Cianjur 8th - 12th June 2015

We heard about this place from Steph and Dom. A small city West of Bandung which offers a volunteer in schools programme to teach English. Luckily as we had some spare days between Yogyakarta, Pangandaran and going back to Bali I emailed to see if they had any availability for a few days. Luckily for me they did :). Curtis however, was not too keen on the idea.

We caught public transport from Pangandaran to Cianjur, travelling on the Monday rather than Sunday as apparently the weekends are crazy busy! However I don't think Monday's were any better. We jumped on a public bus in Pangandaran paying 50,000 each to get to Cilenyui where we would need to get another bus. This wasn't too bad but the bus wasn't exactly comfty and with no AC it was rather hot and sweaty, crammed with locals. We were the only western people on there and no one spoke a word of English. Hmmmmm this is going to be interesting. After a few hours we got told that we needed to change buses in this random town along the way, so we jumped off with our backpacks and the driver took us to a larger coach. This was much better as it had AC. However, the bus driver of the coach then came down asking for another 48,000 each to get to Cilenyui of which we had already paid! But we did not get a ticket to prove this on the other bus. This made it very difficult to get across with a language barrier, using Google to translate for us, and a few people who knew little English seated around us. After about 10mins of 'discussion' the bus driver walked back to the front of the bus without asking for money. We were unsure whether this meant we didn't need to pay or not. After another couple of hours sat on the bus, with the bus stopping at ever bus terminal and then locals coming on trying to sell us food and drink and play music, sing and begging for money (it was a VERY long journey), we finally arrived in Cilenyui where we were informed to get off the bus ready to board another one that would take us to Cianjur - luckily we didn't have to pay the extra 48,000.

We jumped off this bus looking for our next one. Kumis (the host of the volunteer programme) had given us instructions on where to get the bus too, telling us to jump on a bus to Cianjur and get the driver to stop at Ramayana. We were asking the bus drivers if they stopped here (little English again meant all they said was yes without fully understanding what we were going on about). We decided to take the plunge and jump on a smaller mini bus, paying 25,000 each. This time the mini bus was jam packed with people and we had to stand in the aisle. Luckily along the way people got off so we did get some seats in the end. After another 2 hours we arrived at Ramayana, Cianur - this was in fact a chain store in the centre of Cianjur which probably explained the confusion of the bus drivers when all we said was can you drop us off at Ramayana, thinking it was a small village or town in Cianjur. Oh well we finally arrived!

At this point it was pitch black and cars everywhere - no westerners insight. We also didn't have credit on our Indonesian simcard to ring Kumis to see where we were getting picked up. We managed to find a little shop that sold credit probably getting ripped off in the meantime but not caring atm. We got hold of Kumis who 10mins turned up on a scooter - right, how are we were going to get on this with our backpacks! Luckily he only lived about 200m up the road so we walked up following him on the scooter. He jumped off shook our hands and was very welcoming. This was a good start. He took us down some back alley off the main road and into his house. There were a few other people sitting there who were also volunteering. Another good sign that this is actually legit.

We got showed to our bedroom where we ditched the bags - pretty much a double matress on the floor. And showed us around his house - there wasn't much to it, the bathroom (luckily a western toilet although you had to use a bucket to flush it), and a shower with only cold water. It wasn't the greatest bathroom but it had everything you needed and we also had to remind ourselves where we were. A small kitchen where his Mom does all the cooking - this was literally just a gas stove on the floor and some shelves for plates and cutlery. And then a living room with a small TV and a little sofa. When you come to places like this you really do appreciate everything you have at home! You couldn't help feel sad that people do actually live like this.

After we had the tour we headed out for dinner. During our stay all our food, as well as accommodation is included in the 100,000 per person. Dinner and lunch consisted of a number of different street stalls throughout the week some lovely and some not so nice. Kumis knew the best places for certain types of food and some of the best Javanese specialities. This really took us out of our comfort zone however was a good opportunity to try foods we would of not usually pick ourselves - even if sometimes we did not enjoy it! Our favourite food was Pukis - we had this with Kumis on the way to one of our classes. It is Javanese Cake, we think it is made from the same mixture as pancakes but cooked differently. A small semi circle shape and about 1cm thick, which can either be with cheese, chocolate or both. Some even had chocolate sprinkles on which was our favourite. They were little pieces of heaven and were amazing!! Only 1,000 per slice (approx. 5p).

Steph and Dom also arrived around half an hr after us. It was good to see some familiar faces. This meant Kumis had 8 people staying with him this week to help out with his English classes. He doesn't normally have this many but didn't want to turn anyone down. We were very thankful as this was our only opportunity we had to do this!

