This is Evi, she makes a mean papya flower-chili-fermented bean stir fry.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Friday, February 24, 2006
Saturday Morning
Life seems to be moving right along here. It’s amazing how fast you can get used to things, and how things that seemed so novel to you at first becomes common place and routine (though I still sometimes forget to roll up my pants when I wash my hands and get all splattered).
This morning (Saturday) I woke up and it was actually refreshingly cool! It was absolutely pouring outside, and still is. It makes it a lot easier to sleep in, and since it coincided with a Saturday morning it was the best way to begin the weekend. Usually, here in Indonesia, girls never sleep in. Not even on weekends. They’re supposed to always be up before the men, and while all my housemates don’t have their mothers here to harass them, they still struggle to sleep to 8:00 on a Saturday morning. Which, consequently, makes it difficult for me to sleep to 8:00 as well, since there are usually over 6 of us sharing this place. I’m almost always the last up, and Ma’nyak (one of our housekeepers and resident Mom) usually comes into my room and rubs my feet and pops my toes until I get up. The first time she did this, it well, surprised me, but now I like it. And now I don’t mind her coming in while I’m still sleeping (provided it's after 7:30). Though I think I perplex her as to why I would ever want to sleep so late.
This morning (Saturday) I woke up and it was actually refreshingly cool! It was absolutely pouring outside, and still is. It makes it a lot easier to sleep in, and since it coincided with a Saturday morning it was the best way to begin the weekend. Usually, here in Indonesia, girls never sleep in. Not even on weekends. They’re supposed to always be up before the men, and while all my housemates don’t have their mothers here to harass them, they still struggle to sleep to 8:00 on a Saturday morning. Which, consequently, makes it difficult for me to sleep to 8:00 as well, since there are usually over 6 of us sharing this place. I’m almost always the last up, and Ma’nyak (one of our housekeepers and resident Mom) usually comes into my room and rubs my feet and pops my toes until I get up. The first time she did this, it well, surprised me, but now I like it. And now I don’t mind her coming in while I’m still sleeping (provided it's after 7:30). Though I think I perplex her as to why I would ever want to sleep so late.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Friday, February 10, 2006
English Camp
FHI is active with many projects here in Aceh. I’m part of the educational department, but there are also agricultural, cash for work, and livelihood (grants for local business people) programs. I’ll try to share all of them with you all, but naturally I’ll begin with something I’m directly involved in: English Camp!
We recruit children from the three neighborhoods where FHI is involved, two are neighborhoods that are relatively well off (i.e. everyone has houses) and the third is a large area that was completely destroyed by the tsunami where many kids are still living in tent camps. While walking through the tent rows I was struck once again at how the people here are such survivors. The kids that we were conducting this English Camp for had been through a terrible experience, one that no child should have to face. Losing one’s family members (in many cases both parents), friends, home, possessions, etc is a horrific thing for any person to face. When that person is a child, it makes it even harder to bear. Our heartfelt desire was to allow these children some time to just be kids, and to maybe learn some English as well.
My first English Camp for February 2006 is now over and done. I’m left exhausted, happy and enthusiastic about what I’m doing here in Meulaboh. Every afternoon the excited voices of children echoed up the stairs as they signed in, collected their workbooks, pencils and drawing pad and raced up the 2 flights of stairs to the 3rd floor of our office. And being the top floor, even before the kids got up there, it was a sauna! Meilin, Wira, Bethany and I orchestrated the semi-controlled chaos by having them sit in teams. We sang catchy (too catchy since they’re still in my head) songs that practiced key English phrases we had taught. While the children waited to begin, or waited for their ride home snatches of the song: What’s your name? What’s your name? What’s your name?( clap clap) rang out, mixed with What do you like? What do you like, what do you like Silvia? We chanted vocabulary words, acted out hobbies and decided what food we liked and didn’t like. After English we enjoyed snacks and we tried to practice polite behavior and calm standing in line (still much needed work in those areas), which is a great challenge to children who often get what they want by simply being persistent and loud. Next came the special art time when our country director’s father, an accomplished artist, taught the children simple techniques for drawing. The kids loved this part, and many of them did amazing jobs with perspective and shading. Then came chaos… games! Hot potato, musical chairs, body part tag and grab the treasure were all popular. I was really challenged to think of games for 50 kids in an enclosed HOT space… but we managed, and even enjoyed ourselves! Then at 5:00 we shuttled them back to their neighborhoods, helped by our incredibly patient drivers Chichik and Endang.
All in all, it was a lot of fun. A lot of work too, but the kids’ smiles and enthusiasm definitely made it all worth it. But I am glad that we have a couple weeks before the next English club!
While the songs were repetitive and could be slightly annoying when sung constantly, they did their job by helping the children remember what they had learned. Hopefully by our diligent efforts to provide an educational, fun experience for these children we too will be remembered fondly, and perhaps even spark a desire to learn more of what we had introduced so briefly. This program, as well as all our other programs here, is funded by donations. If you’re interested in helping support what we’re doing here in Aceh, you can click on the Food for the Hungry link here on my blog page!
We recruit children from the three neighborhoods where FHI is involved, two are neighborhoods that are relatively well off (i.e. everyone has houses) and the third is a large area that was completely destroyed by the tsunami where many kids are still living in tent camps. While walking through the tent rows I was struck once again at how the people here are such survivors. The kids that we were conducting this English Camp for had been through a terrible experience, one that no child should have to face. Losing one’s family members (in many cases both parents), friends, home, possessions, etc is a horrific thing for any person to face. When that person is a child, it makes it even harder to bear. Our heartfelt desire was to allow these children some time to just be kids, and to maybe learn some English as well.
