First Feelings

As I mandi(ed) (took a bath) on my first night at my homestay I thought to myself "finally I have experiences."

The days leading up to the arrival at my homestay were full of anxious anticipation not excited anticipation. As I boarded plane after plane (four in total) I kept thinking to myself "what am I doing?" and "am I prepared for this?" In truth I don't think that I did enough to deal with the emotions of leaving. Instead I packed my last few weeks with friends and family trying to get in enough love to last me two years. Would I change that now? Definitely not; those were a good few weeks, but it did fill my initial days in San Francisco, Hong Kong and Surabaya, Indonesia with anxiety. Those days were mostly packed with travel and orientation information. It provided time for us to mildly acclimate to our initial reactions to the country and have a support group of 29 other people who were having the same experiences for the first time. It was comfortable having people surround me.

As the first week as a Peace Corps trainee drew to a close we prepared for our journey to our training city. Most people were very excited about getting to their homes, meeting their host families, unpacking, getting out of the hotel and into villages, or getting started with the real training. I, on the other hand, could not even get the word "excited" to enter my vocabulary. Instead words like nervous and dread kept coming to the tip of my tongue. My whole reaction to the situation was very surprising to me; I couldn't believe that I was actually afraid of what would come next. I knew that I was cut out for this job and I thought that this knowledge would be my ticket to bypass all the nervous feelings. I was proven severely wrong.

On the morning of Sunday April 7 we boarded the busses and weighed down an extra two cars of luggage for our trip from Surabaya to our PST villages. The trip took about 3 hours, but none of us noticed it. Our eyes were all glued to the windows because it was the first time we had driven around Indonesia in the daylight. Many observations were made about the buildings, rice fields, number of mosques, etc. but mostly it was just nice to see daylight and be on our way somewhere. Instead of just talking about what was to come we were finally about to experience it.

We arrived at the local university around 12pm and had our last meal together before breaking up into our 6 villages around the area. I cherished that last hour together. I was more than nervous about the awkward afternoon that I was sure was awaiting me; I mean of course it was going to be awkward, we didn't share a mutual language. The schedule showed that I was the last to be dropped off and I was excited by this. This meant that I would get to see where four other people were going to live, but it also meant prolonged time I with other volunteers. As we drove towards the first drop off it started to rain and as we made our rounds it started to pour. One by one my group disembarked the bus with their 80+ lbs of luggage, back packs and med kit bags in hand. Soon I was the only one left.

I was to meet my family "in front of the alley." When we pulled up our cultural facilitator went to get the family as I unloaded my luggage. They were all at the bottom of a cobble stone driveway as I crossed the street. We made our up to the house and I was asked to sit in my living room. They started talking and although a lot of it was in Indonesia, to my surprise a lot of it was also in English. I was offered some snacks and juice. We muddled through about 15minutes of conversation which was mostly in English because I had already exhausted all the Indonesian I had learned during my first two days in Surabaya within the first minute. And then I was encouraged to unpack.

A short time later I was given dinner and then told to mandi. My first bucket bath was a bit chilly to say the least. I knew that I would be taking cold bucket baths, but I never thought through how cold a cold bath could be. I stood there with my teeth chattering reluctant to pour another bucket full on my head. For the first time I felt like I was experiencing PC life and Indonesia.

Since my initial introduction to the Peace Corps, Indonesia, my village and my family, every experience has been infinitely better than the situations I created in my head (except for maybe my first mandi). After our introductions I was immediately comfortable with my family. The PCTs (Peace Corps Trainee) that live in my village are a lot of fun and we all laughed non stop for our first 2 weeks here. Our language training is going very well and it is very hard to believe that we have only been studying the language for three weeks.

Obviously much has happened since my first week in the Peace Corps, but this entry is already long enough. I will soon post with entries about my daily schedule, food, training and other experiences. Know that all is good and I am enjoying it all. Love you all!