You'll Never Walk Alone

This past week was the first week of school. On the first day, my go-to ice-breaker activity was to have a bunch of questions written on sticky notes and to give each student one question. The students would find an initial partner, introduce themselves, and ask the other person their question. After each student had answered the other’s question, the students would physically trade sticky notes and move on to another partner. They would not be allowed to pair up with the same person a second time. I’m starting this blog post with this story because the only question that my students had trouble understanding/translating was, “Who is your role model?” They didn't know what that meant. I would say, “A role model is someone that you look up to. My role model is my father. I look up to him for the way that he leads our family and the way that he treats people.” Speaking of my father, I also have a great deal of respect for him when it comes to anything English/writing. He has a journalism degree from the University of Kansas and is usually spot-on when it comes to anything involving writing. He has been very supportive of my blog, but his big suggestion was to add more pictures. He said, “people love pictures.” Dad, I agree. I am a person. I love pictures. It would make sense that the people reading this blog would like pictures. So in this blog post, I give the people what they want: pictures.

The first week of school went well. The first day I felt lost, but that was because the entire educational format here is so different than what I grew up with. The students are great, so far. They are fun, energetic kids (I teach almost exclusively P3 and P4*). I am not going to spend any more time talking about school in this blog, because, well, it’s school. The most exciting part of this past week has been the last 36 hours. Great Saturday and a great Sunday.

              

*Here, primary grades are P_. Once they are done with P6, they move into Sec1 (Secondary_). From there students are put on two tracks. One is accelerated and consists of 3 years of secondary school and 2 years of JC, or junior college, and the other consits of 4 years of secondary school and 2 years of JC.

Saturday started with me playing basketball with some locals right by my apartment complex. I was really tired from the first week of school but I knew that this was a great opportunity to meet some locals and try to make some new friends. They usually start playing around 7:30am on Saturdays but were a little delayed this week because of rain. All the guys were very friendly and genuinely seemed to like having me there. Just another way that God has been faithful in giving me people to interact with. I really haven’t felt alone since my first night in Jakarta. Just amazing how you can travel, literally, halfway across the world and still feel close to people.

The big part of this blog post will be the Liverpool-Indonesia exhibition match that we saw at the futsal stadium last night. Crazy doesn’t even begin to describe this experience. I’m not sure anything will ever top KU-Mizzou in Allen Fieldhouse in 2012 for “Craziest Sporting Event of My Life,” but from an eye-opening experience this one was up there. We got down to the neighborhood around the stadium about 3 hours before the game. Last week I bought an away Indonesian national jersey for 40.000 rupiah, so I wanted to buy a home Indonesian jersey to wear to the game last night. Same deal: got one for 40.000 rupiah. One of my new friends, Cory, is a life-long Liverpool fan and wanted to get a Liverpool jersey. I was able to work the price down on his to 45.000 rupiah. Both he and the couple (Levi and Andy) we were with complimented me on my skills on working the price down. I owe all the credit to my dad. He has taught me everything I know (pictured below: the 3 guys outside the stadium.)

As we made our way into the stadium, a young man grabbed me and asked if I spoke Bahasa Indonesian. I said, no. He said, “would you like to be interviewed on TV?” I’m not sure why not speaking Bahasa qualified me to be on a Jakarta TV station, but we were thrilled to be interviewed on live television. The four of us were interviewed (pictured below: me being interviewed outside the stadium) and the reporter asked me why I was the only one in an Indonesian jersey.

  

I said, “I see all these people from Jakarta in Liverpool jerseys. I've only been in the country for 3 weeks and I feel like I have more national pride than they do.” After the interview, we had at least 10 different groups come up to us asking for photos. The craziest request was this guy who wanted us to his Liverpool jersey. Hey man, anything for my fans (pictured below).

It was fun to see the people of Jakarta go nuts seeing a Premier League team in their home stadium (video below: video of the stadium; unfortunately there is no audio because there is a really sick Indonesia chant going on in this video that I put as my closing at the end of the blog).

The tickets we got were for 75.000 rupiah each. Those tickets were supposed to get you seats at the very top of the upper level. Once you got into the stadium, it was more-or-less GA seating. So we ended up sitting about 8/10ths of the way up the lower level (pictured below: Levi, Andy, Cory, and myself in our seats).

