Saved to Serve to Education America to Indonesia version of Six Flags

Ok so this one is going to be long so bear with me.

So we visited a school called SPH. This was a Christian school with a motto of Saved to serve.  The school was mostly Korean students as their parents are living in Indonesia for business industry.   The kids were fun.  We played Jenga, chess, and musical chairs.  We got a tour of the school and saw that music is important to the school.  The day we went to the school it was the last day of school for the kids so imagine what your last day of school was like when you like 8 years old. So we were a treat for them.  So at the end of the day there was a school assembly where they kids did a presentation to us on Indonesia.  Then the gym teacher sang us a song and she has a beautiful voice then she taught us a traditional Indonesian dance that look just like the Electric slide and you know we showed out cause we know the dance.  They were like how did you all know the dance; you all learn the moves so quickly!! I was like, we call that the Bus Stop in Black America!!

Next day we went to Education America where we learned about the American and Indonesian education partnership efforts.  Florida State University, U Mass Amherst, Texas A&M have partnership where the Indonesia will get a degree from there but still do course work here in Indonesia.  It was a very nice facility.  You would have thought we walked into a technology museum as they had on the walls famous American scientists, inventors etc.  On this day I found out I had a fever and was not feeling good at all.  Good thing we brought out own pharmacy with us.  I was able to break the fever and once I got home I slept all afternoon and evening.  But Education America was a nice place. We met some university students who were there for a clean energy seminar and they wanted to meet us.  One of the first questions I got was “What would you suggest to help our traffic in Jakarta?” In my heard I was like, are we going to start with this question- WOW!! I really did not have an answer.  Then they asked me about my schooling and getting a PhD is it hard.  They asked about New York City, but you know me being from Chicago I directed them to that city- told them much friendlier and cleaner- LOL. I don’t really remember much from that day but I did sleep a lot on the bus ride and when I got home.

On Saturday we went shopping, we saw how Batik was made. Batik is the fashion here; it is the print that most Indonesian wears. It can be a very busy pattern to a very simple one. But we know on Fridays, is Batik Fridays.  I made one pattern and it is very hard you need to have a steady hand and have good spatial sense when you want to “free hand” some designs.  Then we traveled to the do the 5k or the Hash Run.  OMG folks it was so humid and hot out there. Let me try and describe this experience for you.  So we paid 60,000 Rupiah or $7.50 USD- cheap right??? This was a run where the trail was marked by confetti like we had to follow these markers along the path and some times you were lead the wrong way and had to double back and look for confetti to get back on the right path.  Ok so you know that part of the Anaconda movie when they were in the forest walking  or the Blair Witch project, that is what it was like, it was not that dark but it was getting their and our Tour Guide Mr. John who works at President University, he was like all about this Hash Run, pulled out his GPS and we followed him, mind you he had like 3 beers before we started the run.  This is who we were are following, and then him and his wife started to argue while we were looking for this damn confetti while we had to fight off mosquitos and plant life!! I was sooooooo ready to be home back in the dorms for a nice cold shower.

In a general sense, I am having a good time. We don’t have internet access we were told we would have. The showers are cold, the size of the cock roaches here are huge and they fly, yes fly!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have not eaten to much of the food as remember I saw them wash their dishes on the side of the road- that just did not sit right with me. I sweat bullets here!!!! Places I did not think would sweat have water dripping down it!!  There is trash everywhere it is not that clean here!! But I am so glad that I went and I got this experience!! It has really made me miss home and be more appreciative of what I have at home. 

That is us at the start of the Hash Run!!