacher I dreaded being with. I feel like everything up to today was a test, and I passed it! So now I am rewarded with a better schedule. I still have just as many hours, but rather than 6 hours with the same teacher all day, but there is more varition within co-teachers. I don't have any one teacher more than once in a day, and most I have a day between classes with, so we can prep on our days off. I am thrilled!

When I went into one of my new classes today, I was pleased to see so many familiar faces without having taught them before. It was a nice reinforcement that I have been doing a good job mingling with students I don't have classes with. One of my new classes is made of students from a few classes that I was teaching before, and my heart sank a bit when I saw them all together. They managed to combine all of the worst behaved kids in my rowdiest classes in one place. But I was going at it with a new teacher, and this teacher found a way to include some discipline, and things went great! There are certainly some really nice sweet well behaved students too, but a good number of rambunctious 15 year old boys fill up the back of the class.

My new class schedule changes a few things in my weekly schedule, but nothing major. One thing I have been doing after school a few times a week is a sort of English club/class with the neighborhood kids. I usually do this on Tuesdays, but it now works out better to shift Tuesday's "class" to Monday. I passed the word on to those I could find, but ended up with a small group of girl (which was actually a very nice change of pace). It started out picking starfruit from a tree in the yard, with the girls pointing to ripe fruit and me jumping up to grab them and splashing in the mud. After we were ready with our snacks, we went through a few phrases, and pointed at different objects, then started drawing pictures and labeling things (roof, clouds, leaves, grass). Next we started talking about a few body parts, and I ended up teaching them head shoulders knees and toes. They were all so sweet (and the group was so manageable!) Then one of the girls asked about my fingernail polish. I asked them if they wanted it, and they all eagerly nodded their heads. Upon returning, I painted 50 little nails a nice shade of pink, and that about concluded out lesson. With the exception of the mandatory photo shoot!

Then this evening my ibu asked me if I wanted to join her to jalan-jalan, or go around, and included talk of badminton and durian. And by habit, I agreed. To have enjoyable experiences, you have to open yourself up to experiences, so I have been agreeing to pretty much any invitation that comes my way. This has gotten me out and about, exploring new parts of town and doing things I usually wouldn't with people I might not have otherwise met, and so far so good! Last week I went to DBL, D-something Basketball League, a high school basketball competition, to cheer on the SMA5 team. I was so glad I did because I was the only teacher that was there, and I could tell it meant a lot to the students. And I got to see the students in normal clothes! I also went to a party celebrating the first haircut of a child in the neighborhood. It wasn't exactly thrilling, but it was fun to be more involved in the community. It looks like the rain might prevent us from going out tonight, but who knows what adventures tomorrow will bring!

A lovely walk home.

This Sunday a number of students from SMA5 participated in a speech competition. There were a number of different competitions happening- story telling, spoof, speech, debate, environmental, medical, the last two were presentations in Indonesian, but the rest were all in English. The competition started about 2 hours late, and ended (for me) with a sort of talent show put on by the host school. The other teachers from my school had mysteriously vanished, and the students were all either engaged in the show or wandering around the school. I am happy to to go to events and support my school, and watching my students perform is simply delightful. But long, drawn out speeches in Indonesian from assistant headmasters, or unrehearsed fashion shows by unknown students are not the type of thing I fancy on a Sunday afternoon.

I was upset about being deserted by the other teacher without so much as an SMS, especially because they had left without providing details on transportation for myself and the students back to school. After a few unanswered calls, I decided to take a page from their book and head home . I have a rough idea of Palembang's lay out at this point, and knew different landmarks and angkot routes (plus I had plenty of daylight and money for a cab ride in case I got turned around) so I set out. I was going to hop on an angkot, but I had been sitting all day, and I realized I knew how to get home from where I was, so I started walking.

It was quite warm 2 degrees south of the equator at 2pm, but I am quite used to sweating at this point, so I didn't mind. After about 15 minutes I was in a much better mood, and thoroughly enjoyed my entire walk. I witness a minor traffic accident involving a delivery motorbike spilling food all over, which was too bad, but no real trouble. I stopped in at a cemetery, which is something I had been wanting to do since I arrived. They are packed pull of colorful headstone/planters and so much vegetation (see below)! I also got to peak over fences that I normally zoom by, and noticed all sorts of pretty places hidden back there.

Another thing I've wanted to do for awhile is try rambutan. It is a fruit, which name comes from the word rambut, or "hair". And if you take a look below, you'll see why. As far as I understood, they were similar to lychees, but looked way cool. I stopped at my usually fruit stand, but they were all out. They spent a few minutes trying to get me to buy durian, but I politely declined. They did give me a few samples and it was the best durian I had tried yet! Sweet, not too fragrant, I might actually buy some next time. (Durian comes from the word duri, meaning "spike/spikey").

Luckily fresh fruit and fruit stands are abundant here, so a few meters down the I found a stall stocked with rambutan. I bought 2 kilos of this neat looking fruit from a nice old lady and participated in some chit chat. She asked where I was going (a common question), and I told her I lived near SMA 5. This stall was maybe a ten minute walk from my house, but she was saying it was so so far, and she wanted to help me get an ojek or bachek. I told her no thank you, I want to walk, I like to walk, I need to walk, but to no avail. After at least 5 minutes of trying to explain how I really wanted to walk home, I gave in and let her son take me and my rambutan home. I was ready to tell her that I had just walked 3 miles from SMA18, but I was afraid she might think I was positively insane. So I accepted her kindness and enjoyed my delicious new fruit.