My first English Camp for February 2006 is now over and done. I’m left exhausted, happy and enthusiastic about what I’m doing here in Meulaboh. Every afternoon the excited voices of children echoed up the stairs as they signed in, collected their workbooks, pencils and drawing pad and raced up the 2 flights of stairs to the 3rd floor of our office. And being the top floor, even before the kids got up there, it was a sauna! Meilin, Wira, Bethany and I orchestrated the semi-controlled chaos by having them sit in teams. We sang catchy (too catchy since they’re still in my head) songs that practiced key English phrases we had taught. While the children waited to begin, or waited for their ride home snatches of the song: What’s your name? What’s your name? What’s your name?( clap clap) rang out, mixed with What do you like? What do you like, what do you like Silvia? We chanted vocabulary words, acted out hobbies and decided what food we liked and didn’t like. After English we enjoyed snacks and we tried to practice polite behavior and calm standing in line (still much needed work in those areas), which is a great challenge to children who often get what they want by simply being persistent and loud. Next came the special art time when our country director’s father, an accomplished artist, taught the children simple techniques for drawing. The kids loved this part, and many of them did amazing jobs with perspective and shading. Then came chaos… games! Hot potato, musical chairs, body part tag and grab the treasure were all popular. I was really challenged to think of games for 50 kids in an enclosed HOT space… but we managed, and even enjoyed ourselves! Then at 5:00 we shuttled them back to their neighborhoods, helped by our incredibly patient drivers Chichik and Endang.
All in all, it was a lot of fun. A lot of work too, but the kids’ smiles and enthusiasm definitely made it all worth it. But I am glad that we have a couple weeks before the next English club!
While the songs were repetitive and could be slightly annoying when sung constantly, they did their job by helping the children remember what they had learned. Hopefully by our diligent efforts to provide an educational, fun experience for these children we too will be remembered fondly, and perhaps even spark a desire to learn more of what we had introduced so briefly. This program, as well as all our other programs here, is funded by donations. If you’re interested in helping support what we’re doing here in Aceh, you can click on the Food for the Hungry link here on my blog page!
Thursday, February 09, 2006
going away party
Whew! I’ve been crazy busy lately. I’ve been working hard conducting English camps this past week. I’ll write a separate blog entry for those details, once I’ve got some good pictures to show you all.
Last week the Program Manager who had been here for an entire year finished off her contract and returned to the States. Happily, we had a convenient holiday day to give her a good going away party. It was a lot of fun, but at the same time it was a glimpse of what it’s going to be like to leave here. Hard. When you both live and work together, you get close fast. And the nature of this place is that in the absence of entertainment opportunities, you have to provide it yourself, which means that you actually really get to know people, and with FHI that means everyone you work with, including the security guards and housekeepers. Which I think is really cool.
We went to a great beach near the airport and had a fish and chicken barbeque. While there we enjoyed a GREAT sunset. I had tried making lemon bars from scratch, and they really didn’t turn out well. I tried to tell everyone that they were something else (citrom delight, you know something vague like that) so they didn’t expect a lemon bar… but they just laughed. I’m not going to give up though, I’m sure it was the recipe’s fault… really! Happily, Bethany also cooked, and her brownies and cake turned out awesome. We’re all really lucky that Bethany is such a good cook!
Here's the beach!
Bethany, Janes and others grilled some amazing fish and chicken! yum!
Nice sunset, hey? It made for a great end to a great party!
On other news, I think Simone (the gecko) and Herman have a thing going, because the other morning I woke up and there was the cutest tiny little baby gecko on the wall right by my head. His name is Pachito. He’s a good addition because he’s already hunting those nasty mosquitoes.
Here's Simone, at least I think it's Simone. There is a chance that it's Herman. To tell you the truth, it's a bit difficult to tell them apart.
Last week the Program Manager who had been here for an entire year finished off her contract and returned to the States. Happily, we had a convenient holiday day to give her a good going away party. It was a lot of fun, but at the same time it was a glimpse of what it’s going to be like to leave here. Hard. When you both live and work together, you get close fast. And the nature of this place is that in the absence of entertainment opportunities, you have to provide it yourself, which means that you actually really get to know people, and with FHI that means everyone you work with, including the security guards and housekeepers. Which I think is really cool.
We went to a great beach near the airport and had a fish and chicken barbeque. While there we enjoyed a GREAT sunset. I had tried making lemon bars from scratch, and they really didn’t turn out well. I tried to tell everyone that they were something else (citrom delight, you know something vague like that) so they didn’t expect a lemon bar… but they just laughed. I’m not going to give up though, I’m sure it was the recipe’s fault… really! Happily, Bethany also cooked, and her brownies and cake turned out awesome. We’re all really lucky that Bethany is such a good cook!
Here's the beach!
Bethany, Janes and others grilled some amazing fish and chicken! yum!
Nice sunset, hey? It made for a great end to a great party!
On other news, I think Simone (the gecko) and Herman have a thing going, because the other morning I woke up and there was the cutest tiny little baby gecko on the wall right by my head. His name is Pachito. He’s a good addition because he’s already hunting those nasty mosquitoes.
Here's Simone, at least I think it's Simone. There is a chance that it's Herman. To tell you the truth, it's a bit difficult to tell them apart.
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