First Island Stay

*Sorry this is taking so long, guys! I'm going to try and hammer these out now*
 
June 25: We began the day with a quick brief on what we were to expect for our first island--****** would take about ten minutes to walk around, there are only about 700-800 people living on the island, all the houses are build on docks over the sea changing the island's shape from a pear to something like a paramecium, and the docks are made out of long sticks hammered into the ground (in the ocean, of course) and smaller sticks and "planks" carefully balanced on top. They are not nailed to the dock so it makes walking on them both scary and dangerous. One false step and you could fall through the dock into the trash-filled sea. Because the planks were not nailed down, they changed position every day, so you can't even get used to where the position of the planks were or were the ones that would break under your feet were. ****** is very close to Singapore and it's a weird feeling being on such a poverty-filled third-world island and being able to see an amazingly gorgeous first-world country less than a thirty minute boat ride away. When we arrived at ******, we were greeted a group of people playing the kompang, a traditional Malay drum; a group of people singing; and tons of kids tossing rice at us. The kids dragged us around the island to drop us off at the houses we would be staying at. When my group reached our house, we were greeted by our Ibu, the matriarch of the house, and her seven year-old daughter Ain (pronounced eye-EEN). They served us amazing tea (Prendjak, for anyone who wants to try it--SO good), fried bananas, and fried banana bread balls. One of the boys I met as soon as I got to the dock, Rahim (pronounced rah-HEEM), came over to the house to gather us for a tour around the island. He took us back to the dock to watch the men of the island practice Dragon Boat racing. Every year around Ramadan, the people in Indonesia have Dragon Boat races. They remind me a little bit of crew. He took us to his house to meet his parents. In the back of the house, his father, or Bapak as they call them in Indonesia, lay on a huge stack of blankets and pillows. He had suffered a stroke one day when he was out fishing with a group of his buddies that left him completely paralyzed. Since then, his movement in his right arm and neck had come back. He could feel a little bit in his feet too. Rahim's Bapak told us that he believed the wind paralyzed him. He had a dream one night in which a man dressed in all white came and visited him. He believed the man to be the one who brought Islam to Indonesia. The man was surrounded by seven angels, two of them being Michael and Gabriel. The Man in white told Bapak to be a good man and he might restore his movement. Bapak asked us to come back tomorrow too. We prayed for the man and Rahim took us back to our house. Every day, twice a day, people have to do something called a "mandi". Basically, it means shower. So, in this house you had to wrap yourself in a sarong and bring your clothing with you to a little hut out behind the house on the dock. There was a bucket filled with water and a little scoop that you would have to use to pour the water on yourself to wash. Although, when in the hut, you would have to watch out for the hole in the floor--you know, the hole people (unfortunately, including myself) did their business over...ick. Because the hut was so small, we had to squat in order to remain completely hidden from people curious about the white people on the island. For dinner, our Ibu served us some kind of white fish (keep in mind, I hate fish. With a passion.), the spicy African veggie, rice, tiny bananas, and like a huge egg patty with onions cut into little pizza triangles. There are no tables and chairs for us to sit on, of course, so we sit in a circle on the floor. It is very rude to face your feet towards anyone, so we had to either sit crisscross or on our hip with our feet facing behind us. Also, using your left had for anything at all is incredibly rude and gross so we had to pass everything with our right hand and eat with our right hand only. (The left hand, you see, is used in lieu of toilet paper, and is then thoroughly cleaned, but still...you can understand why using the left hand for anything is incredibly rude and disgusting.) After dinner, we talked with our Ibu and her older son for a little bit before setting out our sleeping pads and crashing.

  

Rahim and my little friend who followed me around braiding my hair, Lena. 

 

This is a dragon boat! 

 

Dinner! 

