Mt Baker itself-gorgeous!

Happy me kayaking on Baker Lake a couple weekends ago.

phew, a cloudy day

You know you're a Northwesterner when a cloudy day after a long stretch of sunny ones is a bit of a relief. Around here, you feel guilty being inside if it's nice outside. That's why it's been so long since I've updated this blog, or emailed anyone. I mean, who knows when it's going to be the last sunny day of the year? Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I've gone camping, hiking and just plain enjoying living in such a gorgeous part of the world. Come visit, you'll see what I mean.

So, a brief update:
I'm still an avid member of the "Jack" club, soon to be finishing season 5.

Still in school, at school, and learning about school.

Despite going to Cape Disappointment, I still don't know why it's called that.

My car, Duna, is now a trusted partner in my adventures.

When I grow up, I want to try living on a sailboat.

After a life of consciously not being addicted to TV, I am now watching it entirely too much (it's great for procrastinating).

I've gone to watch the spawning salmon jump up the fish ladder 3 times now, and wanna go back again.

I miss you guys.

5th graders are hilarious, and somehow they don't realize it.

6 friends of mine have gotten married in a 3 month period, and I haven't gotten to go to ANY of them.

I want a dog.

The method of "rolling out of bed to wake up" doesn't work when your bed is on the floor.

Traffic jams are nice when there's a sunrise over the Cascade mountains.

And I miss you guys.


Oh, I added my picture website to my links here on the right... you should check it out sometime.

one reason why you shouldn't build on a tidal flat

Whew… the past few weeks have been a bit crazy. I’m a student again, and that, uh, well, takes some adjusting to. This is good for me to remember what it’s like for when I’m back to being a teacher in the future. My classes this summer have been about teaching methods, classroom management, professional issues, etc. They’ve been more interesting than I thought they’d be, and that’s a good thing (I was expecting extreme boredom). I’m still just not used to coming home and having this much homework though (and it’s so gorgeous in Seattle in the summer, it’s terribly difficult to be inside doing papers…).

I’ve also had a wonderful string of visitors the last few weeks, and there’s been bridging of all sorts of my various “worlds”. So far I’ve seen Pete, Heidi and Zannah from my Indonesian world, Laura from my ESI world, Jennifer from my early-childhood world, Marta from my Mexican world, almost all my Ellingson family (not my sister yet though!), and lots of people from my Friday Harbor world. Now, I’m still missing some pivotal Trinity Western people (soon to be remedied) and MESP (Brook-I know I need to call you!) and Japan. So, with all this said… I’m getting good practice at hosting people, so come on over-I’d love to see you. And it has been too long… trust me.

Thanks to my new set of wheels, and said guests… I’ve been learning more about my lovely new home city-Seattle. Did you know that when Seattle was first built, it was on a tide flat and the toilets would explode if you tried flushing them at the wrong tide? I bet you didn’t…. Happily, this is no longer an issue.

Well, even though I’ve been horrible at returning emails… please don’t give up on me! I love hearing from you.

talk to you later…

So, far this has been the best part of the summer... look how big my nephew is! Believe it or not, he's even cuter in person!

the view from where my parents are staying this summer, I'm trying to work... really!!

Not too shabby of a camping spot, hey?

check out THIS waterfall!

one week left of freedom...

I'm in Seattle, and I have a car (finally). But good things come to those that wait! And I got the much-dreamed of Subaru wagon (it even has a sunroof!) hooray for freedom to go places without begging, borrowing or cajoling others for rides!

School starts next week, and apparently it's very intensive. After the meeting I had with them on Monday, I believe them now. So, I might not be having that much fun this next year, but I think it'll be a good program nonetheless. I'll be interning in one classroom during the entire school year which should be interesting. I don't know yet what grade or where, but I'm pretty curious to see how American students are, compared to Japanese, Hungarian and Indonesian students. I'm sure they'll be just as amusing, but I will understand them when they mouth-off to me, and that'll be a change.

