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 3rd grade class
that is more-or-less mine. I will teach them English and two 4th
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment