Pilkada=Pilihan Kepala Daerah=choosing of the regional head=elections

Toraja Utara (North Toraja) is having elections for bupati (similar to county executive) this coming Thursday. Since Toraja Utara just split from Tana Toraja in the past few years, this will be the first election for bupati. The lead-up to the election is quite exciting. There are 7 candidates, and each roams around the region with a huge entourage of cars (usually SUVs or trucks that can handle rocky roads) or motorcycles, with everyone wearing campaign shirts, and with bigger vehicles blasting or playing music to attract attention. Sometimes a campaign stops on the side of the road in town so that the candidate can stump for a while. There are signs for the candidates everywhere. My students, even, are quite excited for the election, and each has a preferred candidate. My principal, incidentally, prefers candidate 1 (each candidate is numbered), since that candidate is his brother in law.

Anyway, while the elections are quite exciting, I will try to skip town next weekend. Apparently last election (in the joined Toraja, containing Toraja Utara and Tana Toraja), 3 people died in the post election riots. Also, apparently Makale (the capital of the joined Toraja and now of Tana Toraja) is much more tame than Toraja Utara. I don't want to die, so I will either skip town or stay in the school compound. Being barricaded in a compound for several days sounds rather boring though, so I would like to skip town.

Because of the tensions the election raise, the police are out in force. I even saw
one of these last weekend.



From http://www.primeportal.net/apc/shchang/barracuda_4x4_apc_walk_1.htm.

Living conditions

A lot of you have been asking about living conditions. I'll see what I can do to describe them.

I actually have quite the nice house (duplex?) Unfortunately, I still keep forgetting that I have a camera and thus I do not have pictures of it. I have more room than I know what to do with, which, I guess, is nice. Compared to many Indonesians, I think, I have a pretty good living situation. I have a western toilet (a godsend) and a shower (it has useless water pressure, but I have been using the squirter that you are supposed to use like a bidet as a shower head since it has much better pressure); most Indonesians use a cross between a bucket and a ladle. After visiting 3 other ETAs though, I think I actually did not do so well in the housing sweepstakes. All of us have similarly sized houses, but the others all have washing machines (though not driers), stoves (I eat at my school, which is actually quite nice), and, well, a lot of furniture. On the one hand, its a little awkward that we get such nice accommodations. Why should I, a first year teaching assistant, have a sit toilet, when the students and the office just have squat toilets? On the other hand, sit toilets are quite nice.

I live at my school, so I try to spend a lot of time outside of it. This means I either go mountain biking (I'm trying to get to know the region. Unfortunately, biking on rock or dirt roads does not work during the rain, which falls every afternoon) or I go to Rantepao. I live about 2-3 kilometers from Rantepao, the capital city of Toraja Utara. Rantepao, at about 45,000 people, is Toraja Utara's biggest (and only) city, if you even consider it a city. There is not much to do on the one main road or the few side streets, but you can buy oatmeal. Since it is hard for me to wake up and shower in time for 6:30 breakfast (and I could do with one meal a day without rice), I have been making myself oatmeal for breakfast. Rantepao is oriented toward tourists (Toraja is known for its funeral ceremonies graves), though there aren't many right now since we are in the middle of the rainy season. Unfortunately though, it's not a very exciting city.

Since there's not much to do in Rantepao and it rains too much to go biking much of the time, I spend a lot of time at school. The students are really into basketball, so I play that with them from time to time. Unfortunately, I have not played in a long time. It is taking me a while to remember how to shoot. Luckily, I am a good 6 inches taller than the tallest other person at my school, so I'm a master rebounder, and I don't really have to try to get open--I just put my hands up. I have also recently introduced frisbee (disc for the purists), but have not introduced ultimate yet. The students seem to like frisbee though.

Tsunami

Legend has it there was a tsunami off the coast of Sumatra. Also, Mount Merapi in Central Java erupted. This is quite bad for people living in Sumatra and Java. I am quite a ways away on Sulawesi, so I am fine. To those who asked, thanks for asking about my aliveness.