So, until next week, I'm enjoying staying in my pajamas past 8:00 am, and having time to read and explore Seattle a little bit. Luckily for me, my cousin who has been subletting my place the past 3 months, is looking for a job now and so has lots of time to play around with me! And I have a great camping trip lined up for this weekend, ah- you gotta love the northwest in the summer.....

moving furniture

So, I’m back in the U.S. My last few weeks in Meulaboh were a whirlwind. And the most I can say, is that I certainly felt very loved and appreciated by the people I worked with. I had a great going away party at the beach, complete with a fabulous sunset and moonrise. I also had a surprise helicopter ride (I got to sit in the co-pilot seat WITH NO DOOR! just like in the movies… ask me about it some time, I’ll get all hyper for ya). A few friends were able to meet me in Medan, so I didn’t have a lonely moment to cry about leaving…. until the never-ending flight between Singapore and San Francisco.

Since coming back to the States, I’ve been hanging out with my family. It’s been really nice seeing them. And a great relief to be able to see my Grandma… at age 96 I wasn’t sure I’d get to see her again with her surprise hospital trips this spring and all. But she’s doing really well now, and still beating me at Scrabble and cards.

So, now, I’m trying to find a car I can afford, finish up my 2005 taxes, get my loans straightened out, and eat as much ham and cheese as possible (something I didn’t get in Indonesia). It’s funny what you crave when you’re away. God willing, I’ll be moving back up to Seattle with my OWN wheels within the week (but who really knows…)

So, for all you Indonesian friends: I miss you a ton already! My Japan and Hungary friends: I’ve been missing you for a while… and I still miss you! And for my American/Canadian friends: hopefully I’ll get a chance to catch up with you soon!

I’ve found that if you move enough…. everything is weird. So, that’s one way of keeping life interesting. My Mom, though, recommends moving the furniture around.

The past 2 weeks...

Just so you all know, I have not been affected by the most recent earthquake, which took place on the island of Java (I’m on Sumatra). I didn’t even feel a tremor. But, please remember all the unfortunate people who were traumatized by the latest disaster to hit Indonesia (which is a country that gets much more than its fair share). Right now a few of my colleagues/friends are in Jogja distributing relief supplies. Please remember them as they work insane hours to meet an overwhelming need. It’s not an easy situation for everyone involved, but FHI is fortunate to be able to help.

We’ve been busy (as usual) prepping for and then hosting another team from the US. This time they were coming for 2 weeks, and we got to go somewhere besides Meulaboh for a change. The first week they were here we worked with the school that FHI is partnered with to improve the school yard and to host a “Celebration of Learning” event where the kids sang English songs and performed English skits for their parents. Wira and I were in charge of this, and I had all these horrific visions of me being the frazzled coordinator of one of those children’s programs where everything went wrong. There’s a lot of opportunity for that to happen when the school rarely does this sort of thing, and Wira and I had never! But in the end it all worked out well, the kids were champs, and we even got to see the older girls perform a traditional Acehnese dance, which they did beautifully.

This past week we all got to go up the coast a bit to Calang. We actually worked in a tiny mountain village 45 minutes up a funky road from Calang. The people there were wonderful hosts and were a lot of fun to get to know a little bit. Our lack of Indonesian (the US team and I) didn’t even matter as the villager didn’t speak Indonesian either! The village had not been damaged by last year’s tsunami, however it had been affected by the years of conflict prior, and definitely could use the assistance that FHI provides with its agriculture programs. FHI has recently opened a little branch office up there, and the village had invited the team up for the week. We helped clean up the hillside around the new FHI house, worked on the well (now the water is just cloudy- not yellow) and worked on terracing the steep hillside. We also had a blast finger painting with the kids, making hemp bracelets and just generally hanging out. It was a real nice break to be out of Meulaboh for a while, to be up in a village in the mountains, see traditional rural life, and to be outdoors so much! Of course there’s a ton of funny stories about our week of “roughing” it, but you’ll just have to ask me about them sometime. All in all it was a great two weeks and we were all sad to see the team leave. Here’s a few photos of the past 2 weeks.

Some of our students before their turn to dance.

Some of the Calang staff- all wonderful hosts and friends.

Lunch at the village- always delicious. It never ceases to amaze me with how much variety our cook could make in her kitchen with essentially no cooking implements.

Some of the kids finger painting. Which they absolutely LOVED- especially when we hung their completed works on the new FHI house's walls!

Bethany and I in our appropriate attire.

resurfacing worlds

I can hardly believe it that I have only a few weeks left here in Meulaboh. The time has gone by so quickly, but at the same time my other world seems so distant- was I ever a Seattle resident? Did I EVER teach in Budapest? It seems ages ago in some respects, but as my departure date draws nearer, those other worlds will begin resurfacing and I’ll once again be in that weird state of being everywhere and nowhere and enjoying yet another case of reverse cultural shock.

A couple of weeks ago a team from Phoenix came out. I was somewhat skeptical (to be honest) on how much a short term team could do, and if things like that are worth the expenses. Well, I can say truthfully that this team CERTAINLY was worth it. They were an amazing encouragement to us as staff; they really helped us see that our programs are indeed making a positive difference. And they really helped connect us in a new way with the people we’re working with here. It was a great time, busy, but great.

Now, we’re just real busy catching up on our work here, and preparing for another group to come. I’ve realized that I’ve got at least two more books of curriculum to churn out, and an increasingly diminishing window to get it done!

Yesterday we had an amazing party at the beach complete with an international game of tug-of-war. Indonesians v.s. foreigners, we each won a bout, but never got around to the tie-breaker as grilled fish and a gorgeous sunset distracted all of us. It’s evenings like that that make it extra hard to think about leaving.

Now, onto a completely different note. I just found out my cousin, Jonathan, and his wife, Chris, are going to be teaching in the exact same school I taught in Budapest next year! How cool is that?! Makes the world seem another size smaller.

This is us at Meulaboh's version of Starbucks. I finally got to see some more of Indonesia! I had a week off for R and R and my friend and colleague, Herly, and I had fun exploring. After a night in big city Medan enjoying ice cream, pizza, real Starbucks (ya ya ya, it just makes me think of home!) we headed to the AMAZING Lake Toba- about 5 hours south west of Medan.

I've had conflicting reports, but I'm told it's the biggest crater lake in the world (or 2nd) and it's the deepest lake too (not sure on that one either) but whatever the stats are, the truth is that it's beautiful! We were high enough in the mountains that it was cool- cool enough to want a blanket at night! (talk about exciting). We stayed on Samosir Island at the amazing Hotel Carolina.

ahhhhh

Samosir Island and Hotel Carolina

Lake Toba is in the heartland of the Batak people, and the Carolina hotel is a great example of traditional architecture- cool, hey? The lake was nice and cool- and great for swimming. It was a lot of fun relaxing and exploring here, and extra cool because Herly is Batak and got a ton of local discounts for us!

Here's a close up.

After a few days of Toba, we headed south to the province of West Sumatra to the town of Bukkittingi- another place of amazing natural beauty. The mountains here were gorgeous, and once again-cool! (hooray for cool). One night we stayed in luxury (sheets and hot water and a pool) and one night we stayed at this great homestay place right beside a nature park.

And here's the view of one of the many volcanos from our luxury room in Bukkittinggi

This is how we got to our thatched-roof homestay cottage near the foot of that great cliff.

Some rice fields in the valley by Bukkittinggi.

Near Bukkittinggi there's still an operating waterwheel that pounds coffee beans into powder (that's how they do coffee in most of Sumatera). Here's a woman collecting the coffee powder to bag.

The people group around Bukkittingi are matrilineal- one of the few societies in the world to be so. And their houses are really cool too: traditionally each "horn"on the roofline signified how many women were in the family.
Here's Herly in front of the "King's Palace"

Also, the world's largest flower- the Rafflesia Arnoldii- grows here, so we decided we had to trek out to find it. With a local guide leading us scrambling up muddy mountain sides, we finally found this flower- a bit of a small example of the species- but interesting nonetheless! These flowers are so weird, google 'em sometime to learn all about it.

