Saturday, November 27, 2010
Idul Adha: A Muslim Festival
November 17th, 70 days after the end of Ramadan, is a Muslim festival called Idul Adha. It takes place during the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudia Arabia, which most Muslims hope to be able to do once in their lives. It commemorates the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ishmael at the command of Allah.As the story goes, just before Ibrahim follows through, God instructs Ibrahim to sacrifice a sheep instead.
So on this day, any individual, village or organization buys one or more sheep, goats or cattle to sacrifice and give to the poor. For many Indonesians, this along with the ending of fasting during Ramadan called Idul Fitri, are there only opportunities to eat meat.
At my apartment complex, money was collected and many animals were sacrificed right on our front lawn. After the animals were butchered (on the lawn) the meat was divided up and put in black plastic bags. The poor of every religion lined up in family groups and in their finest clothes to receive their portion.
The animals are sacrificed at the mosque as well and it must be done with a very sharp knife. Many Indonesians find this difficult to watch just like Westerners do, and only certain people do the sacrifice, because of their strength, skill and stomach for it. The animals don't appear to suffer as you can see in the following photos.
These photos were taken by one of our Indonesian teachers, who teaches Bahasa Indonesia. His name is Rusdawi, or Dawi for short. In Indonesia, it is not uncommon for a Muslim to have only one name. He went home to his ancestral village to celebrate with his family. As a boy, he was very poor and had meat twice a year during festivals. He was originally was in the shoe shine business, and then he was a gardener and driver for Jakarta International School faculty. He took classes in college at night, with the help of a JIS program and got his degree in teaching. He also has some land where he grows flowers and I bought a bouquet today from his wife and daughter.
So on this day, any individual, village or organization buys one or more sheep, goats or cattle to sacrifice and give to the poor. For many Indonesians, this along with the ending of fasting during Ramadan called Idul Fitri, are there only opportunities to eat meat.
At my apartment complex, money was collected and many animals were sacrificed right on our front lawn. After the animals were butchered (on the lawn) the meat was divided up and put in black plastic bags. The poor of every religion lined up in family groups and in their finest clothes to receive their portion.
The animals are sacrificed at the mosque as well and it must be done with a very sharp knife. Many Indonesians find this difficult to watch just like Westerners do, and only certain people do the sacrifice, because of their strength, skill and stomach for it. The animals don't appear to suffer as you can see in the following photos.
These photos were taken by one of our Indonesian teachers, who teaches Bahasa Indonesia. His name is Rusdawi, or Dawi for short. In Indonesia, it is not uncommon for a Muslim to have only one name. He went home to his ancestral village to celebrate with his family. As a boy, he was very poor and had meat twice a year during festivals. He was originally was in the shoe shine business, and then he was a gardener and driver for Jakarta International School faculty. He took classes in college at night, with the help of a JIS program and got his degree in teaching. He also has some land where he grows flowers and I bought a bouquet today from his wife and daughter.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
John and Carmelita come back to class late after meeting President Obama.
John and Carmelita came bounding into class at break in a black suit (Blue's brother's style) and a purple dress. They are very jazzed at having just met President Obama at the Shangri La Hotel this morning. They arrived at 4:30 in the morning and waited two hours with other Embassy children and Secret Service guys to meet the man and First Lady. They were very excited about the event as it was not formal or stuffy at all. The secret service guys were verbally playing with them while they waited. John said he asked the secret service guys "wuz up" and talked about their grenades and asked if he could touch one. When President Obama came, he put his arms around them for a picture and said that they made a nice couple-they are 10 and that made them both get very animated, as a 10 year old will, at a suggestion that they are a couple. They both re-enacted the scene. He then gave President Obama a modern version of a high five. John is usually very quiet and shy. He felt that it was a great victory in many ways and now he thinks it was worth having to get a haircut. Carmelita mentioned chatting with Mrs. Obama and said a few times with stars in her eyes that President Obama is so nice.... They asked if they could just sit in SSR (Silent Sustained Reading) and dream away. I told them just make sure to hold up their book in case the principal comes strolling in. Everyone was also sucking on a lolly pop because we had answered the Library Week"Stories with Holes"challenge question correctly. It was an interesting dynamic in choosing whose answer to send to the library. We had answers from 3 out of 5 tables. Justin's table and Gerima's table had the same answer. Justin "the politician" tried to keep all the other entries from being handed in to me and read. He was lobbying each group and me that we had no need to hear the others because his was right. Kwon Jie "the scientist/mathematician" had an answer that agreed and also described the apparent discrepancy in the question. He is often happily alone or talking to any adult who will listen about the latest Discovery or Nova program he watched. After shushing Justin and getting everyone to sit down, I read out the two different answers and we voted. Justin was dismayed that even his own table voted against him! His popularity and alliances usually sway kids to vote for him no matter what. Kids gave their reason for voting for Kwon Jie's explanation, but wanted someone to help him with his English phrasing to make it closer to standard English. You can't keep a good man with a good idea down by trying to drown him out. Since his answer was correct, everyone sucked their way for 20 minutes reading their favorite book or old encyclopedia that is my alternative, if you forget a book. Many of the kids are hooked on reading the encyclopedia now.