SMA Barana', part 1

I teach at SMA Kristen Barana', near Rantepao, the biggest town in Toraja, a regency of South Sulawesi. SMAs are college preparatory senior high schools and Kristen means Christian, so the school's name just means Barana' Christian college preparatory senior high school. SMA Barana' (we usually drop the Kristen) is an RSBI, which means it is on the path to becoming an international school (this title, despite the name, is actually bestowed by the Indonesian government, not some international body). It is considered to be the best high school in all of Toraja, though apparently it is not the best by much (we got 5th at a recent competition open only to Torajan schools). The school has about 270 students (I forget the exact total), split among 10th, 11th and 12 grades (SMAs and SMKs--technical high schools--start in 10th grade).

SMA Barana' (I think all Indonesian schools, though I may be wrong) does not have moving classes. So, instead of each teacher having a room and the students moving between these rooms, each taking separate classes from his or her friends, the students sit in the same class all day, with the same classmates. Their are 10 classes at SMA Barana': 4 10th grade classes, 2 11th grade science track classes, 1 11th grade social science track class, 2 12th grade science track classes, and 1 12th grade social science track class.

On the plus side, having fixed classrooms makes it much easier to schedule classes than having moving classes. With fixed classrooms, the school only has to schedule the 30 or so teachers moving around. With movable classes, the school would have to schedule 270 students moving around. The school also probably needs fewer class spaces, which makes fixed classes less expensive.

On the down side, students don’t get to choose their classes (This is not quite true. At the beginning of 11th grade the students choose to follow the social sciences track or the natural sciences track. The track they choose influences the classes they take. However, they still do not choose individual classes. They choose a single collection of classes only).

Fixed classes also effectively prevents tracking (not quite: natural sciences is generally considered to be a higher track than social sciences, and I think students may need to test into the natural sciences track, though I may be wrong. At public schools, anyway, I’m pretty sure students do need to test into the natural sciences track (and test into SMA)). Tracking can be dangerous, but its also a great opportunity for students to go ahead of their peers (in math for example). With fixed classes, everyone in the same class takes the same level of class.

Fixed classes also means that students don’t choose their classes (beyond choosing their track), so students don’t necessarily take subjects that interest them. That being said, high school students in America don’t have that much choice either. I guess I’m really comparing SMA here to college in America, which isn’t fair at all.

Typically, Indonesian schools conceive of languages very differently than we do in America. In America, I would just take Spanish or French (or both!). At SMA Barana’ (and elsewhere in Indonesia), English gets split into multiple parts. So, 10th grade has one English reading and writing class per week (1.5hrs), one English speaking and listening class per week that follows the curriculum (1.5 hrs), and one English speaking and listening class per week where we can do anything we want. The 11th grade has one reading and writing class, one speaking and listening class, and one English for TOEFL class. The 12th grade has one reading and writing, one speaking and listening, one English for TOEFL and one English for Torajan culture.

Separating English into separate classes creates two main problems:

First, the same teacher does not necessarily teach all of a particular class’s English class periods. One teacher might teach reading and writing, while another teaches speaking and listening (Luckily, no class has more than two different English teachers). Even though the curricula for speaking and listening and reading and writing go hand in hand, the two classes might not follow them at the same pace. Even if the two classes did manage to stay at the same pace, the teachers would find it very hard to instill a sense of continuity (connecting vocabulary and grammar points and helping students remember new things from class to class). This coordination is particularly hard since, even though there are only three English teachers (plus me), there is no regular departmental meeting. I think I will try to change this.

Second, the teachers’ hands are tied in terms of creative lesson planning. Not only do I need to try to teach speaking and listening, but also I need to do so while avoiding reading and writing. These skills are connected, so separating them can be a pain.