And then, for the last hoorah before heading back to Meulaboh, we went to Bukit Lawang to see the famous Orangutans. Of which we did- after another few hours of scrambling around muddy jungly mountains. But it was well worth it (though I had no idea a person could get this sweaty). We met with 4 orangutans, and though I've never been a huge monkey-fan, I'm definitely a fan of these amazing primates. As this area is a rehabilitation area, there are many orangutans who live on the fringe of the park that don't mind coming down to meet human visitors and share a little banana picnic.

When I returned to Meulaboh, I thought the adventuring was over for a while, but no! I got to hitch a ride up with some friends to Calang- an incredibly bumpy 3 hour drive north of Meulaboh. Much of the road was completely washed away last year, so we had an adventurous time driving on the beach, through craterous holes and over dubious log bridges. It was a lot of fun. And Calang is a gorgeous area- with really nice beaches (tons of cool shells). Pictures will have to come later as my camera ran out of batteries (most unfortunate).
Calang is a townwas essentially completely destroyed, with 80% of its population killed. They are working hard on rebuilding, and there are many good projects underway. FHI is busy up there with agriculture projects, and temporary housing.

So, now I'm back in Meulaboh. I enjoyed a nice, quiet Easter. And am now working hard catching up on all that missed work!

Oh- on other news. I made it into SPU's Master's of Teaching program- hooray for that. I'll be starting the year-long program this summer, if all goes according to plan (but you know how it is with my plans...)

Epi and I

This is Epi. She lives next door to our office. She's very friendly, especially to bule's (foreigners). She especially likes me for some reason. I think it's because we both have curly hair. She started off giving me flowers or grass that she'd picked. Then it was pretty rocks. Now, for some reason, she feels like it's necessary to give me a rock every time she sees me (several times a day), sometimes they're still pretty rocks, but usually it's just a piece of gravel she picks up on her way over to greet me. I still act excited about the gravel, but miss the pretty rocks, grass and occasional wildflower.

Epi's mom and dad have a little cafe by our office. I go there to get an occasional cup of authentic Acehnese coffee, minus the sugar (real authentic Acehnese coffee has so much sugar in it that you can hardly taste the coffee). It's pretty strong black stuff- very black. Actually, sometimes it's just pure charcoal. Sometimes it's really good though. So, I take my 1000 rupiah (about 10 cents US) over and give it a shot.

I tried taking a picture of Epi’s mom making the coffee, but she was too shy. But, I tell ya, it’s a unique process that doesn’t involve drip, glass canisters or any other coffee paraphernalia that I’m accustomed to.

a few more comments

So, it’s officially the hot season here. And it’s hot. HOT!!! Also, religious rules are becoming stricter and that means more clothes. Which makes it even hotter.
I went shopping today to buy more long-sleeved shirts, and actually had some luck (perhaps my taste in clothes is adapting as well). But it was so hot, it wasn’t so much about trying on the clothes as peeling and unpeeling clothes on and off. I just don’t like sweating this much. But, the good thing is that it makes me appreciate cool things a lot more. Like the AC in the truck and the office. And a refrigerated drink. And now we can find ice cream here in Meulaboh. Which is awesome. It doesn’t taste like any particular flavor, however, but rather sort of the color it is. For example, the “strawberry” tasted pink. I’m not complaining at all though. I’m just really excited that it’s here.

On a side note: while I still love avocado juice, my current favorite has switched over to mango juice since mangos are finally in season again.

Another completely unrelated comment: We have this amazing electric mosquito zapper thing. It looks like a tennis racket and you swat mosquitoes and bugs with it and it zaps them to death. They’re completely vaporized. It’s awesome. It also makes a very satisfying pop sound whenever you kill one. I think I take almost too much pleasure in zapping them, but entertainment options are a little slim here.

March English Camp-whew!

