This is a lengthy post but there is just so much to tell! These first pictures actually go with the end of the story about the traditional market visit.
It is a big pain to drag these down to the bottom of the story, at the danger of destroying something else.
So I will leave them up here and trust you to connect them with the market visit later!
We were invited to visit a local Kindergarten class on Saturday morning, part of a HKI school. The class teachers are also Sunday School teachers and are attending our HKI sessions. They invited us for 8 am, and we thought that was agreed, until Reina asked us when we wanted to be picked up for the event. Having no idea where the school is located, I said something to the effect of “depends on the time it takes to drive there” and then suggested 7:45. Only at that point were we told that there is a 7:45 worship service (in Batak language) on campus. So we would leave after that. OK, that was an easy one. We were told the worship was in the Menza building. Since Jacob wasn’t ready when we needed to leave, we told him to meet us there. As we walked toward campus we saw the hundreds of high school students, dressed in lime green jackets, doing their group exercises on the main field of the campus. They didn’t seem to be moving very much but that fit with the whole idea of Indonesians not moving fast and not doing a lot of exercising. A few drops of rain came down but not enough to worry about or interrupt the mass workout scene.
We ran into Reina outside the Menza and she said to follow her. At that point we realized the meeting was not in the Menza but somewhere else. We joined a small group in a classroom, and after a minute of thought decided that Jacob would never find us. This is not the first time we’ve told Jacob to meet us at the assigned location for an event, and then the location changes. The good thing is the campus is small enough, and everyone knows Jacob, so in past times someone has stuck their head in the door and said “Jacob is looking for you!” Of course they don’t bring Jacob with them or direct him to the right place, they just let us know he’s lost. That’s OK because there’s just a few places he’d go…home, to the “hot spot” if it’s open, or possibly to the Dean’s office. He’s not likely to even go to one of the two canteens because he’s afraid of being mobbed by the girls.
I stepped out of the worship before it really got started and walked back to the house. Jacob was still not ready, but that was not a cause for concern. No need to ask anyone to rush here, I don’t think the concept exists, unless Dean Tagor is telling you to do something. When Jacob finished doing whatever he does in the morning, we headed back to campus. The big lime green exercise mob was now concentrated together in the center of the field, I assume getting their big pep talk for the day. Someone was speaking over a very loud loud speaker (the only kind in Indonesia!) and those in the green mob were milling about. Jacob and I headed into the worship service to find the room packed (I guess everyone arrive a few minutes late…surprise!) and the only two seats were next to the pastor in front of the room. We sat down and he said a prayer. The service was over. Perfect timing! We said hello and goodbye to everyone. There were many familiar faces, including Mr. Hutanhyan. We then stepped outside to wait for our vehicle to the kindergarten. While standing outside, a bell rang to signal the start of classes. Some students who were waiting on the porches went into classes while others just stood there as if they heard nothing. We asked about this…and were told that the students could not get into their classrooms because the teachers had not arrived yet with the key! I see this from time to time at HVA so I shouldn’t have been surprised, only this is EXAM time. Teachers are never late for Exams in America because that is usually the last day of class and a parent would complain if you were late.
We traveled by the old red SUV (an ancient Toyota Kijard…every other car is a Toyota here and half of them are Kijards…I think that means some sort of horned animal since that is the logo) because Dean Tagor was in Medan with the nice Toyota minivan. The old red SUV has character, and the driver is a nice guy who we see in front of the Dean’s office every day. He is sometimes sweeping leaves from the gravel into little piles. Then the piles disappear. At least they don’t burn the leaves right in the middle of the gravel parking lot. The driver had gotten a haircut so none of his hair was visible beneath his ball cap. Nancy says she didn’t even recognize who it was. I will have to have someone find out where he gets his hair cut because the back of his neck looked perfect, like the barber had used a straight edge to line up the cut. I’ll need to get a good Batak cut before I come home.
Nancy decided I should sit in the middle of the back seat to give me more headroom. I think she was just playing a joke, because the backseat has a hump in the middle and I spent the entire drive with my head cocked to one side. We took the usual road toward Parapet and the school was actually just a few minutes away. We pulled through the gate right onto the grassy school grounds.
We walked into a room full of backpacks and we knew the children were nearby. They were waiting in the next room, about 40 of them. The energy was bubbling over. We stepped into the room and there were at least 80 eyes staring up at us. We quickly recognized the two teachers who have been attending Sunday School teachers sessions at HKI. They had a big noisy microphone and introduced us to everyone. We got to tell them how happy we were to be there, and were told that the children were ready to perform for us. At this point more than five minutes had elapsed and we know that that is longer than the attention span of most kindergarten kids. There were four or five really mischievous ones who were poking and kicking each other and running around. Unlike America, there was no concerted effort from any of the teachers, assistants or parents (parents were there too because it was the first week of school) to calm them down.