  

We waited until we got inside to get food, assuming that there would be concession stands just like any other sporting event we had been to. Unfortunately, the only food they had in there was the food stands/carts that you see on the streets of Jakarta. We found “Lekker Hot Dogs” for 30.000 rupiah and enjoyed dinner with bottled water (5.000 rupiah) at our seats. The only thing that didn’t go our way the whole night was that there was no alcohol served inside the stadium. After seeing how crazy the fans were, it was probably a good idea. Still kind of disappointing that we couldn’t enjoy a couple Bintangs while watching the game. The way that Indonesians watched the game from their seats was interesting. There were normal seats with a backrest for everyone to sit in. The strange part was that instead of sitting in the seats or standing the whole game, people put their feet where your bottom would usually go and would sit on the one-inch-wide top of the backrest. When a big play would happen, everyone would pop up and be standing on their seat. Very uncomfortable. And very strange. Smoking was prohibited inside the stadium, so naturally, everyone did it. It was kind of humorous because I would be watching the game and you would see the little puffs of smoke reminiscent of players’ breath from Madden in cold weather popping up throughout the crowd.

The two coolest parts about the fans were the songs/chants and the flares. Fans brought in tons of flares (pictured below) and were setting them off throughout the game.

Indonesians love them some Liverpool. I was talking with one of the guys from the TV station, SCTV, before being interviewed and he said that Liverpool was the most supported Premier League team in the country—even more than Man Utd. Liverpool’s main song is, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and the fans there knew that song and all the other chants by heart. It was really cool to hear soccer chants in person and especially seeing so many people so happy that their club traveled so far to visit their stadium. My friend Cory was eating all of this up. He is a legit soccer fan (he knows his stuff) and was having a great time singing, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” He still wants to sing it at Anfield before he dies, but he was happy to have this experience. I was happy to be there with him.

Sunday I went to church with two Filipino teachers from my primary school. After church we went to the National Monument in downtown Jakarta. It was pouring and we were soaking by the time we got there, but it was a great experience to spend time with them and see the monument (pictured below).

A few random notes:

• Still no food poisoning. I am getting a little more adventurous with trying food from stands/carts and I am loving all the spices here. I was never really that big of a fan of spicy food until about a year ago, but now I cannot get enough—and Jakarta is the place to be for spicy. Physically, everything has been great for me health-wise. The only strange thing about my bowel movements has been…wait, was I really about to go off on a tangent about my bowel movements? This blog has lost its luster way quicker than I thought it would. Keep it together, Matt.
• Everything here is in military time. Our class periods are 30 minutes and the students are released at 13:45 each day. They also put the day of the month before the month (i.e., 21 July 2013).
• Bahasa Indonesian (just refered to as “Bahasa,” meaning “language”) is fairly easy to pick up as far as languages go. Very phonetic and not too much to get confused on. The only strange part is that there are different levels of formality. “Tidak” means no, but you would only say that in written form or maybe to a superior. Instead, you would say, “unga.” My Bahasa is coming along. The only sentence I know is: Maaf, saya tida bisa Bahasa Indonesian (Sorry, I don’t speak Indonesian language). I have a good chunk of root words down, but there is a long way to go !!

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers from back home. God has been very faithful in putting amazing people in my life and making sure I haven’t felt alone. I know that not every day will be great, but so far things have been far better than I could have imagined on Java Island. The Indonesian motto is, “Unity in Diversity.” I like that.

INDONESIA!! (clap-clap, clap-clap, clap) INDONESIA!! (clap-clap, clap-clap, clap) INDONESIA!!

School Starts Tomorrow

A quick tour around where I am living—Green Bay Pluit. Pluit is the region. My school is Bina Bangsa School Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK). Pantai Indah Kapuk is the region. I don’t know how many regions are in Jakarta, but there are a lot. Anyway, the apartment complex I live at is massive. There are 8 towers that are roughly 30 stories high. Towers A-D (pictured below: C is on the left; D the right) are on the east side and towers E-H are on the west side.