All I can say about this week is “Whew! It’s over!” I feel like I need to sleep for several days just to recover. Every week we teach for three mornings in an elementary school, and now we also have English Club on Friday mornings, plus staff English lessons in the afternoons. Well, on top of that we added our once-a-month English Camp! It was my second camp here, and for some reason I had the hardest time writing the curriculum for it this time around… which made for some late nights frantically putting things together. Luckily, I’m working with a great team of people, and I’m happy to say that we pulled it off, and pulled it off well- if I may say so myself.

Last month we realized that we had grown past the reasonable capacity of our office, so we had to find another location. After much searching, we were allowed to use the meeting room at the mayor’s office. I think meeting there, plus being active in a public school for a month greatly added to our credibility, because the attendance at English Camp grew this week in staggering proportions! Last month we averaged around 50 kids a day (with actually about 70 kids in all attending at some point). This month we grew to over 90 students by Friday (with over a hundred attending at some time during the week)! That’s A LOT of children in one room. One HOT room, I may add. The sheer numbers made us have to creatively adjust a few things, but in the end, it all worked out.

We taught about family, descriptive adjectives and jobs. It was a lot of fun leading 90 kids in silly motions for the various descriptive adjectives (friendly, serious, clever, etc). We also played rowdy games in the front parking lot and led craft projects. We had kids showing up over 45 minutes early, just wanting to hang out, and lingering as long as possible afterwards as well. If that's not a mark of some sort of success, than I don' t know what is! A lot of fun was had by all, but I must say I’m relieved to have a respite this next week!

This morning I enjoyed sleeping in, and then wandering into the kitchen to find my friend hacking into some fresh coconuts! There’s nothing quite like fresh coconut water first thing in the morning. Yum!

Here they are getting registered and receiving their name tags, pencils, and English Handbook. And generally milling about.

Wira busy welcoming the 84 students who showed up on Wednesday.

Some of the cuties that got a special ride home. They were so proud to be driven right up to their homes, though their directions just included yelling "here! here!" good thing our driver knew where he was going!

Hard at work filling in their job picture dictionaries.

Some girls hard at work making their I love You Dad/Grandpa/Uncle cards.

A couple weeks ago one of our collegues here got married. For Acehnese culture, that meant several days of festivities! Here he and his bride are at the reception room at the groom's house. Happily for us, the wedding meant GREAT food, and plenty of photo opportunities!

Here's the reception room at the bride's house. The decorations were amazing, the entire room had been transformed.

Here's some of the FHI women staff and Emi and his bride.

Reminders, Reminders Everywhere

All week I was reminded of the tsunami. When I first came here, I saw the destruction everywhere, and every time I went down to the beach I imagined a giant wave sweeping towards me, dwarfing the palm trees. Every person I looked at, I saw as a survivor. It was fresh, so very fresh for me. But, it’s amazing how one can just get used to things. Now, when I go to the beach, I usually just admire the beauty. I can go for an entire day without consciously thinking about the tsunami and what the people here went through. But this week, I kept getting reminders of it- real, practical, every-day sorts of reminders. For example:

During the staff English class we were learning about the various rooms in a house. I asked a student how many bathrooms were in his house, and he asked before the tsunami or after?

This week we went out to invite children to come to our new English Club, we walked through one of the still-occupied tent camps where people are crowded in together so closely. This camp though, has a bit more of a long-term, lived-in feeling. There are a few tent-stores, bikes parked against tent walls, and a surprising amount of satellite dishes feeding in the latest TV series. We sat and talked with people, giggled with kids and generally answered questions about our programs. Then, as we were leaving, up walked one of the ladies who works in our office and house. She lived there, in a tent with her son; a tsunami widow who lost almost everything and was still living in a tent over a year later. And this was a woman that I saw everyday, that I knew, that was my friend.
Next we walked through a neighborhood that had been about sea level before the tsunami, but is now a bit lower so it’s always flooded with the waters rising to cover the newly rebuilt streets when the tides come in. When I asked why people are trying to rebuild over all that water, I was told… “this is their land, the only the land they have, so of course they’re going to rebuild on it.”

