Waking Up on the Right Side of the Bed, Wrong Side of the World

Almost 3 whole days of planes and airports, naps in all the wrong time zones and countless breakfasts for dinner, lunches in the middle of the morning, and suddenly I’m standing in-line for immigration, officially in Indonesia. What am I doing here? That’s a question I’m still trying to get my head around. Especially when I find myself standing in the middle of the road with crazy traffic whizzing by in both directions. Which happens uncomfortably often, everyday, minimum 6x a day. In a country with no stoplights, stop signs, and although there is a double white line dividing the road, it’s more symbolic than mandatory. I find it more a suggestion really for where to stand when your trapped on both sides by bikes, cars, and open-sided vans that constitute the public transportation, jammed together. If it weren’t such a terrible idea I would need to close my eyes while crossing the road...

As it is, I really feel like I’m living on the edge, just like the inspirational posters make look so easy and fun. I don’t know about easy, but they may have something about marketing all that fun. Really what could be more fun than pairing up 10 American Students and 10 Indonesian students, currently studying in the US, transporting them to Indonesia, partnering them with different NGO’s based on their interests: economics, public health, education, art, and my personal favorite, the environment. Those 20 students are then dispersed between 3 cities in West Java: Jakarta the capital, Bandung the 3rd largest city in Indonesia, also know as Paris Van Java, and Yogyakarta, considered the spiritual, cultural capital of Indonesia.

I, along with my partner M, are working with Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (WALHI) in Bandung, along with 4 others from the program in economic and public health NGOs. M is awesome, he has constantly saved me from myself and my terrible Bahasa Indonesian, getting lost, crossing the street on my own, incomprehensible menus, basically everything except putting my foot in my mouth, which happens at least once during every conversation. Like the time I accidentally asked the housekeeper how much his shirt was instead of where he got it, yeah, that was a big whoops. Possibly the Topping that is the time when I mispronounced a word I thought I knew and miraculously managed to inquire if our new friend was a virgin instead of what he did for a living, that was really awkward.

As for the other four students, they’re pretty awesome too. Who else would help cover you up and pretend you’re sleeping to avoid being charged the bule/tourist price, haggle on your behalf for market food, or alternately pretend you’re all famous to try and get into the club for free? And if I’m going to be stuck in traffic for hours at a time, hike up a huge hill every morning to be in class by 8:00, and try every bizarre and oddly good Indonesian snack, I’m glad it’s with them.

As for WALHI, each day is an adventure. Not just your bathroom variety either. Between the language barrier, treading all the cultural footpaths, and just working in an environmental NGO the works always different, seldom boring. So far I’ve sat in on some pretty cool environmental films, some from Indonesia and others from around the world. Unfortunately the discussions are always in Bahasa Indonesian, no subtitles. Translated a few films to be screened, viewed a peaceful demonstration from a very far, very safe difference, sat in an official/stockholder from several organization meeting for cleaning up the Citarum river (prepare yourself and then click on this link to see some of the issues we’re dealing with:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-460077/Is-worlds-polluted-river.html

).

Too be honest when I first applied to this program, I knew next to nothing about Indonesia. What I’m supposed to be doing is learning about working with NGO’s and West Java’s environmental issues, solutions, attitudes; while participating in and fostering a cultural awareness between Indonesia and the United States. An unbelievably cool program and fantastic summer Internship provided by the Freeman Indonesia Non-Profit Internship Program (FINIP).
So what am I actually doing here? I’m living in the moment (Indo time, or always late/stuck in traffic), learning to pay closer attention to all pronunciation in class, learning countless ways about the West Java Sudanese culture, about the environmental, political, social problems Indonesia faces environmentally, about how satisfying coconut, ginger and chili are in everything I eat. And I am most definitely completely falling madly and chaotically in love with this land of volcanoes and islands that I will be calling rumah saya—my home for 2 months.