Between the two sets of towers there is a mall being constructed. Who knows when it will be done, but hopefully sooner rather than later. The school will give me a living allowance for next year and I hope that the allowance will cover me to find a studio in one of the Green Bay towers. Once the mall gets built, the area will be a lot of fun. You can see the pool in the picture; it is in the middle of the four towers. Outside of each tower there are a bunch of garage-like stalls that businesses can rent out. There are a bunch of property businesses, salons, restaurants, and laundry places in these stalls. Ah, laundry. The laundry system here is unique. You drop it off and come back to get it 3 days later. As soon as you take your laundry to the place, they weigh it. For every kg (why can’t the world adjust to the American system? Don't they know that we make the rules?), it costs 6.000 rupiah*. When you receive your laundry, it is wrapped up in plastic and packaged very tight (pictured below: they are big Royals fans over here; when I picked up my laundry the lady yelled, "MOOOOOOOOOOOOSSE").

So far, they have done a great job and it is very cheap. My first week and a half of laundry was just over $3 and the last week was right around $2. With the monetary system in Indonesia, the coins are for 100, 200, 500, and 1.000 rupiah. The coins are basically useless. One of these times I am going to drop off my laundry and whip out a ton of coins ala Kramer ordering calzones. I fully anticipate being turned away. The only pain with the laundry is that they attach those annoying plastic tags with your order number onto every piece of clothing so that they keep the order intact. So every time I get my laundry back, I crank out the scissors and pretend that I have bought a bunch of new clothes. At these laundry stores they also sell the big jugs of clean water. I mentioned in a previous post that the school has hooked me up with an office-type water dispenser. When it is time to get a new jug of water, you go to one of the many stalls around Green Bay that sell them and exchange your empty water for a full one. Dirt cheap. 10.000 rupiah (c’mon, you can make the conversion) for a new jug of water. That is a very good thing because I drink a lot of water.

*2 things. 1) The Indonesian number system switches commas and decimal points. So the cost of laundry is six thousand rupiah per kg. I will be teaching according to the Singapore standards where instead of commas for numbers in the thousands, you just leave a space (i.e., instead of 25,000 it is 25 000). 2) Rupiah (oooh, that's fun to say). The exchange rate is almost exactly 10.000 rupiah for every $1. This makes for very easy mental math.

Today was a great day of fellowship. Jenni, Levi, and Andy all joined me for church in downtown Jakarta. The church, JICF, is located a few blocks away from the large futsol (soccer) stadium (pictured below: a cool statue that is in front of the stadium).

Tonight Arsenal is in town to scrimmage the Indonesian national team. Outside of the stadium were a bunch of vendors selling tons of Arsenal merchandise. There was probably a 6:1 ratio of Arsenal to Indonesian gear being sold. Being the loyal native that I am, I went looking for an Indonesian jersey. I spent way too much money on myself today. I bought an Indonesian national jersey and a scarf that says “Indonesia” (pictured below) for a total of 65.000 rupiah.

I bargained down from the 150.000 rupiah the guy wanted, but I may not be able to sleep tonight knowing that I spent so much. Everyone in downtown was wearing their Gunners gear and the city really does love their futsol. I was talking with someone at the mall about how exciting it must be for the people of Jakarta to see players with skill levels worthy of the Premier League. He was genuinely surprised that I said that and tried to explain that Indonesia produces plenty of good futsol players. Right on, man. We took the public transportation back to our apartment: which was not nearly as scary as had been portrayed. At one of our stops, a nice young man noticed me from the blog (pictured below) and asked for a photo.

I tried to explain to him that if I honored every photo request in Jakarta I wouldn't have any time for myself. He stressed that he was a big fan of mine and that he was very excited to see how Perry Ellis would improve during his sophomore campaign. I'm a sucker for Perry Ellis, so I smiled and made the guy's day. Overall, it was a great Sunday with 3 amazing people that God has placed in my life. I am so thankful and humbled that God has given me the people that have come into my life here in Indonesia.

School starts tomorrow. I’m excited to start working with my students. Ever since I knew I was going to become a teacher, my mom has always said, “I can’t wait to help you decorate your classroom before school starts.” Sadly, I was not able to have her help set up my classroom in Indonesia. I have done a little classroom decorating, but most of the stuff that will be on display will be students’ work once the year gets rolling. The way that BBS is structured is that students stay in the same room all day and the teachers rotate to the different classrooms. So technically I do not have “my classroom,” but I am a homeroom teacher (my form class) for a 3^rd grade class that is more-or-less mine. I will teach them English and two 4^th grade classes math. I hope to get better each day. I have the same expectations for myself that I will have for my students: get better each day and we will end up where we need to be. I know that this year will be a constant learning experience with it being my first year as a full-time teacher. I just hope to make a difference in these kids’ lives (that’s why I am a teacher after all !!) and show them Christ’s love through my teaching.