Justin, who loves to collect science trivia facts, to his credit, discovered how to filter muddy water through a variety of different filters with the best result. This was a lab we were doing in preparation for a field trip tomorrow to a waste water treatment plant. He discovered that if you drip the water through slowly, it makes an amazing difference. His water was clear! In the next class, I told them about Justin's discovery and everyone followed his advice with much more success, except we had to rush to finish the water filter challenge, as a result. Teaching these 6th graders is fun. They are so interesting and interested in learning, sharing and challenging what they are told.
Justin, who loves to collect science trivia facts, to his credit, discovered how to filter muddy water through a variety of different filters with the best result. This was a lab we were doing in preparation for a field trip tomorrow to a waste water treatment plant. He discovered that if you drip the water through slowly, it makes an amazing difference. His water was clear! In the next class, I told them about Justin's discovery and everyone followed his advice with much more success, except we had to rush to finish the water filter challenge, as a result. Teaching these 6th graders is fun. They are so interesting and interested in learning, sharing and challenging what they are told.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
What do you know about them apples! - Wilfred G. Baetz
-I don't think I have ever seen my feet as often as I do now! Bare foot or sandals, thank you very much!
-The majority of Indonesians do everything in flip flops: climb mountains, ride on motor bikes, run races... They have very athletic feet.
-I finally know why most expats and wealthy Indonesians shop at the Ranch market, where you can buy Western quality food and brands, too, at two or three times the cost of other markets. It goes along with the fact that I now know what BRAT really stands for.
Answer: bananas, rice, apples and toast. [I've started ordering homemade 9 grain bread that is delivered once a week to my apartment from an expat bread company, as well. I never thought I would miss bread! I guess if you are raised on dairy and wheat, you kind of have to eat it more often than once every three months.]
-If you like salt, Indonesian is the place to come. For the same reason I now know what BRAT stands for, I now need a lot of salt (and sugar) to keep in balance.
-Authentic Korean food is now my food of choice. Kimchee, forever! A new Korean friend in my building insists I come for dinner often. An excellent and varied menu, the likes of which I have never set my eyes on before. She asked me yesterday if I thought her new live-in maid was too old. I asked how old was she and she replied, "46".
I hope she wouldn't think I was too old! I am a pretty good match for her in squash, so perhaps I pass.
-Two of my students are meeting President Obama tomorrow, so they will not be in class. Their parents
work at the American Embassy. The news came out after I asked John, how he had gotten a haircut so quickly! (I just saw him the night before at the American Embassy Recreational Association clubhouse where I saw a play called, "Veronica's Room".) He was not happy about the haircut!!
-One of our middle school teachers named Polly was proposed to in front of 400 screaming middle schoolers at the Bali stage. It was a complete surprise for her, the other MS teachers and the middle schoolers. Her fiance got down on one knee and everything.
-Our principal likes to dress up in bizarre costumes. On Halloween he came through all the classes dressed as Shrek. It was an amazing costume. The kids were speechless. They have never seen a principal like him, either. At least it was Halloween! The other times it is very unexpected. For instance, when I was having my review with the assistant principal, he kept changing into different chicken costumes and making faces at me in the window. The asst. principal turned around to see what was distracting me and said, "I do not think he has enough to do." At a Stand-up meeting Thursday morning 20 minutes before class starts, he showed us a job acceptance video by a couple from Taiwan. They had on silly hats and accepted the offer with a very unusual way. We can only imagine what the principal was wearing and saying when he offered the job to them!We love him, though because he has a big heart and when he says, "how are you doing?" and "come see me if you want to talk", you know he means it, but he is still the principal, and I'd rather talk with someone else! It must be lonely at the top!
-Time to do the endless school preparation. Tomorrow is the Science Summative exam (One of two tests that counts toward a grade for the quarter. All homework, quizzes, formative tests, lab reports etc are all consider part of the learning process and therefore should not be part of the grade. I like this! We all write and give the same exam. It is short, so we will also do a Filtration Challenge Lab. Each group of three gets to draw three items from a cup to use as a filter to clear up muddy water and then compare them with three other groups to see which filtering materials work best. We then go to a water treatment plant in a small village and in the city of Jakarta to see how it is done on those two levels.
-Teachers in the past asked the Jakarta plant why we can't safely drink the water since they used 5 steps to clean the water that included disinfection with chlorine and they said "the water is clean when it leaves the plant, but since they do not own or manage the pipes, there is no guarantee that it gets to your home that way."
-The majority of Indonesians do everything in flip flops: climb mountains, ride on motor bikes, run races... They have very athletic feet.
-I finally know why most expats and wealthy Indonesians shop at the Ranch market, where you can buy Western quality food and brands, too, at two or three times the cost of other markets. It goes along with the fact that I now know what BRAT really stands for.
Answer: bananas, rice, apples and toast. [I've started ordering homemade 9 grain bread that is delivered once a week to my apartment from an expat bread company, as well. I never thought I would miss bread! I guess if you are raised on dairy and wheat, you kind of have to eat it more often than once every three months.]
