Day 8: Singapore

I've got to get through this! I'm almost there!

On our last morning in Indonesia, I got up early and took pictures of the sunrise right outside our room.

We had packed our bags the night before because we had to leave Telunas right after breakfast.

Of course, we had to get in a few group photos before we left. One of the staff members was willing to take my camera up to the high dock so that she could get a picture of all of us together.

This was my group of 7th grade girls. Apparently, I kept closing my eyes. Nice.

This is the staff at Telunas that took care of everything for our group. They were awesome!

We were so excited to arrive at the ferry terminal in Batam--there were legitimate bathrooms with toilets and toilet paper!

This was the not-so-outstanding ferry we took from Indonesia to Singapore...no legitimate bathrooms here! Good thing the ride is only about 2 hours!

Once we arrived at Harbor Front in Singapore, we boarded a bus that took us back to the Praise Haven retreat center where we had stayed on our way to Indonesia. My girls and I lucked out again and ended up with two smaller rooms and a bathroom for just the six of us.

After we'd dropped off our bags and changed our clothes, we headed out for an evening in town for dinner.        I took these pictures from inside the ferry with dirty windows...best I could do!

We took the girls to a huge mall where they were able to shop, hang out by themselves, and get the dinner of their choice. We were all relieved to have a little space, I think!

I enjoyed a delicious dinner of prawns, fruit salad, and breadsticks. It was so exciting to choose what I wanted to eat!

Day 7: In the Village

Day seven was pretty similar to day six. We had our normal routine and free time in the morning and then we went to the village again in the afternoon.

This was the crowd of kids we found when we arrived at Jang island. They were so excited to see our kids!

This was my second day in the classroom, but it was the first day for my five 7th grade girls.

They were not pleased when they heard that they had to teach simple and compound sentences to the 4th and 5th graders. We had just covered this a week or two before we left, so they were prepared, though!

Most of the girls finished the day saying that they did not want to become teachers.

They couldn't figure out how to make simple and compound sentences fun and engaging, either. Somehow I don't think they have any empathy for me, though!

Apparently, teaching the same lesson three or four times in a row is "boring". Who knew?!

Nonetheless, I think they enjoyed working with the kids and seeing their enthusiasm for learning!

At the end of the day, we presented each of the teachers at the school with a bag of supplies that we had brought.

Our students had run a school supply drive, as well as doing a bake sale, and a walk-a-thon to buy supplies for the school. The teachers were very grateful, and our students were very proud to hand over the fruits of their labor.

It was really an amazing experience. I'm so glad that I was able to be a part of it, and I'm really enjoying hearing my students talk about how much they enjoyed playing with and working with the kids at the school.

I don't know if I'll ever get to go on this trip again, but I do know that I will never forget how much fun it was to work in this school and experience the Indonesian culture.

Day 6: In the Village

We've had a busy, stressful, warm, sickie weekend. I'm the only one that is sick right now, but it still makes it hard to get anything done. We did do a couple of fun things, but I need to get through this Indonesia trip, so more on our weekend later!

On our 6th day, we switched up our routine just a bit. The kids had their free time in the morning, and then we went to the village in the afternoon. The Indonesian students were testing all week, so they wanted us to come in the afternoon when they were out of school to teach English classes.

Two of the female group leaders didn't want to teach the classes with the girls, so two of us taught classes for two days with two different groups.

We were teaching 1st-4th grades on this day, so we were introducing basic English words such as body parts, jobs, and clothing.

The boys had fun making up their own dances while the girls did old stand-bys like "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes".

I was in awe at some of the furniture in the classrooms and how few materials they had to work with. When we passed out paper for them to write on, they were stunned. Then a couple of the boys stashed it in their desks and asked for another sheet. This was one of the chairs in a classroom.

They were so excited to learn that when the classrooms filled up, they stood in the windows and doorways. It's incredible when you think about how so many students in the world take free public education for granted.

It was pretty entertaining to watch the girls struggle a bit with how to teach a concept and to see them try to adapt to the level or to the previous knowledge of the kids.

It was nice for them to get a little taste of what life is like for us five days a week!

And it was great to see the smiles on the faces of the kids!

Those who weren't in the classroom were continuing work on the wall in the hot sun and making some good progress!

Immersion Indonesia: The Routine

Once we reached Telunas we had a pretty consistent routine that we were able to keep up.

We woke up at about 6 am and headed out to the beach for PT. We did some stretches and activities to wake up the kids.

Then we had a quiet time on the beach. We just sat, read, and prayed. One of my favorite parts of the day.

After quiet time, we had a short worship time where the kids were asked to share something significant that they'd read during their quiet times. They were so sweet and sincere.

And all that before breakfast! Every morning for breakfast we had omelette stations where we could choose our vegetables and cheese and the lovely staff would cook our eggs right in front of us!

After breakfast we did whatever activity was scheduled: jungle hike, ropes course, or going to the village. When we returned from our activity, the kids had free time on the beach.

to play badminton or volleyball

to bury each other in the sand

to explore the sea creatures

or just hang out on the dock.

In the evening, we had dinner...everything from sloppy joes and onion rings to curried chicken and vegetable stir fries. The food was so good!

After dinner, we had another short worship service where our guest speaker for the week delivered a message to the kids, and then we spent time with our small groups before finally going to bed.

Sorry. This was a long one...I just still have so many pictures!! Today one of my best friends arrives in Seoul! I'm so excited to see her and show you what we are able to squeeze into the one and a half days that she is here!