On a completely unrelated note, one of my students is named Axlrose. This is awesome (also, he's a good kid, and I don’t want to take away from that, but that's not really the point here). Unfortunately, I can't quite imagine him singing, "Take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty." On the plus side, he's much more likely to say that than any of the other options in xkcd #805 (http://xkcd.com/805/). For those unfamiliar with webcomics, when you have finished reading the comic, place your cursor over it to read the hovertext). If you are older than 40 or have been living under, but not listening to, (a) rock for the past 23 years, "Wikipedia to the rescue!: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_N%27_Roses and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axl_Rose".

From Dog to Dinner

Many years ago, Agus, a Torajan girl, was preparing to celebrate her birthday. She wanted to slaughter an animal to feed her friends, but she couldn’t choose the right one. As she walked to the animal market, she considered her options.

“Perhaps I will slaughter a buffalo,” she thought. “But buffalo are too big. My friends will not be able to eat all of it, and it will be too expensive for me. I cannot afford to spend tens of millions of rupiah (thousands of dollars) for my birthday.”

“Maybe I can serve chicken,” she thought next. “But chicken are too small. I would have to slaughter many chickens to feed all of my friends. By the time I prepare all of those chickens, it will already be tomorrow. I need another option.”

Just as Agus was lamenting her difficult situation, she ran into her friend Budi. He was so preoccupied with his own problems that he did not even ask her “Mau ke mana = where do you want to go”. “I am so worried,” said Budi. “Dog mating season has begun, and I am worried my dog will have free sex (note: free sex=sex before marriage). How can I protect my dog’s morality? Also, I cannot afford for my dog to get pregnant. What would I do with all its children?”

The two friends stood, moping in silence. All seemed lost until, in a moment of clarity, genius struck Alice. “I have a great idea,” she announced. “We should kill your dog. Then it cannot get pregnant. Also, then I can serve it for my birthday. It is just the right size.”

“Brilliant,” Budi responded, sipping from the Guiness that magically appeared in his hand (Budi was Christian). “Your plan will enable us to kill two dogs with one whack!”

The two friends strode to Budi’s house, excited to have solved both of their problems. As they approached his house, however, clouds began to cover the sky, as they are wont to do in the rainy season during the afternoon. When they arrived and saw Budi’s dog, their enthusiasm wore off. They realized that killing a dog would not be easy; if you cut the dog’s neck, it might bight you. How to kill the dog without getting injured?

Luckily, Agus, the “alpha dog” of this story, had another solution. “Let’s put the dog in a bag. The dog will not be able to bite us since it will be trapped in the bag.”

Budi, not too easily won over, realized the flaw. “If we cut the dog’s neck while it is in the bag, then we will have to cut a hole in the bag. Then, the dog can escape and bite us.”

Coming to the rescue again, Agus had her third clever solution of the day. “We don’t need to kill the dog by cutting its neck. Instead, let’s take the dog and whack it against a wall repeatedly. We won’t even have to worry about the blood getting everywhere, since the bag will keep that contained too!”

As the sun set, the two friends immersed themselves in the beauty of the moment by slamming Budi’s dog against the wall until the only body parts left moving in the room were the sides of their mouths, which floated upward until the radiance of Agus and Budi’s smiles replaced the radiation of the setting sun.

Later, as they ate the birthday dog together, Alice reflected, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Epilogue: I decided to become a vegetarian.

__________________________________________________________________________

To be fair:

For the sake of telling a good story and leading up to my new vegitarianism, I was not at all fair. I was also factually inaccurate at times. Here are some notes on fairness and accuracy:

(1) Most Indonesians do not eat dog. Muslims would consider dogs unclean, so presumably most or all Muslims do not eat dog. Some Torajans do eat dog, but only occasionally (for birthdays). I believe some other non-muslims throughout the archipelago also eat dogs (either on special occasions or (maybe?) on normal days, depending on the region).

