The End is Nigh

          So a lot has happened in the last week, the most exciting of which is the fact that I’ve hit the two-week mark until the end of my grant. While Indonesia has been an often challenging but ultimately rewarding experience I can’t help but to think of this as the days tick down

         As is usually the pattern with me when living a long way from home for long periods of time, as the end draws near, I’m really just chomping at the bit to get home. Feelings of nostalgia/wishing time would slow down usually don’t kick in till about a month after I’ve settled back into old routines. So while I would love my last few posts in Indonesia to consist of thoughtful reflections about my time here and its impact…I’ve got a 11 day whirlwind tour of Vietnam to plan. However I do regret not taking more photographic documentation of the absurd things I see every day. My lack of visual evidence is partly due to the fact that I’ve tried to exist here offering the same respect that I wish to receive. My first few weeks in Indonesia consisted of an endless round of photographs, some with permission, but many taken on the sly with camera phones as if my friends and I were the Indonesia equivalent of the Kardashians. So while I might want to take a picture of that man on the street cradling his rooster like a baby, we get what we give. However seeing that I’m in the final stretch, I’ll see what oracular surprises I can come up with.

Last weekend also saw the completion of the long awaited WORDS competition. No, WORDS is not an acronym, but we’ve been writing it in all caps for so long that it just feels wrong not to do so. WORDS is this big fancy national English presentation competition that began about 3 years ago and has fallen to me and my fellow ETAs to continue the legacy. Last Friday 86 ETAs and students descended upon Jakarta for an exciting weekend of English speaking, bowling and sight seeing around Jakarta.  The competition itself was held in a venue aptly named “@America” in the fanciest mall in Jakarta. Obvious grammatical issues aside, @America was a really cool venue that teaches young Indonesians that upon their arrival to America, an fancy new iPad will be placed into their waiting hands. No seriously, all of our kids got to play with iPads during the competition, which unfortunately turned out to be more of a problem for ETA attention spans than the kids’.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to see much of the competition since I was stage-managing, aka doing damage control, during the entire event. However I did briefly turn over my duties to my assistants to I could watch my student Iin’s presentation.

       After the competition we took all of our student’s bowling. Although I haven’t been bowling in years, I have this deep and abiding hatred for the “sport”.  However it wasn’t until about two rounds into wearing used shoes that I remembered why…I’m embarrassingly bad at it. And like any self-respecting type a perfectionist, I really hate participating in activities that I’m no good at. However, what mattered is that IIn had an awesome time (did I mention she got to meet one of the hottest Indo-pop stars at the Ambassador’s house in Jakarta), I got to indulge in TWO types of free wine at the ambassador’s house, tiramisu doughnuts were consumed, and at the end of it all Iin’s driver dropped me off at home so I didn’t have to fight with a taxi driver at the end of the what was possibly my longest weekend to date in Indonesia.