Reflection

Hey again
I've been back in Europe now for four months. I have had my returning seminars, given my returning presentations and thought long and hard about what happened during that amazing year. I have written a report for my organisation, a reflection of what Indonesia meant. 


Indonesia and my time there are still hard for me to understand and the reflection process doesn't just stop. My views might be different in six months or five years from now. But now for your reading pleasure, here it is:

                I am now back from Indonesia and have been so for about one and a half months. Now I must reflect about what I experienced during this extraordinary year. It’s been pretty surprising to come back and slide so effortlessly into my old life here in Germany; I get on great with everyone who I am meeting again: my family, my friends and my German network. In fact, it feels as if that gargantuan, self-contained chapter of my life labeled “Indonesia” never happened. And yet I know (not just from myself, but from other people in my life) that I have changed during the year. Most of the other volunteers I spoke with during our seminar feel like this too.

                This highlights another difficulty we are all facing, especially with regards to reflecting on our now completed year. Since my arrival I have slipped into dozens of small-talk conversations, mostly sparked by the question: “So, how was Indonesia?”, to which I only ever answer: “It was good”, “It was great”, “It was fantastic” or some combination of those. Every time this happens, I am reminded of how impossible it is for me to accurately convey the things I did, thought, and learned in Indonesia to someone who wasn’t there to share that experience with me, not to mention to cram all of that information into a lighthearted-sounding sentence, which would be acceptable in small-talk. I cannot even explain “Indonesia” to my family, though they know and understand a lot more than most of my social contacts; they avidly followed my blog entries, my phone calls and emails and thus, were able to visualize my time there, as it was happening.

                This is why I struggle to consciously analyze my year. It isn’t some solid experience that can be looked at clearly in retrospect, but a narrative which flowed and was most relevant while it was happening. Now I am left only with the result, the impact it has had on my view of the world and its shaping of my character.

                The only people with whom I have had meaningful, inspiring and educational discussions about a year like this are the other volunteers that I met at the seminar. It gave me an environment of people who understood me, and who had shared many of the high and low points of my year (each in their individual situation). All had been disappointed by how little they could actually achieve, all had had problems with intercultural misunderstandings or language barriers and the year’s general deviation from their expectations. But all had also managed to overcome these problems and actively shape their own years to create something with which they were satisfied. Even if most of us wouldn’t have wanted to do another year in the same locations, everybody I talked to told me that after the initial low, they improved their own experience single-handedly and that the improvements were constant. The seminar, as well as the exercises lead by the team there, gave us volunteers an important framework. It provided a lens through which we could look at the year and order the jumble of memories which we all carried in our heads. Without it, this report would not have made much sense.

Among other things, this year clarified my perception of the professionalism in volunteering. I discovered my own limitations as a development worker, as I had no qualifications and tried to punch my way through the system with enthusiasm alone. But as my service went on, I stopped scrutinizing myself through that lens, and formulated my own interpretation of what it means to volunteer. The volunteer can, in my opinion, seep into all the cracks which the professionals in the project do not have the time or incentive to reach. The volunteer arrives fresh and eager to give. Oftentimes that means that he/she has the energy and the will to initiate their own projects where the professionals might have gotten too comfortable with the ordinary way of doing things. I did this in my project in part by including the occasional game, song or story I knew into the lessons. The individual attention I gave many of the students (the eager, to boost their confidence and the inactive, to motivate them) in and out of class is another example of me doing a job for which the teacher simply didn’t have the necessary time. The role of the volunteer is similar to that of a man spending his civil service in a German hospital; he’s not a doctor or a nurse, but he does little jobs here and there and spends extra time with the patients. Though these tasks are relatively small, they add up to become a valuable addition to the hospital.

                In terms of my personal development, I most enjoyed being around Indonesians during my year. I found it fascinating to observe what motivated them to do what they did and compare that to what motivates my behavior.