To see relevant photos (plus photos of my students!) check this out:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151273735519217.455528.713004216&type=1&l=6a9913c1e4

My second wind.

This week is off to a great start. Things have been going well, and improving left and right. I feel like I am finally settling in and enjoying more areas of my life here. I've been fortunate to have things that make me happy here, but it's nice when you don't have to escape to happy places, and can enjoy the whole experience. I was beginning to accept that I would be less happy here than I am back home, but things have been looking up, and I'm feeling hopefully about my happiness here in Palembang.

I have a had a successful few days of class, after 5 or 6 months of no consistent teaching pattern or schedule, leaving me overwhelmed, stressed, frustrated, and or bored, depending on the day. So two successful days is great! The idea of the program is to co-teacher, which I have experienced in a few forms, varying from sitting in the back of class silently, being put on the spot to provide a lesson on past/present continuous tenses, or even sometimes working with teachers to create activities that supplement their lessons. This week my counterpart (the teacher I struggle with the most) and I co-taught our classes. It was beautiful! Exactly how it should go! I worked through a packet with students, getting volunteers to read or write examples, and if students got stuck, she would step in with Indonesian and explain things. I would coax the shy students up to the board, work them through sentences if they needed the help, and they always went back to their seats with a big smile and a sense of accomplishment. And it happened class after class! I told her I really enjoyed how class was going, and I hope we keep working together like that.

There is a big basketball tournament coming up, and DBL, the hosting organization is going around to high schools and putting on promotional events. We had one on Monday that took two hours out of the school day. I participated in a shooting competition where my one basket won me a free t-shirt and a photo in the Sumatera Ekspres. Though I'm pretty sure it was my skin color that actaully got me in the paper. Fun either way! The competition is in  aweek or so and I'm looking forward to supporting SMA 5's team, and their dance team that performs during half time!

After basketball was a presentation on AFS and YES, two high school study abroad programs that send students from Indonesia to the US. There is a student from my school who was in South Dakota last year, and a student from SMA 17 who was in Georgia. They gave a great presentation to a room full of curious students who all wanted to see the world. It was really inspiring to see all these young people who wanted to go abroad. Afterward I talked with the two past participants about their experience abroad, what they miss, what it feels like to be back, and what they want to do now. They were both struggling with their newfound perspectives, and finding ways to solve the issues surrounding them. We also talked about Christmas and tacos, two things that they wish they could experience again.

After school I chatted with neighbors, held babies, high-fived kids, it was awesome! Then I went home and did laundry. I have a new system where I do my own laundry instead of paying someone else, and that is nice. It gives me a little more control over my routine, and it just gives me something to do. I also started making flash cards, it's about time I learn the language a little better...

The next day I had my after school English class with the neighborhood crowd. I applied for a grant from AMINEF for basic materials- portable white board, notebooks, markers, and as a prize, English books! The kids are excited about it, and everyday they confirm the day and time of the next lesson. There is some structure, but there is also some wiggle room. They usually want to sing One Direction and break into song a few times, they bring their homework and I help them work through that, they also have a book with questions translated from Indo to English and they like to ask me questions. I also bring out markers and paper, because they love love love to draw and color.

Then the day ended with dinner. My ibu asked if I wanted to have dinner at 7, I said yes. Come 6:40pm she knocked on my door and waved out the door, we hoped on her motorbike, drove a few minutes to another place, joined two more ladies, got in a car, picked up another four ladies, and we were off! We ended up going to Palembang Square, doing some shopping for the Chinese New Year, then getting dinner. The ladies were all really friendly and quite funny. They were interested in me, and inclusive, but not invasive. It was a lovely evening! At 10 o'clock when the malls closed they didn't want the night the end, so we headed to the new 24 hour dunkin donuts. I was stoked! I had been wanting to visit this place for awhile. That may sound funny, but this place is snazzy, and the parking lot is always jam-packed! The first time I passed it I thought it was a club or fancy restaurant or something, and it's just as cool on the inside as it looks on the outside! So we got some donuts, chatted, then finally headed home. I was finally back at about 11:30pm, past my bed time, but it was very worth it. I had a blast with these ladies, and it was fun to go out and about with my ibu. I was able to connect with a lot of people these past few days, and I think that is the key for being happy anywhere.

Preemptive Nostalgia

Tonight as I was looking through some pictures, I had the strangest sensation. I was listening to some new American music (music that I had heard back home, but would probably never catch on over here, making it distinctly American), and it made me feel like I was back in the States. That may not sound strange, but I was looking at picture of my school and my students and the teachers here. And yes the music was a little sad, which probably had something to do with it, but I started to miss all of this, here in Indonesia.

It was a feeling I've had before with other adventures, I cannot tell you how many times I've looked back at Africa study abroad photos and ended up completely filled with nostalgia. But this was different, because I was able to stop myself and realize that I don't have to miss this place yet. I'm still here, and can enjoy all of the wonderful people and things around me.

I certainly have been feeling down about things here lately, and when you feel that way you want time to fly by. But I know in the future I'll look back on this whole experience fondly. Tonight I was able to zoom into the future, and look back on this fondly while I'm still here to enjoy it. It was a nice reminder, to just be here and enjoy things. Because there are things I enjoy here. I just have to get past the things I don't enjoy, because really, I'm 10,000 miles away from home, on an amazing, once in a life time adventure. I know I'll think of it that way a year from now, so I might as well think of it that way now, and enjoy myself.