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 1/100th 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 1/5th 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.
God Bless!
Really enjoying reading these Matt! Stay safe and have fun man!
ReplyDelete