As for the culture, I only truly realized what made some elements of Indonesian culture so distinctive until I came back to Germany. All of a sudden it’s no longer OK to eat with your hands, to walk across a busy street with nothing but your outstretched hand to order the drivers to halt for you or to wear a sarong in public. Male friends barely touch each other and strangers find it weird when you smile and greet them in a corridor or an elevator. I often have to stop myself from saying the words “silakhan” meaning, “please, go right ahead” and “nggak apa apa” which means “no problem”. Things that I would associate with the Javanese culture right now are the heavy emphasis on hospitality, solidarity with friends and family as well as platonic intimacy within everyday relationships. These are the things which I currently miss, I only hope that I can carry some of the positive things I have learned within me and keep them from slipping away, as I immerse myself once more in the busy European world.

To future volunteers I would recommend learning the language as quickly as possible. This is the key to successfully integrating yourself into your project and your host family. It is also entirely up to you, how quickly you manage to do this. It adds fluidity to your relationships with Indonesians, most of whom will be happy to know you are trying to learn and will help you along the way. Forcing yourself to speak Indonesian rather than English or German will let you grasp the language far quicker than if you only socialize in the volunteer circles around you. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to learn a language utterly different from your own, straight from the source. You should make the most of it.

One more note about the language though: during the year you will often still be confronted by situations where you have no clue of what is being said, simply because so many different languages are spoken in Indonesia, and you haven’t the time to learn them all. Right from the start you should therefore make up your mind which language you want to focus on: Indonesian or Javanese.

Inodnesian is useful for travel since almost all Indonesians learn this language in school, usually as their second language. However, it has only been the national language for 65 years and most Indonesians tend to use it only in formal settings, or when speaking to natives of different islands within Indonesia.

Javanese on the other hand is the mother tongue of most Indonesians on Java. In casual situations, or when amongst themselves, they only speak Javanese. If you come along to your circle of Indonesian friends and only speak Indonesian, you won’t understand a thing when they talk to each other. In addition, because the Indonesian language sounds much more formal to them than their casual Javanese, most interactions between them and you will not achieve the laid-back nature of their conversations in Javanese. Learning Javanese is the one thing I would have done differently had I had the chance to.

        There is one more question which I have not actually ever been asked by people in person, but which I am meant to answer in part by writing this report: “Was your year abroad as you expected it to be?” The answer is no, and that’s a good thing.

        I vaguely imagined (before having left Germany) that I would be working in a both exotic and exciting place, dripping with interesting culture and impressions. I believed that my work, not yet knowing what I would be doing, would be easy, and that I would find independence and fulfillment in the year. That was what I boarded the plane to Jakarta with, and most of these convictions turned out to be wrong. I have trouble describing my attitude just before leaving more precisely, because none of it is left by now and I can barely remembering what I was like back then. Even if I could specify what I expected from my Indonesian year at the beginning, it wouldn’t help to prepare any future volunteers reading this for their own voluntary service; only you can make those realizations. Your year will definitely be different from what you initially expect it to be, but that is part of this experience and will enrich, rather than disappoint you.

        Dejavato was great in helping us settle in and aided us in any problems, which it had the power to influence. My host family also supported me, especially when I got sick. Don’t forget that this year is also about you standing on your own two feet, you will of course get support for the major problems which might occur, but you should be able to handle most things on your own.

        I hope that you could gain an insight into my mind through this report and that it can help you prepare yourself mentally for the challenge ahead. But in the end even my most vivid descriptions cannot replace what you will experience out there, so have fun gathering your own impressions. All the best!

And it's already time to say goodbye...

Hey everyone, this is my last post while I'm still in Indonesia.

I spent the past few weeks buying buying presents for people here and in Germany and spent time with the people I cared about, as my return home drew ever nearer. I already bade my host family and my project farewell and now I am staying at my friend's house in Semarang. Tonight we will invite some friends as well as the volunteers for one last get together, before we fly to jakarta tomorrow morning and onwards to Germany.

This year is probably the most exciting and different thing I've done in my life so far and I want to thank my host family, my friends and all the people who made this experience what it was.

