an entry somewhere else » Sulawesi

Laughs

Anthony — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:38:33 +0000

Yesterday I had a couple moments of ‘this is so absurd I can do nothing but laugh.’ The first was while visiting Carrefour, the French version of Walmart. I walked into the electronics department where they sold digital video recorders because I wanted a tripod. There were three sales associates standing together chatting. After not being helped I approached them and asked if they had any tripods for a digital video camera. Puzzled looks. I cranked up my linguistic abilities and pronounced ‘tripod’ as ‘treepod.’ I’ve heard someone use that pronunciation before. Still puzzled glances. I describe the use of a tripod. Nothing. They hurriedly converse and one runs off to get yet another associate. She asks me what I would like. I repeat my request. Blank stare. I point to the DVCs and then point to the other electronic kiosks that does have tripods for digital cameras. Something clicks and she runs off to ‘check’ on the stock. Nada. I had four people who are assigned to the electronics department and none could understand what I needed. I had my chuckle and went about my way.

I had a little trouble sleeping last night, so I was happy to fall asleep. I was awakened around 12.30a to terrible steel on steel banging. I kind of freaked out from a dead sleep, scrambling upstairs to have a look and pinpoint the noise. I wandered out front. It was a cement truck filling the second floor of one of the houses being built just down the street. I can’t say for sure why they did it at that hour, but they did block the whole road for about an hour. While I was awakened, the absurdity of a cement mixer coming past midnight in a quiet neighborhood and no one raising a stink about it reminds me I’m not in the US.

Father’s Day

Anthony — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:13:29 +0000

Yesterday was Father’s Day; last Friday one of my brother’s got married (finally). The latter one puts me in a precarious position as I have repeatedly told people at my uni (students and teachers alike) that I can’t get married until my older brother is married. He always said he was never going to get married. Oops. Now, everyone is expecting me to choose someone to marry in a week. I muster the largest grin I can and do my job.

I’ve been putting my things in order as of late and see that I have way too much stuff. I’m going to leave much of my everyday things and have successfully unloaded the big-ticket items. I have plenty of books to give away. I’m not really sure what else to do with them. Many are at a level that even graduate level students here would have trouble with and I doubt that they are yearning for Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis. I know I didn’t; it was on sale. I’m reevaluating my return shipment of books and other assorted material. I know I’m going to buy a lot more over the next week or so.

Less than a week until the inaugural Bali Triathlon.

Correct Pacing

Anthony — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:52:32 +0000

It’s getting to be the home stretch here and I’m having mixed feelings about leaving. I returned from Kuala Lumpur and was notified by one of the student staff at the teacher center that a book may be missing. I had them do a full inventory and we found eight books missing. It’s a shot to the solar plexus. Of course, we don’t really know if the books were nicked while I was gone or during one of the workshops we had. Hmm. Another step in a direction I didn’t want to think too much about.

I also received a text message from another Fellow on Java:

Showed up to work today, they completely emptied out the english dept and moved to a new building. I hv no clue where my stuff is. Wish they told me b4 so i could keep all my papers/books safe. Welcome back to reality!:)

Part of this ill communication may be because another Fellow is not replacing her there. The word has been that no Fellow is replacing another Fellow at the same institution; we have also been ‘warned’ that relations between us and the host institution may be cool. Definitely cool for my colleague. My university has been fabulous and I’m gearing up for a little song and dance in Bugis language to keep the kids laughing. I’ll be singing for about 300 people!

It’s already too late for me now as I’m still running on sleep deficit from travelling. The fungus has retreated and now I’ve got a bit of impetigo. Will this never stop? Bali on the 21st…

Dasar Bugil

Anthony — Thu, 31 May 2007 12:56:13 +0000

I nearly went bonkers this week. We ran six days of workshop with two different groups. I did the last three days myself. That’s about 7 hours a day on my feet. Of course, I wasn’t mumbling along the whole time as that would have been pedagogically unsound. Besides, I really don’t like my own voice anyhow.

I also took my chances with the dermatologist this week. My counterpart graciously acccompanied me and informed me after the fact that he would have paid the doctor half what I did for the same services. I paid 20,000 for lab work, 100,000 for consultation (the doctor was walking around in bare feet and took a three second look at my fungus BEFORE washing her hands), and 195,000 for medication. The medication came unlabled in two bags. I have no idea what I’m taking. No one asked me if I was taking any other medications that could contraindicate usage. Hmmm. I’m just happy I’m relatively healthy.

Next week I’m off for Malaysia for more meetings and a presentation at Asia TEFL-a nice pad to the resume that has not been getting any bites. Doh! This trip, along with skipping off to Bali on the 21st for the triathlon, leaves my days in Makassar numbered to less than 20. It’s going to fly by… Some of my Fellow colleagues have lined up jobs in Burma and Greece while others are in the same boat as me–unemployed. I even recently emailed the Overlord to say I’d take another year in Makassar if there was trouble filling the post. He politely reminded me that I said nothing in January about re-upping, and the post was already filled. Fair enough.
The next step is… Perhaps the important thing to take away from this is that I’m not freaking out about lining up a job right now.