After more exchanges of pleasantries the kids were dismissed to the playground. They were off like little rockets! Meanwhile we got to have another major photo opportunity with every combination of every person left in the room. Then we went on a little tour of a few rooms of the school, including a nice, clean room with multi-colored tables and chairs. At one end of the room was a regular sink and then a big trough with four spigots extending from the wall. They
explained this was the eating room, and several times a month they also hold a cooking class for the kids. I tried to imagine what this would be like (insanity!) and thought it would be fun to come back some time!We were told to sit in chairs against the wall but of course I ignored that and cleared out a spot in the middle of the kids, who were sitting on a big mat. Nancy and Jacob followed.
The performances were great, something like a fan dance, done by five or six kids. We decided these were children of the teachers since they knew the dance so well and weren’t kicking or
poking anyone. Then one little girl played a song on a cool toy instrument, I don’t know the name, which included a keyboard but was powered by her blowing into a tube. Now that I’ve seen and heard the instrument, I can identify one of the sounds I hear in the morning before I get up. We have many children living nearby and I’m sure the parents send them outside in the early morning and don’t worry about the noise they make.
We continued out to the playground and watched this mass of young humanity doing very dangerous things on playground equipment, but not getting hurt. I don’t think Indonesia has gotten the memo about child safety on playgrounds, because this one had very nicely painted, seemly new stuff, but included items such as a teeter totter without any bumpers under either end, swings that came out into the main walking area, and a globe shaped climbing cage that could be spun around at an impressive speed. Nancy and Jacob spun a dozen kids around on that thing so fast that I was dizzy just watching it.
Then our time was up and we headed for the car. It was a brief but intense visit.
We had to get back to campus for our scheduled Sunday School training session in library. This was for our Nommensen students who are Sunday School teachers in various local churches. At the previous session the students had asked for us to school them Games and Activities day, so the agenda was easy to set. It turned out to be a big success. We taught and did several games, including Student Bingo and Guess The Name on My Back. When we first introduced Bingo it seemed as if nobody understood it. But then one person and the next jumped up and started asking people questions, and soon everyone in the room was up and loudly asking each other questions. We were so pleased that the students were so enthusiastic during the entire session. Of course we sang a few more songs.
Rosinta and Ester, who have faithfully attended all the meetings for the Nommensen SS teachers, asked Jacob out for noodles. We were a little surprised when he said that would be fine. That means he’s really comfortable with those two.After lesson closes and we sign all the official attendance papers, we explain to Reina that we need to get home because Mar, the local teacher representative, is going to pick us up to take us to see an Environmental School, whatever that is. Only at that point did Reina mention that Mar had called to say that it would not work today. It was past 12 when we finally received a text from Mar saying that same thing. We wonder if he was doing that as an afterthought or if our text message service is just that slow (kind of like US Cellular voice mail service in America).
When we realized that the Mar appointment was off, we switched gears and told Nala that we’re heading to the hot spot as it is only 11:30. But when we look across the big field we see that the door is already closed. It opens at 2, everyone tells us. No need to explain why it is closed early today. Yesterday was Friday and it closed before 12 “because it is Friday”.
We had a bite of lunch at home and Jacob departed with his friends. We didn’t think to ask how long they’d be out or if going out for noodles actually meant something else in this culture. We have been asked out for noodles several times and we always go to the noodle shop, eat, and come straight home.
We set the time for 3 to go with Nala to the second traditional “open market”, not Passah Horus but one that is “not so nice”. We really laughed at that because the Passah Horus did not rank high on our cleanliness measure. And whenever we’d tell anyone where we were going, they’d kind of laugh and snicker and make a comment about it not being so clean. Clearly their public relations department needs to start working a bit harder.
We set the departure time for 3 so we can hit the hot spot at 2, get on Facebook and update the blog. I went over to the graduate office/building at 2 and found the door open. I went in and made myself at home. I was posting the first picture to the blog when Irma, a young teacher, came down and told me that the downstairs was closing, but I could come and work upstairs. This was not bad news to me, because the classrooms upstairs are air conditioned. So I didn’t grumble or suggest we just close the door and let me work. I went upstairs and was told I needed to work in the empty classroom. I went in there and the second I was alone I reached in the teacher’s desk drawer, pulled out the remote control for the AC and hit the switch. The panel on the remote lit up, but nothing happened with the wall unit. I waited and waited. It did not turn on. I tried it again and nothing happened. It was very hot in the room. My laptop power was running low so I went to plug in the powerpack. I discovered there was no power outlet in the room! So I decided to sit there in the heat and upload a picture or two to the blog. I could connect to the internet but the speed was crawling. It was taking about five minutes to upload one picture. I was just ready to quit when Nancy arrived (I left her a note on the door downstairs) and I told her we were going. Sometimes getting on the internet is almost impossible here. Of course you can walk across the main street and get on at the internet café for about 50 cents per hour, but the upload speed there is nothing to write home about and you have to sit on cushions on the floor. It’s always a bun numbing experience. How I long for that great student internet room that is now locked up during finals.