More pictures from Wonosobo

Six Month Report

One of the requirements for the Weltwaerts programme is that the volunteer must write a 3-month and a 6-month report while they are in their host country. I recently finished mine. It's in German but it might still be interesting for you, especially if you're thinking of doing a weltwaerts volutneer service here.

So here it is:

Ich habe mich inzwischen in meinem Projekt super eingelebt. Die Lehrer und die Schueler sind meine Freunde und es macht mir generell Spass, in der Schule zu unterrichten. Die Sprache kann ich nun auch praktisch fliessend (vom Javanesischen verstehe ich auch mehr, aber noch lange nicht so viel wie vom Indonesischen).

Das liegt zum Einen daran, dass Indonesisch sehr einfach zu lernen ist und zum Anderen daran, dass ich im Alltag so viel Indonesisch verwende. Indonesisch ist meilenweit entfernt vom Franzoesischen, Deutschen oder Englischen, die Sprachen die ich vor diesem Jahr konnte. Diese europaeischen Sprachen aehneln sich alle sehr, da ist Indonesisch etwas voellig Anderes. Ich habe auch gemerkt, dass ich in dieser Sprache anders denke. Ich erinnere mich in der Schule einmal die Sapir-Whorf Hypothese durchgenommen zu haben, und obwohl ich sie  nicht unterstuetzte, merke ich hier, dass doch ein bisschen etwas dran ist. Die Hypothese besagt, dass die Sprache so eng mit dem Denken verbunden ist, dass man in verschiedenne Sprachen auch verschieden denkt.

Meine Faehigkeiten kann ich meist sinnvoll einbringen, allerdings bin ich aber auch manchmal frustriert. Die Lernkultur ist hier einfach anders. Laengere Hausaufgaben so wie ich sie aus Deutschland kannte gibt es hier garnicht. In den Klausuren ist es auch anders als in Deutschland.

Neulich habe ich bei den Mitt-Semesterpruefungen die Schueler beim Arbeiten mitbeaufsichtigt. Fuer die Schueler war es total selbstverstaendlich, ihren Tischnachbarn wahrend der Pruefung zu helfen, oder um ihre Hilfe zu bitten. Wo ich aus deutschen Pruefungssituationen abesloute Stille gewohnt war, gab es hier ein durchdringendes tiefes Gemurmel. Ich habe in meinem eigenen Saal dafuer gesorgt, dass niemand schummelt. Dazu musste ich aber sehr streng sein. Das hat weder mir, noch den Schuelern gefallen.

Die Klassen sind auch sehr gross. Meistens stehe ich mit dem anderen Englischlehrer vierzig Schuelern gegenueber. Unter denen gibt es einige die wirklich viel verstehen (meistens die Maedchen) aber auch welche die weniger verstehen und oft abschalten (meistens die Jungs). In der ersten elften Klasse zum Beispiel gibt es einige Schueler die die verschiedenen „Tenses“ drauf haben, ein grosses Vokabular vorzeigen und auch selbsbewusst eigene Saetze bilden koennen. Dann gibt es auch welche die nicht zwischen den „Tenses“ unterscheiden koennen, und auch viele Vokabeln nicht verstehen. Unser Problem ist, dass wir nicht alle gleizeitig nach ihren Beduerfnissen foerdern koennen.

Meine Loesung dazu ist, den Unterricht meist interaktiv zu gestalten. Anfangs habe ich viel passiv gelerht: wir (die andere Englischlehrerin und ich) sprachen und die Schueler schreiben ab. Jetzt erklaeren wir oft nur die Struktur, schreibe dann mit dem Input der Schueler einige Beispiele and die Tafel und geben dann Aufgaben zum Selbermachen. 

