Day 4 (a little late)

23/7/11

Today is Saturday and it’s the fourth day that I’ve been here!! It’s quite ironic really, because everything happens so slowly here, but then time has gone really quickly! It’s funny how you anticipate how things will be.

Like, I didn’t think that there would be geckos in my room – yes, plural – there were three last night. Two in my little ensuite thingy and one in my actual room. They’re a bit like huntsmans really, in that I don’t mind them if they stay on the ceiling and don’t move. It’s when they’re gone that I start getting nervous and shake out my underwear before I put it on!! Ha! Though, that said, I’d actually prefer geckos to huntsmans, although their beady eyes do unnerve me a little!

The weather here is great! I love mid to high 30’s, and at this time of the year the humidity isn’t too bad for me – although my hair doesn’t agree. As soon as I stepped off the plane into Bali the halo of frizz arrived and it arrived with avengence and I think it’s here for the duration of my stay! We’ll see what we can do!

The classroom is looking fantastic! I thought I was going to be working with nothing, but they’ve stocked up well here! The wooden desks were made for the kids and they look so cute! The children are so excited to have their own desk!

Unfortunately there is only cold water in the showers/bathroom, but fortunately it comes out at about 23 degrees so it ends up being lovely and refreshing. Squatting toilets prove to be interesting and let me just say that I understand why they leave their shoes off when entering buildings!! Ha! Fortunately there are some western toilets that can be used.

Some interesting things I have seen are a small snake. It was quite cute – not poisonous – but long and slender. It was chillaxing on the path up to  the meal house. I saw this giant millipede thing and was poking it with a glass bottle to try to make it curl up into a circle – I found out after that they squirt a poison at you that causes you to bleed. It can make you go blind if it gets in your eye and it makes the grass die when it dies!!! Flip! I wish I knew that before I started playing with it, ha!! On my first couple of nights in Indonesia I got eaten alive by mosquitoes!! I counted upward of 73! When I showed Amy she asked if I slept with my fan on – which I didn’t – because I wasn’t hot enough and thought I’d be good and save unnecessary power usage. I then found out that the fan blows the mozzies away... I have slept with my fan on since then and haven’t seemed to have gotten many new bites!!! Oh the joys of learning the hard way!

On the way to the airport in Manado, we took the scooter! With a backpack on my back, both of us on the bike, my big bag on the floor part betwen Epen’s legs and my laptop on top of that –it took about half an hour to get there!! My butt was so sore!! There’s not much choice in sitting position on a scooter... But luckily we made it – and I never felt like I was going to die, so that’s gotta be a good thing. The bad thing was that we were traveling after I only had 4 hours’ sleep, so I was wrecked, and I also wanted to kill the rooster at the base. It was horrible. Imagine a rooster trying to crow at the TOP of his voice and you’re about half way there. Next time I’m there I hope we eat him for dinner.

Speaking of food – it’s not so bad. I’m sure it’ll get boring soon, but at the moment I’m ok with that. For breakfast at the moment, we’ve been having deep fried bread ball thingies. They’re quite nice, although a bit of jam wouldn’t go astray! Lunch and dinner are rice and vegies and fish heads. But they cook the fish heads in chili so I don’t eat them. There’s also something about eating fish heads... Maybe it’s the eyeballs? Or the mouth? I don’t know – I blame it on the chili...

I have met the children in my class and they are so adorable! I love to hear them repeating things after me, and learning new English words. There’s a range of ages with the most being 5-7 year olds with some older ones too. Their abilities range from reasonably fluent English to no English, and some have been to school before and others haven’t. Some of them are rich, indulged kids and others are orphans who have had a start to life!!! A real ecclectic bunch! But they’re so smiley and most are willing to give everything a go.

The last few days have been spent getting the classroom ready (hopefullly I can put some pictures in here) and getting to know the routines. There are a couple of girls in my dorm wing who think I’m cool and although they speak limited English and I speak limited Indonesian, it works somehow. They all wanted photos with me this morning – all I could do was smile, ha ha ha! Nothing like being famous! I will start Indonesian lessons on Monday – and school also starts on Monday – so your thoughts are greatly appreciated for that day.

Well that’s what I have time for now. We claim to have high speed internet – I’d hate to see the ‘speed’ of normal internet then. This is about as good as average speed dial up. But hey, it’s internet, and it keeps me connected!!

Much love to you all! xoxo

Aimee

 Here is one of my room mates.

My Ensuite. Luckily there is a western toilet elsewhere I can use so this becomes my shower room!

Looking out over the main field (to your left) and the driveway leads to Asrama (the dormitories where I stay and the main meeting room.

Asrama. I stay in the rooms behind these ones. Those steps are where 2 pairs of my thongs have been stolen, so far not to be recovered... 

One of the rare, beautiful clear mornings here. Usually it's overcast until mid morning.

The walkway from the main site down and up to the clinics and the eating area.