So we went home and tried to chill until Nala walked over and off we went on our adventure.
We walked along mouse road (same way as for church and the Ramayana) and caught the micro-bus for a long trip. The bus gets crowded and every time I think it’s full, another person jumps on. The bus is headed the opposite direction than we usually go, and we joke that we will be falling off the edge of the world soon. The bus labors up a long hill, then stops at a big intersection with traffic light. Of course I can’t see out the windows because the windows are at a height for the average Indonesian, which puts the window tops at the level of my shoulders. After waiting for several minutes I ask why we have stopped and Nala laughs at my question “it’s a traffic light of course!”
Finally Nala announced that we had arrived. I’m glad I trust her because it certainly didn’t look like anything. There was not much action in parking lot, which was full of many big trucks. Nala explained that if we were there in the morning the whole parking lot would be full of vendors and local people buying the produce. We walked through rows of vendors selling potatoes, veggies, fruits, then go “inside” and other vendors selling tobacco, ground fish, clothes, watches, etc. We see the huge indoor fish trading area, which is completely empty. Nala said we have to come at 6 am to see it jumping. We walk through the chicken section and a lady is chopping the head off an (already dead) chicken with a big knife. Many live chickens are nearby. Various people are selling chicken parts, sitting out on trays in the open, fly filled air. There is a small live fish section. One vendor has rushing water and a tank with five or six good sized goldfish. Others have fish laid out in metal pans with not even enough water to cover them.
We go outside and stop to get a pineapple (nanas). Nala thumps every pineapple the vendor has, flicks it with her thumb, and listens for the sound. I’m glad she did this because they were covered with bees and this scared them away. Nala picked out the perfect one and negotiated with the vendor, who looked to be 10 years old. The vendor wanted 7, Nala said 5, and the vendor said 6. Big negotiation! So we bought the big pineapple for about 75 cents. The vendor tied a cord around the leaves of the pineapple and that became our carrying handle for the trip home. No need for a plastic bag here.
We jumped back on the micro-bus and had the same long ride home. We expected to find Jacob back, but no such luck. So Nancy stuck around just long enough to get my bread dough loaded in the hot oven, and then headed off to the Ramayana to get a fan for Jacob and to hit the ATM. Meanwhile Nala stuck around, waiting to see the finished bread, and wanting to discuss subjects about American schools. We set chairs out on the porch and what had been a partly cloudy sky turned dark. It began to rain a little and I thought of Nancy. I assumed she had taken her umbrella but when I checked inside I found all our umbrellas in their place. So I hoped it would not rain any harder. It began to rain not just harder but in a gulley washing downpour. It rained for about 20 minutes in that way. Putra came over and joined us on the porch. While he and Nala talked (I assume in Batak) Putra watched the gutter on the front edge of the porch bend down low. He began to work to make the water flow out of it. He found a stick and poked it up through the downspout hole (I don’t think they do downspouts here, the water just gushes through holes). He jiggled the stick around and a big clump of old leaves cam shooting through. He did it a few more times, with more leaves coming out, but most of the water was still stuck in the gutter. He poked the whole gutter with the stick and sloshed some water out. I think this explains why every gutter I’ve seen on this campus is broken. They get jammed up with gunk and then the big rain comes and they fall off the building. Made me think of my new gutters at home, and hope that the guys that installed them actually made them drain properly, and put the gutter shields in.
After the deluge subsided Nancy came back home. This was long after the bread was done baking and had cooled. She explained that she was walking through the seminary grounds when the rain hit, and the Australian couple was sitting on their porch, saw her, and invited her to join them. So she had a nice long conversation with them (she texted Nala to let her know this) before continuing on her way.
I told Nala I was getting just a little worried about Jacob and she said not to worry, that going out for noodles was probably just the first thing they would do. Sure enough when Jacob returned with Rosinta they told of going to the zoo, the museum and for noodles. What a day! Jacob was worn out, though he had stories to tell of them getting caught in the deluge. We treated Rosinta to some bread. Jacob ate several pieces. This loaf was a great improvement from the first baking attempt.
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