June 26: At 4:30 in the morning, we were all awoken by the call to Prayer....not fun. I swear, that guy sang for like forty-five minutes. Ugh. Eventually, we all did fall back asleep. When we woke up at around 7:00, our Ibu was cooking something that smelled wretched. Most of our stomachs were turning at the smell. We all mandied, as you're supposed to before breakfast, and sat down to our first Indonesian breakfast--top ramen, some kind of meat that could have potentially been hot dogs, rice, and more of the Prendjak tea. It was, well, tolerable. Rahim visited our house again before school to say good morning ("Salamat Pagi!") and to ask if we were coming to the school today. He was more than thrilled when we told him that we were! At the school, we taught English to a class for about an hour and a half. We taught them Simon Says (in Bahasa Indonesia, of course), all sorts of different songs in English, and the English alphabet. We then played with them during recess. We played games like Hanky Panky (Do Me Ka Do, they call it), Red Rover, Sharks and Minnows, chalk, and they put flowers in all the girls' hair. One group of girls gave me a super sweet present--the picked a long leaf off a tree and used sap and dirt to write on it "Morgiy I love". So cute!! We walked around the island a little more before we went back for lunch. Ain was excitedly awaiting our return. We sat down to fish curry, veggies, rice, and the giant egg patty thing. After lunch, we took our siesta thing as normal. However, it was so hot that Katie and I couldn't sleep. Rahim came into the room excitedly whispering "Kelinci! Kelinci!" (kuh-lyn-chi). Katie and I walked outside to a group of kids holding a little tiny bunny. Pretty much the cutest thing ever. All these kids brought a bunny to us. Adorable! After about playing with the kids and the bunny for about fifteen minutes, Katie and I walked down to the dock watch the kids swim. It was the only place on the island that was actually relatively cool. There was a small breeze that would keep the sweat mustaches away for at least a little bit. We went and visited all the other girls and translators. At one of the translators houses, we practiced a song for the goodbye party that the people on the island were throwing for us. We also helped the ladies of the house make bread for dinner. The kids then led us to the volleyball court where some of the men on the island and some of the men on our team were playing against each other. We did not stat long before we had to go back to the house to mandi and eat dinner. For dinner, our Ibu served us a super icky fish called dinky, fish curry, rice, egg patty, and a veggie similar to a leek. After dinner we talked with our Ibu's son (our Ibu was rather shy). He was telling us about his job and his girlfriend. He is a fisherman who catches "nemos"--clown fish--, coral, and anything else he can catch and sell. It's so sad! The people are so poor that they do whatever they can to live--as I would too--, but they don't know that by harvesting coral and the clown fish, they are destroying the ecosystem therefore making their living situations even worse! Makes me so sad.

  

Sekolah

 

Ain and the little kelinci

June 27: This morning, we barely woke up to the Call to Prayer. For breakfast, our Ibu served us Prendjak tea; fried bananas; and fried tortillas with potatoes, carrots, and some kind of icky fish. Our Ibu's older daughter and the rest of our group walked to the dock to leave on another boat to go to a different island to go shopping. At the island, we bought tons of boxes of the Prendjak tea, some chocolate, and a glass of an amazing drink called Milo. On the boat ride back, we got soaked. The water was so choppy that it just drenched anyone who was even remotely close to the front of the boat. Upon our arrival back, we practiced our performance for the goodbye party--it was really not going to be that good. We went back to the house did a quick mandi and ate dinner--rice, African veggie, and fish. Again, let me remind my readers just how much I HATE fish. After dinner, our Ibu surprised us by presenting us with traditional Malay clothing that we were to wear for the goodbye party that night! After getting dressed in the clothing, our Ibu's older daughter and one of her friends sat us down and put some make-up on us. It was so fun! We walked down to the center of the island near the school to meet the others and pretty much the rest of the people on the island. The stage was decorated beautifully. We witnessed people playing the kompang amazingly, gorgeous dancing, some strange traditional dancing, lots of performances of little kids singing and dancing, a very weird cross dresser dancing and singing, and, of course, the performances from the Americans! Ours was terrible as expected. After the performances, we all stood in a semi-circle for about fifteen minutes for pictures. People began lining up and walked through the circle both receiving our thanks and giving them--"terima kasih! (pronounced tearrr-EEM-uh KAH-see). 

  

Some famous Indonesian fruits: rambutan (the red spiky ones) and durian (the brown spiky one).

Rambutan is delicious and kinda tastes like a mixture between a grape and a pear and has the texture of lychee. Durian, however, is the worst thing I've ever put in my mouth. There is nothing comparable to durian. Let's just say I would rather lick the bottom of the dumpster behind Ralph's than have another bite of durian. NASTY stuff.

June 28: When we woke up, we were all surprised that nobody had woken to the Call to Prayer. We ate a quick breakfast of eggs, fried rice, and banana bread. We surprised the family by giving them gifts that we had brought for them from home--bandages, first aid tape, candles, key-chains from San Francisco, and other such goodies. We all left for the dock followed by what seemed like thousands of children and other people on the island. They all yelled and shouted goodbye as we left on the boat for our homebase. It was about an hour and a half ride before we reached ****** When we got there, we shoved our stuff in our room, ate lunch--a weird American and Indonesian mix, and began our debrief. We shared stories from the island and ideas that we should do better on the next island. After our debrief and dinner, I went for a long walk on the beach before falling asleep in a hammock on the beach.