Friday sign off

It is now 1:37 on Friday and my overall reports are complete.  I did them by myself  (ok, in full disclosure, I did about 99% of the work). Linc taught me well last semester and it only took me two spreadsheets to finish the ridiculous totaling. (for more one those spreadsheets see http://strangelandsstrangelife.blogspot.com/2010/12/stress-of-year-end-at-school.html)  Last semester it was down to the wire, full on crunch time.  The official deadline for these isn't even until Monday!! I am convinced that Ben will have to add to some of his comments.  Mine are excellent and I proofed both of ours.  Big sigh of relief.  The rumor is that we won't have to do separate individual reports, all the information should be culled from the overall reports and automatically transferred.  I'll keep my fingers crossed but I won't hold my breath.


As a celebration, and in the spirit of taking new people to new places, I'll head to EP tonight with Carla and Jo and anyone else we can convince to go.  I deserve some free beer and shall procure it forsooth.

A couple of random notes before I launch into my regular weekend radio silence. I arrived at school on Monday to a full scale museum type set up in the hallways of the grade 1/2/4 hallway.  Most of the photos are something like this:

But there are a few (not one, a FEW) that look like these:

Those are dead bodies and what appear to be victims of a war/bombing. Appropriate for six year olds?? We need to teach kids about the true and ugly side of war, but in grade two? The opening was a big event, lots of dignitaries, a ribbon cutting, a TV camera and I have no idea what the significance is or why it's here, but as you know, that's the norm here.

I've been teaching as elective after school class twice a week called Reading Assistant.  It's a computer based program that reads to the kids then they record themselves reading.  The books/poems/songs get progressively more difficult and they get practice listening and speaking-the two tougher skills to work on in a foreign language. John is the co teacher for this.  There is on group of 22 students on Monday and Thursday; mostly grade three's with a few ones, two and fours thrown in.  The second group is Tuesday and Friday.  This group is only eight students.  They are a handful as they are all grades one and two. Most are low level and have a very short attention span. I have had moments with both classes when I was ready to bind a few select pupils to their chairs with duct tape.  I have also really enjoyed seeing them improve.  Their behavior, their attention, their navigation of the program and their English skills. I didn't know any of the grade ones, two or threes before this program and now I'm routinely greeted in the hall by kids I know from RA and from kids. One of the kids left this on the board yesterday.

Misspelled and in bad handwriting, but lovely.  3-2 refers to the students class.  Teachers are the biggest baddies until we are big pushovers.

Enjoy the weekend in every way possible!

Chuckling again

It's Thursday and I'm throwing caution to the wind.  My overall reports are going well.  I'm about 85-90% finished.  I say "I" and not "We" because my teaching partner is completely and utterly useless. Last semester the reports was much more difficult and complicated than any reports I've ever done.  I have streamlined my personal process and seem to be moving along swimmingly.  As my biggest complaint right now  (aside from my useless partner) is the recent uptick in mosquitoes buzzing around, I won't be complaining. To that end, I can squeeze another blog in today. It feels quite strange to be blogging from home though.


Here's the second installment of the chuckling slowly series.

I've been taking the bus at least once a week as you regular readers will know.  As I've started riding it more and more I have run into a few, um, nuances.  I am still the only one on the bus who ever has bare knees. Just mine.  On Tuesday I was waiting for a bus home from the radio show.  This is easily my least favorite ride of the week.  It's with the major of traffic going home at peak time.  This means waiting at least two buses to get on the third or fourth or fifth.  Two days ago my eyes were rolling and I found myself chuckling when two packed buses stopped to take on even more riders.  A third that wasn't even half full went flying by without even a thought to stop.  I finally smashed on to the fourth bus when everyone was smashed together.

The buses are more or less like this, but more Indonesian, and maybe slightly fuller.

