Beach Picnic with the Kitchen Crew

Sorry for the lack of captions.... Internet is very slow here and I cannot see the pictures on my screen to be able to post captions.

We started the fire with coconuts and made pisang bakar (bbq banana), ikan bakar (bbq fish) (fresh, right out of the ocean), cassava leaves, and rice sticks (which is pretty much rice wrapped in some leaves, very good for rice to-go).

Lela From Above

A couple friends invited me to go on a short hike up a hill behind the place the students live.

Chillin with some friends

The hospital from above

Back at their home.

Simplicity

Just sit back and enjoy life… That is one of the things that I have learned to do here. I feel like I can speak for most of us when I say that our lives are busy. Whether it be going to work, or going to class, or soccer practice, or meetings, or picking up children from rehearsal, we are always on the go. I always find myself wishing there were more hours in a day, or that my body didn’t need sleep so I can do all the things that I need to do. I think it is our culture that pushes us to do this. After all, time is money, and if your not doing something with your time, you’re wasting precious moments where you could have spent volunteering, fixing the dresser, studying for those MCATs or improving your resume. This is especially the case at Notre Dame. There is a sense of urgency where, if your not doing something at any given moment, someone else is going to pass you and get that one job, or get that spot in medical school. Sometimes I feel like its a competition of who can get the least amount of sleep. After all, people want to see you’re well rounded and can do a little of everything. It’s not our fault, its just a product of the first world, competitively driven society that we live in.

Having lived in the village of Lela for approximately 3 weeks now, I can now sum up the culture of this community in one word: simple. People here wake up at 5:00, go to mass, work from 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM, eat lunch, then taking an afternoon nap followed by doing some household chores, then sleep when it gets dark. Yup, thats right, they nap almost everyday! It is something that I always want to do more of, but feel guilty when I do. I know the first couple days here I had absolutely no idea what to do between 2:00 and 4:00 because no one was around. Presumably, everyone was napping. Whenever I talk with the people here about life back home, they are always so surprised when I say I don’t take naps. Their view on Americans is that we are always very busy doing whatever we do with no time for leisure. 

This portrayal by them is fairly accurate, and sort of sad, because I love leisure. It is something that I have tried to embrace while I am here, and hope I can sprinkle into my life when I get come back home. Although I still don’t take those afternoon naps (I still feel guilty about wasting the day napping) I have been able to go out and run / walk almost everyday. Sometimes, I just go down to the field and sit on a bench and watch the little kids play soccer, or go on long walks on the beach. Its so liberating because there is no worry about what I have to do that night, or what time I have to be home. I can just go and walk / sit / play soccer to my heart’s content. I can just go and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. I can just stop and observe the beauty of God’s creation that I pass everyday but never take the time to take in. I can just be in conversation with God with no time constraints, without worry of where I need to be or what I should be doing instead. 

I have learned that life is too long to sprint through it. I need times where I can take a step back, push everything aside, and enjoy the simple joys that is life. This is something the people of Lela do on a daily basis, and it is something I hope to incorporate into my life as well.

Joys of Living

Friends,

Never have I been so thankful to be living in the great dorm of Alumni Hall, Notre Dame. Despite its lack of air conditioning, personal space, functioning kitchen, and cleanliness, it is still the place that I proudly call home and one that I have so often taken for granted. I think that more often than not, we college kids like to complain about our living arrangement, whether it be our annoying roommate, lack of room to put all our stuff, or that the bathroom is all the way on the other side of the building. I know I have done my fair share of complaining. 

However, since I have seen the living conditions of the students attending the nursing school and SMK (school after high school, but not college) here, I have come to appreciate the simple luxuries that Alumni Hall provides. After playing soccer with some of the guys (more on that on a later post) they invited me over to their place to hang out. They all were excited for me to come by and show me around and teach my Indonesian / learn English. What they showed me was a 1 story building with a doorway, but no door. The walls were much like propped up garage doors. Only a .5 inch piece of cardboard separates the inside from the outside. The floor is just dirt and it consists of rows of bunk beds. Unfortunately I did not have my camera at the time since we just played soccer, but you could imagine living in these conditions. I’m sure most of us could not dream living like this, and yet, my friends were excited to show me. They were proud of where they lived. They didn’t show any discomfort living there. No complaints or anything. Maybe they don’t know any better, but they were perfectly content living like that. They had to boil their water, wash their clothes by hand, and deal with the hot and humid weather all year round, and yet they were content. 

I feel like although they have very little, we act poorer than they do. It seems like there is always something wrong in our life, something more that we want, or something better out there. This is something that I have experienced so often back at home, people that have everything but still feel like they have nothing. It is something I have been working on for a greater part of the year. I have been trying to view life and materialism as my friends here do: be content with what God gives you, and ask for nothing more. I find that this has made me a much more joy-filled person, and have seen much happier people here in Lela, Flores, Indonesia than in most of America. Although they have little to nothing, they have the one thing that surpasses most of us, and that is joy, one that I long to have as I spend the rest of my time here and for the rest of my life. 

Schedule of My Day

5:00 AM : Wake up
5:30 AM : Morning Mass
7:00 AM : Breakfast
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM : Work in the Lab
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM : Help the kitchen bake some goodies
2:15 PM : Eat Lunch
4:00 PM : Run/play soccer
6:00 PM : Hang out with some of the nurses
8:00 PM : Dinner
9:30 PM : Sleep

Joys of Running

So everyday since my parents have left, I have gone out running in the evenings down to the beach, around the beach a little bit and then back up to the hill. It is a pretty good work out considering the horrible shape that I am in and the humidity of this place. What makes these runs so memorable is not the absolutely stunning scenery, it is the people on the side of the roads who call out "Selamat sore, Dokter!" which translates to "Good evening, doctor!" I just return the greeting and laugh to myself. This is great, I get the title of doctor without having to do any of the work! Another greeting, which is even more special that I get is "Selamat sore, ka!" from the little kids. Ka is the word used to address an older brother. That makes me secretly smile. Its only been a little over a week that I've been here and I can already call this place home.

Language... What an odd concept

My Bahasa Indonesia has gotten so much better in the time being here. I am now comfortable carrying conversation with anyone even though there is still a whole lot I do not know. I was even complimented on my Indonesian at one point! Now thats what I call progress! In the hospital, I have been working in the lab doing things like blood work and checking for malaria, TB, etc. The workers have been super patient in teaching me everything, from Bahasa Indonesia to teaching me how to use the instruments and read the data and things like that. Them, along with everyone at the hospital has been really patient with me while I am still learning. Everyone has allowed me to ask questions and explain words that I don’t know. From barely knowing what to say, or how to say it, I am now almost able to understand conversations without having to ask what words mean, I can even tell stories myself, something that I was really uncomfortable just a week ago. It feels like the longest time since I have spoken English, but I guess that is what happens when you immerse yourself in a place where no one speaks it. From being terrified of not being able to speak English here just a week ago, I even find myself counting, thinking, and dreaming in Indonesian know. Weird… I know. Today though, I got to put my skills to the test. There was a Canadian couple that came into the UGD (emergency room) today with an infection. They hardly knew Indonesian and the people here have a difficult time with English so I acted as the translator. Good to know that I can still speak some English.

Feels Like Home