Heckuva time

Anthony — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:04:24 +0000

I’m still nose-deep in the pie of life here. Work is still at my fingertips as I write this. The last week has been a bit of folly. One workshop suffered a three-hour loss of electricity and caused the classrooms to be nothing short of a sauna in only tens of minutes. My first thought was that someone didn’t pay the electricity, but that thought was unfounded. Something or other burned out somewhere. Today, the set of lines that the computers and copier are plugged into went dead. No one knows what’s up with that. I think we paid the electrician enough to do the job right. I could be wrong. I hope it’s all going to work tomorrow, or else I’m going to have a rough go of it.

I’ve done little emailing as I had a houseguest from my program for a few days and the final round of workshops have been hell. Well, not hell, but stressful and messing up my triathlon training at the same time. I have no doubt this has also contributed to another raging case of foot fungus. I’ve got the meds and creams as of tonight. Wish me luck!

With that said, I’m to get back to work, at home.

The Home Stretch, Perhaps

Anthony — Tue, 15 May 2007 10:42:51 +0000

I’ve been a busy bugger here as of late. Between that and the worsening phone line in my house, the internet just hasn’t been as fun as it should be. Blogging has been frustrating. Anything online has been frustrating. C’est la vie.

I’m off to the Big Durian (Jakarta) on Thursday. This week is truncated due to a holiday on Thursday and the uni has also closed for Friday. This would be pretty nice but the whole reason I’m heading to Jakarta is for a training on a new teacher training developed by the DoS. I can’t say that I have any love for Jakarta and its enormity, but the periodic leave from Makassar is a necessity. I’ll probably try and catch the Hindu New Year in Bali at the end of the month as well.

With all that said, I’ve been trying to shake off a head cold with mega-hits of vitamin C and rest. I postulate that the fumes in the air have finally hit me. Of course, I am undiagnosed. As long as the cold doesn’t migrate below the neck, I’ll still be training for the triathlon.

And, even though I didn’t forget to send a personal email, Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

Own Business

Anthony — Mon, 07 May 2007 12:43:29 +0000

I was sitting at the photo lab in the mall because my photos were not yet done. I was waiting. The photo lab also has a back room with special equipment for those special photos of kids and couples. This time there were four women in the room. They must have saw me sitting there, and the photographer asked me to join them. Yes, I’m a celebrity. The photo itself looks quite daft and I’ve yet to get my copy from the friendly lads at the photo lab. As soon as I do, I’ll post it and you can judge for yourself. I’m getting to be as well-known as the ex-patriate footballers playing for the city team. Woooooooo!

Stunner

Anthony — Fri, 04 May 2007 08:40:46 +0000

I was walking out to fetch a taxi a few early mornings ago and came across another foreigner on his morning walk. What he was doing walking down my dead-end street, I don’t rightly know. The other man looked up and, with shock on his face, said, “Amazing.” I thought that was about right and continued walking, as did he.

A Moving Funk

Anthony — Wed, 02 May 2007 11:34:51 +0000

Last weekend, I went up to Manado for what may be my last brouhaha in the north of the island. Some things were changed in Manado since last year. The warung on the Boulevard were removed; traffic lights and roadsigns were installed and a few one-way streets were found. Two malls were finished. Yes, Manado is being built up and I’m not sure if it really should be. Tourists really don’t go to the mainland up there (unless it’s to an all-inclusive resort); they go diving out on the smaller islands. Of course, I’m not a city planner, so what do I know.

Much was supposed to be done while I was gone, but it didn’t. I wasn’t surprised. Monday was presentation on the internet-based TOEFL in the middle of a presentation for Fulbright Indonesia. It went well and some of the students who always come to the weekly discussions at the UNHAS American Corner were there as well. Luckily, they asked a few questions and received free t-shirts in return.

The teacher center also received several of the tables I’ve been reminding people that we needed. An air conditioner was also in the shipment. However, it’s really too small for the room in which we’re using it–just like the other one. So much for writing down specifications… Actually, the tables are nice in that they have retractable legs and are darn light and easy to move. We are also starting to get recurring business at the center as teachers are starting to call us and ask when the next trainings are. If I only had six more months working at this job, it would probably be moving smoother than when I leave in two.

Classes are still going strong. Well, a couple of them are going strong. The small optional class being attended by about five students is a tough go. A lot of students here have upwards of twenty classes a week and this one is on top of that. They also know this class has no effect whatsoever on their GPA. They don’t do a lot of homework, and I’m feeling run-down on them. I told them off last week. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. It’s pretty sad to see a 6th semester English education major take thirty minutes to pound out three or four sentences. Luckily, the others put together paragraphs…

Slack

Anthony — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 14:24:54 +0000

This week was the traditional Tax Day in the United States. I can very well tell you all that the subject was more than a little discussed in the list serve for ELFs. That’s the acronym for my fellowship position. Yahoo! I, being the thrice fellowed Fellow, was able to give my two rupiah’s worth of sense to the discussion that may or may not have helped out the others. All this as the NYT says that more ‘middle income’ tax payers are being audited.

This week also brought another moment of lucidity to my work here. I’ve realized that 80% of my classes don’t do their homework; they merely copy whatever I assign from another person. I’ve even had students hand in their homework in someone else’s handwriting. I’ve discussed this with other lecturers and they have the same challenges. I teach a small writing class once a week (once a week as most students here take up to 20 different classes per week for one session each), and the baseline writing for 6th semester prospective English language teachers was given on the first day. One of the students wrote all of three sentences over 30 minutes. No, there were no semi-colons in the paper either. This brings me to the question: How do students make it to the 6th semester without being able to compose a paragraph, let alone a standard essay? I’ll no doubt get five different answers in the next week.