The odd weekend post
I had to stop by the school today and so have internet access. It is hot even by Medan standards and last night the power went out for a couple of hours which cut down on sleeping time. The mexican dinner went well, people seemed to enjoy themselves. This morning I cooked breakfast for the second time in a week and it was nearly exactly the same as it would have been in America save for having to spread the butter on the toast with a spoon. There do not seem to be any knives in Indonesia. We do have to sharp cutting knives but if you go to a restaurant you will get a fork and spoon, sometimes chopsticks, but always the fork and spoon. In our house we were supplied with plates and silverware and we were both puzzled by the fact that there were no knives, still are.
My Brit friend, trying to do a favour for an Aussie on her first day here, brought one of his two sharp knives to her house. She wasn't home so he went into a local canteen where we all end up eating a couple nights each week (very good french fries, strangely enough but the burger is no burger). Some expats (who are now friends, well aquaintences) saw that he had this and quickly rushed him to the owner who proceeded to elaborately camouflage the knife in newspaper wrapping finally changing its appearance to that of a take out meal. He was told that had the police seen him, he could have spent sometime in jail. Weapons are not allowed in Medan. Still that doesn't explain why we were given sharp knives but no butter knives. The only thing that would explain that, I think, is that such knives are of no use with most traditional Indonesian food, although they do eat a ton of chicken, so who knows?
Last week, I don't think that I posted this, I went to one of my student's birthday parties. She was turning twelve. The party was at a McDonalds and when I arrived all of the students applauded. A few other teachers went as well, but it was MY mentor class and I think they were surprised that I showed. The food was the same for everyone, we didn't order our own meals so I can't comment on cultural differences at McDonald's a la Pulp Fiction, but we were served fried chicken, rice, and fries. It seemed pretty similar except that I don't think McDonald's has fried chicken in the States, correct me if I'm wrong. The kids love McDonald's, love Hollywood, love Rap music and R & B, there is not a whole lot of difference in terms of those things. It is important to remember that these are wealthy Chinese students, not Indonesians. I am going to visit an orphanage in the near future with a friend who volunteers for them. I will be collecting donations from mentor class, maybe all of my classes.
Lastly, it was not the white student who was the target of racist remarks and bullying, it was one of the only, if not the only, Indonesian students in the school. She left for home early, refusing to return to the classroom. I had misunderstood the person who originally told me about it, these misunderstandings are frequent. Just because another person speaks english doesn't mean you can always make out what they are saying, nor does it mean they get what you're saying. So often, I think, people just pretend to understand and that leads to even more serious miscommunications--like a dramatic version of Three's Company. Anyway, I had the students who did the bullying in my history class. I began by writing a list of countries on the board from all over the world, each had at one time targeted others of different ethnicities for violence. I went through the list in dramatic fashion, Germany killed 6 million jews, the Dutch killed untold Indonesians and Africans, the Americans offed nearly all of the Native American population and enslaved hundreds of thousands of Africans, Turkey killed hundreds of thousands of Armenians, the Japanese, several thousand Chinese... Then I said, that all of these killings were predicated on a belief in racial difference. I looked at them and said the Nazis wouldn't have like me and they wouldn't have liked you. They had hierarchy of who was a good and who was a bad race. The Germans at the top, then the English, and so on, at the bottom were Africans, PEOPLE LIKE YOU, Russians, and jews. Then I said, as you can see no matter where you go you will find people doing terrible things to each other based on racist belief, and the fact of the matter, the FACT of the matter, is that each of these groups were WRONG. Any good Scientist of ANY ethnicity, race, or religion will tell you that we are the same in every important way. The rest is as important as the shirt you're wearing. Then I told them to spend the rest of the hour writing to me about a time when they felt they were excluded, and how that felt, and why you wouldn't want someone else to feel that way.
I got some very heartfelt responses and one odd one. One small child talked of how, at his previous school, he was bullied and unaccepted by a group of kids who called themselves, "the mysterious organinzation." I am fascinated by this kid's story. Who is this "mysterious organization" and why don't they use a less telltale name?
My Brit friend, trying to do a favour for an Aussie on her first day here, brought one of his two sharp knives to her house. She wasn't home so he went into a local canteen where we all end up eating a couple nights each week (very good french fries, strangely enough but the burger is no burger). Some expats (who are now friends, well aquaintences) saw that he had this and quickly rushed him to the owner who proceeded to elaborately camouflage the knife in newspaper wrapping finally changing its appearance to that of a take out meal. He was told that had the police seen him, he could have spent sometime in jail. Weapons are not allowed in Medan. Still that doesn't explain why we were given sharp knives but no butter knives. The only thing that would explain that, I think, is that such knives are of no use with most traditional Indonesian food, although they do eat a ton of chicken, so who knows?
Last week, I don't think that I posted this, I went to one of my student's birthday parties. She was turning twelve. The party was at a McDonalds and when I arrived all of the students applauded. A few other teachers went as well, but it was MY mentor class and I think they were surprised that I showed. The food was the same for everyone, we didn't order our own meals so I can't comment on cultural differences at McDonald's a la Pulp Fiction, but we were served fried chicken, rice, and fries. It seemed pretty similar except that I don't think McDonald's has fried chicken in the States, correct me if I'm wrong. The kids love McDonald's, love Hollywood, love Rap music and R & B, there is not a whole lot of difference in terms of those things. It is important to remember that these are wealthy Chinese students, not Indonesians. I am going to visit an orphanage in the near future with a friend who volunteers for them. I will be collecting donations from mentor class, maybe all of my classes.
Lastly, it was not the white student who was the target of racist remarks and bullying, it was one of the only, if not the only, Indonesian students in the school. She left for home early, refusing to return to the classroom. I had misunderstood the person who originally told me about it, these misunderstandings are frequent. Just because another person speaks english doesn't mean you can always make out what they are saying, nor does it mean they get what you're saying. So often, I think, people just pretend to understand and that leads to even more serious miscommunications--like a dramatic version of Three's Company. Anyway, I had the students who did the bullying in my history class. I began by writing a list of countries on the board from all over the world, each had at one time targeted others of different ethnicities for violence. I went through the list in dramatic fashion, Germany killed 6 million jews, the Dutch killed untold Indonesians and Africans, the Americans offed nearly all of the Native American population and enslaved hundreds of thousands of Africans, Turkey killed hundreds of thousands of Armenians, the Japanese, several thousand Chinese... Then I said, that all of these killings were predicated on a belief in racial difference. I looked at them and said the Nazis wouldn't have like me and they wouldn't have liked you. They had hierarchy of who was a good and who was a bad race. The Germans at the top, then the English, and so on, at the bottom were Africans, PEOPLE LIKE YOU, Russians, and jews. Then I said, as you can see no matter where you go you will find people doing terrible things to each other based on racist belief, and the fact of the matter, the FACT of the matter, is that each of these groups were WRONG. Any good Scientist of ANY ethnicity, race, or religion will tell you that we are the same in every important way. The rest is as important as the shirt you're wearing. Then I told them to spend the rest of the hour writing to me about a time when they felt they were excluded, and how that felt, and why you wouldn't want someone else to feel that way.
I got some very heartfelt responses and one odd one. One small child talked of how, at his previous school, he was bullied and unaccepted by a group of kids who called themselves, "the mysterious organinzation." I am fascinated by this kid's story. Who is this "mysterious organization" and why don't they use a less telltale name?
posted by athensinternational at 8:45 PM
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