A few random notes:

•  It is not uncommon to see men with unusually long fingernails. In Indonesian culture, growing your fingernails out is a sign that you are wealthy enough that you do not have to work construction. I will not be partaking in this practice.
• I am using my iPhone from back home over here. I got the phone unlocked for a small sum over here and I am very glad that it is so easy to access the Internet and stay in touch with everyone from the States. The only minor thing that is annoying is that something with the signal over here causes smartphone batteries to drain quickly. Not a big deal, I just make sure to have my charger on me when I head to school.
• Alcohol is very expensive here. Smoking is very inexpensive. They say that is why all Indonesians smoke: because it is cheap. Bintang is the cheap, locally brewed beer and it will run you about $1.50 for a can at the grocery store/Indomaret (Indomaret is their convenience store/gas station equivalent).
•  S/O to the homie Jim Hammen. Just now stumbled upon his blog: jumhammonds.blogspot.com. Very mad at myself that I never investigated when he talked about his blog before. Hilarious dude with a great writing style and sense of humor. Check it out if you are looking to be entertained.
• No food poisoning yet. I think I am one of the last teachers standing in that category. And yes, after saying this I realize that whatever I have for dinner tomorrow will cause me severe pain.

Can’t stress how blessed I am to have all the love and support from back home during my time in Indonesia. Thanks to everyone that is keeping up with the blog and to everyone that has reached out to me since I got here.

Tuhan Memberkati!

Over 1/100th Done

There are several ways to stay in touch with me if you are in the States. My e-mail is mattsphillips@cox.net. If you have a smartphone, my Viber is my USA phone number (feel free to e-mail me if you need it); Viber is free to get and we can text and call (if I am hooked up to wifi) for free. I also have Whatsapp and my number for that is my Indonesian number. I’m not sure if you need to add the country code, but my number is +62 081289933752. Whatsapp will cost you $0.99, but we can text back and forth if you have it. I will try to stay in contact with anyone that reaches out and I apologize if my communication has been spotty so far. I got Internet in my apartment thanks to the help of Mr. John and Mr. Emmanuel*. The Internet is not the fastest, but it is not the slowest. It was very cheap and I was appreciative of the help of the Admin staff with all the questions I had my first days in Jakarta. I can tell that they are the backbone of the school and their work ethic is something that I hope to emulate this school year.

*At Bina Bangsa School the teachers/staff are Mister/Miss (First Name). You can have students call you by your last name if you’d like, but I am going to take the advice from all the teachers I have had in my life: be a follower, not a leader. So, I will be Mr. Matthew this school year. My preferred title, Sir Phillips of the Great Plains, was denied.

I’m going to take a second to discuss how great BBS has made this transition for all of us teachers. Yes, there have been problems. I thought I would have a roommate. I was a little surprised that my room was so small. I didn’t have electricity my first night. But the school has gone way out of their way to try to make all of us new teachers feel at home during this transition period. The school has provided transportation to and from school (which they will continue to do throughout the school year) and took us to the mall (more on malls coming up) to get familiar with how to access items we might need. Even if the school hadn’t been so accommodating, it would have been very petty of me to complain about my situation. I have been reading through Job and it has opened my eyes as to how dependent my mood/emotions are on things. A couple of times this week I was frustrated that I did not have a phone or Internet, but I have my health. I am safe. My family has their health and safety. Especially once I heard that one of my best friends’ family members was going through some health stuff, I realized that God has blessed me thousands of times over and that even if some of the things that I have are taken away from me, “shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10). I understand that I am in for a rollercoaster of a year. There are going to be a lot of high highs and a lot of low lows. But I don’t have to worry about not having the answers. I am better off knowing that God has the answers than having the answers myself.

Over 1/100^th of my time in Indonesia has already passed. What?! I just got here. I know like 30 words. How is it flying by so quickly? The sad thing is that once school starts the time is really going to fly by. The school is very academic. They take great pride in being one of the top schools in Indonesia*. My performance will be judged based on my students’ test scores. The proof is in the pudding. Either I can teach or I can’t. I’m excited for this. I am going to have a steep learning curve with this being my first time teaching full-time as well as trying to adjust to the BBS mentality. I will try to adopt the “word hard, play harder” strategy this year. Work my tail off Monday-Friday and enjoy my limited time in a foreign country on the weekends. This school year will be stressful, but my principal, Mr. Yew, is a godly man that seems like he will be a great resource for me personally and professionally this year.

