March Madness

March was a whirlwind. I feel like I end up saying that about every month while here, but it really was. At least I’ll keep saying how crazy March was to justify my short blog hiatus. Since I last posted, I was in Surabaya for a week for what Peace Corps calls In Service Training, or IST. Usually within the first three to six months at site, Peace Corps holds additional training for its volunteers, and although it is much shorter than PST (Pre-service training) it is just as busy and packed with information. The week went super well, and while we learned super useful information for site, I feel like the week motivated me to be a much better volunteer, to get more organized and to work harder.

Because my cohort, ID12, started our service in the second semester of the school year, it was tough getting into the swing of things, regarding the school culture and following our counterpart’s curriculum. Dropping in during the middle of the school year didn’t seem to be a big deal, but this was the first time volunteers began service at this time. (This was a change that started for my cohort. The ID11s started service in May of 2017, so they began with a fresh school year, starting with the fall semester.) We didn’t know, and we weren’t told, that not much actually ends up getting done in the Spring. Classes don’t happen as often, and there are both midterms and national exams for the twelfth grade, and volunteers sometimes go weeks without teaching. Not knowing this, a lot of ID12s, myself included, have felt a bit defeated, putting time and effort into our lesson plans and secondary projects, only to find out that class had been cancelled for the fourth or fifth time. This was the case for me, where I only taught EIGHT TIMES in March. IST was a refresher, motivating myself and fellow volunteers to stay focused on why we were in Indonesia.

A lot of the times when I mention Surabaya (sir-ah-buy-a) to people back home, they don’t know what I’m talking about. Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia. There are about 10 million people living in the metropolitan area of the city, and I’m about three hours from the center of the city. It’s also the capital of East Java, the province I live in, and is where the Peace Corps country office is located. Because of its size, the city has some comforts founds in the US. We ate pizza hut (I’m sorry New Yorkers!), I drank wine for the first time in six months, we went to the movies, and I was able to buy a french press. Although I really love my site, having more time to explore the city and enjoy those comforts was nice. We also went to a supermarket that imports a lot of products from the US, so I was able to buy almond milk (!), my favorite cereal (!!) and two massive jars of peanut butter (that should hold me off for April).

Here’s a few notes from IST…

Bahasa lagi, yuk

The first two mornings of IST, we had two hours of bahasa Indonesia. Although the classes seemed to be SO short compared to our daily 4-hour classes during PST, they were pretty helpful. We learned more about informal language versus formal, some slang, and helpful language when we’re sick. It was a good refresher but I definitely think that more language class is needed.

New York accents get old, fast

My Peace Corps friends come from all over the States. One thing that I was not well aware of is the way I speak… somehow sounds like I’m from New York. Who would’ve guessed? I’m still not convinced that I have an accent, but my one friend Chelsea, spoke with a Brooklyn accent for most of the week. It was spot on. The highlight of the week was when I told my friends that my dad actually sounds like that, and proved it by calling him. My friends were convinced.

Mental health is important

One session was focused on mental health and coping mechanisms during service. It was good to know that each of us is going through something right now and that we are here to support each other. I’ve found my people to talk about things with, and I’m also much more aware of the resources Peace Corps has for us.

WTF is the VRF?

What are our programming objectives in Indonesia? What are the indicators to meet those objectives? The VRF, or the Volunteer Report Form, is tool used by Peace Corps HQ to measure progress. Every volunteer, everywhere, submits a form several times a year to Peace Corps with both qualitative and quantitative data about what they are doing at site. One session during PST was about that, and how exactly we can do it well. It’s confusing!

City traffic is the worst

The island of Java has some of the worst traffic in the world. The WORLD. Surabaya is a large city, where transportation infrastructure is still catching up with the rapid urbanization that's going on. Streets were closed off for events, main streets are one-way, there’s a lot of cars, motorbikes and people. One morning, we decided to take a Grab (Indonesian version of Uber of Lyft) to a cafe for breakfast. Our phones said it would take about twenty minutes from our hotel… it took us an hour. We were in standstill at one intersection for over twenty minutes, our driver decided to turn around, we got out, walked, and found ourselves in the middle of a parade. The police let us cross through the crowds and through the street to get to the other side, but imagine the scene of seven bule stopping a parade to cross…

Blended pedagogies and working with counterparts

The last two days of the week, each volunteer had a counterpart join. We talked about Indonesian teacher culture and American teacher culture, expectations from me and for me, and worked on how I can co-teach and co-plan better with my counterparts. It was tiring, but so useful, and I already see an improvement with how I work and plan with my counterparts. All good things!

So, that’s what I’ve been up to. I just arrived home from the East Java English Tournament, or EJET, which happened in Kediri. One of my students, Anis, was a finalist! But I’ll talk more about it in my next post. Sampai jumpa!