Wed. evening Oct. 6

It's been unusually steamy outside, enough that the AC isn't able to get the house cool now.This despite the fact that the sky is 'ominous' and thunder is rolling every few seconds. I guess the rain actually has to fall before the air cools down.( later: and it never did )

I came home a bit early, partly from boredom ( though I had lots of ideas and got lots of prep work done earlier ), partly because my nose was dripping nonstop and there were no tissues to be found anywhere.Here I took two of the Coricidin pills I'd brought, but no relief so far.

Dian and her husband ( whose house this is ) just stopped by to drop off some ( some? try a LOT of! ) food, hot off the stove:pempek ( fish/sago flour balls ) with a big jar of chuko, fish with the smelly durian sauce that I don't mind ( she told me to just throw it out if I don't like it.I told her 'no way'! ), and the best sate I've ever had - imagine the quintessence of BBQ at its best and then added a rich dark peanut sauce …..I had to force myself to save at least half for later.I think they wanted to see how I was keeping their house too, though they were in a bit of a hurry with sunset prayer time fast approaching, but I did invite them in briefly. I think they were pleased; she remarked about how clean it was and said I had 'a good eye'( I've been doing some re-arranging. )

Dian at RELO also texted to remark on all the newspaper stories and photos of me that Herizal brought to pass on to her and George.Apparently she was totally 'floored' to see the huge color photo of me.She told him that I seem to be having the most positive experience of any of the Indonesia ELFs so far.

In fact, there was yet another newspaper story about me today, among many other things picking up on a comment I'd made to the interviewer about rockets ( actually, a rocket, once ) flying overhead while I was in Yemen - to help explain why I didn't feel at all nervous about being in Palembang.I hadn't even thought she understood what I said.Though even the thick dictionary I bought doesn't have most of the words in the article, I've been able to rough-translate enough bits and pieces to see that she presented an extremely flattering view of my personality, travel experiences, comfort with Islam, etc.Unfortunately the article was accompanied by a truly awful photo of me, very blurry B/W, me looking to the side with nothing remotely like a smile on my face.

Three of my Tues. Curriculum Dev't students, including Ronnie ( again ),came in to ask for help with studying a dense, boring, out-of-date, and blurrily-photocopied Phonology textbook ( for another of their classes ).But they mainly wanted to quiz me about, and then had trouble believing, and then 'could not get their heads around' the fact that I prefer living alone and do not want company in the evenings or help with cooking.It's unheard of here.I'm not sure I convinced them in the end;in fact I'm pretty sure I didn't - and maybe never will be able to.Apparently it's sort of on a par with imagining throwing an apple up in the air and having it just keep going up forever.I'm always delighted to shake up people's assumptions and stereotypes, of course.What makes it seem even more 'wrong' to them is that I clearly love talking with students and everyone else all day.I told themthat after a full day of nonstop conversation and being with people - especially noisy and high-energy young people - I need to just switch off my brain and be quiet in the evenings in order to 'recharge my batteries' for the next day.Which is a true but incomplete explanation; even if their English and their cultural maturity (?) were up to it, I would not add that the version of me that they see every day is to some degree just a persona that I adopt in public for various reasons, or try to explain that I'm actually a very 'private person' in the same sense that Garrison Kiellor and Johnny Carson are/were when not 'on stage'.

This morning's faculty class went very well.I gave them another picture story ( Dinner Party ) and had them work in pairs/trios to describe what was happening in each picture briefly.Many of the less-confident women and a couple of the guys as well continue to surprise themselves that they CAN tell a story in basic English, with just a bit of help from me - and can follow a lot of what I say about it too.We laughed a lot, as always.I told them that on Friday they'll have to change the story into a 'script' and act it out; some of them were partly doing that on their own.I also sat with the 'early birds' before their first class, and chatted about my experiences in Turkey/Cairo.Attendance continues to drop - from 26 initially to just 16-17 today, and it's even lower before 10 am.

I hope I can sleep better tonight.I woke up at two this morning, sneezing and going through tissues like crazy, and never could get back to sleep.

Thurs. Oct 7

We had a nice 2-part rainstorm this evening, not quite over as I write this; I sat out in front in the darkness and watched it awhile, accompanied at some distance by a calico mama cat and her tan kitten.Banana and palm trees were swaying in the breeze, and wide 'waterfalls' were pouring off my neighbors' roofs ( no gutters here ) and down their outside stairways. The lane out front was soon under water.No one else was out.The last prayer call from all the neighborhood mosques was barely audible behind the sounds of rain beating down.

I did sleep better, much better, last night.Two more Coricidin dried my sinuses out.Today I'm still sniffling but much less.

Herizal came back from Jakarta with some US maps, not huge but big enough to use in class. Surprise:RELO also told him that IAIN ( and only IAIN ) can nominate a teacher to attend a week-long pre-TESOL short course at Georgetown - apparently because we are the "#1" ELF site in terms of things going well. Great! I'm glad I was able to honestly write such a glowing 30-day report.

I 'got my ducks in a row' for next week's Curriculum Dev't classes and need to do the same for Writing III tomorrow; it shouldn't take long.I'm making new activities daily for all my classes and seem to have no shortage of ideas so far.The faculty class is a breeze and they seem able to handle - and to enjoy - all the activities I give them.Today I showed 2 more segments of "Heart and Soul", about the blind mountain climber and the father who pushes his son's wheelchair in marathons.You don't need to follow all the English to follow the stories, which both clearly moved them.

Fortunately today dawned cooler and stayed that way.I still craved a quick 'douse', or rather several, using the mandi/dipper when I got home, though.How wonderful that something so fast and simple can be so refreshing!I kept the AC off almost all evening, and it was OK as long as I wasn't too active and wore only a bathing suit.

For once it was not boys but four girls ( ages 10-12 ) sitting outside the house when I came home and wanting to try out their minimal English with me.One was pretty bold, the others hung back and seemed mildly disapproving (?) of her for trying to keep me out there - it's hard to 'read' such things even w/o the cultural difference.Like most of the other kids and even some IAIN students, they seemed a bit astonished to hear even a short, memorized English phrase or two coming out of their mouths in a real communication situation, and then get an actual response.

I have been given so much good food lately - including a daily bundle of leftovers from the 10 am snacks for the faculty class - that cooking anything at all for the next few days would be foolish and wasteful.Though as usual I didn't feel all that hungry ( after another late lunch ), I did have half of the pempek/chuko from Dian plus bits of other things.I had to put some stuff in the freezer so it won't spoil before I have a chance to get around to it.

This evening I'll try to finish "The Language Instinct" and move on to Dell Hymes' classic, "Culture and Society" ( both from Dian's bookshelves in the bedroom ).It should keep my evenings occupied for weeks!