-If you like salt, Indonesian is the place to come. For the same reason I now know what BRAT stands for, I now need a lot of salt (and sugar) to keep in balance.
-Authentic Korean food is now my food of choice. Kimchee, forever! A new Korean friend in my building insists I come for dinner often. An excellent and varied menu, the likes of which I have never set my eyes on before. She asked me yesterday if I thought her new live-in maid was too old. I asked how old was she and she replied, "46".
I hope she wouldn't think I was too old! I am a pretty good match for her in squash, so perhaps I pass.
-Two of my students are meeting President Obama tomorrow, so they will not be in class. Their parents
work at the American Embassy. The news came out after I asked John, how he had gotten a haircut so quickly! (I just saw him the night before at the American Embassy Recreational Association clubhouse where I saw a play called, "Veronica's Room".) He was not happy about the haircut!!
-One of our middle school teachers named Polly was proposed to in front of 400 screaming middle schoolers at the Bali stage. It was a complete surprise for her, the other MS teachers and the middle schoolers. Her fiance got down on one knee and everything.
-Our principal likes to dress up in bizarre costumes. On Halloween he came through all the classes dressed as Shrek. It was an amazing costume. The kids were speechless. They have never seen a principal like him, either. At least it was Halloween! The other times it is very unexpected. For instance, when I was having my review with the assistant principal, he kept changing into different chicken costumes and making faces at me in the window. The asst. principal turned around to see what was distracting me and said, "I do not think he has enough to do." At a Stand-up meeting Thursday morning 20 minutes before class starts, he showed us a job acceptance video by a couple from Taiwan. They had on silly hats and accepted the offer with a very unusual way. We can only imagine what the principal was wearing and saying when he offered the job to them!We love him, though because he has a big heart and when he says, "how are you doing?" and "come see me if you want to talk", you know he means it, but he is still the principal, and I'd rather talk with someone else! It must be lonely at the top!
-Time to do the endless school preparation. Tomorrow is the Science Summative exam (One of two tests that counts toward a grade for the quarter. All homework, quizzes, formative tests, lab reports etc are all consider part of the learning process and therefore should not be part of the grade. I like this! We all write and give the same exam. It is short, so we will also do a Filtration Challenge Lab. Each group of three gets to draw three items from a cup to use as a filter to clear up muddy water and then compare them with three other groups to see which filtering materials work best. We then go to a water treatment plant in a small village and in the city of Jakarta to see how it is done on those two levels.
-Teachers in the past asked the Jakarta plant why we can't safely drink the water since they used 5 steps to clean the water that included disinfection with chlorine and they said "the water is clean when it leaves the plant, but since they do not own or manage the pipes, there is no guarantee that it gets to your home that way."
Friday, November 5, 2010
United Nations Day
United Nations Day at JIS is a class act. The flag ceremony is moving and beautiful to watch. The International food tasting booths and lunch booths run by the PTA are delicious, authentic and display lots of national decorations and costumes, the student performances of native dance was inspiring! I loved the different national costumes worn by international staff and students. Many teachers from English speaking countries wore attire from countries that they worked at in the past or sports team Jerseys. A few crazy hats and glasses were seen, but it is a bit of an embarrassment that the US is represented by kitsch from Walmart made in China. At least my hat was made by an artist in North Carolina.
The fact that teachers were allowed to visit the food booths10 minutes before 280 middle schoolers did was a blessing. The students were at the Bali outdoor stage hearing from service clubs about how they can make a difference in Indonesia from working a Saturday with Habitat for Humanity to shoe and clothing drives for disaster victims of the recent earthquake and Merapi volcano eruption. In comparing notes with other teachers who had experienced UN Day in other countries-JIS puts more soul in theirs, with more student involvement. They also said that JIS respects teachers more. They hire the best teachers and then encourage and trust them to do the best for the students and school. It is nice to be back in a school where there is not only a partnership between administration and teachers in committee work, but also on a more personal level, where tough decisions need to be made because of budgetary constraints. There is a kind, transparent, honest and caring attitude that underlies all interaction between staff and administration that is increasingly missing in US schools, as evidenced by stories shared by teachers here.
The fact that teachers were allowed to visit the food booths10 minutes before 280 middle schoolers did was a blessing. The students were at the Bali outdoor stage hearing from service clubs about how they can make a difference in Indonesia from working a Saturday with Habitat for Humanity to shoe and clothing drives for disaster victims of the recent earthquake and Merapi volcano eruption. In comparing notes with other teachers who had experienced UN Day in other countries-JIS puts more soul in theirs, with more student involvement. They also said that JIS respects teachers more. They hire the best teachers and then encourage and trust them to do the best for the students and school. It is nice to be back in a school where there is not only a partnership between administration and teachers in committee work, but also on a more personal level, where tough decisions need to be made because of budgetary constraints. There is a kind, transparent, honest and caring attitude that underlies all interaction between staff and administration that is increasingly missing in US schools, as evidenced by stories shared by teachers here.
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