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.
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