Looking for the heart of Saturday night

Saturday AM, Oct. 1
From the Jakarta airport via my new cellular wireless USB modem – speeds beat the local cable modem service, and it works in all the major populated areas of Indo, and all of Java and Bali… which means crucially it even works when your car doesn’t in traffic jams.

At the airport because this is the day, finally, that I open a second homebase in Jogjakarta (Jogja for short), a 50 minute flight from Jakarta. I’m going there because the US Government, through its English Fellows program, asked me to go to one of Indonesia’s largest and newest Islamic universities because the University had requested qualified expert assistance in the development of its English Language programs. I will be training and mentoring professors and students (pre-service and in-service) in the Education and Languages departments there, as well as undertaking many initiatives elsewhere in the city and region. Some of those responsibilities are already established, and others will be of my own making. For example, The Fullbright Foundation sent US Teaching assistants to many public schools throughout Indo, and I’ve been assigned to mentor two of them, only one of whom is in Jogja. I’ve also been asked to find a way to bring the English and Education departments of the major Islamic and Christian universities in Jogja to the table for shared training and exchanges of views. They’ve never talked before. And so on and so on. It’s a good gig, runs 10 months, and is renewable either there or elsewhere in Indo or the world. So I can add this option to the list for year three. Those options include several for returning to Jakarta, a couple for returning home to the US, and a couple for traveling elsewhere. It pays much better than the Mason job did, and the work I can do is much more interesting.

Strangely enough, in this instance the US Gov’t and I see largely eye-to-eye. Up to the last link in the thought process, the logic of my agenda here in Indo is quite similar to the USG’s. Mine ends at “Critical Thinking Skills” – I want at the teachers whose responsibilities are the youngsters in primary and secondary schools, because currently the minds of those youngsters are being slaughtered throughout the public and Islamic school systems, at a very early age. The result is graduates and University students have no thinking skills, imagination, or learning strategies… which explains a lot of Indo’s current problems. Where the USG and I differ is only that the USG believes by extension that when the kids and adults can think critically, they’ll stop blowing themselves up, will look favorably on the US, and in general improve the US’s standing in world opinion. Perhaps, but it’s neither here nor there for me.

Jogja is by all accounts a gorgeous city with copious spectacular places to visit both within and without. Apparently, I’ll be up on an elephant very soon for a trek to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Performing arts, fashion, etc. abound. Traffic flows. The job comes with a 2-bed house with a garden. Reports on that later. I expect I will have a renewed enthusiasm for my blog and camera. Much as I came to love Jakarta, there’s not much more there to capture to the blog, and I stopped trying to get out of town as the fun picked up over the summer.

I’ve been based in Jakarta a year and a week, and absolutely love it now. I remember how shocked I was by Jakarta when I first arrived – how the stench, the heat, the sweating, the traffic, the driving, the language and the revenges of Montezuma had me convinced I’d be back in the US in no time. I also thought getting out of Jakarta every month was essential for my sanity… so I expect I will love “the Cracow of Indonesia”, even though there is a part of me that’s very sorry to have to call a temporary halt to my proceedings in my hometown. But my housemates Mick and Herb are letting me keep my room in the spacious villa, my framed photos and pool speakers remain there, and I hope to fly back to play with them for a weekend each month. I leave many projects, of both personal and professional sorts, in different stages of development there… Many of my friends have invited themselves to come see me (amazing how many of these guys and gals, both foreign and native) never get out of town, and several of them saw me off in warm heroic fashion last night – many hugs and kisses, and I was finally allowed to go home for a nap at 3 AM. It’s been a fascinating year. Thanks for the next pic, Herb.