Nov. 8-13, 2008

   This week, I had classes for six days. It was almost like this: getting up at 6 in the morning, I was taken to the school by Chen Qiang. Arriving at school, the later-coming colleagues would have the hand-touching routines with the earlier-coming ones. Some even had the hand-kissing salutations. Later I tried several times, but couldn’t get used to it. It was a little hot in the office, but I didn’t go to move around outside. One reason was that I had to prepare my lessons and the other was that often some colleagues would come to talk with me. Some colleagues had positive attitude towards me, but some seemed not to spare a glance for me. I didn’t care. Only that my Indonesian didn’t make much progress these days. I gave 2 lessons to Senior One and 4 lessons to Senior Two-Three each week. Boys and girls respectively. For two days I first gave lessons to boys then immediately to girls. The school time table in Indonesia was special, there was no break between two classes. One teacher came into the classrooms after the other left. If one teacher’s class overran, the other would have less time. I asked Wang Daming whether they could solve the problem that I had to give lessons to girls immediately after I finished the boys’ lessons. And the former volunteers had classes for 4 days, they had no classes from Friday to Sunday. I asked whether I could be free on Saturday. Because in my home country Saturday is a holiday. They said yes. It would be arranged next week. At first I had doubt in it. Because in my home country, rearrange the school timetable was very difficult. But a week later they informed me that the new timetable would be OK the next day. This gave me a new understanding of their efficiency. We had classes on Saturday and Sunday. From the school calendar, I knew there were not many other holidays except some Islamic holidays.

In this week, I was industrious in teaching classes and got home usually after one p.m.. it was over two p.m. after lunch. I cooked with Chen Qiang. I went to my bedroom for a rest. It was hot for sleeping at noon. Luckily there was a electric fan but it didn’t have a time-setter. Usually I got up at 4 or 5 p.m. and went shopping in the street. This place was unique, though the street was not wide, the houses were crowded one after another. There were many shops along the roadside, but no large supermarkets and rural fairs. There were shops even in the villages among the woods, selling various items. Sometimes Chen Qiang took me out on his motorcycle, especially in the evening, the motorcycle ran fast and the cool wind blew on my body, I look at the clouds or sunset glow and I felt every minute I had a new experience. But I still felt that the motorcycle ran too fast. The road was narrow and it was hard for motorcycles and cars to run on at the same time. Indonesians were not so efficient in doing jobs, but they drove very fast. Maybe the weather was too hot. The rural road in Indonesia was good. I found as if the rural roads were tarmac besides national highways. But they were not so wide as for a truck to run on. There were many items in the supermarket, some were very cheap, but there were not much or none for me to buy. For examples ,the noodles. The bread and the milk were considerably dear, the milk was 4-5.000RP a bottle.

The Volunteer Center sent a message, “collect the resumes of the group members. They must be concise (mainly include graduation college, degree, major, hobby, motto, etc.) and electronic photos , and send to QZM.” But many members complained that they didn’t have Internet access.

At night I slept upstairs and Chen Qiang slept downstairs. I nearly phoned my home every day, costing 5-6 yuan, now totaled 150.000RP. My mobile phone couldn’t make a phone call to other volunteers but could receive calls and call others even to my home country except to other volunteers, ever since I came to this school. I checked my mobile phone, asked my colleagues and the XL card sellers. The problem wasn’t solved. Later I simply bought another XL card(in Indonesia, buying a mobile phone card was very easy. I bought a card ,costing 7.000 RP with 5.000 RP in it.it could roam in Indonesia for free and call abroad. Such as this XL card, I could call to China, costing 650 RP.  The “3” card I bought later on called to China ,costing only 290 RP. But calling to subscribers of different service providers cost much. ). But I still couldn’t call other volunteers. When I calling them, the phone responded, “the network is busy.” Later I found a service phone number 878 in a leaflet, I called manual service(it would be charged) in English, telling my situations to the service gentleman and the service lady(I made two calls.). They made a test to my number, telling me to wait (I was in the street and didn’t hear clearly, probably they asked me to wait). I still couldn’t call the other volunteers when I got home, but the next day I could call them. I called some volunteers from Chongqing.

During the time of more than one week, I looked strong in the office or at home with others in the day. But at night when going to bed , I always felt a little sad, especially when calling to my family members, always with wet eyes. I called my father and he told me to work hard. I was moved and sorry because my parents were over eighty and I couldn’t go home to see them. Besides calling to my wife and my daughter often, I called my brother twice. I called my elder sister, my mother in-law and my nephew once. I called KT,TJQ, PZQ, ZR but got no answer. Sending them messages, the first two replied. Calling ZR’s landline got no answer, but the other day FQ answered.

My school leader in my home country replied in his message, “Hello ,Stone. Some time has passed, do you feel better? You’ve had a long day. We are missing you. Please say hello to MK for me.”

My accompany person Chen Qiang was a freshman and a substitute teacher of Chinese because the teacher of Chinese had been in Shanghai for study. It was estimated that on the 24th day of this month he would come back. Chen Qiang’s Chinese was just so-so but you couldn’t have a deep conversation with him in Chinese. Sometimes he had lessons to give and I had to find other teachers to take me to the girls’ section. For some nights he was not living here and I lived in this large house alone, I felt a little insecure.

