A Year of Cold Showers

My sheets that the school bought for me. My counterpart humorously said it was so I wouldn't forget where I came from. He is right, I won't.

Apologies for not writing in this thing for a pretty long time, I have been stuck in a chaotic cycle of moving across Indonesia/ not having any internet.

I'm finally in Surabaya (the city I will be living in for the next 8 months). Now that the other 44 Americans I was living with in Bandung have all spread out to various parts of Indonesia (I'll provide some of their blogs in the next post), I've finally been thrown into the absurd culture shock that is Indonesia. Firstly, while my Bahasa Indonesia language skills are pretty much minimal at this point, I want to explain my experiences interacting with Indonesians to you by teaching you a few crucial Bahasa words.

The first is belum - not yet

The first question I am almost ALWAYS asked by Indonesian people is if I'm married. So many times in America I expressed total shock when I heard someone my age was getting married. Here it is totally reasonable and infact encouraged to be married by or around my age (23). Indonesian and more specifically Javanese culture (Java is by far the most populous island in Indonesia with almost 150,000,000 people and also happens to be the island that I live on) places a great importance on family. In fact the importance is so great that many people live in houses with their extended families next door so that they can all be together. The encouragement or more likely pressure to have a family is so great that when people ask if you are married the proper thing to say in response is always not yet. If you respond no, then they will think you have - wait for it - no intention of ever getting married. One of the teachers I work with, whose English is very good but not perfect, told me a few days ago that someday, when I do get married, I need to "find a child."

On another note, as a result of being in a foreign country and unmarried, I live alone. While almost no one I know in the US would be too surprised to hear this, Indonesians always recoil in shock when they find that I return to an empty home. My school even offered to have like 4 different teachers who live in my neighborhood move into my house until I settle in. My favorite moment is when people ask me if I'm frightened living alone. Even super macho Indonesian guys who ride motorbikes with leather jackets and brag about their soccer skills will turn to me and loudly ask: "aren't you scared??"

While all of this is very different for me, I have to say I like it. The word community here means so much more than it ever has to me. Every community has a local leader who assumes responsibility for all of the residents. Every time I open my door to go outside, there are people there. They help me find dinner, they ask over and over again if I need anything, they offer to fix things, they buy me food, they pretty much help with everything and anything. It may be different, but I love it.

The second is bule - foreigner (lit. translation - white skinned - not totally pc I know)

I have never stuck out more in a place than I do in Indonesia. Even Vietnam had plenty of tourists so people were used to seeing many people who look different. While Surabaya is one of the most international cities in Indonesia, it is still rare to find non-Asian people anywhere outside the gated communities and malls that most expats hang around. After less than a week here in Surabaya I have already started to get excited anytime I see another non-Asian person.

I'm not the only one who has noticed. My students often refer to me as the new bule (I'm replacing another Fulbrigter who was also at my school), and if I walk around its not at all uncommon to have people do double-takes everytime they see me and turn to their friends, point and say "bule!" My favorite moment so far in Indonesia is without question what we could call a bule moment.

My second night in Surabaya I was sitting in my living room and heard a knock on my door. Assuming it was another one of the endless parade of welcoming neighbors I opened the door without question. On the other side of the door were at least 20 children. When they saw me they all yelled "BULE!!!" It may have been one of the happiest moments of my life. My neighbor Desti, who is an English speaking Univ. student, loves it when the children of the neighborhood make their nightly pilgrimage to my front door. The other day when I played in the intense soccer game of the neighborhood kids (and got schooled by some badass 10 year olds) she said to me "children love Bules!"


Me and my new friends on my second night


...and the third night...

That being said there are some definite comforts I miss and only serve to remind me every day that I'm in a foreign place. Referring to the title of this post, I should make it known that I don't have hot water. Not at all. When I asked one of the teachers at my school if Indonesians always take cold showers she responded by telling me that "no one would ever shower with warm water when it is so hot outside." As you can see by the picture below of my bathroom, you might notice that I have a manual flush toilet. My bathroom in itself is an experience. It may be a year of cold showers, but I know it will also be a year where I warm up (pun intended) to a new and beautiful culture.

The third is polisi cepek - a guy who stands in the middle of the street and decides to help direct traffic in return for sporadic driver donations of 10 cents (1,000 Rp.)

Traffic in Surabaya (well, all of Indonesia actually) is total chaos. A hurricane of public transit, cars, motorbikes, bicycles and people walking make for crazy but sometimes hilarious traffic. These guys keep the city from becoming even more congested. I don't think the absurdity of the concept of this will ever get old to me.

The fourth is actually two words, Bapak or Pak - elder male and Ibu or Bu - elder female.

In Indonesia, and specifically Java, age is very important. It determines the structure of the society and one of the first cultural faux pas that I made was not reffering to my school's headmaster using this title. Luckily Pak Suwito is a well travelled and super friendly guy so he didn't mind at all. After I called him Dr. Suwito once and got corrected by another teacher, I learned my lesson. Now it seems every other word I use is a title for an elder person, or a younger person (Mas for boys and Mbak for girls).

My students, in keeping with this tradition, universally call me, "Mr. Jack" I try to say hello to every student that I meet, and they almost always respond by saying "Hello, Mr. Jack!!" Their enthusiasm for America, learning English and just being teenagers is my favorite thing about teaching in Surabaya. They motivate me to wake up at the crazy hour of 545 every day to make my first class at 630. I return exausted each day at 4 pm, but still excited to be in such a vibrant city in a spectacular country.

One of the students at my school asked me if I had a personal motto, and the only thing I could think of was a quote I have always liked which reads: home is not where you live, it is where they understand you. I think today, this quote clearly hints that my home is back in America. I hope though, that while Indonesians may have trouble understanding me sometimes, I can understand them perfectly when my experience comes to an end eight months (delapan bulan) from now.

Selamat malam dari Surabaya!
Good night from Surabaya!