“miss rebecca!”
“i grow carrots and chicken!”
“miss rebecca!”
“i am shy and polite and beautiful!”
“i am fat and curious and humble!”
“miss rebecca!”
“what is your hobby?”
“my hobbies are studying and playing volleyball!”
“shakira is sexier than maradona!”
“i have three brothers!”
“miss rebecca!”
“i am from sembalun bumbung!”
when i found the fourth world love website, i didn’t really think that i’d end up teaching english. but fourth world love says they’re all about giving sembalun what the people of sembalun ask for. and so, since 4wl funds the community development center of sembalun, and the cdc runs the volunteer program, and cdc tells me to teach english … i will teach english. sure, i’ve taught some stuff before. i’ve taught the lsats to semi-adult, overachieving law-school hopefuls. i’ve taught little kids how to ride horses, way back when i was a slightly bigger kid. but i’ve never taught english. and i’ve certainly never taught english to 60 twelve-year-olds who hardly speak a lick of it.
but here i am, teaching english. i never knew it could be so satisfying -- or so fun! of course, it is the people who make it fun. when i ride into school on the back of anto’s motorbike, all the kids pour out onto the football field, all smiles and shouting and waving. they argue over whose class will get the foreign teacher for the day. they climb up the outside walls in order to peer in through the windows -- and sometimes answer my questions from outside! they crowd around, tugging at different parts of my outfit, indicating a button, a belt, a bracelet; they are eager to learn the names for everything. girls’ faces peek out from underneath their jilbabs, and as the week goes on, curiosity overcomes shyness. when they learn how to describe each other, two girls start nudging and pointing at each other: “my best friend is crazy!” one boy in the junior high school is my tireless lieutenant: he follows me around the class, explaining what i say to the others, bossing the others around, posing in my sunglasses. a little guy in my cdc class is a budding actor – he is excited to participate when we act out the words for “crazy” and “scared” and (especially) “dead.” and imagine my surprise when the entire elementary school class breaks into song on the day we practice colors!
it is amazing how time can move so quickly in a slow-paced town. one week is definitely not enough! i am sad to leave, but i am so happy to have come, and i have so many beautiful moments to remember … i will miss teaching the kids complicated american handshakes and high-fives. i will miss hanging out with the cdc’s informal club for young men, listening to the soft sounds of “house of the rising sun” on the guitar, asking endless questions about bahasa indonesia and sasak life in lombok. i will miss the gorgeous panorama of rice and garlic and coffee tomato fields in the shadow of gunung rinjani, on the way from sembalun lawang to sembalun bumbung. i will miss my friend anto’s wonderful sense of humor, the way he revs his motorbike when we pass by some girls he knows, his explanations of the many possible ways to deal with lombok police. i will miss hanging out and cooking jajan dadar with my friend miss paizah, a teacher at the elementary school and one of the sweetest, friendliest, and most energetic women i have ever met – i wish we lived next door to each other! i will miss watching super family on tv with my homestay family, my mom inak gip’s delicious cooking and her incredible patience with my attempts to speak bahasa. (here is a tip for you: “ayam anda” means “your chicken.” “anda ayam” means “you are a chicken.”) i will miss comparing biceps with teacher albert during post-class coffee and snacks. and i will miss the good-natured throttling of the elementary school girls, who decorate my arms with stickers and fake tattoos and grass bracelets, and roll their eyes around and yell “i love you! i love you!” when it’s time for me to go.
after only a week here, i feel a little bit like i am from sembalun too.
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