It's Time To 'Buka Puasa'!

Well folks, it's October. In the states this means the first sure signs of fall and halloween. In Indonesia October means it's time for Ramadan again! Indonesia is a unique place, especially on Papua. Christians and Moslems live and work side by side, and even attend the same schools. This time of year Moslems fast during the day (no food NOR water), and eat again when night falls. At EF this means that about 1/3 of our students are in a slight daze for most of the day, and have to be coached into participating. Suprisingly, most of them are good sports, even though they haven't eaten. To help adjust to the schedules of those who are fasting, our 4:30 classes end 10 minutes early, and our 6:10 classes start 10 minutes late. This gives students time to break their fast when the sun goes down (about 6:00). For us teachers this means we get a 40 minute break every night instead of a 20 minute break. Yay! Also, it is Moslem tradition to eat dates when breaking the fast, so for the month of October, dates will be plentiful and inexpensive. I have taken this opportunity to buy lots and lots of dates, as a substitue for raisins, as raisins are very expensive, and whaddaya know, the dates are all from California! Who knew?! I bet president Bush doesn't know his country is helping Moslems all over Asia break their Ramadan fast pleasantly with some plump California dates. Better he didn't. He probably wouldn't care anyways, no oil over here.

On Saturday Hannah and I just lazed around the house. It felt good to relax and let our bodies fully rest. On Sunday we took a long bike journey to a beach called Holikamp. The beach stretches across the outside of a small ithsmus that encloses a lagoon. The outside of the ithsmus is in Jayapura bay. The bike trip took about 1 hour, as we had to climb up and down hills, and eventually traverse over 2 miles of dirt road. The beach was very relaxing, with the added bonus of having no coral or urchins under the waves. I was very tired and sunburned from riding the bike, so I naped under a palm tree while Hannah swam and drew the scenery with her pastels. We took a short hike inland from the beach, and peered into the jungle at various points along the road. We saw a very large lizard, about the size of an iguana, clinging to a tree. It was grey with small white specks. One of us moved a little to quickly and it jumped off the tree and scampered into the thicket.

This week I have been playing Bluegrass music to some of my students. Last night I played the first track of the Old & In The Way CD to my Beginner 2 students and had them write a paragraph about what they thought of it. I will read those tomorrow and correct their grammar and spelling.

That's about all the exciting news for now! Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted.

-Nick