*I don’t know exactly how the rankings were done, but we were shown a list of the top 10 highest achieving schools in Indonesia, according to test results, and BBS had 4 schools listed in the top 10. Including the number 1 overall school in the country.

Jakarta is a mall-centered city. The city is very dirty. The malls are gorgeous. Very big, very clean, and very cool. Whenever we asked people what we needed to see/do in Jakarta, they always responded, “there really isn’t much to see/do in Jakarta: just a ton of people.” From what I’ve seen so far, they aren’t too far off. I am excited to have the opportunity to go adventuring around the country (we have tentative plans to visit a fellow first year teacher in Malang over our 2-week vacation at the beginning of August) because I think that the nature is the must-see attraction in Indonesia. There are tons of malls and they are all massive. They have everything that I could ever need. One thing that surprised me about the food here is how many baked goods there are. I knew there would be tons of rice (they aren't kidding when they say every meal), but the amount of bread surprises me. Maybe it shouldn't. I don't know. The one thing that people kept talking about for entertainment in Jakarta was the nightlife. Jakarta is famous for having a good club scene. Last night we went out for our first clubbing experience in Jakarta. It was an experience. The club, X2 (pictured below), was 2-stories and was crazy from the second we walked in until the second we walked out.

  

We got there around midnight and didn’t leave until after 4:00am (don’t tell my mom, she is a big believer that nothing good happens after midnight). There were probably 20-30 BBS teachers there, so it was nice to have a little bonding experience with my fellow first year teachers as well as some veteran teachers on staff. Indonesian women are beautiful. I’m talking, “I had class with 20 gorgeous women every day for 2 years, but daaaaaang” beautiful. And, from what I’ve been told and what I’ve seen so far, they are very sweet. Beautiful and sweet: a winning combination. For those that know me, you know that I am not that big of a partier and a “club” would be the last place you expect to see me the last 5 or so years. But this was a blast. Once I got over the crazy lights and the insane bass/music and just embraced going nuts on the dance floor, it was a great time. It was also the last night with my new best bud, Eli (we have plans to do Australia/New Zealand in December and January). I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to handle it, but the club atmosphere will be visited again. After we left, we piled 5 of us into a cab (1 in front with our friend Cory laying over 3 of us in the back row—poor kid). The first cab (yes, I said “first cab”) took us about 1/5^th of the way back to our place before pulling over and kicking us out. His excuse was that he was too tired to continue driving and it wouldn’t be safe. Thankfully, he dropped us by a hotel where there was another cab hanging out. We got in that one and when we were about ¾ of a mile from our apartment complex, he hits this massive pothole and it sounds like he has a flat tire. He gets out and sees that a good portion of his bumper is dangling from the car. He does a little repair job, and we finally got home. In Jakarta, the call to prayer for Muslims is right around 4:40am. It has gotten to the point where I sleep through it…unless I’m not asleep yet. Not a good sign if you are still up when the call to prayer is heard.

A few side notes that I couldn’t discuss at length:

•  There are security guards everywhere. I mean, everywhere. All over the mall. All over our school. All over our apartment complex (there are 8 towers: all of which around 30 stories high). Labor must be stupid cheap, here. Very humbling to think that I am being paid as well as I am.
• The skyscrapers in Jakarta are spread out. Typically in the States, there is a central downtown district where all of a city’s skyscrapers are located. Not here. You see 6-10 skyscrapers. Drive a few miles. See another 6-10 and it appears that way for the whole city (at least what I have seen so far).
•  Jakarta traffic is bad. I knew that coming in, but if you are trying to get somewhere between 4-7pm, fuggedaboutit. After our 5-day Induction period was over it took 2 ½ hours to get to the restaurant for dinner. We were told that we were lucky it didn't take longer.
•  I have made some solid friendships over the last 10 days with fellow first year teachers. Unfortunately, 3 of the 5 campuses are not in Jakarta and I had to say goodbye to some amazing people that I have gotten to know over the last few days. They are going to be great teachers and I hope they know that I will be praying for them over the course of their time in Indonesia. I hope to visit all of the campuses before my time here is up.

Hope you made it through all of that. Feel free to holler at me whenever.

God Bless!