The End of Training, The Beginning of Teaching

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Hello again! 

So its been two months and I’m finally coming to an end with my training. Let me just say, it has been one interesting experience. I’ve gone through sicknesses, meltdowns, and joyous moments. Looking back at it all, I wouldn’t want to change anything that happened (even my WiFi breaking because of the rain). It literally took me a second to collect myself because I almost flipped shit.

Here are some of my highlights that happened in the past month:

I went to Pizza Hut with my host family here in Kediri and the ONLY reaction to it was, “WTF why don’t we have this in America” The Pizza Hut here is literally a sit in restaurant. They have rice bowls, pasta, and fancy drinks in these really tall skinny glass cups. I don’t want you reading this to think I’m exaggerating this didn’t feel like no regular Pizza Hut. If my partner were to ever bring me there I would be like “hmm you got money I see you” because that is the level of fancy this Pizza Hut is! So if you ever come to Kedriri go to the Pizza Hut it’s affordable and fancy.

This is my host family from Kediri (Left to Right: Uncle, Niece, myself, sister, mom, dad)

Also, I started teaching in a middle school.  I was now working with a new co-teacher named Vaughn and he’s from Detroit, Michigan (he also had a blog, his link is below check it out). It has been such a helpful process to see what works in a classroom and what doesn’t because teaching in Indonesia is completely different from teaching in America. I honestly felt like it was going to be a struggle, but I’ve been having the time of my life. The students are so eager to learn and I don’t feel like they’re dreading my class. My favorite moment I’ve had with the students was during this adjective game. We had all the student’s names on the ground on the courtyard and they gave us five sentences describing themselves. We would pick a paper and read the descriptions. Then the students would have to run around and figure out what student we were talking about. So I chose a person and read the description and they could not figure out who I was talking about. They literally ran in a circle yelling. If I could relive that moment I would a million times. You could see the joy in their eyes and my co-teacher was laughing loud and everything just felt right. It all felt like I was suppose to be there and it made me realize how happy I was to be working with these children.

This was the class I was teaching. The guy in the blue is Vaughn the woman inbetween us was Dewi our counterpart.

One weekend I went on a mini hike with other volunteers in my village. The hike was short, but it was steep so I was out of breath by the time we got to the top. The view was beautiful. It has just rained so it was nice and cool and the sky was this beautiful light blue like the ocean in the mornings. When we got to the top I was able to cut my friend’s Anna’s hair because she got a bad haircut in a funeral (that’s a long story that she would need to tell). I did a great job though; so watch it America when I get back ya girl gonna start cutting some hair!  

This is me cutting Anna's hair on a mountain

A picture taken by Anna Bondi

As training comes to an end, what I can say so far about my time here is that Indonesia is just as diverse as New York City. There are so many people from different places that speak different languages. It makes me feel at home (just a little bit) knowing that there are so many different cultures within this country. I still have so much to learn so I’m sure I’ll have plenty more to say when I get to my permanent site.

All you need to know is that I am surviving and will soon be thriving.

My Kediri family coming to my swearing-in ceremony. (Finally a PC Volunteer) 

Love you all,

xoxo Brenda