Our first class was meant to be to a group of adult teachers who wanted to learn English. But unfortunately this was cancelled, instead we had an evening class at a Bank. Basically the workers at the Bank wanted to learn English so every Monday and Thursday evenings for 2 hours or so after work they have an English lesson taught by Kumis at the bank. It was very strange to be in the back of the bank where normally you are not allowed to go, with people even counting large sums of money around you. Although initially I wanted to focus on primary schools this was also a great opportunity. There were about 10 people in the class, all workers of the banks from cashiers to the security guard and they were all really keen in learning English. During the lesson we discussed Jobs and Occupation in different activities, firstly naming all the jobs they can think of, worksheets involving matching job descriptions to job titles and then getting them to describe a job e.g. I fly planes, and then the rest of them try to guess their job. This was very fun and light hearted. Their English was sufficient enough to have a short conversation with them and they all participated in the lesson. I think Curtis enjoyed this more than he thought as they were adults, he wasn't looking forward to primary school though.

Our second class was a lot harder, we went to Kumis' school. The children were aged from 9-11 with around 20 children in the class. This lesson was more of a Q&A session where the children would ask us various questions to find out more about us e.g. What is your favourite colour? and we would ask them back. However the children could speak very little English, with the girls better than boys. This meant that the majority of the time we were stood up at the front of the class, with the children speaking Indonesian to Kumis and him translating, with them repeating the English question. This was quite difficult as we felt the children didn't really learn much during this lesson. It was a shock being in an Indonesian school for the first time as they are much different from home. The classrooms were quite bare, not much colour and all they had was a whiteboard and wooden desks and chairs. They didn't even have pencils or paper to write anything down. The majority of children didn't have TV or had even been out of Cianjur. It was quite sad to see really. Also after our lesson the children went home, they only spend 2 hours a day in school. Crazy really!!

We did however go to another Primary School which was by far our best school!! This was one of Kumis' friends school called Dipawangi. As soon as we turned up on our scooters we were swarmed by children, they were so curious and interested as well as excited to see 'foreigners'. Yona the English teacher at the school was very welcoming. He introduced us to the rest of the staff, and the headteacher (of which their English was quite poor). However Yona could speak quite clearly, having lots of conversations with us about the school and the children. While we were seated in the Headteachers office the children spilled through the door, all standing patiently ready to meet us. They were so fascinated. It wasn't until Yona explained to us that this was the first time they have seen 'foreigners' this year and some of them the first time in their lives - making it more understanding about how curious they were. The children had finished their exams so essentially this was free time where the majority of them were practising for the end of term ceremony. Giving us the opportunity to talk and play with them and them learn their English with English people. We got to played a traditional Javanese song by some of the children using traditional instruments and even had ago ourselves (with a little help). It was lovely the way they treated us. After we then did a Q&A session in the playground, Yano literally wheeled us a microphone and speakers so we could answer the children's questions - we felt like celebrities. These children could speak much clearer English, with many of the girls especially having written down questions in English and Indonesian to ask us. This was a much more well off school than the previous school. After Curtis went and played some football with the boys while the girls talked to me. We were surrounded by children trying to hold our hands, ask us questions, all of them smiling and giggling at us. It was AMAZING!! We couldn't walk anyway without tripping up children or children glued to our side. At some points it was very overwhelming. The girls in particular were very cute and shy shaking our hands and saying hello as well as saying that we are beautiful. Some of them melting our hearts :). By a couple of hours we were exhausted, everyone wanted to take pictures of us even the teachers! It really was surreal. Children even taking out their phones and snapping away while we posed with the kids!

Unfortunately time here went far too quickly and we had to leave. It was hard to get out of the school as we were still surrounded by the children. All of them shouting bye, shaking our hands and what we call head butting our hands, which is done out of respect. We definitely wish we could of stayed here longer. It was such a great experience!

When we were not teaching we did venture to a few local sights - the floating village, a huge community that live on the water and harvest fish. We were surprised how big it was. And an archeological site called Gunung Padang, thought to be the oldest megalithic site. Locating in a village called Karyamukti 25km out of Cianjur. In 2010 a geologist recognised that this is possibly a man-made pyramid structure producing evidence of deeply buried man-made chambers and yielding carbon dated back to as far as 26,000 Years. Even the little layer that has been excavated is dated back to 5600BC nearly 3000 years earlier than the orthodox dating for the pyramids of Giza in Egypt. Essentially rewriting history. This was pretty interesting however it did pretty much look like a pile of rocks on a hill. But who knows what they might discover in the future. We got here on scooters, taking over an hr each way on very bumpy potholey 'roads'!! Our bottoms were rather painful afterwards.

One thing that was most interesting while staying in Cianjur and visiting the sites was how almost everyone was fascinated by us. As it wasn't a hot tourist spot not many people had seen white people before. Everyone called us 'bules' which means foreigner and at every opportunity asking for a photo of us. We now understand what it must be like for celebrities. At first it was quite funny but by the end of the week it was a bit overwhelming, everyone staring and taking photos that we were ready to leave and get back to Bali.

Nevertheless it was a great week and a wonderful experience. I am especially so glad I had the opportunity to visit local schools and meet local children. Something that I hope to do more of in the future. But for now it was time for us to get to Bandung for our flight back to Bali where Richard and Becca were meeting us for a couple of weeks :).

C & E x