Saturday, April 30, 2011

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!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Getting Here

Hi Friends!!!

As I hope by now everyone knows/realizes I have left for Peace Corps service in Indonesia. The journey first started with a trip to San Fransisco on April 3 for staging which was on April 4th. Staging wasn't anything intense, it really just gave a general overview of aligning our expectations with PC's expectations with us. The journey then continued the 5th when we got on our 14hr flight to Hong Kong. The flight actually wasn't that bad because one of my fellow trainees and lucked out and we had an empty seat between us. Once we got to Hong Kong we stayed overnight and from there left for Indonesia the next day. The who journey was tiring, but it really wasn't bad. I enjoyed each point of it and took every step as it came.

Yesterday and today were our first two days in Indonesia. We stayed in a hotel and had a basic orientation that covered each of the main points. In general the orientation was good, but overwhelming simply because we were getting a lot of information. Mostly the sessions consisted of a overview of what our training will look like in each aspect; language training, TEFL, and cultural.

I know that none of this describes Indonesia very much. In actuality I can't say that I have really experienced very much of this country yet. We have pretty much been held up in the hotel and therefore I haven't yet walked around or had a home cooked meal, so I don't exactly know what food is traditional Indonesian food and what is "other" food or just had other general cultural exchanges. One meal one of the cultural facilitators came up to our table and asked "How do you like the food?" We all responded that it was very good and we liked it a lot. He then said "Well that's good, but that's not Indonesian food its Chinese!" What I can tell you is that our staff is great. They are incredibly friendly and very good teachers. So far I we have all been very comfortable and because of how prepared they were for our arrival, our minds were put much more at ease.

Tomorrow is the big day during PST (Pre-service training): We move into our PST homestay's. I would say that it is a bit scary knowing that I will not be able to communicate well. I am sure that my family will be very nice and welcoming, but it is still daunting. I think I will feel much better after just a few days with them. Once I get there I am sure my experiences will be more "blog worthy" but until then TTYL!