Oct 31, 2008

Today was unusual. In the morning, CMK,ZWY together with me went to buy shirts in a wholesale market near Xizhimen. It took us a long time to find a suitable shop and I bought two shirts and a sheet. Hurriedly back, I gathered up things needed. Luckily, I nearly got things ready last night. Today I simply put a few daily supplies into the suitcase. We were fortunate to take a flight of Air China, flying to Jakarta via Xiamen. But last year the volunteers flew to Jakarta via Guangzhou, having trouble with overweight baggage. At 11 a.m., we put our baggage onto the bus. At 12 a.m., two buses took us 78 volunteers directly to the airport. On the way, I took some photos with my mobile phone and sent some messages. They were for my previous schoolmaster ,the present schoolmaster, my daughter and my younger brother. The message for my wife had been sent before. Though the reply from my brother was a few words, Brother, you don’t need to worry about our family, Tears rolled out of my eyes because I would be away for about 8-9 months. The message from my daughter made me excited. She asked whether I could log on to the Internet and we should contact more later on. I knew where I would go was lack of good conditions, I kept thinking what would bring to me for this journey?

Arriving at the airport, security was checked and consignment done smoothly in a short time. As this was an international flight, my baggage was not overweighed. Entering the departure lounge, I took out my laptop to surf the Internet, but failed. I sat there idly waiting. At 3:40, we got on the plane and I sat in 15C. In 15B was HLL. On her left was a Chinese to Jakarta. That man might work or do engineering over there and talked much  with HLL. I didn’t take part because I was tired. I had a nap before we got to Xiamen. After two hours’ flight, we landed on Xiamen Gaoqi Airport. We took our personal luggage and went through customs clearance procedures. It was just stamping on the passport. Half an hour later, we boarded again and started our international journey. Not long after taking-off, we received an English form on entering Indonesia from the airhostess. I filled in carefully and put it in the passport. As it was already dark when we took off at Xiamen, I could see nothing out of the porthole. I had to sleep because it would be very late when we arrived in Jakarta. It wouldn’t be easy to go to sleep, so at times I looked at the watch which I had bought for 40 yuan in a supermarket in Central University for Nationalities and later would accompany me in Indonesia.

Like that, I slept and looked out once in a while and finally reached Sukarno-Hatta Airport in Jakarta at 1 a.m. Beijing time. I felt a little nervous because it was my first time to come abroad in deed. When I got off the hanging ladder, it meant that I left my homeland and entered a strange country. Sure enough, at the time to exit customs, though Secretary Xie from the Chinese Embassy and officials from Chinese Education Institute were there to meet us, I still felt uneasy, because when I got trained before, I heard officers of the Indonesian customs would cause trouble and ask for money. When it was my turn, the customs officer pointed at the form, murmuring, asked the opposite person to come over. I didn’t know who he meant, so I pointed in that direction and gave a cry. At once I felt that I shouldn’t use my left hand. Fortunately, Mr Xie came over and asked whetherI was a volunteer teacher. I said yes and Mr Xie talked with the officer and he let me pass, showing an unwilling expression. When going to take my luggage, there were many people rolling a cart, who would help to carry luggage for money. I ignored them and went directly for my luggage. While I was waiting for CMK, I got his luggage. It took him a long time to come out because he hadn’t filled in the immigration registration form and had to fill in there. I looked around and found there were many signs in Chinese.

Getting out of the airport, we felt a hot wave rush to us. As it had just rained, the air was hot and humid. We still observed all things around us curiously. We got on the bus Jakarta Chinese Education Institute prepared for us. Two hours later we arrived at our temporary residence, PPPP TK（bisnis& …）. CMK,ZWY,WKR and I (we would be sent to East Java) and YHW, who had taught in North Sulavesy and would continue to teach there, lived in the same room. There were five beds, two bunk beds along the sides and one single bed in the middle. The doors and the windows were shut tightly to prevent mosquitos coming in, one air conditioner of less than 1 p generated creaking noise. The room smelt bad and I ,with blood insufficiency in the brain, breathed heavily. As there were no toiletries and it was 3 a.m. Beijing time, I went to bed without washing my face and brushing my teeth.