Neulich zum Beispiel lernten wir in einer elftklaessler Englischstunde die verschiedenen Adverbien, also Adverbien fuer „Place“, „Time“, „Frequency“, „Degree“ und „Manner“. Mein Tafelbild bestand aus einer leeren Tabelle mit Spalten fuer die Adverbien. Danach erklaerte ich jedes Adverb, Spalte fuer Spalte, und fuellte die Tabelle mit Beispielsaetzen. Diese wurden von der Klasse und mir zusammen konstruiert. Ich fragte also nach einem Subjekt, sie gaben mir eins. Ich fragte nach einem Verb, sie gaben mir eins. Ich fragte welche „Tense“ sie verwenden wollten, sie sagten sie mir. Nachdem wir dann gemeinsam die Tabelle voll geschrieben hatten, schrieb ich den Schuelern Aufgaben auf Indonesisch an die Tafel. Waehrend sie arbeiteten gingen Bu Laily (die andere Englischlehrererin) und ich zwischen denn Tischen umher und halfen ihnen. Diese Methode funktioniert viel besser als meine frueheren Lehrervortraege, besonders da wir dann beim Selbermachen den schwaecheren Schuelern individuell helfen koennen. So macht es auch mehr Spass, besonders wenn die Schueler gute Arbeit leisten.

Ich lerne auf jeden Fall etwas dazu, ich kann mich nun wirklich in die Lage meiner frueheren Lehrer hineinversetzen. Sie verdienen Respekt fuer ihren Beruf, Lehrer sein ist echt anstrengend. Fuer die verbleibende Zeit (an die fuenf Monate) moechte ich meinen Lehrstil noch weiter verbessern. Ich moechte, dass meine Zeit hier so nuetzlich wie moeglich fuer meine Projektschule war.

Meine Gaststiuation ist auch super, ich habe einige Freunde in der Gegend, auch wenn es keine sehr engen Freunde sind. Auf dem Dorf bin ich noch immer etwas sehr Besonderes. Da ist das Freundschaftsverhaeltniss zu sehr davon belastet, dass mir alle mit einem Respekt entgegenkommen, den ich mir nicht verdient habe, sondern nur erhalte wiel ich aus dem Westen komme. Engere freundschaftliche Beziehungen habe ich in der Stadt Semarang, da sind wirklich ein Paar sehr coole Leute. Die stellen sich auch nicht unter mich, blos weil ich „Bule“ bin. Mit meiner Gastfamillie ist auch alles bestens, wie im letzten Bericht. Sie sagten mir neulich, dass ich schon wie ein leiblicher Teil der Famillie bin. So fuehle ich mich auch.

Einen Alltag habe ich schon seit laengerer Zeit. Ich fahre jeden Morgen um sieben zur Schule, unterrichte sechs Stunden lang und komme dann zwischen eins und zwei zurueck nach Hause. Danach steht mir der Tag meist offen: mal mache ich Sport, mal lese ich, mal arbeite ich oder bereite Unterricht vor. Manchmal treffe ich mich mit den anderen Freiwilligen und an manchen Wochenenden fahren wir nach Semarang um dort etwas zu unternehmen oder irgendetwas zu besorgen, was wir nicht im Dorf bekommen koennen.

Mittlerweile habe ich mich schon sehr an Indonesien gewoehnt. Sachen, bei denen ich in den ersten Monaten noch verdutzt geguckt haette, machen mich schon nicht mehr an. Ich zuecke nicht mehr die Kamera, wenn ich sehe wie eine fuenf-Personen Famillie auf einem Motorrad vorbeifaehrt oder ich Krabben, Aale und Fische im Reisfeld leben sehe.

An die Kultur habe ich mich auch gewoehnt. Ich bringe oft „ole-ole“s (Mitbringsel in Form von Essen) mit, biete und nehme angebotenes Essen an, respektiere die aelteren Menschen, esse im Schneidersitz auf dem Boden mit der rechten Hand... Viele der kultureigenen Benehmen habe ich mir angeignet und den kulturellen Regeln folge ich.

Allerdings gibt es auch einige Elemente der indonesischen, oder zumindest der javanesischen, Kultur mit denen ich nicht uebereinstimme. Darunter sind das haufige Essen und Trinken von suessen Sachen, das Frauenbild hier und die Obsession ueber weisse Haut. Aber meine Meinung hierzu moechte ich in diesem Bericht nicht weiter erlaeutern, bildet euch gefaelligst dazu eure eigene Meinung, wenn ihr erst einmal hier seid.

