Alive and Well in Aceh

Sorry for the lack of communication! The Internet has been virtually nonexistant for my last few days. Just as an update, I have been staying between two places- I spent my first night here at the former islamic university president's home, and then I spent the last three nights at an Islamic boarding school about 15 minutes out of town toward the mountains (their boarding school was originally right in town, but was completely demolished during the tsunami). Although both places were lovely and everyone was so nice and generous, I am in need of a bit of privacy apart from all of this communal living, so I have headed into town to crash at a hotel for my last two nights. However, instead of boring you all with my plans that mean relatively nothing to you, I thought I would entertain you with my top ten interesting tidbits for the time being.


1. Celine Dion- Let's start with the most entertaining. A teacher and his wife picked me up from the airport and took me back to their boarding school for the afternoon. Some of the English teachers there were so excited, especially since this was apparently their first time talking with a "native speaker", that they made me go around to every classroom to see all 90-something of their students. The first classroom was the most advanced class, so naturally they asked to most questions (once they got over their shyness). Long story short, I ended up singing 'My heart will go on' to them. They begged and pleaded with me to sing something, and they honestly looked like they were going to cry if I didn't, so I eventually caved. And somehow Celine Dion was requested. So there I was, headscarf and all, standing at the front of a classroom with 30 students staring at me while I sang. The funniest part was that right at the end of my serenade, one of the girls fell out of her chair. I'm convinced it was because my rendition was so terrible, but they all claimed that it was because she was so mesmorized by my beautiful voice.. ha.

 2. Yellow fingernails-but only on my right hand. Confused yet? Well, in Acehnese culture it is custom to eat with your hands. Generally speaking, a meal consists of about 10 dishes (mostly fish in various sauces) and a bowl of rice. You dump whatever you want on your rice, kind of mush it together, and then shovel it into your mouth (which for me is disgustingly messy, but they somehow seem to be fairly neat and successful). But don't forget, they only use their right hand- which is especially fun when it comes to tearing a huge piece of chicken into little pieces... not easy to do with one hand. Anyways, I tried some curry that I loved, and ate lots of it. Somehow it adhered to my nailpolish, and now I look like a chain smoker.



3. Street signs- I get lost a lot here. Generally speaking, I have a decent sense of direction, but the street signs here pretty much void that. First of all, they are few and far between. Cross streets usually have them, but if you are walking down a street for two miles chances are you won't see any signs except for the one at the start of the street. But even more confusing, is that they face the opposite direction than in the US. Street signs are perpendicular to the street that they are indicating. That took me a while to figure out...haha. So, if you are driving down the road, you pretty much have to wait until you are at the road to realize it is infact the one you need to turn down. Kind of silly, if you ask me.


4. Hanging out with the rich and the famous- ok, so not really. But, on my last night in Jakarta Pak and Lenna invited me to go with them to an event hosted by YASMIN, some sort of islamic non-profit organization. Upon arrival, I realized it was quite an exclusive event that included dinner, musical performances, speeches (which I couldn't understand) and the highlight of the night- a movie. The movie, also in bahasa Indonesia, was roughly translated to something like 'Grandma goes to Mecca' and was actually very good... at least what I understood. Well, the best part was that the director, writer, and leading actors were there! Apparently the main guy is one of the most famous Indonesian actors. We got to meet them all and take pictures and such. So, for having no idea what I was getting myself into, I'd say it was a pretty successful night.


5. Traffic jams- traffic in Jakarta is unbelievable. To get to the event, it was supposed to be a 15 minute drive. Due to traffic, it took over ONE HOUR AND 20 MINUTES. Not joking. The head of the organization said many people texted him saying that the traffic was too bad and they just turned around and went home.


6. Phones- many people have multiple cell phones here. Pak has 3. I haven't quite understood why. Additionally, everyone texts. EVERYONE. So to the elderly generation of America, I kindly say- get with it. If a little old Indonesian man who has never left his village can figure it out, so can you.

6. Naps- apparently, they are mandatory here. After arriving to the boarding school soon after I got to Aceh they put me in a room with a bed and told me to sleep.. They insisted I rest and then shut the door. Today, I asked one of the women a question about something for this afternoon, and flustered, she told me she needed to nap first and then she could answer it. Whenever there is a lull in conversation or if a class has finished, someone always says to me, "If you want to take rest, no problem!" and then they stare at me until I go to my room to sleep. For the record, I hate naps. However, I think the rest of UD would do quite well here. Nonetheless, that explains how everyone can wake up at 5 or 6, but then be up until 12 or 1. Including little kids!


7. Tatan- Essentially since I arrived in Banda Aceh Tatan has been like my big sister. She is a 27 year old English teacher at the boarding school and has taken it upon herself to pretty much not leave my side. She brings me food for every meal, and takes me all over the school and town. She loves exchange cultural stories and ask many questions about America, which are usually pretty amusing. And she loves to talk about the Qur'an and her students. The funniest thing she told me today was that after I sang the titanic song apparently some of her students came up to her and asked if I was Celine Dion- they thought I was, and wanted my autograph...haha.


8.Teaching- Although Tatan is an English teacher, her pronounciation is far from good. Consequently, the teachers decided that I would teach their classes. However, they failed to notify me of this. My first morning at the school, one of them asked if I would come to her class. I was very excited so I gladly accompanied her. After the students greeted us, she announced that I would be teaching, told me I had freedom to teach them whatever, and then left. I tried to channel my elementary education roommate, but I'm not so sure teaching is my forte. I eventually caught on to the idea of working with pronounciation for words like: thirsty vs Thursday, soon vs sun, world vs word, etc. I'd like to believe I at least helped to motivate the students a bit. Even if their English is so-so, they are also studying Indonesian, Achenese, and Arabic. Impressive.

 9. Baths- These are requested as often as naps. At first I was a bit offended but then I remembered reading about it in one of my culture books. People take a bath about 3 times a day, which also means they go through about 4 outfits per day. Crazy. Although it is hot here, their style of bath is not so appealing to me, so I tend to only take one per day. They have this thing called a mandi, which is essentially a big water tank usually made of cement or tile. You stand next to it, grab a bucket, and dump water all over until you are sufficiently clean (relatively speaking, of course).

 10. Honking- People honk for every possible reason. Taxi's honk to see if I want a ride, everyone else honks when they are passing someone, turning, coming to an intersection, and any time they are approaching a motorcycle. However, honking never seems to be in rage. One time I was in a car here, and my driver decided it would be a good idea to pass about 5 cars at one time. Naturally another car in the same direction started coming right at us. They both honked in notification, and the other car nonchalantly went onto the shoulder. This happens all the time. Nobody even slows down or freaks out. Amazing.


There you have it. My latest revelations.


asalamalaikum!


Liza