Sunday, August 29, 2010

OK Pak


Now that sweetums and I are becoming more "educated" in Bahasa Indonesia we are trying more and more to communicate with the local population using their native language. How's that going you wonder?

My honey is much more bold than I. He is always making up sentences with the new words that he learns from his guru(I swear I am not making it up...that is what teachers are called) and trying them out on people. I seem to suffer from major stage fright. Everything I have learned goes right out the window when it is time to ask a question, give directions, or order food in a restaurant. It is both frustrating and embarrassing. I hope our two gurus don't talk to each other too much and compare notes because mine is going to be very disappointed.

However, there are times that I think our driver is glad that I am more timid about it. For example, when traffic gets really bad, I sit quietly in the back seat and try to act like I don't notice that we are about to be mowed down by a bus or that our mirrors are going to be ripped off by a swarm of motorcycles. I don't say much and just focus on my breathing. Honey bun's strategy is to try out new words and phrases on him when traffic has come to a halt and he has a captive audience. Sweetie talks about the cars around them, or reads the signs and thumbs through the dictionary and tries to figure out the words he doesn't know. It recently dawned on me that it must be like riding in a car with a pre-schooler or a 1st grader who is just beginning to read. They want to read everything, know what that says, what stuff means, practice saying words over and over. Holy moley! I think Akil is going to ask us for hazard pay before too much longer if we don't get immediately better with the language.

I usually walk in the mornings before it gets too hot here. Last week, I was expecting a piece of furniture to be delivered. As I walked I thought, "Be brave. Plan out your sentence and tell the jaga(guard) that furniture will be delivered at 10:00 today." I went over and over the sentence and had it all worked out and my confidence worked up by the time I returned to the house. As I walk up to the jaga and I could feel the words slipping away from me. Oh no! I decide to spit it out quickly before it was totally gone. I open my mouth and words tumble out.

Now, I know that I used the right words. It is highly possible they were not in the totally correct order, but I think they were. I also know that as a non-native speaker, my accent is heavy and I can't for the life of me roll the letter r as it should be done. But, for heaven's sake, it was a short sentence that I was uttering how badly could I mess it up?

Well, apparently pretty badly. That jaga looked at me as if I were speaking Russian to him. So I tried to tell him the same thing in English and got the same response. This kind of reaction is giving me an inferiority complex.

I continue to try. With the help of a great, and patient guru I WILL get better at it. Just wait. Locals will think that I actually have a few brain cells that didn't get lost in the half-way around the world relocation and can converse with a fair amount of accuracy.

The reason I am optimistic is that I am beginning to be able to read some of the ads I see and pick up bits of conversation without having to go through weird gyrations in my head to translate. It is much simpler than many other languages I could be trying to learn. It is just this blasted memory thing that is not helping me out too much.

I have made flash cards for myself. To re-visit the elementary school student analogy, I try to use my "spelling words" in sentences or even a story when I feel especially inspired. This has at least helped me score brownie points with my guru. It is hearing the spoken word at full speed that is keeping us in the no fly zone. I have to say things so slowly; one, very drawn out, word at a time. There is no real flow. People speaking to me are going so fast that my ears and my brain can't keep up. Thank goodness they are not doing the typical American thing and just speaking louder at me. Slower would be so appreciated however.

That is how it is going and nobody seems to be too worse for the wear.

The title of this post is "OK Pak." Well, that is what Akil says to sugar pie when he is blazing new sentence territory. I think it is his way of saying, "Nice try there bud." Or maybe, "You know, that doesn't really make sense and I don't have a clue what you are trying to say. But, you pay my salary so how ever you want to say it, go ahead." It appears to amuse him in a kindly way. I am sure there is lots of discussion about what we are saying and how we are saying it but I don't think it is done in a mean spirited way. I actually believe that they appreciate that we are making the effort to learn. We are not like Jack Benny, who was actually a wonderful violinist but was good enough to know how to make it sound so awful that people believed he couldn't play worth a hoot. Not that they would know who Jack Benny was, but I think they know we are doing the best we can with what we've got.

Terima kasih to our gurus, patient store clerks and staff who don't totally flinch when we open our mouths. We are still at the pre-school level but we are working hard to make it to 10 year old status before the end of the year.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Six months; but who's counting


At the end of July, honey bun and I reached the six month mark for living in Indonesia. I am amazed at this and the changes that have occurred in half a year's time.

The first thing that comes to mind is that I am now no longer counting the time in weeks since our arrival. At the beginning it was so....so....MUCH to take in that you just felt consumed and you were having to take life one day at a time and sometimes one hour at a time.

I guess it is kind of like when you have a baby. You measure progress and report their age to admirers in weeks for a long time. Then it becomes months and finally years. Childbirth is painful, and this too has had many moments where you just had to grit your teeth and keep breathing. Each milestone and each accomplishment is such a thrill. The only difference is this time I am going through it with a housekeeper, a driver, a gardener and four guards.

I think of the things I have learned and all the things yet to learn.

This second six months brings with it our first trip to the ocean. Now that seems like a pretty ridiculous thing to say since we live on an island. I might as well have been living in Iowa the last six months for the amount of sea and sand that I have seen. However, in all fairness, we have been a little busy trying to get settled, sorted out and get comfortable with our new surroundings. So it with great hope that we are now in to a different phase of things.

It still surprises me that at times great waves of homesickness still wash over me. I miss easily chatting with my son, my family and my long time friends at home. I miss knowing where to buy things. I miss being able to communicate what I want without the aide of a dictionary and a game of charades. I miss driving myself places.

The flip side to all of that missing is what I am enjoying. While having a staff is challenging, or maybe it is because of language and cultural differences, it is very nice to have some help with things. Having the floors swept and mopped, clothes washed and seriously ironed like never before, someone to run errands for simple things is a massive luxury. It is one I have never experienced before and know that when I return home I will miss it immensely.

It is still with amazed eyes that I see faces, life, work, strife, joy, exotic plants, and a culture so different from my own going on around me every single day. It is a rare opportunity to get to do that. I try to catalogue in my head and with my camera things as I experience them for the first time. It is impossible to keep up because there are so many things that are new. Back to the baby analogy, it is like being a child and everything is news to you. So much to learn, so much to see, so much to process. But also like a child, at times it becomes a bit overstimulating and you could really use a nap and a break from it all. Unfortunately, I don't really get to do that part.

I continue to wish that I was better at this "Extreme Relocation" game show that I am on. It is probably due to unrealistic expectations for myself that makes it hard some days. Six months here, three weeks of language lessons, and bunches of new foods and sights later I think I should feel more at home and able to navigate life and speak fluently. Well, it isn't working quite that way.

Patients is key. Patients with myself is the hardest part it seems. I will continue to listen and look and collect memories. Those things can come from something as simple as walking on unfamiliar sand on a beach to driving on winding roads across a lush green landscape and observing people whose houses are built a foot and a half from the side of the road living their lives so much in the open. Seeing that young people are young people no matter where you go. Here they may live in a precariously placed house constructed of bamboo and rattan but they have a cell phone and a digital camera with which they love to take pictures of themselves and their friends.

It is a long, long way from familiar. I wonder will this become familiar too? Not that I will become a diamond, but massive change comes from pressure and time. It is transforming me. I can feel it. I can also feel the internal struggle with grasping for the familiar while reaching out for the unfamiliar. It is the realization that I am kind of like Dorothy. I am on this fantastic journey to an unknown world. I am meeting new people and there are friends to help me along my way. Thanks to all of you both near and far and above who help me as I go along and lend a hand, or a shoulder, when I need one.

I hope my stories and insights are a small repayment for all that you give.