This past week has just flashed before my very eyes. So much has happened that it’s hard to keep up with just for myself.
I have officially moved into the village I will be with for the next 2 years. Not without complications of course!
On my way to my new home, of course, the rain was terrible and forced me to stop in a small village along they way. They told me I could sit on their porch with them, drink coffee, and wait out the rain. So I did! However, I didn’t realize that it was lunch time and they lived across the street from the school.
Have you ever had 150 children surround you and stare at you and then look away when you look at them? No? I suggest giving it a whirl. It’s truly traumatizing.
I ended up sleeping in the village that night with one of the teachers from the school. She happened to be the only person in the village that spoke English, therefore she offered to take me home. I mean, when a stranger offers to take you home to their family, you go, right?
It turned out being the best decision I’ve made in a while. Upon entering her humble home, I was greeted with a crying mother who had never met a westerner before and was elated to finally do so. The entire family lived together (grandma, mom, dad, etc) and were genuinely the kindest group of people i have met in Indonesia thus far. They were tons of fun to stay with, cooked wonderful food, had awesome stories, were joyous, and have adopted me. I’m pretty happy to add a new extended family to my tree.
After parting with my new family I finally arrived to my village and got settled into my new bamboo house, or ‘pondok’.
I was quickly folded into family life in the village and the center of attention for 5 days straight until I put my foot down. They took me to all the surrounding villages. Had all their friends come to meet me. And brought me to drink coffee at almost every house in the neighborhood.
I’ve attended numerous ceremonies in sacrifices in the last week, met hundreds of new people, started learning a 2nd and 3rd language, and began my new (temporary) diet of cassava leaves and rice.
Life in the village is like getting lost in space. There is no concept of time or obligations. It’s pretty crazy. But I can compare it exactly with my job at burning man. It hasn’t proven to be difficult or uncomfortable here yet because I’ve already done this but in an even hotter location surrounded by 60,000 people on drugs. So really…..its a cinch.
I’ve spent my days cleaning garbage off the beach, swimming in the ocean everyday, hanging out in the kitchen with the ladies and gossiping, going to rituals with the dad, meeting all the village heads, touring every bodies gardens, learning which child is worse than the others, and bribing children with candy to do dirty work for me like crawling under my house to retrieve the key I dropped the cracks.
No way I’m doing that, there are scorpions!
The children here rarely wear clothes because why? Nobody to impress. The grandmothers have a habit of grabbing my chin and shaking my head in the way that grandmas in the states pinch your cheeks. They are also fond of rubbing their noses on my cheek.
I’ve woken up multiple nights to many people yelling and chasing water buffalo out of the garden that are eating the corn (the worst of their worries). I have almost ran over monkeys numerous times because they are on the same intelligence level as raccoons. I have befriended grumpy, remote villagers who spend their days sitting on salted fish and picking seeds of fluff.
I’ve also spent a lot of time working and supervising the building of the new house. It’s been challenging to say the least. The concept of time, obligations, planning, and logic are scarce here. They try their hardest but you really have to manage the project closely. There has been lots of confusion and mistakes. Lots of things lost in translation. And lots of frustrating moments.
But all the good things are on par with all the rough things.
This is turning out to be a highly rewarding job that is challenging me on all sorts of levels.
I promise, you don’t want to work for me after I’m through with this job.
I have officially moved into the village I will be with for the next 2 years. Not without complications of course!
On my way to my new home, of course, the rain was terrible and forced me to stop in a small village along they way. They told me I could sit on their porch with them, drink coffee, and wait out the rain. So I did! However, I didn’t realize that it was lunch time and they lived across the street from the school.
Have you ever had 150 children surround you and stare at you and then look away when you look at them? No? I suggest giving it a whirl. It’s truly traumatizing.
I ended up sleeping in the village that night with one of the teachers from the school. She happened to be the only person in the village that spoke English, therefore she offered to take me home. I mean, when a stranger offers to take you home to their family, you go, right?
It turned out being the best decision I’ve made in a while. Upon entering her humble home, I was greeted with a crying mother who had never met a westerner before and was elated to finally do so. The entire family lived together (grandma, mom, dad, etc) and were genuinely the kindest group of people i have met in Indonesia thus far. They were tons of fun to stay with, cooked wonderful food, had awesome stories, were joyous, and have adopted me. I’m pretty happy to add a new extended family to my tree.
After parting with my new family I finally arrived to my village and got settled into my new bamboo house, or ‘pondok’.
I was quickly folded into family life in the village and the center of attention for 5 days straight until I put my foot down. They took me to all the surrounding villages. Had all their friends come to meet me. And brought me to drink coffee at almost every house in the neighborhood.
I’ve attended numerous ceremonies in sacrifices in the last week, met hundreds of new people, started learning a 2nd and 3rd language, and began my new (temporary) diet of cassava leaves and rice.
Life in the village is like getting lost in space. There is no concept of time or obligations. It’s pretty crazy. But I can compare it exactly with my job at burning man. It hasn’t proven to be difficult or uncomfortable here yet because I’ve already done this but in an even hotter location surrounded by 60,000 people on drugs. So really…..its a cinch.
I’ve spent my days cleaning garbage off the beach, swimming in the ocean everyday, hanging out in the kitchen with the ladies and gossiping, going to rituals with the dad, meeting all the village heads, touring every bodies gardens, learning which child is worse than the others, and bribing children with candy to do dirty work for me like crawling under my house to retrieve the key I dropped the cracks.
No way I’m doing that, there are scorpions!
The children here rarely wear clothes because why? Nobody to impress. The grandmothers have a habit of grabbing my chin and shaking my head in the way that grandmas in the states pinch your cheeks. They are also fond of rubbing their noses on my cheek.
I’ve woken up multiple nights to many people yelling and chasing water buffalo out of the garden that are eating the corn (the worst of their worries). I have almost ran over monkeys numerous times because they are on the same intelligence level as raccoons. I have befriended grumpy, remote villagers who spend their days sitting on salted fish and picking seeds of fluff.
I’ve also spent a lot of time working and supervising the building of the new house. It’s been challenging to say the least. The concept of time, obligations, planning, and logic are scarce here. They try their hardest but you really have to manage the project closely. There has been lots of confusion and mistakes. Lots of things lost in translation. And lots of frustrating moments.
But all the good things are on par with all the rough things.
This is turning out to be a highly rewarding job that is challenging me on all sorts of levels.
I promise, you don’t want to work for me after I’m through with this job.