Site Visit!
PST follows a organized schedule, and our days are jam-packed. On “hub days”, every Friday, we meet back with all 57 volunteers, and although those days are tiring, seeing new friends and catching up after the long week makes its worth the four kilometer bike ride in 80 degree heat. Our hub day two weeks ago was not typical, though. In the afternoon, we were led to the gymnasium of our training site, a local university, and were told our permanent sites! Writing this now, I still remember how nervous I was. Would I be in West Java in a city? In the mountains of East Java? Or would I be placed in Kupang, NTT, and travel the distance equivalent to traveling to Denver, CO from New York… I was full of excitement, worry, and nerves. After being debriefed on how site placement was made, we were blindfolded, and guided to our spots on a map that spanned across the gymnasium floor. At the count of three, we all ripped our blindfolds off, and found out where we were teaching for two years!
I’m going to be living in Lengkong, Nganjuk, East Java, which is only about an hour north of Kediri city, where I am currently training. I couldn’t have been happier with my placement, but the real test was yet to come. The following Sunday, we each set out to visit our schools and new host families. Those three days in Nganjuk were overwhelming. There’s no other way to put it. I took a public bus for the first time, I lived with a new host family, I gave a speech to my 1,000+ students in Indonesian, and was spoken to mainly in Javanese, language I have not learned yet. Despite this, I am thankful for the opportunity to connect with my students, my counterparts, my principal, and my family. I was welcomed into my community by both old and young, from meeting with leaders during evening prayer at the Mushola next to my house, to having informal english lessons with several kids at night.
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I am going to teach at an SMK, which is a vocational high school. Students study standard subjects, like English, Math, and Science, but also concentrate on a number of tracks, which include automotive, IT, and audiovisual. School culture in Indonesia is quite different than in the United States, and I plan to go into deeper detail as I integrate into the school culture during service.
Jam-packed days, independence and the Iceberg Model
With that, Pre-Service Training (or PST) has easily been one of the hardest times of my life. I’m not saying this lightly— we work hard. We’re up early, we’re in class for four and half hours, then after our lunch break we either head back to Indonesian class, or meet for Peace Corps training sessions regarding teaching, culture, health or safety for the rest of the afternoon. By the time that’s done, we’re feeling tired and sweaty, and the thought of taking an ice cold mandi leads us back home at about 5pm.
With that, there is very little time to breathe, let alone think. I arrive home, sometimes after hitting up the “warkop” with a few friends, and I’m ready to pass out in my bed. But I can’t, because I still have dinner with my host family, homework, and will try to talk to friends and family back home. Having little control over my schedule is something new to me − in college I picked when I wanted to learn, I chose which days worked for me and which didn’t. Lacking autonomy is a new feeling, and with that, boundaries are often being crossed.
Indonesian culture is much more focused on the community, which is something I’ve learned to appreciate. Family and community is first, you are second. Individuality is superseded by the importance of those around you and those related to you. Being alone, having alone time to decompress, and focusing on the individual is a core piece of the American social fabric. After a long day, I want to crawl to my bed, get comfortable, and read a book or watch a movie. I don’t have too much of that here, and soon my Ibu will be knocking on my door if I’m not already passed out.
Self-reliance and independence is just not as common here, and also that’s one of the major things I’ve noticed here as an American − it doesn’t mean that one or the other is the “right way” of things. My host mother has eight siblings, all of which still live in the same village. Her sisters live with walking distance, next to my home, or across the street. This is something I’ve come to value. A few of my friends and fellow Trainees have felt the same here,
"My ibu and bapak here are very okay with me reading in my room or taking time to be alone, but I know others have struggled with this. I think it kind of makes sense, the inability to be alone in this society. Each village has a strong community bond. In Blabak [her village], family members live close to each other usually, and often in the same village. My family, for example, all lives within walking distance of my house. That includes two of my bapak’s siblings, five of my Ibu’s siblings, and my bapak’s parents and a couple uncles too. Your neighbors are your family... literally. And here, you know who’s home, you know who’s gone, and you know where they’ve gone as well. Though it can be somewhat overwhelming for many coming from an American culture, I also think there’s a lot to be learned from this mentality. Caring for others. Sharing with others. Spending time with others. What communities are supposed to look like." - Katie, Nebraska
The culture of collectivism in Indonesia is a direct example of a topic we learned earlier during training, the Iceberg Model. The premise of the model follows the metaphor that culture is an iceberg, and only a small part of it is visible while interacting with others, while the majority is hidden beneath the surface. This model divides culture into three “levels”, the first being the surface culture, the second being “unspoken” cultural rules, and the third, the deepest, being unconscious rules. Surface is what is visible— language, cuisine, religion, holidays. Unspoken rules include social etiquette, modesty and symbolism. Unconscious rules include class, gender, communication, sense of time, and morality. Many view culture at the surface level, composed of the many overs able characteristics of a group that we can see. The reality is that those surface level cultural characteristics are merely a manifestation of the deeper and broader components of the culture— complex ideas and deeply-held values. Indonesian collectivism is part of the deeper, below the surface culture, and that is manifested by Indonesians prioritizing family time over alone time. With that, it is important to recognize that core values of a culture can’t go away easily, even if a country shifts to a political system that focuses on the individual.
"I think that individualism in Indonesia is very differently realized. In America, there's a cultural expectation that you are an independent person and we look down on those who are dependent. Whereas here, it seems like the expectation of being independent is highly gendered. My perspective is extremely limited as a non-woman and as a foreigner who has only lived in Indonesia for little over a month. Therefore, my opinions are mainly based on observations from my family. In my family, you can definitely see that women tend to base their identities around their families. That being said, there are plenty of ways women have found their own agency in the context of their homes. Not to mention, there is a lot of unsaid power that women, especially mothers, have in shaping the lives of their families and their communities. At the same time, there are plenty of women who still exist outside norms of creating a family (like my sister) despite pressure patriarchal norms. As for men, there's a lot of independence and expectation to act out of individual desires. I find this interesting given their traditional roles as providers tend to be complicated by their own passions. Above all, what fascinates me the most, is the dynamics between men. I have found myself in many situations where I have been alone with a group of men and yet the atmosphere tends to focus on the activities rather than the people involved. I find that interesting because despite all the cultural differences in Indonesia, those male to male dynamics are the same in many other countries and cultures." -Cody, 22, Colorado
I see this manifestation more often than not while here. After arriving home after dark one night, my Ibu was dumbfounded when I explained to her that I had biked three kilometers alone. When walking to friends homes close by (less than 500 meters), my family is worried that I will not make it. During site visit last week, my family and counterparts at school doubted that I was able to walk the 500 meters to and from school. This is even further perpetuated because I am a woman, and because I am a foreigner. Or it may be because they know I am new to Indonesia and that I don’t know my way around the city, and they are genuinely concerned about my safety.
When thinking about American culture, I see images of Coco-Cola, hamburgers, baseball games, Hollywood and Disney World. However, individualism is a core of American culture and an integral component in what it means to be American. It has influenced society, economics and politics. It has shaped the character of the American “nation”. While our world is increasingly becoming smaller and more global, understanding different culture is so critical, and also different groups values some things over others, understanding the underlying context behind those values is important as we become more interconnected.
Hitchcock, Andrew. “The Iceberg Model, Localization and Cultural Context”
Has, Suyawen. “An Analysis of American Individualism Culture” https://haosuyawen.wordpress.com/2015/02/19/an-analysis-of-american-individualism-culture/
Thanks Katie and Cody for giving me the quotes!
P.S. I'd love to keep this conversation going... feel free to comment thoughts or email/text me!