There is lots of construction happening in Jakarta. On my route home there is what will be either a big office building or an apartment complex going up.  They've been working on it for months already and it's just a story above street level now.  A month or so ago the builders too a break from working on the foundation to construct a temporary, corrugated tin wall.  The funny part? They also look time to paint it in three wide horizontal bands, taking care to add flowers and spirals for decoration.
Last one for today. Jakarta is a developing country.  Many of the structures here are still shacks and lean to's along the sides of the road.  The "sidewalks" and I use the term loosely are paving stones at best, an assortment of concrete, gravel and dirt  in general.  That in mind, the people here spend a disordinate about of time sweeping.  On my way to work every morning I see no less than five people sweeping.  They sweep in front of their shops, homes, the street, etc. For a country that is perpetually dirty and polluted there is a lot of cleaning happening!

That bundle of grass she's holding? That's the broom that all the Indonesians on street level use.

She chuckles and shakes her head slowly

I've learned two big tips to keeping (what's left of) your sanity here in Jakarta: Never ask why (the only possible answer is 'because it's Indonesia') and laugh at the regular ridiculousness of it all.  Here's a list of things that have made me shake my head in amazement but not surprise.  Maybe it was surprise and not amazement.  Hmmm.  Maybe it was something else entirely but it was all definitely Jakartaesque. I've made a list on my blackberry over a couple weeks as most of these epiphanies come while I'm on the back of the motorbike between school and home. In that vein, lets start with:

People wearing stretchy gloves when driving a motorbike.  It's never less than 75 degrees here, so it's not that their fingers get cold.  As far as I can figure it's either that they want to keep their hands out of the sun (darker complexion here is that last thing any Indonesian wants, though that's not true for the white folk) or they think they need gloves for protection and these are cheaper/more readily available than other types.

These make total sense in 84 degree weather with 78 percent humidity, if your Indonesian.

If protecting their hands is the logic, then I can't sort out why they wear sandals on motorbikes.  I've become a bit paranoid lately that I'm going to be in a crash and, while other injuries are potential and obvious I can't stop thinking that, no matter what, I'll lose several toes. If they are protecting their hands with flimsy cotton gloves, why not put on proper shoes?

Finally for motorbike issues, I'm certain that the Indonesians all know I'm white, even on the motorbike.  I am in jeans, a jacket, my face mask, helmet and sunglasses, but they still know.  Maybe it's because of my sandals.

Now mentally change the jacket to blue and put sunglasses on me.  How do they know?!?!

The more people try to stay dry in the pouring rain, the wetter and more pathetic they seem. It generally rains on the trip home and I am not bothered since I can change when I get there.  There have been days I've been down right soaked, as have others on their motorbikes.  I laugh in spite of myself at the ones trying really hard to stay dry, but without any appropriate gear.  They hold newspapers or a plastic bag over their head, goosestep it through the puddles flinging water about their rolled up pant legs.

Courtesy of columbiamissourian.com  Like this but even less successful.

Jakarta has no shortage of inappropriately dressed people,.  I swear the hotter it gets, the more clothes people wear.  I understand they don't want a tan or darken their skin, but when it's 92 degrees in the sun, seeing someone in a sweater and a jacket makes me uncomfortably hot!

I lied, here's another motorbike related one. On three different occasions I have seen motorbikes paired up.  The one in front and off to the right is having some sort of mechanical difficulty and isn't running, but will roll.  The second bike is behind about half the diameter of a wheel and a legs length off to the left.  Can you see where this is going?  The guy on the 2nd bike puts his foot somewhere on the casing near the first bike's back axel, fires up his bike and pushes the first bike along.  I can hardly imagine doing this as the traffic is so bad, but I haven't see a big fiery death ball crash . . .yet.  I'm trying for a photo  but this one below is the same idea, ish.

Courtesy of pakwheels.  He's pushing the car with the motorbike.

I can't decide whether to make this a multi-parter or just a regular feature, like the weekend recap, as I group a few of these unique incidents together.  I have a few more in the bank now, but as my desire is not to bore you into oblivion, I'll resist adding them here.  If you're in Jakarta, or in any other city where bizarre/different/interesting things strike your funny bone, I'd love to hear about them.