Language school day 1: "Ah, bay, chay, day..."

Little else is more humbling than having to relearn the alphabet.

Day one of language school is officially over. Even though our lesson was only two hours long, we learned a TON of stuff. Okay, maybe "learn" is not the right word. There are a lot of new words floating around in my brain. Whether or not I've learned them is another issue.

The other part of our schooling is spending two hours out in the community trying to use what we learned. I can see how this is extremely beneficial for language learning. However, for an introvert, this is also very uncomfortable, for lack of better words. I like to have everything perfect before I try it out. So, here I am, carrying around my little cheat sheet, walking through the market that's two blocks down from our house, and all these people are staring at me, and I just want to hide. Morgan, on the other hand, is thrilled to be able to speak to the people, even if we do only know three phrases, and is walking fearlessly up to people right and left. I do a little pep talk to gather enough courage to walk up to an ibu, or older woman, on the side of the street. By the time I stumble through my second phrase, a small crowd has gathered to listen to the buleh, and they're all laughing at me, who knows why exactly.

After a couple attempts, we enter a local department store and walk up to the friendly workers who are hanging around. Talking to people who smile at you and don't gather crowds is a lot easier. After a while, the people whom Morgan has already talked to spot me wandering and run up, stand in front of me, and smile, waiting for me to practice my horrible language skills. Thank you, Morgan, for making the rest of my day a hundred times easier.

Despite being absolutely exhausting and challenging, in more ways than one, today was a very successful day. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel at the end of the week, but I'm just taking it day by day. Perlahan-lahan - Slowly, step by step.

"G-d is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency at all times, you may abound in every good work." 2 Cor. 9:8

Traditional dance at the wedding

 

Weddings

Sunday we had the honor of attending a Muslim wedding. Marriane explained that most of the time, Muslims will have their wedding at the mosque with close friends and family, and then they'll have a big reception usually in a home. This time, however, was a little out of the ordinary and they had their reception at a hotel. It was quite the experience. Very glamorous.

Rather than sending flowers, congratulations are written in fake flowers are written on billboards that line the streets. Billboards are also sent for birthdays and funerals.

Decorations vary depending on what tribes they are from. The couple sits in the middle more or less the entire time, and guests line up to say their congrats and take pictures as they leave. Their parents sit on either side.

They also LOVE karaoke. For them, karaoke is a more private, social event more about having fun than talent. They usually have private rooms for you and your friends, rather than have you sing in front of a bunch of people you don't know. We have yet to actually go out and karaoke, but we have sung in the house of one of the workers here. While usually here you and your friends have a private room where you karaoke rather than in front of a large crowd, at the wedding anyone who wanted to was welcome to come up to the stage and sing... regardless of talent. I didn't get up there, but some of our friends did. It was a lot of fun. Soon I hope to have a video up of one guy singing an English song and also a video of a traditional dance that a group did. :)

"No spicy, no taste"

It's hard to believe that I've already been in this country for four days. Accomplishments this week:

• Got a cell phone.
• Went to the fabric market (see pictures below)
• Rode in both an angkot and a becak (once again, see pictures below)
• Experienced our first power outage here. Makes you really appreciate the fans and AC in our bedroom.
• Got to meet our neighbors when we showered at their house because our water wasn't working while we didn't have power.
• Was told by several natives that I look Asian. Even Asians think I look Asian...
• Bought groceries, including rice, chocolate cereal strongly resembling coco puffs (good to know I'm eating healthy, right? :p), guava juice, and double-stuffed oreos

Things I'm having to get used to:

• The spicy foods.. apparently I'm not as used to even a little bit of spice as I thought.
• Being woken up every morning at 5 am by the call to pr-er... and hearing it four other times throughout the day.
• Using only my right hand for eating, giving, and receiving
• Everyone driving on the left side of the road... actually just the driving in general.
• Hearing everything that goes on around outside our house - currently, there's a man who keeps laughing like "hee heeehehehehe." It's actually quite funny. But when it's loud college students at 2 am, not so much.

And lastly, the pictures I promised:

My house for the next three months

A becak (bay-chuck) - their version of a taxi

They play nerts!

My first meal - Mmmmm...

Fabric market

"Thus says the Lord: 'Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.'" - Jer. 9:23-24