So, das wars auch schon mit meinem zweiten Bericht. Ich hoffe, ihr konntet euch ein schoenes Bild von meinen Eindruecken machen. Wenn ihr diesen Sommer oder Winter nach Indonesien reist, dann freut euch: ich bin sicher es wird ein spannendes und eindrucksstarkes Jahr!

Aus dem Dorf Batukali wuensch ich euch alles Gute.

Arnaud

Workcamp pictures

Sweet, freshly peeled pineapple.

Knocking paint off the walls.

Our welcome in the village office.

Our bus broke down...

The workcamp with the Koreans

I’m back from Wonosobo and it was absolutely fantastic. I made some great new Korean/Indonesian friends, stayed in a very friendly community and had a positive impact on the village.

Our project was located in the mountain village of Kalimendong which is a fifteen minute drive away from Wonosobo, the largest city in the region. Our tasks were to help renovate the three toilets of the first primary school in the mornings and to teach English in the first and second primary schools in the afternoons. The Koreans were also encouraged to present elements of their own culture, language and customs to the students on those afternoons. We had exactly two weeks to achieve these goals.

All in all there were two German volunteers (Paula and me), four Indonesian volunteers (Nensy, Novi, Anggun and Janah) and eight Korean volunteers (Daniel, Jee-Hye, Chang-Hyong, Son-Hung, Hye-Rin, Sang-En, Son-Mi and Tyler). The ceramic tiles, the cement and pretty much all the materials we used to renovate the toilets were financed through the volunteer’s participation fees (180 US dollars per volunteer).

The day before the work camp started Paula and I took the bus to Semarang so that we could meet our work camp leaders at the Dejavato office. Now, the Dejavato office is rarely empty, one or two staff members are usually there along with the occasional volunteer passing through, but on that day the house was crammed with people. Mas Ketut (Dejavato’s founder and leader) often lets several work camps run simultaneously; on the day Paula and I arrived we found the leaders of no less than three work camps, some Korean volunteers who had arrived early, the Dejavato staff and some interns from Semarang’s Diponogoro university all jammed into the small house.

After we met our camp leaders (Anggun and Janah) and the two interns who were joining us (Nensy and Novi) we waited until six o’clock to pick up our Korean volunteers from the airport. I remember it was raining heavily (we are after all in the rainy season by now) and soon the two rented angkots (public minibuses) arrived to take us to the airport. Due to the bad weather the Korean’s flights had been delayed for one hour and so Paula, I and the Indonesian volunteers had some instant cup noodles while we waited. We ate the “Mie Goreng” which means fried noodles; I’m not sure how it works, but we simply added the in-package seasoning sachet to the noodles and they tasted as if we had fried them, even though they had only been boiled.

The Koreans finally arrived and we introduced ourselves. They had brought several parcels of Korean food and ingredients with them which we were to enjoy in Wonosobo on the “Korean cooking evening”. We managed to fit everyone and our bags into the two angkots and then we were off to the Dejavato Centre.

The Dejavato Centre is where Dejavato usually receives larger groups of volunteers and it is essentially the house of Mas Ketut’s wealthy uncle in Ungaran,. It is outfitted with 16 bunk beds and is large enough to accommodate that many people. It even has a pool which the uncle lets the volunteers and the students of the nearby middle school swim in.

Paula and I were both very excited to go to the Dejavato centre because we too had, at the beginning of our volunteer service back in August, arrived there fresh from Germany and still completely baffled by Indonesia. It was in this building that we had passed our initial two week orientation seminar on Indonesia, the language, the culture and how to live here. Now, six months later, we were looking forward to the rush of memories and emotions we would experience when we entered that house again in a different, far more adapted state.