On November 10, Chen Qiang sent a message in Chinese Pinyin, “Mr Stone, do you have teachers at home? If you have problems, please tell me…”

I asked him when he could come and he sent me anther message in Pinyin, “Sir, I have no motorcycles now, maybe at 6 p.m. I can go to where you live.” moduo chi should be motuoche (motorcycle)

He sent a message at 18:39:27, “You can have supper first!”

XJY in Yogajakarta sent a message for the tree volunteers, “We are living in an old house which was transformed from an old classroom. The conditions were not good. We go to work in the new campus on tricycles. We cook for ourselves. We each finish 18 lessons for the week in three days!”

On the night of Nov.10, I made a phone call to CMK, mainly talking about the problem of woken up by loudspeakers saying prayers in the early morning.  Usually I didn’t mention this topic, so as not to cause unnecessary troubles. Today I spoke out and felt that I had got it off my chest. But after a while I received a message, “you called? The phone recording sounded reactionary.” I was confused immediately. I had just said once that I was not used to being woken up by loudspeakers at 4 a.m. How could others know about it? Could it be said that my phone call was monitored? Considering that I couldn’t call other volunteers, I felt more uneasy. I saw that the phone number sending me the message was the one I had used when I was in China. I called my wife about the message. She said that she had received a phone call, like a recording. She thought it was from me and the content was somewhat reactionary. I told her that I had not made that call and it should be a recording we sometimes received on the landline. This made me feel a little relaxed.

On Nov. 11, the Jakarta Coordination Institute sent a message, “Please collect the data of birthdays of each group, noting it is on the solar calendar or the lunar calendar. And report them to QZM.” Later on, I input the birthdays of my group members into my mobile phone and when one’s birthday is coming , I will send him or her a message, congratulating for his or her happy birthday. At the same time, I will send messages to the team leader of Chongqing volunteers and the Coordination Institute, reminding them of whose birthday.

On the afternoon of Nov. 11, ZWY sent a message, “I have 21 lessons each week and two training lessons. But they were considerably concentrated.  On Thursday, after the third lesson I am free. It was near and convenient to buy vegetables. But I couldn’t log onto the Internet. Did they buy insurance for you or not?”

On Nov.11, I bought a “3”card, which was meant to make calls to China. But it needed to register on the mobile phone with my name, address, etc. my Indonesian was limited and I couldn’t finish the registration. So this card often reminded me of finishing registration(I brought with me two mobile phones). This message was from the phone with “3” card in, “Setting GPRS/MMS akan dikirimkan sesuai tipe ponsel (gratis). Tekan SAVE/YES pd pesan berikutnya. Utk ponsel tertentu, pd saat diminta password, masukkan 1234.”

On the morning of Nov.12, CMK sent a message, asking about how I had my passport registered. Up to that time I got to know that I should have my passport registered in the immigration office after coming to Indonesia. Through the interpretation of a teacher of English called UBAID, I talked with the headmaster. We talked about going to Surabaya to have my passport registered. Maybe the reason of inaccurate interpretation, the headmaster said, no problem. It was not late to wait for the accompanying teacher to come back. I told him that if I don’t go in time, the school will be fined 200 000RP a day. The headmaster told me not to worry, maybe I was not quite understood by him or the interpreter didn’t stress the urgence.  

At noon of the twelfth day, WKR sent a message, “Mr Stone, I have been to the immigration office for registration, have you? They said we should take time to register in the immigration office. For one day late, the school would be fined 200 yuan.” I asked him how and he replied, “Take your passport. The school should have got the notice, if not, you can tell them.” I asked whether I should go myself, and he said, “Yes, in time the school will send a teacher to go with you. If the registration is done later, the school will be fined more. If the school is not worried, you needn’t worry. But as if there is a deadline! For detail, you can ask Mr Li or Miss Feng. I am not quite clear about it. ” I transferred this message to other members in my group.

In the evening I called Miss Feng Xinhui about the registration of the passport. She said we should go the next day or as soon as possible.

So the next day when I got to the school, I wrote in English and Chinese on a piece of paper about the urgency of the registration. Finish writing, I asked Chen Qiang to find the headmaster. But it was till noon that I got no answer. I was depressed when I got home, because if the registration was not done in time, I would have trouble in getting permits to return to my home country. In the afternoon when Chen Qiang came, I asked him how to deal with it. He said that he would go to find the headmaster with me. I said that it was better to call him. I asked if he had the phone number of SLAMET and he said no. He would go to the school to find SLAMET. He didn’t come back after he went there. I called Chen Qiang, but his phone was powered off. Later, two of the teachers came to my place and they brought several mangos. The mangos were ripe. When they left, they told me that we would go to Surabaya the next day(Friday). I didn’t quite believe that. Later SLAMET came here and told me the same news, I believed. He told me to prepare and we would set off at 6 a.m. the next day. In the evening I called Chen Qiang and his phone was powered off. I sent him a message to tell him that we would go to Surabaya the next day.

On the afternoon and evening of the 13th day, I sent messages to CMK, talking about going to Surabaya tomorrow. I called home and my wife told me to be safe.

There were four families near my residence. The neighbors opposite me were enthusiastic and often said hello to me. But my Indonesian was poor and I could only smile or wave my hand in response. Two other neighbors were teachers. The opposite neighbors, especially their daughter called FATIMA, often taught me some Indonesian. And at the same time she learned Chinese.

In the evening I cooked supper for myself as usual. Finishing supper I went outdoors to talk with my neighbors for a while and came back to my bedroom to prepare things for going to Surabaya. I went to bed early that night.