There is a lot of rebuilding, all over Meulaboh, slowly some of the ugly scars of the disaster are being smoothed over… but there are too many scars for it to be hidden. And the worst scars are on the people’s hearts themselves. Many are afraid of the sea now. Many still dream of their lost ones. This week, our intern, told me she had been dreaming of her brother last night, and that she missed him a lot. The way she said it made me think that he was just off in another town, going to university perhaps. But when asked, she said that no, he had disappeared in the tsunami. She said that they had hoped for weeks that he’d just show up again at their home… but as time went on, they just had to realize that he wasn’t coming back. She said she missed him so much, he had always given her such good advice and helped her out whenever she had a problem. She said that she really missed his advice.

What do you say? What can you do to help people that have suffered something so horrible that the average person who wasn’t there can’t even fathom?

What about all these children who are still living in tents? The children who are stuffed into over-crowded classrooms with little future opportunity? Granted, things were lacking educationally before the tsunami, but it certainly didn’t help matters. But, it has opened the door to this area that has so long been off the beaten path. Happily, there are people here who are working hard to make things better. And I’m excited to be amongst them, to do what little I can.

I’m a firm believer that a good education is an avenue for good opportunities on so many levels. A decent education allows a person to have the chance to do more with his or her life, it gives her/him a voice, self-esteem, and hopefully the capacity to dream, and to try to do something about that dream. When asked what sort of things they wanted NGO’s to help them with developmentally here, one big request was English and technology education. So, I’m excited to be help with the former, however as many of you know, I’m not that handy with the latter! There are many people here in Meulaboh doing everything from rebuilding homes, to giving business grants, to working in the educational sector.

If you want to support what FHI (Food for the Hungry) is doing here in Meulaboh just click on the Food for the Hungry link on the right side-bar here on this page! (yes, it's a shameless plug, but it's a great cause!)

Well, this has gotten long, and a bit soap-boxish. There’s a lot of stuff one just has to work through here. But, there ya have it!
Enjoy the pictures.

Inviting children at the Manggis neighborhood tent camp to our new English Club.

Talking to a family in the tent camp about our English Club. I made this little girl cry! But she warmed up again when I took her picture!

The floor tiles of homes that were once here, now almost covered by plants. This is where the helicopter lands now.

Plants grow on what was once a thriving neighborhood on Meulaboh's peninusla.

Here's a view of Meulaboh from a helicopter. In the distance is the peninsula that sustained close to complete destruction, as well as Meulaboh proper. You can also see the amount of standing water inland from the beach that hampers rebuilding efforts.

In this area, some houses amazingly were left standing (the white one in the background) while others were completely washed away, or almost completely as this remnant shows what was once someone's kitchen.

Some rebuilding and some ruins.

This was once a full neighborhood in downtown Meulaboh.

One of FHI's Cash for Work projects was to employ people to rebuild roads in this neighborhood. They also made road signs, choosing to include FHI's name with the street's.

Some of the constantly standing water.

This is 1st grade. Happily, there's plenty of room to walk down the aisle here! As you can see, though, there's always by-standers in the doorway which can be pretty distracting. But if you shut the door, it's unbearably hot.

Here's a very crowded 2nd grade classroom. Even the kids have a hard time fitting in the aisles. As you can see, though, they're pretty enthusiastic learners!

Our First Morning English Club

This week was our first week of Morning English Club (not to be confused with English Camp!). Since so many schools were destroyed, there are two shifts at the schools that are still usable. So, all the kids who have to go to school in the afternoons don’t get a chance to go to English Camp, so we’ve started a Friday morning English Club for them. We had about 25 kids this week, and a really nice group too. We discovered that one of the older girls (6th grade age?) who came, didn’t even know how to read in Indonesian yet. Usually these students slide between the cracks of the educational system here, and are ridiculed as they go. I could see in her eyes the wariness, and the self-consciousness about any attention from a “teacher”. We are glad she came, and hope we can give her some positive reinforcement so she doesn’t give up on herself, like so many others have done. The club went really well and I think they enjoyed themselves.

Here's some of the girls that came.

they're really into it!