(2) With the exception of those who get joy from animal cruelty (these people exist everywhere), I don't think Torajans or other Indonesians actually enjoy killing dogs. I just thought that made for a better story and emphasized my shift to caring more about treatment of animals.

(3) The students at my school (and Torajans generally, I think) do tend to serve each other dog on birthdays.

(4) Some Torajans do sometimes kill dogs by putting them in bags and slamming them against the wall or the ground.

(5) The person from whom I learned about this does not eat dog. When she was in high school, her dog bit someone else. The dog had to die so that it would not bite others. The victim's father chose to kill the dog by beating it (not using the bag technique) since he was understandably not very happy with the dog. Not using a bag was a poor plan, since the dog, head bleeding, ran away and hid under my friend's bed.

(6) Torajans (maybe other Indonesians?) do greet each other with "Mau ke mana?"

(7) Indonesians do refer to sex before marriage as "free sex"

(8) I have heard of someone killing a dog to prevent it from mating.

(9) The story, is of course, fiction, with small glimmers of truth as mentioned in previous notes.

Poco-poco

Poco-poco (pronounced pocho-pocho, since c is always pronounced ch) is Indonesia's line dancing craze. Mechanically, it is similar to the cha-cha slide, the electric slide, or Cotton-Eye Joe. In something resembling a grid, participants first step right twice, then left twice, then back twice, then turn to the left (usually, occasionally right) through an involved sequence of steps. After four repetitions, facing the original direction, the participants use a new involved sequence of steps to perform the turn. Participants go through several different terminal step sequences throughout the course of the dance. Usually one person leads the dance, so everyone faces that one person during the first iteration of every involved sequence, then it is assumed that they will remember the sequence until they receive a new sequence from the leader.

While poco-poco is mechanically very similar to American line dances, it appears in a very different context. Every Saturday morning, all 270 or so students in my school, plus a few teachers and the principal (this week at least--this was the first week I noticed), dance poco-poco on the school's basketball court. Having normally seen line dances at Bar and Bat Mitzvot, I was rather amused to see my whole school doing one. I was wrong to be amused though. I should have saved that amusement for the fact that the military does poco-poco too, in uniform.

The military also dances to dangdut, another form of music, in uniform. To dance to dangdut, you put both thumbs up and move your arms in a motion similar to how they move for running (I would show a video if I could find one quickly enough, but those of you who don't use snail internet can probably find it quickly).

Check out these poco-poco video for a visual.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0CJ5KCxmgY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7cpaqln5PE&feature=related

Unrelated literary notes

None of these notes has anything to do with Indonesia other than the fact that I read all while in Indonesia.

(1) Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize for literature! It was about time. If you have not read anything by him, now is a good time to start. I liked Death in the Andes (Lituma en los Andes) and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (La Tia Julia y el Escribidor), but pretty much anything by him is good.

(2) I read The Corrections and Freedom (both by Jonathan Franzen) in the past few weeks. If you have not read anything by him yet, you're missing out. I think its fair to say that both are attempts at writing the Great American Novel. Whether or not he succeeds, I leave up to you, but I thought he did a pretty good job. I think I may read Freedom again, since there was so much I missed (I'm sure I actually missed more in The Corrections, but I did not like that book as much).

(3) Andrea Hirata's Laskar Pelangi (Rainbow Troops) is all the rage in Indonesia today. It is actually the first book in a quartet, but it is the only one of the four I have read so far. The movie version came out in 2008. While not as great or as ambitious as Vargas Llosa or Franzen's books, it's still damn good. As the title suggests, the book deals with education, mineral exploitation, government resource distribution, the will to succeed and love. Ok, so maybe the title makes very little sense (even after reading it, I don't like the title that much, though I do understand it). Anyway, it's worth a read if you can find it.

Also, I think I am done with posting about Bandung. I had a good time, but it should not remain the focus of the blog for long. I will start speaking about Toraja (my region) in the next post.