We also got the chance to speak with Mas Ketut’s uncle. On our first visit we had not understood any Indonesian and although we had received a very warm welcome from him and his wife, we could not express our gratitude for their hospitality effectively. He was very pleasantly surprised when we greeted him in fluent Indonesian and had a nice chat together. We also spoke to his wife and I remembered how Paula, I and the other German volunteers had learned some of our first Indonesian words with them as they taught us the children’s song “Balonku ada lima”.

After that night we traveled to Kalimendong. During the bus ride the Koreans and I played games to pass the time. We broke down along the way in the mountains, but luckily the bus driver was able to fix the problem with the wheel which had ground us to a halt. As we mounted the long windy roads into the mountains all I did was look out of the window. The peaks and hills were large, sharply contoured and whole forests rested on their awe inspiring backs. From afar they looked like they were covered in moss.

Once we arrived in Kalimendong we received a very warm welcome and were shown the house we would all stay in for the next two weeks. It was slightly crowded with the fourteen of us living there but it was still very comfortable. Since it was already mid day we had lunch which our neighbors had kindly prepared and would continue to do as long as we were there. It was delicious every day and we really do owe a lot to them for their continued hospitality.

After we finished resting we were summoned to the village office where we sat at a large semicircle shaped table in front of a large welcoming committee. What followed was a series of speeches by the head of the village, the heads of both primary schools and the head of several villages in the region who had come especially for this occasion. Our leaders then also said a few words followed at last by impromptu speeches from me, representing “team Germany” and then from Daniel representing “team Korea”. Then we got to enjoy a musical interlude as the village’s local traditional music group performed some Javanese and Arabic songs. I always like hearing that kind of music here; it focuses heavily on the rhythmic beats of drums and tambourines along with religious texts sung in either Arabic or Javanese.

To conclude the gathering we took many pictures with the various important people we had met, and then it was off to settle into our house and prepare for the start of work the next day.

On that night I started to get to know the Korean volunteers. I found out that they were all university students studying a variety of subjects from Chinese to Political science and Economics. Chang Hyon and Song Hyon had already served their Korean military service and spent two years in the air force. The other two boys had yet to fulfill that duty. I was also introduced to the Korean game culture, in Korea children and young people love to play games in groups. We played many of the games they still knew from their childhood and their university time. I learned “the wink game”, “007 Pang!”, “Dadadadada”, “the name game”, “Humsan” and how to play with knuckles. They also knew many riddles and mind games, so needless to say our evenings were never boring.

The next day we woke up early to visit the primary school #1 to see the toilets we would be renovating. An open pickup truck waited outside the house, ready to take us the short way there. One wild and crazy ride around the rollercoaster like mountain streets later we arrived at the primary school. I must say I have never seen so many cute little children anywhere else. They were all eagerly waiting at the school gate and when they saw us, they started shouting and waving excitedly. Every single one of them wanted to shake our hands and the Koreans couldn’t seem to stop taking pictures of and with the kids.

After we had greeted the principal and the teachers we inspected the three toilet buildings which it would be our task to renovate. We also met the two friendly construction workers who would oversee our activities and balance out our lack of professional know-how. Their wages were also paid through our participation fees.

Then, once we had seen and heard enough, we entered the classes and introduced ourselves to the students. We didn’t teach at all that day, instead we played games together on the playground and started teaching the children English as well as Korean songs. All in all it was a very noisy and active day.

As we drove back to our house on that day a ritual began that would be continued throughout the two weeks of our stay. The children waved happily and ran after our truck as we left but soon couldn’t keep up with its speed. We thought that was the last we had seen of them that day, so imagine our surprise when in the afternoon they all arrived at our house! They had followed us and stayed in our building until the six o’clock prayer. While they were there we had our hands full entertaining them and I was quite glad to escape occasionally into the male volunteer’s separate room after having so many active kids around me.

The second day is when we actually started to work on the toilets and get serious with teaching. After that a routine set in: in the mornings we would work on the toilets and in the afternoons we would teach English. After that we would go home, the children would follow and we would have a great time.

We started by knocking the paint off the toilet walls. The first few days were permeated by the continuous knocking of our hammers as we flaked a thin layer of paint and cement off. Then the moldy doorframes, or what remained of them after the termites had had their fill, were changed. The toilet bowels were also replaced and we started cutting the ceramic tiles to size. Finally we, under the careful guidance of the professionals, laid the tiles onto the floor, the walls and the water basin. Finally the taps were also replaced. We did finish the project on time but there is no way we could have done it without the kind help of the patient construction workers.

The teaching also went well. At first it was Paula and me who did most of the work, we could after all speak the language and had more experience with teaching than the Koreans. After a few days of taking a more passive role they also started teaching alone, successfully. Our lessons were often a mix of learning vocabulary, and playing educational games and songs.

On some days we had the opportunity to see some of the local industry. We saw how red coconut sugar is made and we stopped by the local cassava chip factory. We also visited the salak (a fruit which tastes like chewing gum and has a leathery snakelike skin) fields around the village and were even allowed to try out the traditional orchestra’s instruments. We hammered around on the xylophones, drums and gongs as one of the musicians taught us how to play together.

In the first week I and the two other Korean’s Chang Hyon and Song Hyon were invited to join the head of the village in marking the village’s borders. Together we dug out holes all around the village’s outskirts, set large concrete pillars into them and then painted their tops with thick red paint. While doing this we came pretty far into the surrounding forest and I felt somewhat like an explorer in the jungle. As we rested one of the men in our company found some pineapple plants, cut off a fresh banana leaf and then peeled the pineapples onto its underside. That has to have been the freshest and juiciest pineapple I have ever had. Chang Hyon Song Hyon and I couldn’t get enough of the stuff!

One more episode should be mentioned. Chang Hyon and Song Hyon are both very passionate about football. Once they found out that the village had a football field, they were eager to play a match with the local team. In our second week this was organized; our village team of Kalimendong allowed Chang Hyon and Song Hyon to play with them in a friendly match against the team from the nearby city of Wonosobo. After ninety minutes the score was 8:0 for the Wonosobo team. It was the worst score in the history of our Kalimendong team…

On our last day we said farewell to the children of both primary schools and at primary school #1 a phenomenal crying fit broke out. Tears were in the eyes of every child and their sadness started to affect some of us volunteers as well.

After that tearful goodbye we retuned once again to the village office for a farewell party which was quite similar to our welcoming party. At the party, after several speeches, Daniel and I took to the podium again, this time with some words prepared in advance. I was quite impressed by how much Indonesian Daniel had already learned in those two short weeks. We thanked everyone for their hospitality and apologized for the mistakes we had made.

As our bus drove out of the village there was a lot of waving of ands with some weeping sprinkled in between. We arrived back in Semarang and drove to the airport. We bade goodbye to the Koreans and amidst the hugs and kisses we promised to stay in contact, that’s what Facebook is for right? They really are very great people and I do miss them.

After that I went back to the Dejavato office, which is where I started writing this blog entry. This work camp was a truly great experience and I am very glad to have taken part. I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed writing about it.

All the best to you

Yours,
Arnaud

Korean workcamp

Today I am in Semarang. I am excited to start the workcamp with the other Korean volunteers in Wonosobo, we will pick them up from the Semarang airport in a few hours. They will be "fresh" so to speak, never having been to Indonesia before. They will probably get off that plane and think: "urgh, hot, sticky, polluted, smelly, mosquitos!" just as we German volunteers did back in August. Paula and I will get to be the "experienced" volunteers, it's hard to believe it's already been well over five months now...

We will be in a small village and, if I understood correctly, we will build new bathrooms for the middle school building. In Wonosobo Paula and I will work together with eight Korean volunteers and two Dejavato staff.

You will not hear from me for the next two weeks, so for now I have some pictures to show you of my project site in Jepara:

Some students in break time.

Some students in class

Most students come to school by motorbike, usually this area full of the things.

The school building, it's wet because we are in the wet season now.

Some farmers working in the rice fields around my house.